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Her.

Leon.

Never?

Never, but once.

Her. What? have I twice said well? When was't

before?

I pr'ythee, tell me.

Cram us with praise, and make us As fat as tame things; one good deed, dying tongueless, Slaughters a thousand, waiting upon that.

Our praises are our wages: you may ride us,
With one soft kiss, a thousand furlongs, ere
With spur we heat an acre.
But to the goal.—
My last good 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?

Nay, let me have't; I long.

Leon.

Why, that was when

Three crabbed months had soured themselves to death, Ere I could make thee open thy white hand,

And clap' thyself my love; then didst thou utter,

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It is grace, indeed.—

Why, lo you now, I have spoke to the purpose twice. The one forever earned a royal husband;

The other, for some while, a friend.

[Giving her hand to POLIXENES. Leon. Too hot, too hot. [Aside. 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,2 And well become the agent. It may, I grant: But to be paddling palms, and pinching fingers,

1 At entering into any contract, or plighting of troth, this clapping of hands together set the seal. Numerous instances of allusion to the custom have been adduced by the editors; one shall suffice, from the old play of Ram Alley: "Come, clap hands, a match." The custom is not yet disused in common life.

2 "from bounty, fertile bosom." Malone thinks that a letter has been omitted, and that we should read

66- from bounty's fertile bosom."

As now they are; and making practised smiles,
As in a looking-glass;-and then to sigh, as 'twere
The mort o' the deer;1 O, that is entertainment
My bosom likes not, nor my brows.—Mamillius,
Art thou my boy?

Mam.

Ay, my good lord.

Leon.

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I'fecks?

What, hast smutched thy

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 called neat.-Still virginalling 3

[Observing POLIXENES and HERMIONE.

Upon his palm?-How now, you wanton calf?
Art thou my calf?

Mam.

Yes, if you will, my lord.

Leon. Thou want'st a rough pash, and the shoots that I have,*

5

To be full like me: yet, they say, we are

Almost as like as eggs; women say so,

That will say any thing. But were they false
As o'er-dyed blacks, as wind, as waters; false
As dice are to be wished, by one that fixes
No bourn 'twixt his and mine; yet were it true
Το say this boy were like me.-Come, sir page,
Look on me with your welkin' eye. Sweet villain!

1 i. e. the death of the deer. The mort was also certain notes played on the horn at the death of the deer.

2 "Bawcock." A burlesque word of endearment supposed to be derived from beau-coq, or boy-cock. It occurs again in Twelfth Night, and in King Henry V., and in both places is coupled with chuck or chick. It is said that bra'cock is still used in Scotland.

3 Still playing with her fingers as a girl playing on the virginals. Virginals were stringed instruments played with keys like a spinnet, which they resembled in all respects but in shape, spinnets being nearly triangular, and virginals of an oblong square shape like a small piano-forte.

4 Thou wantest a rough head, and the budding horns that I have. A pash in some places denoting a young bull calf whose horns are springing; a mad pash, a mad-brained boy.

5 i. e. entirely.

6 i. e. old, faded stuffs, of other colors, dyed black.

7 Welkin is blue; i. e. the color of the welkin or sky.

Most dearest! my collop!'-can thy dam?-May't

be?

2

Affection! thy intention stabs the centre;
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 credent,3
Thou mayst conjoin with something; and thou dost ;
(And that beyond commission, and I find it ;)
And that to the infection of my brains,

And hardening of my brows.

Pol.

What means Sicilia ?

How, my lord?

Her. He something seems unsettled.
Pol.

What cheer? How is't with you, best brother?

Her.

As if you held a brow of much distraction.
Are you moved, my lord?

You look

Leon.
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 unbreeched,
In my green velvet coat; my dagger muzzled,
Lest it should bite its master, and so prove,

As ornaments oft do, too dangerous.

4

How like, methought, I then was to this kernel,
This squash, this gentleman.—Mine honest friend,
Will you take eggs
for money?5

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

1 In King Henry VI. Part I. we have

"God knows thou art a collop of my flesh."

2 Affection here means imagination. Intention is earnest consideration, eager attention. It is this vehemence of mind which affects Leontes, by making him conjure up unreal causes of disquiet; and thus, in the Poet's language, "stabs him to the centre."

3 Credent, credible.

4 i. e. an immature pea-pod.

5 "Will you take eggs for money?" A proverbial phrase for "Will you suffer yourself to be cajoled or imposed upon?"

Leon. You will? why, happy man be his dole!— My brother,

Are you so fond of your young prince, as we

Do seem to be of ours?

Pol.
If at home, sir,
He's all my exercise, my mirth, my matter:
Now, my sworn friend, and then mine enemy;
My parasite, my soldier, statesman, all;
He makes a July's day short as December;
And, with his varying childness, cures in me
Thoughts that would thick my blood.

Leon.
So stands this squire
Officed with me. We two will walk, my lord,
And leave you to your graver steps.-Hermione,
How thou lov'st us, show in our brother's welcome;
Let what is dear in Sicily be cheap.

Next to thyself, and my young rover, he's

Apparent to my heart.

Her.

If you would seek us,

We are yours i'the garden. Shall's attend you there? Leon. To your own bents dispose you: you'll be

Be

found,

you. beneath the sky;-I am angling now, Though you perceive me not how I give line. Go to, go to!

[Aside. Observing POLIXENES and HERMIONE. How she holds up the neb,3 the bill to him! And arms her with the boldness of a wife To her allowing husband! Gone already! Inch-thick, knee-deep, o'er head and ears a forked

one.4.

[Exeunt POL., HER., and Attendants. Go, play, boy, play;-thy mother plays, and I Play too; but so disgraced a part, whose issue Will hiss me to my grave; contempt and clamor Will be my knell.-Go, play, boy, play.-There have been,

1 i. e. may happiness be his portion!

2 Heir apparent, next claimant.

3 i. e. mouth.

4 i. e. a horned one.

Or I am much deceived, 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 has been sluiced in his absence,
And his pond fished by his next neighbor, by

Sir Smile, his neighbor. Nay, there's comfort in't,
Whiles other men have gates; and those gates opened,
As mine, against their will. Should all despair,
That have revolted wives, the tenth of mankind
Would hang themselves. Physic for't there is none;
It is a bawdy planet, that will strike

Where 'tis predominant; and 'tis powerful, think it,
From east, west, north, and south: be it concluded,
No barricado for a belly; know it;

It will let in and out the enemy,

With bag and baggage. Many a thousand of us
Have the disease, and feel't not.-How now, boy?
Mam. I am like you, they say.

Leon.

What! Camillo there?

Why, that's some comfort.

Cam. Ay, my good lord.

Leon. Go play, Mamillius: thou'rt an honest man.[Exit MAMILLius.

Camillo, this great sir will yet stay longer.

Cam. You had much ado to make his anchor hold; When you cast out, it still came home.1

Didst note it?

Leon. Cam. He would not stay at your petitions made His business more material.2

Leon.

Didst perceive it?—

They're here with me already:3 whispering, round

ing,1

Sicilia is a so-forth.5 'Tis far gone,

1 "It still came home," a nautical term, meaning, "the anchor would not take hold."

2 The more you requested him to stay, the more urgent he represented that business to be which summoned him away.

3 Not Polixenes and Hermione, but casual observers.

4 To round in the ear was to tell secretly, to whisper.

5 A so-forth, a phrase apparently employed to avoid the utterance of an opprobrious one. So, so, is sometimes used in a similar manner.

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