SCENE I. SICILIA, AN ANTECHAMBER IN LEONTES'

PALACE.

Enter Camillo and Archidamus.

Arch. If you shall chance, Camillo, to visit Bohemia, on the like occasion wherein my services are now on foot, you shall see, as I have said, great difference betwixt our Bohemia, and your Sicilia.

Cam. I think, this coming summer, the king of Sicilia means to pay Bohemia the visitation which he justly owes him.

Arch. Wherein our entertainment shall shame us, we will be justified in our loves: for, indeed,Cam. 'Beseech you,

Arch. Verily, I speak it in the freedom of my knowledge: we cannot with such magnificencein so rare-I know not what to say.- We will give you sleepy drinks; that your senses, unintelligent of our insufficience, may, though they cannot praise us, as little accuse us.

Cam. You pay a great deal too dear for what's given freely.

Arch. Believe me, I speak as my understanding instructs me, and as mine honesty puts it to

utterance.

Cam. Sicilia cannot show himself over-kind to Bohemia. They were trained together in their childhoods; and there rooted betwixt them then such an affection, which cannot choose but branch now. Since their more mature dignities, and royal necessities, made separation of their society, their encounters, though not personal, have been royally

attornied, with interchange of gifts, letters, loving embassies; that they have seemed to be together, though absent; shook hands, as over a vast; and embraced, as it were, from the ends of opposed winds. The heavens continue their loves!

Arch. I think, there is not in the world either malice, or matter, to alter it. You have an unspeakable comfort of your young prince Mamillius; it is a gentleman of the greatest promise, that ever came into my note.

Cam. I very well agree with you in the hopes of him: it is a gallant child; one that, indeed, physics the subject, makes old hearts fresh: they, that went on crutches ere he was born, desire yet their life, to see him a man.

Arch. Would they else be content to die?

Cam. Yes; if there were no other excuse why they should desire to live.

Arch. If the king had no son, they would desire to live on crutches, till he had one. [exeunt.

SCENE II. A ROOM OF STATE IN THE PALACE.

Enter Leontes, Polixenes, Hermione, Mamillius, Camillo, and Attendants.

Pol. Nine changes of the wat'ry star hath been The shepherd's note, since we have left our throne Without a burden: time as long again Would be filled up, my brother, with our thanks; And yet we should, for perpetuity Go hence in debt. And therefore, like a cipher, Yet standing in rich place, I multiply, With one we-thank you, many thousands more, That go before it.

Her. It is Grace, indeed.[twice: Why, lo you now, I have spoke to the purpose The one for ever earn'd a royal husband; The other, for some while a friend.

{gives her hand to Pol.
Leon. Too hot, too hot:
[aside.
To mingle friendship far, is mingling bloods.
I have tremor cordis on me; my heart dances;
But not for joy,-not joy.-This entertainment
May a free face pat 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 practis'd smiles,
As in a looking-glass;—and then to sigh, as 'twere
The mort o'the deer; O, that is entertainment
My bosom likes not, nor my brows-Mamillius,
Art thou my boy?

Mam. Ay, my good lord.
Leon. I'fecks?

[thy nose?
Why, that's my bawcock. What, hast smutch'd
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 call'd, neat.-Still virginalling

[observing Polixenes and Hermione. Upon his palm?-How now, you wanton calf? Art thou my calf?

Mam. Yes, if you will, my lord.

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 any thing: But were they false
As o'er-died 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
Affection! thy intention stabs the centre: [be?
Thou dost make possible, things not so held,
Communicat'st with dreams;-(How can this
With what's unreal thou coactive art, [be?-
And fellow'st nothing: Then, 'tis very credent,
Thou may'st co-join 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.

Pol. What means Sicilia?

Her. He something seems unsettled.
Pol. How, my lord?

What cheer? how is't with you, best brother?
Her. You look,

As if you held a brow of much distraction:
Are you mov'd, 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, methoughts, 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 kernei, This quash, this gentleman. Mine houest friend, Will you take eggs for money?

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

Leon. You will? why, happy man be's doie!~
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

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 Let what is dear in Sicily, be cheap; [welcome; Next to thyself, and my young rover, he's Apparent to my heart.

Her. If you would seek us,

[there?

We are yours i'the garden: Shall's attend you 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; observes Polixenes and Herm.
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; [one-
Inch-thick, knee-deep; o'er head and ears a fork'd

[exeunt Polixenes, Hermione, and Attendants. 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 the

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 is
It is a bawdy planet, that will strike
Where 'tis predominant; and 'tis powerful, think it,
From east, west, north, and south: Beit conciuoid,
No barricado for a belly; know it;

It will let in and out the enemy,

[none;

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.

Leon. Why, that's some comfort.

What! Camillo there?

Cam. Ay, my good lord.

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

[made Leon. Didst perceive it?— They're here with me already; whispering, roundSicilia is a so-forth: 'Tis far gone, [ing, 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 But so it is, it is not. Was this taken [pertinent; 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 underBohemia stays here longer. [stand

Leon. Ha?

Cam. Stays here longer.

Leon. Ay, but why?

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 her 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,

Cam. My gracious lord,

[drawn,

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,
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, 'twas a fear
Which oft affects 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 eye-glass Is thicker than a cuckold's horn;) or heard,

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
If this be nothing.
[nothings,

Cam. Good my lord, be cur'd

Of this diseas'd opinion, and betimes;
For 'tis most dangerous.

Leon. Say, it be; 'tis truc.

Cam. No, no, my lord.

Leon. It is; you lie, you lie :

I say, thou liest, Camillo, and I hate thee;
Pronounce thee a gross lout, a mindless slave;
Or else a hovering temporizer, that

Canst with thine eyes at once see good and evil,
Inclining to them both: Were my wife's liver
Infected as her life, she would not live
The running of one glass.

Cam. Who does infect her?

Leon. Why he, that wears her like her medal, About his neck, Bohemia; who-if I [hanging Had servants true about me; that bare eyes To see alike mine honour as their profits, Their own particular thrifts,-they would do that Which should undo more doing: Ay, and thou, His cup-bearer,-whom I from meaner form Have bench'd, and rear'd to worship; who may'st [heaven, Plainly, as heaven sees earth, and earth sces How I am galled,-might'st bespice a cup, To give mine enemy a lasting wink; Which draught to me were cordial.

see

Cam. Sir, my lord,

I could do this; and that with no rash potion,
But with a ling'ring dram, that should not work
Maliciously like poison: But I cannot

Believe this crack to be in my dread mistress,
So sovereignly being honourable.

I have lov'd thee,

Leon. Make't thy question, and go rot. Dost think, I am so nuddy, so unsettled,