Her. He'll stay, my lord.

Leo. (L. c.) At my request he would not.-
Hermione, my dearest, thou never spok'st

To better purpose.
Her. Never?

[Polixenes crosses to R. C.

Leon. Never, but once.

Her. What, have I twice said well? When was't before?

I prithee, tell me.

One good deed, dying tongueless,
Slaughters a thousand, waiting upon that:
Our praises are our wages: You may ride us,
With one soft kiss, a thousand furlongs, ere
With spur we heat an acre. But to the goal ;-
My last good deed was to entreat his stay;
What was my first ?—It has an elder sister,
Or I mistake you :

But once before I spoke to the purpose: When !
Nay, let me hav't-I long.

Leo. Why, that was when

Three crabbed months had sour'd themselves to death,
Ere I could make thee open thy white hand,
And clepe thyself my love; then didst thou utter,
"I am yours for ever."

Her. [Turning to Leontes.] Why, lo you now, I have spoke to the purpose twice:

The one for ever earn'd a royal husband;
The other, for some while a friend.

[Turns away, R. Gives her hand to Polixenes. Leo. [L. c. with Mamillius.] Too hot, too hot:To mingle friendship far, is mingling bloods. I have tremor cordis on me :-my heart dances; But not for joy-not joy. This entertainment May a free face put on; derive a liberty From heartiness, from bounty, fertile bosom, And well become the agent; it may, I grant: But to be paddling palms, and pinching fingers, As now they are; and then to sigh as 'twere The mort o'the deer; O, that is entertainment, My bosom likes not, nor my brows.-Mamillius ! [Apart to Mamillius, L.

Art thou my boy?

Mam. Ay, my good lord.
Leo. (L.) I'fecks!

Why, that's my bawcock. What, hast smutch'd thy nose?-

B

They say, it's a copy out of mine.-Come, captain,
We must be neat: not neat, but cleanly, captain-
[Wipes the face of Mamillius.
And yet the steer, the heifer, and the calf,
Are all call'd neat.-Still virginalling
Upon his palm! How now, you wanton calf?
Art thou my calf?

Mam. Yes, if you will, my lord.

Leo. Thou want'st a rough pash, and the shoots that I have,

To be full like me :-yet, they say we are

Almost as like as eggs; women say so,

That will say any thing: But they were false

As wind, as waters;

Yet were it true

To say, this boy were like me. [Lifting up Mamilllus.]
Come, sir page,

Look on me with your welkin eye.--Sweet villain !
Most dear'st! my collop!-Can thy dam!-may't

be

Pol. [Looking at Leontes.] What means Sicilia ?
Her. He something seems unsettled.
Pol. (R. C.) How, my lord?

[Coming forward.

Leo. What cheer? How is't with you, best brother? Her. [L. c.] You look,

As if you held a brow of much distraction :

Are you mov'd, my lord?

Leon. [Looking round to the R.] No, in good earnest.How sometimes nature will betray its folly, Its tenderness; and make itself a pastime To harder bosoms!-Looking on the lines Of my boy's face, methought I did recoil Twenty-three years; and saw myself unbreech'd In my green velvet coat; my dagger muzzled, Lest it should bite its master, and so prove, As ornaments oft do, too dangerous. How like, methought, I then was to this kernel, This squash, this gentleman. Mine honest friend,

[To Mamillius.

Will you take eggs for money?

Mam. No, my lord, I'll fight.

Leo. You will?-why, happy man be his dole !-----My

brother,

Are you so fond of your young prince, as we
Do seem to be of our's?

[To Polixenes

Pol. If at home, sir,

He's all my exercise, my mirth, my matter;
Now my sworn friend, and then mine enemy;
My parasite, my soldier, statesman, all;
He makes a July's day short as December;
And, with his varying childness, cures in me
Thoughts that would thick my blood.

Leo. So stands this squire

Offic'd with me:-We too will walk, my lord,
And leave you to your graver steps.-Hermione,
How thou lov'st us, show in our brother's welcome;
Next to thyself, and my young rover, he's
Apparent to my heart.

Her. If you would seek us,

We are yours in the garden: Shall's attend you there? Leo. To your own bents dispose you; you'll be found, Be you beneath the sky.

[To Mamillius.

1 am angling now, Though you perceive me not how I give line. [Exeunt Hermione and Polixenes (R.) followed by all the Court, except Leontes, Mamillius, and Camillo.

Go to-go to!

[Goes R. and looks after them.-Mamillius stands L. How she holds up the neb, the bill to him! And arms her with the boldness of a wife To her allowing husband! (c.) Gone already; Inch-thick, knee-deep; o'er head and ears a fork'd

one.

Go play, boy, play; [Mamillius goes to him, c.] thy mother plays, and I

Play too; but so disgrac'd a part, whose issue
Will hiss me to my grave; contempt and clamour
Will be my knell.-Go play, boy, play.-There have
been,

Or I am much deceiv'd, cuckolds ere now;
And many a man there is, even at this present,
Now, while I speak this, holds his wife by the arm,
That little thinks she has-

Should all despair

That have revolted wives, the tenth of mankind
Would hang themselves.-Physic for't there is none;
It is a bawdy planet, that will strike

Where 'tis predominant; and 'tis powerful, think it,
From east, west, north, and south:

Many a thousand of us

Have the disease, and feel't not.-How now, boy!
Mam. I am like you, they say.

Leo. Why, that's some comfort.-
What? Camillo there?

Cam. (L.) Ay, my good lord

Leo. Go play, Mamillius; thou'rt an honest man.
[Exit Mamillius.

Camillo, this great sir will yet stay longer.

Cam. (c.) You had much ado to make his anchor hold.
When you cast out, it still came home.
Leo. (c.) Didst note it?

Cam. He would not stay at your petitions; made
His business more material.

Leo. Didst perceive it?

They're here with me already; whispering, rounding,
"Sicilia is a so forth :" "Tis far gone,

When I shall gust it last. How cam't, Camillo,
That he did stay?

Cam. At the good Queen's entreaty.

Leo. At the Queen's, be't: good should be pertinent;
But so it is, is it not? Was this taken
By any understanding pate but thine?
For thy conceit is soaking, will draw in
More than the common blocks ;-Not noted, is't,
But of the finer natures? by some severals
Of head-piece extraordinary? Lower messes,
Perchance, are to this business purblind? say,

Cam. Business, my lord? I think most understand,
Bohemia stays here longer.

Leo. Ha?

Cam. Stays here longer.

Leo. Ay, but why?

Cam. To satisfy your highness, and the entreaties Of our most gracious mistress.

Leo. Satisfy

The entreaties of your mistress?-Satisfy!-
Let that suffice.-I have trusted thee, Camillo,
With all the nearest things to my heart, as well
My chamber-councils: wherein, priest-like, thou
Hast cleansed my bosom; I from thee departed
Thy penitent reform'd. But we have been
Deceiv'd in thy integrity, deceiv'd
In that which seems so.

Cam. Be it forbid, my lord!

Leo. To bide upon't; thou art not honest: or,
If thou inclin'st that way, thou art a coward;
Which boxes honesty behind, restraining

From course requir'd: Or else thou must be counted
A servant, grafted in my serious trust,
And therein negligent: or else a fool,

That seest a game play'd home, the rich stake drawn,
And tak'st it all for jest.

Cam. In your affairs, my lord,
If ever I were wilful negligent.
It was my folly; if industriously
I play'd the fool, it was my negligence.
Not weighing well the end; if ever fearful
To do a thing, where I the issue doubted,
"Twas a fear

Which oft infects the wisest: these, my lord,
Are such allowed infirmities, that honesty
Is never free of. But 'beseech your grace,
Be plainer with me: let me know my trespass
By its own visage: if I then deny it,
'Tis none of mine.

Leon. Have you not seen, Camillo, (But that's past doubt: you have ;) Or heard,

(For to a vision so apparent, rumour
Cannot be mute;) or thought, (for cogitation
Resides not in that man who does not think it,)
My wife is slippery? If thou wilt confess,
(Or else be impudently negative,

To have nor eyes, nor ears, nor thought,) then say,
My wife's a hobby-horse: deserves a name
As rank as any flax-wench, that puts to
Before her troth-plight: say it, and justify it.

Cam. (R. c.) I would not be a stander-by, to hear
My sovereign mistress clouded so, without
My present vengeance taken: 'Shrew my heart,
You never spoke what did become you less
Than this; which to reiterate, were sin
As deep as that, though true

Leo. (L. C.) Is whispering nothing

Is leaning cheek to cheek? is meeting noses?
Kissing with inside lip? stopping the career
Of laughter with a sigh? (a note infallible
Of breaking honesty :)

Skulking in corners ? wishing clocks more swift?

013