Act 1. Scene 2.]

Her. Never?

WINTER'S TALE.

Leo. Never, but once.

Her. What? have I twice said well? when

was't before?

[us

I pr'ythee, tell me: Cram us with praise, and make As fat as tame things: One good deed, dying tongueless,

5

10

Slaughters a thousand, waiting upon that.
Our praises are our wages: You may ride us
With one soft kiss a thousand furlongs, ere
But to the goal';-
With spur we heat an acre.
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? 15
Nay, let me have't; I long.

Leo. Why, that was when

[death,

Three crabbed months had sour'd themselves to
Ere I could make thee open thy white hand,
And clap' thyself my love: then didst thou utter, 20
"I am yours for ever."

Her. It is Grace, indeed.

That will say any thing: But were they false
As o'er-dy'd blacks, as winds, as waters; false
As dice are to be wish'd, by one that fixes
No bourn' 'twixt his and m.ne; yet were it true
To say this boy were like me.-Come, sir page,
Look on me with your welkin-eye1°: Sweet villain!
Most dear'st! my collop-Can thy dam? may't
Affection! thy intention stabs the center. [be?
Thou dost make possible things not so held,
Communicat'st with dreams,-How can this be?-
With what's unreal thou coactive art,

And fellow'st nothing: Then, 'tis very credent1,
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 hardning of my brows.

Pol. What means Sicilia ?
Her. He something seems unsettled.
Pol. How my lord?

Leo. What cheer? how is't with
Her. You look

you

you,

[ther best bro

held a brow of much distraction:
As if
[twice:
Are you mov'd, my lord?

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.

[Giving her hand to Polixenes.
[Aside.
Leo. Too hot, too hot:
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 to be padling 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'; oh, that is entertainment
My bosom likes not, nor my brows.-Mamillius,
Art thou my boy?

Mam. Ay, my good lord.
Leo. l'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.

Leo. 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,

Meaning, to come to the point, or purpose.

2

25

Leo. 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, methought, I did recoil
Twenty-three years; and saw myself embreeched,
30 In my green velvet coat; my dagger muzzled,
Lest it should bite its master, and so prove,
As ornament oft does, too dangerous.
How like, methought, I then was to this kernel,
This squash, this gentleman! Mine honest friend,
35 Will you take eggs for money?

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

Leo. You will? why, happy man be his dole1!—-
My brother,

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

4

8

We still

Alluding to the custon of people clapping the palms of their hands together when they conclude or make a bargain. Hence the phrase to clap up a bargain. Perhaps derived from beau and cog. A lesson upon the horn at the death of the deer. game. A virginal is a very small kind of spinnet. say that such a one is a jolly cock, a cock of the • Pash is kiss, from paz Spanish, i. e. thou want st a mouth made rough by a beard to kiss with. "Shoots are branches, i. e. horns. Leontes is alluding to the ensigns of cuckoldom. Blacks was the common term for mourning. "Bourn is boundary. 1 i. e. blue eye,; an eye of the same colour with the Affection here means imagination. "'i. e. credible, welkin, or sky. i. e. a piece or slice of myself. A proverbial saying, borrowed from 24 This line would seem to belong to the preceding speaker. 16 Another proverbial expression meaning, the French, and implying, Will you put up with affronts? May his dole or share in life be to be a happy man." Meaning next to my heart.

11

10

12

Her.

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 hathbeen sluic'din hišabsence,|
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 25
open'd,

[none;30

[ing,
They're here with me already; whispering, round-50
Sicilia is a so-forth: 'Tis far gone,
When I shall gust it last.-How came't, Camillo,
That he did stay?

Cam. At the good queen's entreaty.

Leo. At the queen's, be't: good should be per-55
But so it is, it is not. Was this taken
By any understanding pate but thine?

For thy conceit is soaking, will draw in

Meaning, the anchor would not take hold. More urgent and important. i. e. rounding in the ear, (whispering, or telling secretly) a phrase in use at that time. i. e. taste it. Mess is a contraction of muster, an appellation used by the Scots. Lower messes, therefore, are graduates of a lower form. The speaker is now mentioning gradations of understanding, and not of rank. To hox is to ham-string. Meaning, that the act was not necessary to be done.

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'.

Leo. Is whispering nothing?

Who, I do think, is mine, and love as mine,
Without ripe moving to't? Would I do this?
Could man so blench"?

Cam. I must believe you, sir;

5 I do; and will fetch off Bohemia for't:
Provided, that when he's remov'd, your highness
Will take again your queen, as yours at first;
Even for your son's sake; and, thereby, for sealing
The injury of tongues, in courts and kingdoms
10 Known and ally'd to yours.

Is leaning check to cheek? is meeting noses?
Kissing with the 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; the noon, midnight? and all eyes 15
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 no-20|
If this be nothing.

Cam. Good my lord, be cur'd

Of this diseas'd opinion, and betimes;

For 'tis most dangerous.

I

Leo. Say, it be; 'tis true.

Cam. No, no, my lord.

Leo. It is you lie, you lie :

[things,

say, thou liest, Camillo, and I hate thee; Pronounce thee a gross lowt, 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?

25

Leo. Thou dost advise me,

Even so as I mine own course have set down:
I'll give no blemish to her honour, none.
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 cup-bearer;
If from me he have wholsome beverage,
Account me not your servant.

Leo. This is all:

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

Cam. I'll do't, my lord.

me.

Leo. I will seem friendly, as thou hast advis'd
[Exit.
Cam. O miserable lady!--But, for me,
What case stand I in? I must be the poisoner
Of good Polixenes: and my ground to do't
Is the obedience to a master: one,
30 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 flourished 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.

[hanging 35

Leo. Why he, that wears her like her medal, About his neck, Bohemia :-Who,

-if I

Had servants true about me; that bare eyes
To seek alike mine honour as their profits,
Their own particular thrifts,—they would do that 40
Which should undo more doing: Ay, and thou,
His cup-bearer, whom I, from meaner form [see
Have bench'd and rear'd to worship; who may'st
Plainly, as heaven sees earth, and earth sees heaven,
How I am gall'd,-thou might'st be-spice a cup, 45
To give mine enemy a lasting' wink;
Which draught to me were cordial.

Enter Polixenes.
Pol. This is strange! methinks,
My favour here begins to warp. Not speak -
Good-day, Camillo.

Cam. Hail, most royal sir!

Pol. What is the news i' the court?
Cam. None rare, my lord.

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
50 With customary compliments; when he,

55

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? 'Tis thereabouts;
For, to yourself, what you do know, you must;
60 And cannot say, you dare not. Good Camillo,
Your chang'd complexions are to me a mirror,

4

i. e. your suspicion is as great a sin as would be that (if committed) for which you suspect her. 2 Disorders in the eye. i. e. to poison him. * i. c. hasty. i. e. malignantly. bleach is to start off, to shrink. Z

I have looked on thousands, who have sped the 10 The fabrick of his folly; whose foundation

By my regard, but kill'd none so. Camillo,-
As you are certainly a gentleman; thereto
Clerk-like, experienced, which no less adorns
Our gentry, than our parents' noble names,
In whose success we are gentle',-I beseech you,
If you know aught which does behove my know-
Thereof to be inform'd; imprison it not [ledge
In ignorant concealment.

Cam. I may not answer.

15

20

Is pil'd upon his faith, and will continue
The standing of his body.

Pol. How should this grow?

Cum. I know not: but, I am sure, 'tis safer to
Avoid what's grown, than question how 'tis born.
If therefore you dare trust my honesty,-
That lies inclosed in this trunk, which yon
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

25 Have utter'd truth: which if you seek to prove,
I dare not stand by; nor shall you be safer [thereon,
Than one condemn'd; by the king's own mouth
Is execution sworn.

Pel. I do believe thee:

30I saw his heart in his face. Give me thy hand;
Be pilot to me, and thy places shall
Still neighbour mine: My ships are ready, and
My people did expect my hence departure
Two days ago.- This jealousy

351s for a precious creature: as she's rare,
Must it be great; and, as his person's mighty,
Must it be violent; and, as he does conceive
He is dishonoured by a man which ever
Profess'd to him, why, his revenges must
In that be made more bitter. Fear o'er-shades 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

[swears 40

Cam. He thinks, nay, with all confidence he
As he had seen't, or been an instrument [queen
To vice you to't',-that you have touch'd his
Forbiddenly.

Pol. Oh, then my best blood turn
To an infected jelly; and my name
Be yok'd with his, that did betray the best!
Turn then my freshest reputation to

45 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. [Exe.

1 Gentle is evidently opposed to simple; alluding to a distinction between the gentry and yeomanry. 2i. e. to draw, persuade you. The character called the Vice in the old plays, was the tempter to evil.

Mam.

[at it. '30 [softly;

Leo. No: if I mistake

In those foundations which I build upon,

The center is not big enough to bear

A school-boy's top.-Away with her to prison: He, who shall speak for her, is afar off guilty, 160 But that he speaks.

Her. There's some ill planet reigns:

I must be patient, till the heavens look

Withan aspect more favourable.--Good my lords,

2 i. e. I am treated as a mere child's baby, a thing pinched out of

clouts, a puppet for them to move and actuate as they please. i. e. a confederate.