O, would her name were Grace! spoke to the purpose.
Nay, let me have't; I long.
Leon. Why, that was when Three crabbed months had soured themselves to death, Ere I could make thee open thy white hand, And clap thyself my love; then didst thou utter, I am yours forever.
Her. It is grace, indeed.- Why, lo you now, I have spoke to the purpose twice. The one forever earned a royal husband; The other, for some while, a friend.
[Giving her hand to POLIXENES. Too hot, too hot.
Leon. To mingle friendship far, is mingling bloods. I have tremoir 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 making practised smiles As in a looking-glass; and then to sigh, as 'twere The mort o' the deer; 0, that is entertainment My bosom likes not, nor my brows.-Mamillius, Art thou my boy?
Why, that's my bawcock. What, hast smutched thy nose?- They say, it's a copy out of mine. 'Come, captain, We must be neat! not neat, but cleanly, captain; And yet the steer, the heifer, and the calf,
Are all called neat.-Still virginalling
[Observing POLIXENES and HERMIONE.
Upon his palm?-How now, you wanton calf?
Yes, if you will, my lord.
Leon. Thou want'st a rough pash, and the shoots that I
To be full like me: yet, they say, we are Almost as like as eggs; women say so, That will say any thing. But were they false As o'er-dyed blacks, as wind, as waters; false As dice are to be wished, 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 dearest! 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, 'tis very credent, Thou mayst conjoin with something; and thou dost; (And that beyond commission, and I find it ;) And that to the infection of my brains,
And hardening of my brows.
Her. He something seems unsettled. Pol.
What cheer? How is't with you, best brother?
As if you held a brow of much distraction. Are you moved, my lord?
Leon. 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 unbreeched, 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, Will you take eggs for money?
Mam. No, my lord, I'll fight.
Leon. 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 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.
Leon. So stands this squire Officed 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's, he's Apparent to my heart.
We are yours i'the garden. Shall's attend you there? Leon. To your own bents dispose you: you'll be found, Be you beneath the sky;-I am angling now, Though you perceive me not how I give line. Go to, go to!
[Aside. Observing POLIXEN ES 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! Gone already! Inch-thick, knee-deep, o'er head and ears a forked one.- [Exeunt PoL., HER., and Attendants. Go, play, boy, play-thy mother plays, and I Play too; but so disgraced a part, whose issue Will hiss me to my grave; contempt and clamor Will be my knell.-Go, play, boy, play.-There have been, Or I am much deceived, 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 been sluiced in his absence, And his pond fished by his next neighbor, by Sir Smile, his neighbor. Nay, there's comfort in't, Whiles other men have gates; and those gates opened, As mine, against their will. 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: be it concluded, No barricado for a belly; know it;
It will let in and out the enemy,
With bag and baggage. Many a thousand of us Have the disease, and feel't not.-How now, boy? Mam. I am like you, they say.
What! Camillo there?
Cam. Ay, my good lord.
Why, that's some comfort.
Leon. Go play, Mamillius: thou'rt an honest man.[Exit MAMILLIUS.
Camillo, this great sir will yet stay longer.
Cam. You had much ado to make his anchor hold; When you cast out, it still came home. Leon.
Cam. He would not stay at your petitions; made His business more material.
Didst perceive it? They're here with me already: whispering, rounding, 80-forth. 'Tis far gone,
When I shall gust it last.-How came't, Camillo, That he did stay?
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, Perchance, are to this business purblind: say. Cam. Business, my lord? I think most understand Bohemia stays here longer.
Cam. To satisfy your highness, and the entreaties Of our most gracious mistress.
Leon. 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, priestlike, thou Hast cleansed my bosom; I from thee departed Thy penitent reformed; but we have been Deceived in thy integrity, deceived
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 boxes honesty behind, restraining
From course required; or else thou must be counted
A servant, grafted in my serious trust,
And therein negligent; or else a fool,
That seest a game played home, the rich stake drawn, And tak'st it all for jest.
Cam. My gracious lord, I may be negligent, foolish, and fearful; In every one of these no man is free, But that his negligence, his folly, fear, Amongst the infinite doings of the world,
Sometime puts forth. In your affairs, my lord, If ever I were wilful-negligent,
It was my folly; if industriously
I played 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, 'twas a fear Which oft affects 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,
Have not you seen, Camillo, (But that's past doubt; you have; or your eye-glass Is thicker than a cuckold's horn;) or heard, (For, to a vision so apparent, rumor
Cannot be mute,) or thought,-(for cogitation Resides not in that man, that does not think,)- 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 a troth-plight: say it, and justify it. 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, That would unseen be wicked? Is this nothing? Why, then, the world, and all that's in't, is nothing; The covering sky is nothing; Bohemia nothing; My wife is nothing; nor nothing have these nothings, If this be nothing.
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