Nor Braffe, nor Stone, nor Parchment beares not one, Forfake the Court: to do't, or no, is certaine Enter Polixenes. My fauor here begins to warpe. Not speake? Pol. This is ftrange : Me thinkes 416 420 Good day Camillo. Cam. Hayle most Royall Sir. Cam. None rare (my Lord.) Pol. What is the Newes i'th'Court? 425 Pol. The King hath on him fuch a countenance, As he had loft fome Prouince,and a Region Lou'd, as he loues himselfe: euen now I met him 430 Wafting his eyes to th' contrary, and falling 432 A Lippe of much contempt, speedes from me, and 419. breake-neck] HALLIWELL: The inversed term, neck-break, is still in use in the provinces. · 419. Happy Starre] DEIGHTON: That is, may some good Providence care for my country, now in so evil a plight!' [I think it rather refers to the entrance of Polixenes, and means, may some propitious Star guide me in this interview.'-ED.] 422. to warpe] SCHMIDT says that this means to change for the worse,' and he is followed by the Century Dictionary. [But I think it rather means that the welcome of Polixenes threatens to become shrunken or distorted by the coolness of Leontes. It almost seems as though Shakespeare recalled his own song in As You Like It; Freeze, freeze, thou bitter sky . . . Though thou the waters warp, Thy sting is not so sharp As friend remember'd not.'-ED.] 425. What is] The emphasis here falls on 'is.' Court?'-ED. 'What can be the news in the 428. As he had]. For other examples where as is used apparently for as if, see ABBOTT, $107. 432. speedes from me] M. MASON (p. 126): This is a stroke of nature worthy of Shakespeare. Leontes had but a moment before assured Camillo that he would seem friendly to Polixenes, according to his advice; but on meeting him, his jealousy gets the better of his resolution, and he finds it impossible to restrain his hatred. So leaues me, to consider what is breeding, 433 That changes thus his Manners. Cam. I dare not know (my Lord.) 435 Pol. How,dare not? doe not? doe you know, and dare not? Be intelligent to me, 'tis thereabouts : For to your felfe, what you doe know, you must, And cannot fay, you dare not. Good Camillo, Your chang'd complexions are to me a Mirror, My felfe thus alter'd with't. Cam. There is a sicknesse Which puts some of vs in diftemper, but 434. changes] changeth Glo. 435. (my Lord)] Om. Han. 436. How, dare not] How, date not F.. doe not?...not?] dare not? you do know, and dare not Han. 436, 437. doe not?...dare not?...me,] 440 445 do not....dare not...me? Cap. do not? ...dare not...me? Var. '78, '85, Rann, Mal. Steev. Var. Coll. Sing. Dyce, Wh. i, Sta. Ktly. 438. you doe] do you FF, Rowe i. 443. with't] with it Rowe ii+, Mal. Steev. Var. Knt, Sing. Sta. Ktly. 433. consider] After this word HUDSON places a full stop, and connects 'What is breeding' with the next line, with the following note: Does not Camillo's reply fairly suppose the clause after "consider" to be interrogative? And where is the objection to taking "consider" as used absolutely, or without an object expressed?' 433. what] This is the emphatic word.-ED. 436, 437. How . . . thereabouts] The punctuation in the Folio of these two lines is, to me, satisfactory, except, perhaps, the interrogation after the first 'doe not.' By changing this question into an affirmation the sense becomes, 'How, you cannot mean dare not, you must mean do not.' Emphatically I prefer the interrogation at the end of the line, rather than to continue the question: and dare not be intelligent to me?' as the majority of editors read. The first line is all astonishment and bewilderment, then Polixenes commands: 'Be intelligible-it must be something of this nature: that you know and dare not tell; for what you know must be intelligible to yourself, and you cannot say you dare not tell yourself.' 'Intelligent' elsewhere means communicative, but that meaning can hardly apply here where Polixenes tells Camillo to be 'intelligent' to himself. I have therefore paraphrased it by intelligible. -ED. 440. chang'd complexions This refers to Camillo's blanched cheeks, the sight whereof reacts on Polixenes and causes his to blanch also. The same phraseology is used in Hen. V: II, i, 72: Why, how now, gentlemen! What see ye in those papers that ye lose So much complexion? Look ye, how they change! Their cheeks are paper.' Possibly, it may refer to Camillo's becoming red and white by turns. SCHMIDT erroneously defines 'complexion' here as 'the external appearance,' not 'the colour of the skin.'-ED. I cannot name the Disease, and it is caught 446 Pol. How caught of me? Make me not fighted like the Bafilifque. I haue look'd on thousands, who haue sped the better 450 452 page). I've Pope +, Dyce ii, iii, Huds. 452. certainely] cerrainly F Gentleman, thereto] Gentleman, Pope+. Gentleman; thereto, Var. '73. Gentleman thereto; Var. '21. 449. Basilisque] HALLIWELL: The popular notion of the basilisk in the sixteenth century, derived primarily from Pliny, may be gathered from the following extract from Andrewe's edition of The Myrrour and Dyscrypcyon of the Worlde, n. d., 'There be in Inde the basilicocks which have the sight so venymous that they slee al men, and so do they al foules and bestes.' [To come now vnto the Basiliske, whom all other serpents do flie from and are affraid of: albeit he killeth them with his very breath and smel that passeth from him; yea, and (by report) if he do but set his eie on a man, it is enough to take away his life.'-Holland's Plinie, Bk. xxix, Cap. iv. The Cockatrice is called Basiliscus in Greeke, and Regulus in Latine, and hath that name Regulus of a litle King, for he is King of serpents, and they are afeard and flye when they see him, for he slayeth them with his smell and with his breathe and slayeth also all thing that hath lyfe, with breathe and with sight. In his sight, no fowle, nor birde passeth harmlesse, and though he be farre from the foule, yet it is burnt and devoured by his mouthe.'-Batman vppon Bartholome, P. 350, verso. 'There is some question amongest Writers, about the generation of this Serpent; for some (and those very many and learned) affirme, him to be brought forth of a Cockes egge. For they say that when a Cock groweth old, he layeth a certaine egge without any shell, instead whereof it is couered with a very thicke skinne, which is able to withstand the greatest force of an easie blow or fall. They say moreouer, that this Egge is layd onely in the Summer-time, about the beginning of Dogge-dayes, being not long as a Hens Egge, but round and orbiculer: Sometimes of a dusty, sometimes of a Boxie, sometimes of a yellowish muddy colour... and afterward set vpon by a Snake or a Toad, bringeth forth the Cockatrice, being halfe a foot in length, the hinder part like a Snake, the former part like a Cocke, because of a treble combe on his forehead. . . . Among all liuing creatures, there is none that perisheth sooner then dooth a man by the poyson of a Cockatrice, for with his sight he killeth him, because the beames of the Cockatrices eyes, doe corrupt the visible spirit of a man, which visible spirit corrupted, all the other spirits coming from the braine and life of the hart, are thereby corrupted, & so the man dyeth.'-Topsell, History of Serpents, p. 119.-ED.] 452. As you, etc.] Inasmuch as the syllables of this line, when counted on the fingers, prove to be twelve, three suggestions have been made for its reformation.CAPELL reads: 'As you are, certain, gentleman; thereto,' where 'certain' is used Clerke-like experienc'd, which no lesse adornes Our Gentry, then our Parents Noble Names, In whofe fucceffe we are gentle : I beseech you, If you know ought which do's behoue my knowledge, In ignorant concealement. Cam. I may not answere. Pol. A Sicknesse caught of me, and yet I well? I must be answer'd. Do'st thou heare Camillo, 455. we are] we're Huds. 453 455 460 456. ought] aught Theob. ii et seq. 457. imprison't] Ff, Rowe+, Cap. Dyce, Wh. Sta. Cam. Huds. Rlfe, Dtn. imprison it Var. '73 et cet. adverbially, which is quite allowable.—WALKER (Vers. 116) finds relief in pronouncing 'Gentleman' as ‘a quasi-disyllable,' but, grown bolder, in his Crit. iii, 94, he asserts that it is 'a disyllable' without qualification, and adds that 'thereto' is accented on the first syllable.-ABBOTT, § 499, pronounces the line, albeit the cæsura falls at the right Alexandrine stroke, only an apparent Alexandrine,' and calls it a 'regular verse of five accents followed by a foot, more or less isolated, containing one accent.' This extra foot, 'thereto,' Abbott accents on the last syllable. Here we have three attempts to correct a line which has no rhythmic fault, except that it does not conform to the generality of the lines in its number of feet. Each foot is true in accent, and if spoken properly no ear could detect the superfluity of syllables. Two extra feet are less shocking to a delicate ear than to hear 'gentleman' pronounced gem'man, a pronunciation indissolubly associated, in our American ears, with plantation negroes.-ED. 452. thereto] It must be that the semicolon after this word in the Var. '21 is a misprint.-ED. 453. Clerke-like experienc'd] Of the comma inserted by Capell between these two words there is much to be said in favour. The speaker compliments Camillo,' CAPELL is here speaking of the effect of this comma, 'with being a gentleman, a scholar, and a man of knowledge in the world, for that is meant by 'experienc'd'; they have been united till now in one epithet,- Clerklike experienc'd,' which is both weak'ning and wrong; for magis magni clerici non sunt magis magni sapientes, as wags have said anciently.' 453. which] For other examples of the use of which' for which thing used parenthetically, see ABBOTT, § 271. 455. In whose success] That is, 'in succession from whom,' as Dr Johnson points out. SCHMIDT gives a similar use of 'success' in 2 Hen. IV: IV, ii, 47. 458. ignorant concealement] According to DEIGHTON, 'ignorant' is here used proleptically, 'that concealment which involves ignorance (on my part).' 'Ignorant' refers, I think, to Camillo, and the phrase means, imprison not your knowledge in concealment under the plea of ignorance,' referring to lines 436-438, as is shown by the fact that Polixenes reverts at once to Camillo's previous answer that he could not name the disease which was caught of one who is well.-ED. I coniure thee, by all the parts of man, Which Honor do's acknowledge, whereof the least 462 Is not this Suit of mine, that thou declare What incidencie thou do'st ghesse of harme 465 Is creeping toward me; how farre off, how neere, If not, how best to beare it. Cam. Sir, I will tell you, Since I am charg'd in Honor, and by him 470 That I thinke Honorable: therefore marke my counfaile, Which must be eu'n as swiftly followed, as I meane to vtter it; or both your felfe, and me, 462. coniure] W. A. WRIGHT (Note on Macb. IV, i, 50): Conjure' seems to be used by Shakespeare always with the accent on the first syllable, except in Rom. & Jul., II, i, 26, and Oth., I, iii, 105. In both these passages Shakespeare says 'conjure' where we should say 'cònjure.' In all other cases he uses 'cònjure,' whether he means (1) ' adjure,' (2) ' conspire,' or (3) 'use magic arts.' 462. parts of man] That is, all the duties imposed by Honour on man. 'Part' is here used in this sense of allotted duty as it is in Generydes, line 3013: 'Syr Anasore the knyght, And ser Darell, | And All the toder knyghtez euerychone, | Eche for his parte quyte hym self full wele.'—(E. E. Text. Soc., cited by the Cent. Dict.) SCHMIDT's interpretation of 'part' as 'share of action, particular business, task' is inadequate. DEIGHTON rightly defines it.—ED. 465. incidencie . . . of harme] That is, 'what impending harm.' An 'incidencie,' or falling, that 'creeps' is somewhat of a confusion of metaphors.-ED. 473. your selfe, and me] If 'me' for I be not mere carelessness, there is but one explanation which seems to me at all possible, and this is that it is not Polixenes and Camillo who cry lost,' but it is the imaginary cry of spectators who see their doom and bid them an everlasting farewell. In the phrase 'cry aim' it was not the archer who aimed that so cried; it was the spectators. That phrase may have been hovering in Camillo's mind, and the present passage shaped itself on that formula: 'both for yourself and for me there is the cry of "lost," and so good night to us.' The use of the very phrase 'good night' implies a group of imaginary friends; no one says it to himself. The two examples of 'me' used for I given by ABBOTT (§ 210), are not parallel to the present; both are preceded by conjunctions which may have had, as Abbott says, a quasi-prepositional force.-ED. 474. good night] SCHMIDT gives several examples besides the present where 'good night' means farewell for ever, lost for ever. |