CAM. My lord,

Go then; and with a countenance as clear

As friendship wears at feasts, keep with Bohemia,
And with your queen: I am his cupbearer;
If from me he have wholesome beverage,

Account me not your servant.

LEON.

This is all:

Do 't, and thou hast the one half of my heart;
Do 't not, thou splitt'st thine own.
CAM.

I'll do 't, my
LEON. I will seem friendly, as thou hast advis'd me.
CAM. O miserable lady!-But, for me,

POL.

What case stand I in? I must be the poisoner

Of good Polixenes: and my ground to do 't

lord.

[Exit.

Is the obedience to a master; one,
Who, in rebellion with himself, will have
All that are his so too.-To do this deed,
Promotion follows: If I could find example
Of thousands that had struck anointed kings
And flourish'd after, I'd not do 't: but since
Nor brass, nor stone, nor parchment, bears not one,
Let villainy itself forswear 't. I must

Forsake the court: to do 't, or no, is certain
To me a break-neck. Happy star, reign now!
Here comes Bohemia.

Enter POLIXENES.

This is strange! methinks,

My favour here begins to warp. Not speak?-

None rare, my lord.

POL. What is the news i' the court?

CAM.
POL. The king hath on him such a countenance

As he had lost some province, and a region
Lov'd as he loves himself: even now I met him
With customary compliment; when he,
Wafting his eyes to the contrary, and falling
A lip of much contempt, speeds from me; and

So leaves me, to consider what is breeding
That changes.thus his manners.

CAM. I dare not know, my lord.

POL. How! dare not? do not? Do you know, and dare not
Be intelligent to me? "T is thereabouts;

For, to yourself, what

COMEDIES.-VOL. II.

you

do know you must;

HH

And cannot say, you dare not.

Good Camillo,

Your chang'd complexions are to me a mirror,
Which shows me mine chang'd too: for I must be
A party in this alteration, finding

Myself thus alter'd with it.

CAM.

POL.

There is a sickness

Which puts some of us in distemper; but
I cannot name the disease; and it is caught
Of you that yet are well.

How caught of me?
Make me not sighted like the basilisk:

I have look'd on thousands who have sped the better
By my regard, but kill'd none so. Camillo-

As you are certainly a gentleman; thereto
Clerk-like, experienc'd, which no less adorns.

Our gentry, than our parents' noble names,

a

In whose success we are gentle,-I beseech you,
If you know aught which does behove my knowledge
Thereof to be inform'd, imprison it not

POL. A sickness caught of me, and yet I well!

I must be answer'd.-Dost thou hear, Camillo ?

I conjure thee, by all the parts of man

Which honour does acknowledge,-whereof the least
Is not this suit of mine,-that thou declare
What incidency thou dost guess of harm

Is creeping toward me; how far off, how near;
Which way to be prevented, if to be;

If not, how best to bear it.

CAM.

POL.

Sir, I will tell you;

Since I am charg'd in honour, and by him

That I think honourable: Therefore, mark my counsel;
Which must be even as swiftly follow'd as

I mean to utter it; or both yourself and me
Cry" lost," and so good night.

On, good Camillo.

CAM. He thinks, nay, with all confidence, he swears,
As he had seen 't or been an instrument

To vice you to 't,-that you have touch'd his queen

a Success-succession.

САМ.

Swear his thought over
By each particular star in heaven, and
By all their influences, you may as well
Forbid the sea for to obey the moon,
As, or by oath, remove, or counsel, shake
The fabric of his folly; whose foundation
Is pil'd upon his faith, and will continue
The standing of his body.

POL.
How should this grow?
CAM. I know not: but, I am sure, 't is safer to
Avoid what's grown than question how 't is born.
If therefore you dare trust my honesty,—
That lies enclosed in this trunk, which you
Shall bear along impawn'd,-away to-night.
Your followers I will whisper to the business:
And will, by twos, and threes, at several posterns,
Clear them o' the city: For myself, I'll put
My fortunes to your service, which are here
By this discovery lost. Be not uncertain;
For, by the honour of my parents, I

POL.

Have utter'd truth: which, if you seek to prove,
I dare not stand by; nor shall you be safer

Than one condemn'd by the king's own mouth, thereon

His execution sworn.

I do believe thee;

a We print Best with a capital as in the folio. The allusion is to Judas. The sentence against

excommunicated persons contains a clause that they should have part with that betrayer.

Must it be violent: and as he does conceive

He is dishonour'd by a man which ever
Profess'd to him, why, his revenges must

In that be made more bitter. Fear o'ershades me:
Good expedition be my friend, and comfort

The gracious queen, part of his theme, but nothing

Of his ill-ta'en suspicion! 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.

Enter HERMIONE, MAMILLIUS, and Ladies.

HER. Take the boy to you: he so troubles me