She should not visit you.

LEON. What, canst not rule her? PAUL. From all dishonesty he can in this, (Unless he take the course that you have done, Commit me, for committing honour) trust it, He shall not rule me. ANT. La you now! you hear: When she will take the rein, I let her run; But she 'll not stumble.

PAUL. Good my liege, I come,And, I beseech you, hear me, who professes Myself your loyal servant, your physician, Your most obedient counsellor; yet that dares Less appear so, in comforting your evils, Than such as most seem yours:-I say, I come From your good queen.

LEON.

Good queen!

PAUL. Good queen, my lord, good queen: say, good queen ;

I

And would by combat make her good, so were A man, the worst about you.

I

Force her hence.

LEON. PAUL. Let him that makes but trifles of his eyes First hand me: on mine own accord I'll off; But first I'll do my errand.-The good queen, For she is good, hath brought you forth a daughter; Here 't is; commends it to your blessing. [Laying down the Child. Out!

LEON. A mankind witch! Hence with her, out o' door: A most intelligencing bawd!

PAUL.

Not so:

LEON.

He dreads his wife!

PAUL. So I would you did; then 't were past

all doubt

You'd call your children yours.

LEON.

A nest of traitors!

ANT. I am none, by this good light. PAUL.

Nor I; nor any,

But one, that's here, and that 's himself; for he
The sacred honour of himself, his queen's,
His hopeful son's, his babe's, betrays to slander,
Whose sting is sharper than the sword's; and
will not

(For, as the case now stands, it is a curse
He cannot be compell'd to 't) once remove
The root of his opinion, which is rotten,
As ever oak, or stone, was sound.
LEON.

A callat,

And, might we lay the old proverb to your charge,
So like you, 't is the worse.'-Behold, my lords,
Although the print be little, the whole matter
And copy of the father,-eye, nose, lip;
The trick of 's frown; his forehead; nay, the valley,
The pretty dimples of his chin and cheek; his
smiles;

The very mould and frame of hand, nail, finger :-
And thou, good goddess Nature, which hast made it
So like to him that got it, if thou hast

The ordering of the mind too, 'mongst all colours
No yellow in 't, lest she suspect, as he does,
Her children not her husband's!

LEON.

A gross hag!And, losel, thou art worthy to be hang'd, That wilt not stay her tongue.

ANT.

Hang all the husbands That cannot do that feat, you'll leave yourself Hardly one subject.

LEON. Once more, take her hence! PAUL. A most unworthy and unnatural lord Can do no more.

It is an heretic that makes the fire,
Not she which burns in't. I'll not call you tyrant;

f

And, might we lay the old proverb to your charge,
So like you, 'tis the worse.-]

Overbury quotes this "old proverb" in his character of "A Sargeant":"The devill cals him his white sonne; he is so like him, that he is the worse for it, and hee lokes after his father."OVERBURY'S Works, Ed. 1616.

g- losel,-] Said to be derived from the Saxon Losian, to lose, and to mean an abandoned, worthless fellow.

[hands?— A better guiding spirit!-What needs these You, that are thus so tender o'er his follies, Will never do him good, not one of you. So, so-farewell; we are gone.

[Exit.

LEON. Thou, traitor, hast set on thy wife to this.My child? away with 't!—even thou, that hast A heart so tender o'er it, take it hence, And see it instantly consum'd with fire; Even thou, and none but thou. Take it up straight: Within this hour bring me word 't is done, (And by good testimony) or I'll seize thy life, With what thou else call'st thine. If thou refuse, And wilt encounter with my wrath, say so; The bastard brains with these my proper hands Shall I dash out. Go, take it to the fire; For thou sett'st on thy wife.

ANT.

I did not, sir: These lords, my noble fellows, if they please, Can clear me in 't.

1 LORD. We can :-my royal liege, He is not guilty of her coming hither.

LEON. You're liars all.

[credit:

1 LORD. Beseech your highness, give us better We have always truly serv'd you; and beseech" So to esteem of us and on our knees we beg, (As recompense of our dear services

Past and to come) that you do change this purpose,
Which being so horrible, so bloody, must
Lead on to some foul issue: we all kneel.
LEON. I a
am a feather for each wind that blows:-
Shall I live on, to see this bastard kneel
And call me father?
Than curse it then.
It shall not neither.

Better burn it now,
But be it; let it live:-
You, sir, come you hither;
[To ANTIGONUS.

You that have been so tenderly officious
With lady Margery, your midwife, there,
To save this bastard's life,-for 't is a bastard,
So sure as this beard's grey,"—what will you ad-

venture

To save this brat's life?

a- and beseech-] Here again in the old text the elision of you is marked by an apostrophe; thus, beseech '.

b So sure as this beard's grey,-] Unless we read according to a marginal annotation in Lord Ellesmere's copy of the first folio, -"thy beard," we must suppose the king to point to, or touch the beard of Antigonus; he himself, who twenty-three years before the play began was unbreeched, could hardly have a grey beard.

ANT.

Anything, my lord,

That my ability may undergo,
And nobleness impose :—at least, thus much,
I'll pawn the little blood which I have left
To save the innocent :-anything possible.
LEON. It shall be possible. Swear by this sword,
Thou wilt perform my bidding.

ANT.
I will, my lord.
LEON. Mark, and perform it, seest thou; for
the fail

Of any point in 't shall not only be
Death to thyself, but to thy lewd-tongu'd wife,
Whom for this time we pardon. We enjoin thee,
As thou art liegeman to us, that thou carry
This female bastard hence; and that thou bear it
To some remote and desert place, quite out
Of our dominions; and that there thou leave it,
Without more mercy, to its own protection
And favour of the climate. As by strange fortune
It came to us, I do in justice charge thee,
On thy soul's peril, and thy body's torture,
That thou commend it strangely to some place,
Where chance may nurse or end it.
Take it up.
ANT. I swear to do this, though a present
death
babe :

Had been more merciful.- Come on, poor
Some powerful spirit instruct the kites and ravens
To be thy nurses! Wolves and bears, they say,
Casting their savageness aside, have done
Like offices of pity.-Sir, be prosperous
In more than this deed does require !— and blessing,
Against this cruelty, fight on thy side,
Poor thing, condemn'd to loss! (2)

LEON.

Another's issue.

2 ATTEND.

[Exit, with the Child. No, I'll not rear

Please your highness, posts,

From those you sent to the oracle, are come
An hour since: Cleomenes and Dion,

Being well arriv'd from Delphos, are both landed,
Hasting to the court.

1 LORD.

So please you, sir, their speed Hath been beyond account.

LEON. Twenty-three days. They have been absent: 't is good speed; foretells The great Apollo suddenly will have The truth of this appear. Prepare you, lords; Summon a session, that we may arraign Our most disloyal lady; for, as she hath Been publicly accus'd, so shall she have A just and open trial. While she lives, My heart will be a burden to me. And think upon my bidding.

Leave me; [Exeunt.

c to it own protection-] Although the pronoun "its" occurs more frequently in this piece than in any other of Shakespeare's plays, showing it to have been one of his last works, that now indispensable vocable was still only in its infancy; for in this drama we have "it" in the instance above, and again in Act III. Sc. 2,"The innocent milke in it most innocent mouth." dcommend-] To commend was to commit.

DION.

The violent carriage of it

Will clear or end the business: when the oracle (Thus by Apollo's great divine seal'd up) Shall the contents discover, something rare Even then will rush to knowledge.-Go,-fresh horses;

And gracious be the issue!

[Exeunt.

A Court of Justice.

SCENE II.-The same. LEONTES, Lords, and Officers discovered, properly seated.

LEON. This sessions (to our great grief we pronounce)

Even pushes 'gainst our heart; the party tried,
The daughter of a king, our wife, and one
Of us too much belov'd.-Let us be clear'd
Of being tyrannous, since we so openly
Proceed in justice; which shall have due course,
Even to the guilt or the purgation.
Produce the prisoner.

OFFI. It is his highness' pleasure that the queen Appear in person here in court.-Silence! a

the officer, or by the ordinary crier, is evident. Compare the opening of the scene of Queen Katharine's trial in "Henry VIII."