Polixenes for Leontes. O, thou thing!
Which I'll not call a creature of thy place,
Lest barbarism, making me the precedent,
Should a like language use to all degrees,
And mannerly distinguishment leave out
Betwixt the prince and beggar !—I have said
She's an adultress; I have said with whom :
More, she's a traitor; and Camillo is

A feodary with her, and one that knows
What she should shame to know herself,
But with her most vile principal, that she's
A bed-swerver, even as bad as those

That vulgars give bold'st titles; ay, and privy
To this their late escape.

Her.

No; by my life,

Privy to none of this. How will this grieve you,
When you shall come to clearer knowledge, that
You thus have publish'd me? Gentle my lord,
You scarce can right me throughly then, to say
You did mistake.

In those foundations which I build upon,
The centre is not big enough to bear

A school-boy's top.-Away with her to prison!
He, who shall speak for her, is afar off guilty,
But that he speaks.

Her.

There's some ill planet reigns:

I must be patient, till the heavens look

With an aspect more favourable.-Good my lords,
I am not prone to weeping, as our sex

Commonly are, the want of which vain dew,
Perchance, shall dry your pities; but I have
That honourable grief lodg'd here, which burns

3A FFODARY with her,] It is "a federary with her" in the early editions, but a clear misprint for "feodary," the word in the margin of the corr. fo. 1632. Steevens calls it "a word of our author's coinage," but it was certainly a word of the old printer's manufacture; for that Shakespeare used the right word there is abundant evidence, since it occurs in the sense of confederate (which it means here) in "Measure for Measure," A. ii. sc. 4, and in "Cymbeline," A. iii. sc. 2: this is the only place in which it is spelt federary.

No; if I mistake] Malone and Steevens, taking upon them to improve Shakespeare's versification, printed "No, no; if I mistake." There is no reduplication of the negative in the old copies, nor in the corr. fo. 1632, and we therefore reject it as an interpolation. Single "No" is more emphatic.

Worse than tears drown. Beseech you all, my lords,
With thoughts so qualified as your charities
Shall best instruct you, measure me;—and so
The king's will be perform'd.

Leon.

Shall I be heard?

[To the Guards.

your

mistress

Her. Who is't, that goes with me?-Beseech your highness,
My women may be with me; for, you see,
My plight requires it.-Do not weep, good fools;
There is no cause: when shall know,
you
Has deserv'd prison, then abound in tears,
As I come out this action, I now go on,
Is for my better grace.-Adieu, my lord:
I never wish'd to see you sorry; now,

I trust, I shall.-My women, come; you have leave.
Leon. Go, do our bidding: hence!

[Exeunt HERMIONE and Ladies. 1 Lord. Beseech your highness, call the queen again. Ant. Be certain what you do, sir, lest your justice Prove violence; in the which three great ones suffer, Yourself, your queen, your son.

1 Lord.

For her, my lord,
I dare my life lay down, and will do't, sir,
Please you t' accept it, that the queen is spotless
I' the eyes of heaven, and to you: I mean,

In this which you accuse her.

If it prove

Ant.
She's otherwise, I'll keep me stable' where

I lodge my wife; I'll go in couples with her;

Than when I feel, and see her, no further trust her;
For every inch of woman in the world,

Ay, every dram of woman's flesh, is false,

If she be.

Leon.
1 Lord.

Hold your peaces!

Good my lord,—

I'll keep ME STABLE] So the corr. fo. 1632: the old reading has been"I'll keep my stables where

I lodge my wife;"

but nobody has explained how Antigonus was to secure the chastity of his wife the more by keeping her in his “stables," among his grooms. He means merely that he will take care to keep himself constantly near his wife,-"I'll keep me stable where I lodge my wife,"—in order that she may not offend in the way unjustly charged against Hermione. In the German Antigonus is made to say that he will stand sentry over his wife; so will ich Schildwacht halten bei meiner Frau.

Ant. It is for you we speak, not for ourselves.
You are abus'd, and by some putter-on,

That will be damn'd for't; would I knew the villain!
I would lamback him". Be she honour-flaw'd,—

I have three daughters; the eldest is eleven,
The second, and the third, nine, and some five';
If this prove true, they'll pay for't: by mine honour,
I'll geld them all fourteen they shall not see,
To bring false generations. They are co-heirs,
And I had rather glib myself, than they

Should not produce fair issue.

Leon.

Cease! no more.

You smell this business with a sense as cold

As is a dead man's nose; but I do see't, and feel't,
As you feel doing thus, and see withal

The instruments that feel".

We need no grave to bury honesty :

There's not a grain of it the face to sweeten

Of the whole dungy earth.

Leon.

What! lack I credit?

1 Lord. I had rather you did lack, than I, my lord,
Upon this ground; and more it would content me
To have her honour true, than your suspicion,
Be blam'd for't how you might.

6 I would LAMBACK him.] There is little doubt that the compositor erred in printing “lamback” land-damn, because his eye caught the word “damn’d” exactly above in the preceding line. "I would lamback him" means I would beat or belabour him, but how it came to mean that is doubtful. To lamm, according to Skinner, is ictibus permolere (hence, perhaps, a mill is slang for a fight), which is exactly the sense required; but the termination of the word "lamback" seems inexplicable, unless it have some relation to the cudgel, or baculum, with which the blows were inflicted, or to the "back" receiving them. The corrector of the fo. 1632 erases land-damn, and inserts "lamback," and we may conclude, perhaps, that that was Shakespeare's word. We meet with "lamback" in the unique drama of "The rare Triumphs of Love and Fortune," 1589:

"Heare you, sirra: you are no devill: mas, and I wist you were,
I would lamback the devill out of you, for all your geare."

Again, in Munday and Chettle's "Death of Robert Earl of Huntington," 1691: "And with this dagger lustily lambacked."

7 The second, and the third, nine, and some five;] i. e. The second nine, and the third some five.

The instruments that feel.] Leontes, at these words, must be supposed to take hold of Antigonus: "The instruments that feel" are of course his fingers. The passage is erased in the corr. fo. 1632.

Leon.

Why, what need we
Commune with you of this, but rather follow
Our forceful instigation? Our prerogative
Calls not your counsels, but our natural goodness
Imparts this; which, if you (or stupified,
Or seeming so in skill) cannot, or will not,
Relish a truth like us, inform yourselves,
We need no more of your advice: the matter,
The loss, the gain, the ordering on't, is all
Properly our's.

Ant.

And I wish, my liege,

You had only in your silent judgment tried it,
Without more overture..

Leon.

How could that be?

Either thou art most ignorant by age,

Or thou wert born a fool. Camillo's flight,
Added to their familiarity,

(Which was as gross as ever touch'd conjecture,
That lack'd sight only, nought for approbation
But only seeing, all other circumstances

Made up to the deed) doth push on this proceeding:
Yet, for a greater confirmation,

(For in an act of this importance 'twere

Most piteous to be wild,) I have despatch'd in post
To sacred Delphos, to Apollo's temple,
Cleomenes and Dion, whom you know

Of stuff'd sufficiency. Now, from the oracle
They will bring all; whose spiritual counsel had,
Shall stop, or spur me. Have I done well?

1 Lord. Well done, my lord.

Leon. Though I am satisfied, and need no more

Than what I know, yet shall the oracle

Give rest to the minds of others; such as he,

Whose ignorant credulity will not

Come up to the truth. So have we thought it good,

From our free person she should be confin'd,

Lest that the treachery of the two fled hence

Be left her to perform. Come, follow us:
We are to speak in public; for this business
Will raise us all.

But only seeing,] i. e. That required no other proof excepting sight, all other circumstances being complete.

Ant. [Aside.]

To laughter, as I take it,

If the good truth were known.

[Exeunt.

SCENE II.

The Same. The outer Room of a Prison.

Enter PAULINA and Attendants.

Paul. The keeper of the prison,-call to him:

[Exit an Attendant.

Let him have knowledge who I am. Good lady!
No court in Europe is too good for thee,
What dost thou then in prison ?-Now, good sir,

Re-enter Attendant, with the Jailor'.

You know me, do you not?

Jailor.

And one whom much I honour.

Paul.

Conduct me to the queen.

For a worthy lady,

Pray you then,

Jailor. I may not, madam: to the contrary

I have express commandment.

To lock up honesty and honour from

Th' access of gentle visitors!-Is't lawful, pray you,
To see her women? any of them? Emilia ?

Jailor. So please you, madam,

To put apart these your attendants, I

Shall bring Emilia forth.

Paul.

Withdraw yourselves.

Jailor.

I pray now, call her.

[Exeunt Attend.

And, madam,

I must be present at your conference.

Paul. Well, be't so, pr'ythee.

Here's such ado to make no stain a stain,

As passes colouring.

[Exit Jailor.

1 Re-enter Attendant, with the JAILOR.] So called in the old copies; from which there is no reason to vary, by calling the." Jailor" Keeper, as has been done by modern editors. They took a similar liberty in "The Comedy of Errors," where the "Jailor" of the folios was converted into "an Officer."