Of his ill-ta'en suspicion!

1

Come, Camillo;

I will respect thee as a father, if

Thou bear'st my life off hence. Let us avoid.
Cam. It is in mine authority to command
The keys of all the posterns. Please your highness
To take the urgent hour. Come, sir, away.

[Exeunt.

ACT II.

SCENE I. The same.

Enter HERMIONE, MAMILLIUS, and Ladies.

Her. Take the boy to you: he so troubles me,

'Tis past enduring.

1 Lady.

Come, my gracious lord,

Shall I be your playfellow ?

Mam.

No, I'll none of you.

1 Lady. Why, my sweet lord?

Mam. You'll kiss me hard; and speak to me as if

I were a baby still.-I love you better.

2 Lady. And why so, my lord?

Not for because

Mam. Your brows are blacker; yet black brows, they say, Become some women best; so that there be not

Too much hair there, but in a semicircle,

Or half-moon made with a pen.

2 Lady.

Who taught you this?

Mam. I learned it out of women's faces.-Pray

now

What color are your eyebrows?

1 Johnson might well say, "I can make nothing of the following words:

and comfort

The gracious queen, part of his theme, but nothing

Of his ill-ta'en suspicion.'

He suspected the line which connected them to the rest to have been lost.

1 Lady.

Blue, my lord.

Mam. Nay, that's a mock; I have seen a lady's

nose

That has been blue, but not her eyebrows.

2 Lady.

Hark ye;

The queen, your mother, rounds apace: we shall
Present our services to a fine new prince,

One of these days; and then you'd wanton with us,
If we would have you.

1 Lady.

Into a goodly bulk.

She is spread of late
Good time encounter her!

Her. What wisdom stirs amongst you? Come, sir,

Come on, sit down.-Come on, and do your best

To fright me with your sprites: you're powerful at it. Mam. There was a man,

Her. Nay, come, sit down; then on.

Mam. Dwelt by a churchyard ;-I will tell it softly; Yon crickets shall not hear it.

Her.

And give't me in mine ear.

Come on then,

Enter LEONTES, ANTIGONUS, Lords, and others.

Leon. Was he met there? his train? Camillo with him?

1 Lord. Behind the tuft of pines I met them;

never

Saw I men scour so on their way. I eyed them
Even to their ships.

Leon.

In my just censure!1

How blessed am I
in my true opinion!—

1 i. e. judgment.

2

Alack, for lesser knowledge! How accursed,
In being so blest!-There may be in the cup
A spider steeped, and one may drink; depart,
And yet partake no venom; for his knowledge
Is not infected: but if one present

The abhorred ingredient to his eye; make known,
How he hath drunk, he cracks his gorge, his sides
With violent hefts.3-I have drunk, and seen the
spider.

Camillo was his help in this, his pander.-
There is a plot against my life, my crown;
All's true that is mistrusted.-That false villain,
Whom I employed, was pre-employed by him:
He has discovered my design, and I

Remain a pinched thing; yea, a very trick

For them to play at will.-How came the posterns
So easily open?

1 Lord.

By his great authority; Which often hath no less prevailed than so,

On your command.

Leon.

I know't too well.

Give me the boy; I am glad you did not nurse him. Though he does bear some signs of me, yet you

Have too much blood in him.

Her.

What is this? sport?

Leon. Bear the boy hence; he shall not come about

her;

Away with him ;-and let her sport herself

With that she's big with; for 'tis Polixenes

Has made thee swell thus.

Her.

But I'd say, he had not,

You, my lords,

And, I'll be sworn, you would believe my saying,
Howe'er lean to the nayward.
you

Leon.

Look on her, mark her well; be but about

1 That is, O that my knowledge were less!

2 Spiders were esteemed poisonous in our author's time.

3 Hefts, heavings.

4 i. e. "a thing pinched out of clouts; a puppet for them to move and actuate as they please."

To say, She is a goodly lady, and

The justice of your hearts will thereto add, 'Tis pity, she's not honest, honorable.

Praise her but for this her without-door form,

(Which, on my faith, deserves high speech,) and straight The shrug, the hum, or ha: these petty brands, That calumny doth use ;-O, I am out;

That mercy does; for calumny will sear

Virtue itself;-these shrugs, these hums, and ha's, When you have said, she's goodly, come between, Ere you can say she's honest. But be it known, From him that has most cause to grieve it should be, She's an adult'ress.

Her.

Should a villain say so,

The most replenish villain in the world,

He were as much more villain. You, my lord,

Do but mistake.

Leon.

You have mistook, my lady,

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 adult'ress; I have said with whom;
More, she's a traitor! and Camillo is
A federary1 with her; and one that knows
What she should shame to know herself,

2

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.

No, by my life,

Her.
Privy to none of this. How will this grieve you,
When' you shall come to clearer knowledge, that
You thus have published me? Gentle my lord,

1 Federary, confederate, accomplice.

2 One that knows what she should be ashamed to know herself, even if the knowledge of it was shared but with her paramour. It is the use of but for be-out (only, according to Malone) that obscures the sense.

You scarce can right me throughly, then, to say

You did mistake.

Leon.

No, no; if I 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.

2

There's some ill planet reigns.

I must be patient till the heavens look

With an aspect more favorable.-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 honorable grief lodged here, which burns
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 performed!

Leon.

Shall I be heard?

[To the Guards.

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 you shall know your mistress
Has deserved 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 wished to see you sorry; now,

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

[Exeunt Queen 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 i. e. no foundation can be trusted.

2 He who shall speak for her, is remotely guilty in merely speaking.