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SCENE I. - Sicilia. An Antichamber in Leontes' | such an affection, which cannot choose but branch Hermione, my dearest, thou never spok'st

Palace.

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Arch. Verily, I speak it in the fredom of my knowledge: we cannot with such magnificence in 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

now. Since their more mature dignities, and royal necessities, made separation of their society, their encounters, though not personal, have been royally attornied1, 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, physicks the subject 3, 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.

1 Supplied by substitution of embassies.

2 Wide waste of country.

3 Affords a cordial to the state.

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 have been The shepherd's note, since we have left our throne Without a burden: 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,

With one we-thank-you, many thousands more
That go before it.

Leon.

Stay your thanks awhile;

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Her. To tell, he longs to see his son, were strong;

But let him say so then, and let him go;

But let him say so, and he shall not stay,

We'll thwack him hence with distaffs.

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At my request, he would not.

Yet of your royal presence [To POLIXENES.] I'll To better purpose. Never?

adventure

The borrow of a week. When at Bohemia

Her.

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You take my lord, I'll give him my commission,

Her. What? have I twice said well? when was't

To let him there a month, behind the gest 5 Prefix'd for his parting: yet, good deed, Leontes,

before?

I pr'ythee, tell me: Cram us with praise, and make us

I love thee not a jar o'the clock behind

As fat as tame things: One good deed, dying

What lady she her lord. - You'll stay?

tongueless,

Pol.

No, madam.

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Slaughters a thousand, waiting upon that.
Our praises are our wages: You may ride us,
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!

4 Nipping.

5 Gests were the names of the stages where the king appointed to lie, during a royal progress,

6 Indeed.

7 A diminutive of lords,

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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,

As ornaments oft do, too dangerous.

Why, lo you now, I have spoke to the purpose twice: Lest it should bite its master, and so prove,
The one for ever earn'd a royal husband;
The other, for some while a friend.

Leon.

[Giving her hand to POLIXENES. 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 put on: derive a liberty

From heartiness, from bounty, fertile bosom,
And well become the agent: it may, I grant :
But, as now they are, making practis'd smiles,
As in a looking-glass;-and then to sigh, as 'twere
The mort o' the deer 9; O, that is entertainment
My bosom likes not, nor my brows. - Mamillius,
Art thou my boy ?

Mam.

Leon.

Ay, my good lord.

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I'fecks?

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 2

[Observing POLIXenes and HERMIONE. Upon his palm? - How now, you wanton calf? Art thou my calf? Yes, if you will, my lord. Leon. Thou want'st a rough pash, and the shoots that I have 3,

Mam.

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 4 eye: Sweet villain!
Most dear'st! my collop! - Can thy dam? - may't

be?

Affection! thy intention stabs the center: Thou dost make possible, things not so held, Communicat'st with dreams; (How can

be?)

How like, methought, I then was to this kernel,
This squash 6, this gentleman : - Mine honest friend,
Will you take eggs for money? 7
Mam. No, my lord, I'll fight.

Leon. You will? why, happy man be his dole! 8 - My brother,

Are you so fond of your young prince, as we
Do seem to be of ours?

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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,

this Or I am much deceiv'd, cuckolds ere now;

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You look,

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's false: Should all despair,
That have revolted wives, the tenth of mankind
Would hang themselves; but 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.
Leon. Go play, Mamillius; thou'rt an honest
[Exit MAMILLIUS.
Camillo, this great sir will yet stay longer.

man.

Cam. You had much ado to make his anchor hold;

When you cast out, it still came home.

Her.

8 Trembling of the heart.

9 The tune played at the death of the deer.

1 Hearty fellow.

2 i. e. Playing with her fingers, as if on a spinet.

3 Thou wantest a rough head, and the budding horns that

I have.

4 Blue, like the sky.

5 Credible.

6 Pea-cod.

7 Will you be cajoled P

8 May his lot in life be a happy one!

9 Heir apparent, next claimant,

1 Approving.

Leon.

Didst note it? | (For, to a vision so apparent, rumour

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

Leon.

Didst perceive it? -
They're here with me already; whispering, round-
ing 2,
Sicilia is a so-forth: 'Tis far gone,
When I shall gust 3 it last.
That he did stay ?

Cam.

- How came't, Camillo,

At the good queen's entreaty. Leon. At the queen's be't: good should be pertinent;

But so it is, it is not. Was this taken
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 4,
Perchance, are to this business purblind: say.

Cam. Business, my lord? I think, most under

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The entreaties of your mistress? satisfy?-
Let that suffice. I have trusted thee, Camillo,
With all the nearest things to my heart, as well
My chamber-councils: wherein, priest-like, thou
Hast cleans'd my bosom; I from thee departed

Thy penitent reform'd: but we have been

Deceiv'd in thy integrity, deceiv'd

In that which seems so.

Cam.

Be it forbid, my lord!

Cannot be mute,) or thought, (for cogitation
Resides not in that man, that does not think it,)
My wife is slippery? If thou wilt confess,
(Or else be impudently negative,

To have nor eyes, nor ears, nor thought,) then say,
My wife's a woman that deserves a name
Too rank to mention: 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? stopping the career
Of laughter with a sigh? (a note infallible
Of breaking honesty :) wishing clocks more swift?
Hours, minutes? noon, midnight? and all eyes blind
With the pin and web, but theirs, theirs only,
That would unseen be wicked? is this nothing?
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 nothings,
If this be nothing.

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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

Leon. To bide upon't; -Thou art not honest : or, The running of one glass.

If thou inclin'st that way, thou art a coward;

Which hoxes honesty behind, restraining

From course requir'd: Or else thou must be counted

A servant, grafted in my serious trust,

And therein negligent; or else a fool,

Cam.

Who does infect her?

Leon. Why he, that wears her like her medal,

hanging

About his neck, Bohemia: Who - if I

Had servants true about me, that bare eyes

That seest a game play'd home, the rich stake To see alike mine honour as their profits,

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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,
Sometime 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.

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,

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Leon.

To round in the ear was to tell secretly
Inferiors in rank.

3 Taste.
* To hox is to hamstring.

6 Disorders of the eye

7 Hasty.

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