SCENE II.-A room of state in the same.

Enter LEONTES, HERMIONE, MAMILLIUS, POLIXENES,
CAMILLO, and Attendants.

Pol. Nine changes of the watery star hath been

The shepherd's note since we have left our throne
Without a burthen: time as long again
Would be fill'd 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

"We thank you" many thousands moe That go before it.

Stay your thanks a while;

And pay them when you part.

I am question'd by my fears, of what may chance
Or breed upon our absence; that may blow
No sneaping winds at home, to make us say
"This is put forth too truly:" besides, I have stay'd
To tire your royalty.

Than you can put us to 't.

We are tougher, brother,

SCENE II.

A room .] Capell. and Attendants] Theobald. 1. hath] have Capell. 12-13. that may blow No] there may blow Some Hanmer; may there blow No Warburton. 14. truly] early Hanmer; tardily Capell.

Leon. One seven-night longer.

Very sooth, to-morrow.

Pol.

Leon. We'll part the time between 's, then: and in that

Pol.

I'll no gainsaying.

Press me not, beseech you, so.

There is no tongue that moves, none, none i' the world, 20
So soon as yours could win me: so it should now,
Were there necessity in your request, although
'Twere needful I denied it. My affairs

Do even drag me homeward: which to hinder
Were in your love a whip to me; my stay
To you a charge and trouble: to save both,
Farewell, our brother.

25

Leon.
Tongue-tied our queen? speak you.
Her. I had thought, sir, to have held my peace until

You had drawn oaths from him not to stay. You, sir,
Charge him too coldly. Tell him, you are sure
All in Bohemia 's well; this satisfaction

The by-gone day proclaim'd: say this to him,
He's beat from his best ward.

Leon.
Well said, Hermione.
Her. To tell, he longs to see his son, were strong:
But let him say so then, and let him go;
But let him swear so, and he shall not stay,
We'll thwack him hence with distaffs.
Yet of your royal presence I'll adventure
The borrow of a week. When at Bohemia
You take my lord, I'll give him my commission
To let him there a month behind the gest

28. to have] to've Pope.

30

35

40

20. world] Ff 1, 3 4; would F 2. You 'ad Theobald. 38. [To Polixenes] Rowe. 40. give Hanmer. 41. behind] beyond Heath. just Theobald; list Heath.

29. You had] him] give you 41. gest] Ff 1, 2; guest Ff 3, 4;

"Those flights upon the banks of
Thames

That so did take Eliza, and our
James."

41. To let
month] The exact
force of these words is uncertain; it
may be the verb to let in the sense of to
allow (O.E. lætan) or the verb to let in
the sense of hinder, delay (O.E. lettan).
We have therefore to choose between
(1) to allow him to remain there a month,
and (2) to tarry there a month; with
the latter reading, we must look upon
him as a reflexive pronoun.

Pol.

Prefix'd for 's parting: yet, good deed, Leontes,
I love thee not a jar o' the clock behind

What lady she her lord.

Her. Nay, but you will?

Pol.

Her. Verily!

You put me off with limber vows; but I,

Though you would seek to unsphere the stars with oaths,

Should yet say "Sir, no going." Verily,
You shall not go: a lady's "Verily" 's

50

As potent as a lord's. Will you go yet?
Force me to keep you as a prisoner,

Pol.

How say you?

Not like a guest, so you shall pay your fees
When you depart, and save your thanks.
My prisoner? or my guest? by your dread "Verily," 55
One of them you shall be.

Your guest, then, madam:
To be your prisoner should import offending;

42. good deed] (good-deed) F 1; (good-heed) F 2; (good heed) Ff 3, 4. 44. lady she] lady should Collier; lady-she Staunton. 50. Verily 's] Staunton and Grant White; Verely 'is Ff 1, 2; Verily is Ff 3, 4. 53. guest,] guest: Ff; guest? Rowe, Pope, Theobald, Hanmer; guest; Camb. Edd.

41. gest] The editors of the New probable that the phrase lady she is Eng. Dict. give "the time allotted for equivalent to our modern phrase "lady a halt or stay as the meaning of gest wife," or possibly, as C. T. Onions in this passage. They record no other suggests, in his Shakespeare Glossary, occurrence of the word in this sense, but to "titled lady"; compare Lafeu's give several instances of the use of the reference to Helena as "doctor she" in word in the plural to denote "the All's Well that Ends Well, II. i. 77. various stages of a journey, especially a Collier's alteration to "should" is unroyal progress," e.g. Edward VI.'s Jour- necessary, and the view that the word nal, p. 275: "The gestis of my pro- she is merely redundant, like the he in gres wer set fourth, which were the phrases," For God he knows" (Richthese "; and Speed, Hist. of Gt. ard III. III. vii. 236), "The skipping Brit. vii. 42: "The like custome vsed king he ambled up and down" (1 Henry hee in the winter season in his jeysts IV. III. ii. 60), seems hardly tenable. and circuits throughout his country." The word seems to be a variant of the equally obsolete gista stopping-place, from O.F. giste (Mod. F. gîte).

42. good deed] in very deed, indeed. 43. jar o' the clock] tick of the clock. Compare Spanish Tragedy: "The owls shrieking, the toads croaking, the minutes jarring, and the clocke striking twelve."

43-4. behind. . . lord] less than any lady wife whatever loves her lord.

44. lady she] "She" is often used as a noun in Shakespeare, and it is

47. limber] flexible, pliant. Compare Milton, Paradise Lost, vi. 476: "Those wav'd their limber fans, for wings."

52. Force me] If we place a comma, and not a colon or note of interrogation, after "guest" in the next line, the meaning of "force me " is "If you can force me."

53. your fees]The fees which prisoners arrested on a criminal charge had to pay on their liberation whether found guilty or innocent.

57. import offending] imply an offence on my part.

Which is for me less easy to commit

Her.

Not your gaoler, then,

Pol.

Than you to punish.

But your kind hostess. Come, I'll question you
Of my lord's tricks and yours when you were boys:
You were pretty lordings then?

We were, fair queen,
Two lads that thought there was no more behind,
But such a day to-morrow as to-day,

60

And to be boy eternal.

Her.

Was not my lord

The verier wag o' the two?

Pol. We were as twinn'd lambs that did frisk i' the sun,
And bleat the one at the other: what we changed
Was innocence for innocence; we knew not

The doctrine of ill-doing, nor dream'd

That any did. Had we pursued that life,

65

70

Her.

Pol.

Her.

And our weak spirits ne'er been higher rear'd

With stronger blood, we should have answer'd heaven
Boldly "not guilty;" the imposition clear'd
Hereditary ours.

By this we gather
You have tripp'd since.

O my most sacred lady!
Temptations have since then been born to 's: for
In those unfledg'd days was my wife a girl;
Your precious self had then not cross'd the eyes
Of my young play-fellow.

Grace to boot!

Of this make no conclusion, lest you say

65-6. Was not . . . the two] Hanmer reads as one line. FI; no, nor dream'd Ff 2, 3, 4; neither dream'd Spedding.

75

80

70. nor dream'd] 77. to 's] to us

Capell. 80. Grace] Oh! Grace Hanmer; God's Grace Walker. 80. boot]

both Heath.

66

68. changed] exchanged.

70. nor dream'd] The later Folios read no, nor dream'd"; this undoubtedly makes the verse more regular, but the pause after "ill-doing" may be looked upon as having metrical value.

74-5. the imposition . . . ours] Theobald's interpretation of this passage is as follows: Bating the imposition from the offence of our first parents, we might have protested our innocence to Heaven. Furness thinks this wrong, and maintains that "the meaning is not that

original sin is excepted, but that even inherited as it was, it was swept clean away." It must be allowed that this second interpretation keeps nearer to the force of the word "clear'd" than that of Theobald.

80. Grace to boot!] Grace to my help! The exclamation is a rare one, but Sir James Murray (New. Eng. Dict. s.v. "Grace") aptly illustrates it by means of the phrase "St. George to boot."

answer,

Your queen and I are devils: yet go on;
The offences we have made you do we 'll
you first sinn'd with us, and that with us
You did continue fault, and that you slipp'd not
With any but with us.

Leon.

If

Her. He'll stay, my lord.

Is he won yet?

At my request he would not.

Hermione, my dearest, thou never spokest

Leon.

To better purpose.

Her.

Never?

Leon.

Never, but once.

85

Her. What! have I twice said well? when was 't before? 90
I prithee tell me; cram's with praise, and make's
As fat as tame things: one good deed dying tongueless
Slaughters a thousand waiting upon that.

Leon.

Her.

Our praises are our wages: you may ride's
With one soft kiss a thousand furlongs ere
With spur we heat an acre. But to the goal:
My last good deed was to entreat his stay:
What was my first? it has an elder sister,
Or I mistake you: O, would her name were Grace!
But once before I spoke to the purpose? When?
Nay, let me have 't; I long.

95

100

Why, that was when

Three crabbed months had sour'd themselves to death,
Ere I could make thee open thy white hand,
And clap thyself my love: then didst thou utter
"I am yours for ever."

'Tis Grace indeed.

Why, lo you now, I have spoke to the purpose twice:

make 's] cram us make us Capell. But goal] clear an acre. But to the good Collier MS.

105

96. heat an acre. 100. spoke] Ff 1,

2; spake Ff 3, 4. 100. purpose?] Ff; purpose: Capell, Camb. edd. 104. And clap] Ff 2, 3, 4; A clap F 1; And clepe Rowe (2). This is Hanmer; It is Capell. 106. I have] I've Pope.