LEON. 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 anything: but were they false
As o'er-dyed blacks, as wind, as waters;-false
As dice are to be wish'd by one that fixes
No bourn 'twixt his and mine; yet were it true
To say this boy were like me.-Come, sir page,
Look on me with your welkin eye: sweet villain!
Most dear'st! my collop?-Can thy dam ?-may 't be
Affection thy intention stabs the centre?

Thou dost make possible things not so held?
Communicat'st with dreams?-How! can this be?—
With what's unreal thou coactive art,

And fellow'st nothing? Then 't is very credent,

Thou mayst co-join with something; and thou dost,—
And that beyond commission; and I find it,-

e

And that to the infection of my brains,

And hardening of my brows.

POL.

What means Sicilia ?

How, my lord!

HER. He something seems unsettled.
POL.

What cheer? how is 't with you, best brother?f

- a rough pash,-] That is, a tufted head or brow. bAs o'er-dyed blacks,-] Absurdly changed by Mr. Collier's annotator to, our dead blacks." "Blacks" was the common term for mourning habiliments formerly; and by “o'er-dyed blacks" were meant such garments as had become rotten and faded by frequent immersion in the dye. If any change in the text be admissible, we should read, "oft dyed blacks." Thus, in Webster's "Dutchess of Malfi," Act V. Sc. 2,"I do not think but sorrow makes her look

d

Like to an oft dy'd garment:

welkin eye:] That is, sky-coloured eye.

Can thy dam?-may't be

Affection thy intention stabs the centre?

Thou dost make possible things not so held?

Communicat'st with dreams?-How! can this be?—

With what's unreal thou coactive art,

And fellow'st nothing? Then 't is very credent,
Thou mayst co-join with something; &c.]

"Affection" here means imagination; "intention" signifies intencion or intensity; and the allusion, though the commentators have all missed it, is plainly to that mysterious principle of nature by which a parent's features are transmitted to the offspring. Pursuing the train of thought induced by the acknowledged likeness between the boy and himself, Leontes asks, "Can it be possible a mother's vehement imagination should penetrate even to the womb, and there imprint upon the embryo what stamp she chooses? Such apprehensive fantasy, then," he goes on to say, "we may believe will readily cojoin with something tangible, and it does," &c. &c.

• And that beyond commission;] "Commission" here, as in a former passage of the scene, "I'll give him my commission," means warrant, permission, authority.

How, my lord!

What cheer? how is 't with you, best brother?]

"In the folio, the words What cheer? how is 't with you, best brother?' have the prefix Leo.; Hanmer assigned them to Polixenes. Mr. Collier and Mr. Knight restore them-very injudiciously, I think-to Leontes. (I suspect that the true reading here is,

'POL.

Ho, my lord!

What cheer? how is 't with you?" &c.—

HER. You look as if you held a brow of much distraction: Are you mov'd, my lord? (2)

a

LEON.
No, in good earnest.—
[Aside.] 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,

b

This squash, this gentleman:-Mine honest friend,

'Will you take eggs for money?c

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

LEON. You will? why, happy man be's dole !-My brother, Are you so fond of your young prince, as we

Do seem to be of ours?

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.

So stands this squire

LEON.
Offic'd with me. We two will walk, my lord,
And leave you to your graver steps.-Hermione,
How thou lov'st us, show in our brother's welcome;
Let what is dear in Sicily be cheap:

Next to thyself and my young rover, he's
Apparent to my heart.d

HER.

If you would seek us,

We are yours i' the garden: shall's attend you there?

LEON. To your own bents dispose you: you'll be found,

for Leontes is standing apart from Polixenes and Hermione; and 'how,' as I have already noticed, was frequently the old spelling of 'ho.'")-DYCE.

• — methought I did recoil-] Mr. Collier, upon the strength of a MS. annotation in Lord Ellesmere's copy of the first folio, prints "my thoughts I did recoil;" but methoughts" of the original was often used for "methought." So, in the folio text of "Richard III." Act I. Sc. 4,

"Me thoughts that I had broken from the tower," &c.

And in the seme scene,

"Me thoughts I saw a thousand fearfull wrackes," &c.

b This squash,-] A "squash" is an immature pea-pod. The word occurs again in "Twelfth Night," Act I. Sc. 5,—

"As a squash before it is a peascod,"

and in "A Midsummer Night's Dream," Act III. Sc. 1.

e Will you take eggs for money?] This was a proverbial phrase, implying, Will you suffer yourself to be cajoled?

d Apparent to my heart.] Nearest to my affections.

Be you beneath the sky.-[Aside.] I am angling now,
Though you perceive me not how I give line.

Go to, go to!

[Observing POLIXENES and HERMIONE.

How she holds up the neb, the bill to him!
And arms her with the boldness of a wife
To her allowing husband!a Gone already!

[Exeunt POLIXENES, HERMIONE, and Attendants.

Inch-thick, knee-deep, o'er head and ears a fork'd' one.
Go play, boy, play; 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 th' arm,
That little thinks she has been sluic'd in 's absence,
And his pond fish'd by his next neighbour, by
Sir Smile, his neighbour: nay, there's comfort in 't
Whiles other men have gates, and those gates open'd,
As mine, against their will. Should all despair
That have revolted wives, the tenth of mankind
Would hang themselves. Physic for 't there's none;
It is a bawdy planet, that will strike

Where 't is predominant; and 't is powerful, think it,
From east, west, north, and south: be it concluded,
No barricado for a belly; know 't,

It will let in and out the enemy,

With bag and baggage: many a thousand on's

Have the disease, and feel 't not.-How now, boy!

MAM. I am like you, they say.

LEON.

What, Camillo there?

CAM. Ay, my good lord.

Why, that's some comfort.

LEON. Go play, Mamillius; thou 'rt an honest man.—

Camillo, this great sir will yet stay longer.

[Exit MAMILLIUS.

CAM. You had much ado to make his anchor hold:

When you cast out, it still came home.

LEON.

Didst note it?

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

LEON.

Didst perceive it?—

[Aside.] They're here with med already; whisp'ring, rounding,

b

To her allowing husband!] That is, probably, her allowed, her lawful husband.

- a fork'd one.] A horned one. So, in "Othello," Act III. Sc. 3,

"Even then this forked plague is fated to us
When we do quicken."

I am like you, they say.] So the second folio; the first reads, "I am like you say." They're here with me already; whisp'ring, &c.] That is, say the modern editors, "Not Polixenes and Hermione, but casual observers"! or "They are aware of my con

Sicilia is a-so-forth: "Tis far gone,

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

CAM.

At the good queen's entreaty.

LEON. At the queen's be 't: good should be pertinent; But so it is, it is 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 b
Perchance are to this business purblind? say.

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

LEON.

CAM.

LEON. Ay, but why?

Ha?

Stays here longer.

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

Satisfy

LEON.
The entreaties of your mistress?-satisfy!-
Let that suffice. I have trusted thee, Camillo,
With all the near'st things to my heart, as well
My chamber-councils, wherein, priest-like, thou
Hast cleans'd 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!

LEON. To bide upon 't-thou art not honest: or, If thou inclin'st that way, thou art a coward,

Which hoxes 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.

I may be negligent, foolish, and fearful;

My gracious lord,

In every one of these no man is free,

dition"! Strange forgetfulness of a common form of speech. By "They're here with me already," the King means,-the people are already mocking me with this opprobrious gesture (the cuckold's emblem with their fingers), and whispering, &c. "Coriolanus," Act III. Sc. 2,

"Go to them, with this bonnet in thy hand;

And thus far having stretch'd it, (here be with them).

See also note (d), p. 149 of the present Volume.

But so it is, it is not.] But as you apply the word, it is not pertinent.

So in

blower messes- Meaning inferior persons; such as sat at meals below the salt. • To bide upon 't-] This expression appears to mean, as Mr. Dyce has shown by examples,-My abiding opinion is.

hoxes-] To hox or hough is to hamstring.

But that his negligence, his folly, fear,
Among the infinite doings of the world,
Sometimes puts forth. 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,
Whereof the execution did cry out
Against the non-performance, 't was a fear
Which oft infects the wisest: these, my lord,
Are such allow'd 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 not you seen, Camillo, (But that's past doubt,-you have, or your eyeglass Is thicker than a cuckold's horn) or heard,

(For, to a vision so apparent, rumour

Cannot be mute) or thought, (for cogitation
Resides not in that man that 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 hobbyhorse; deserves a name
As rank as any flax-wench that puts to
Before her troth-plight: say 't, and justify 't.
CAM. 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.

LEON.
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) horsing foot on foot?
Skulking in corners? wishing clocks more swift?
Hours, minutes? noon, midnight? and all eyes
Blind with the pin and web, but theirs, theirs only,

(*) Old text, Holy-Horse.

-its-] The comparatively frequent use of the impersonal "its," (though, for the most part, with the apostrophe, it's,) in this piece, while it is found but rarely in any of the other plays; in many, not at all; may be taken as an indication that "The Winter's Tale" was one of the poet's latest productions. See note (3), p. 462, Vol. I.

b- that does not think it-] The lection of the second folio, at least in some copies

of that edition; the first has, "that do's not thinke," &c.

the pin and web,-] Has before been explained to mean the disorder of the sight called a cataract.

VOL. V.

P