They're here with me already; whispering, round

ing,'

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.

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,"
Perchance, are to this business purblind: say.
Cam. Business, my lord? I think, most under-

stand

Leon. Ay, but why?

Ha?

Stays here longer.

Cam. To satisfy your highness, and the entreaties Of our most gracious mistress.

Leon.

Satisfy

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.

7-whispering, rounding,] To round in the ear is to whisper, or to tell secretly.

·gust it—] i. e. taste it. STEEVENS.

- lower messes,] lower messes is perhaps used as an expression to signify the lowest degree about the court.

Cam.

Be it forbid, my lord!

Leon. To bide upon't;-Thou art not honest: or, 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,

That seest a game play'd home, the rich stake drawn, And tak'st it all for jest.

I

Cam.

My gracious lord,
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

2

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

1

hoxes honesty behind,] To hox is to ham-string. The proper word is, to hough, i. e. to cut the hough, or ham-string. 2 Whereof the execution did cry out

Against the non-performance,] This is one of the expressions by which Shakspeare too frequently clouds his meaning. This sounding phrase means, I think, no more than a thing necessary to be done. JOHNSON.

Is thicker than a cuckold's horn;) or heard,
(For, to a vision so apparent, rumour
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 hobbyhorse; 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,3 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-
things,

If this be nothing.

Cam.

Of this diseas'd opinion, and betimes;

Good my lord, be cur'd

Say, it be; 'tis true.

For 'tis most dangerous.

Leon.

S -the pin and web,] Disorders in the eye.

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,"

hanging

About his neck, Bohemia: Who-if I

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 cupbearer,-whom I from meaner form

Have bench'd, and rear'd to worship; who may'st

see

Plainly, as heaven sees earth, and earth sees heaven, How I am galled,-might'st bespice a cup,

To give mine enemy a lasting wink;

Which draught to me were cordial.

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 muddy, so unsettled,

To appoint myself in this vexation? sully

like her medal,] i. e. her portrait.

5 Make't thy question, and go rot! &c.] This refers to what Camillo has just said, relative to the Queen's chastity.

The purity and whiteness of my sheets,
Which to preserve, is sleep; which being spotted,
Is goads, thorns, nettles, tails of wasps?
Give scandal to the blood o'the prince my son,
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;

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
Known and allied to yours.

Leon.

Thou dost advise me,

Even so as I mine own course have set down:

I'll give no blemish to her honour, none.
Čam. 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 wholsome 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 split'st thine own.

Cam.
I'll do't, my lord.
Leon. I will seem friendly, as thou hast advis'd

me.

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,
Who, in rebellion with himself, will have
All that are his, so too. To do this deed,
Promotion follows: If I could find example

[Exit.

• Could man so blench?] To blench is to start off, to shrink.