Cam.

Sir, my lord,

I could do this: and that with no rash 45 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 46!

Dost think, I am so muddy, so unsettled,
To appoint myself in this vexation? sully.
The purity and whiteness of my sheets,
Which to preserve, is sleep; which being spotted,
Is goads, thorns, nettles, tails of wasps 47?
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 48?

Cam.

.

you,

sir;

I must believe 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.

45 Rash is hasty; as in King Henry IV. Part II. ' rash gunpowder.' Maliciously is malignantly, with effects openly hurtful.

46 Make that (i. e. Hermione's disloyalty, which is a clear point) a subject of doubt, and go rot! Dost think, I am such a fool as to torment myself, and to bring disgrace on me and my child, without sufficient grounds?

47 Something is necessary to complete the verse. Hanmer reads:

'Is goads and thorns, nettles and tails of wasps.'

48 To blench is to start off, to shrink. Thus in Hamlet :

Leontes means, could any man so start or fly off from propriety of behaviour?

Leon.

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 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 split'st thine own.

Cam.

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

me.

[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, 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 villany 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.

Pol.

Enter POLIXENES.

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 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? 'Tis thereabouts;

For, to yourself, what you do know, you must; 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.

There is a sickness

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

Of

you Pol.

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,
In whose success we are gentle 49,-I beseech
If you know aught which does behove my knowledge
Thereof to be inform'd, imprison it not

In ignorant concealment.

you,

49 Success, for succession. Gentle, well born, was opposed to simple.

Cam.

I may not answer.

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.

Sir, I'll 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.

Pol.
On, good Camillo.
Cam. I am appointed him to murder you 50.

Pol. By whom, Camillo?

Cam.

Pol.

By the king.

For what?

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

you

To vice 51 you to❜t,—that have touch'd his queen Forbiddenly.

Pol.

O, then my best blood turn

To an infected jelly; and my name

Be yok'd with his, that did betray the best 52!
Turn then my freshest reputation to

50 I am appointed him to murder you,' I am the person ap

pointed to murder you.

51. i. e. to screw or move you to it. time meant any kind of winding screw.

a common expression.

A vice in Shakspeare's
The vice of a clock was

52 That is Judas. A clause in the sentence of excommunicated persons was: 'let them have part with Judas that betrayed Christ.'

A savour, that may strike the dullest nostril
Where I arrive; and my approach be shunn'd,
Nay, hated too, worse than the great'st infection
That e'er was heard, or read!

Cam.
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 fabrick of his folly; whose foundation
Is pil'd upon his faith 54, and will continue
The standing of his body.

Pol.

53

How should this grow?
Cam. 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 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

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.

Pol.

I do believe thee: I saw his heart in his face 55. Give me thy hand;

53Swear his thought over.' The meaning apparently is 'overswear his thought by,' &c.

54 Is pil'd upon his faith,' This folly which is erected on the foundation of settled belief.

55 I saw his heart in his face.' In Macbeth we have:

To find the mind's construction in the face.'