t DORCAS, }shepherdesses. Lords, Ladies, and Attendants; Satyrs for a dance; Shepherds, Shepherdesses, Guards, &c. Scene,-sometimes in Sicilia, sometimes in Bohemia. ACT I. SCENE I. Sicilia. An Antechamber in though not personal, have been royally attor Leontes' Palace. Enter CAMILLO and ARCHIDAMUS. Arch. If you shall chance, Camillo, to visit Bohemia, on the like occasion whereon my services are now on foot, you shall see, as I have said, great difference betwixt our Buhemia, and your Sicilia. Cam. I think, this coming summer, the king of Sicilia means to pay Bohemia the visitation which he justly owes him. Arch. Wherein our entertainment shall shame us, we will be justified in our loves: for, indeed, Cam. 'Beseech you, Arch. Verily, I speak it in the freedom of my knowledge: we cannot with such magnificence-in so rare-I know not what to say. We will give you sleepy drinks; that your senses, unintelligent of our insufficience, may, though they cannot praise us, as little accuse us. Cam. You pay a great deal too dear, for what's given freely. Arch. Believe me, I speak as my understanding instructs me, and as mine honesty puts it to utterance. Cam. Sicilia cannot shew himself over-kind to Bohemia. They were trained together in their childhoods, and there rooted betwixt them then such an affection, which cannot choose but branch now. Since their more mature dignities, and royal necessities, made separation of their society, their encounters, nied, with interchange of gifts, letters, loving embassies; that they have seemed to be together, though absent; shook hands as over a vast; and embraced, as it were, from the ends of opposed winds. The heavens continue their loves! Arch. I think, there is not in the world either malice, or matter, to alter it. You have an unspeakable comfort of your young prince Mamillius; it is a gentleman of the greatest promise, that ever came into my note. Cam. I very well agree with you in the hopes of him: it is a gallant child; one that, indeed, physics the subject, makes old hearts fresh: they, that went on crutches ere he was born, desire yet their life, to see him a man. Arch. Would they else be content to die? Cam. Yes; if there were no other excuse why they should desire to live. Arch. If the king had no son, they would desire to live on crutches till he had one. [Exeunt. SCENE II. The same. A Room of State in the Palace. Enter LEONTES, POLIXENES, HERMIONE, MAMILLIUS, CAMILLO, and Attendants. Pol. Nine changes of the watery star have been The shepherd's note, since we have left our [throne Without a burden: time as long again Would be fill'd up, my brother, with our And yet we should, for perpetuity, [thanks; + Wide waste of country. • Nobly supplied by substitution of embassies. Go hence in debt: And therefore, like a cipher, Leon. Pol. Sir, that's to-morrow. [chance, Than you can put us to't. No longer stay. Leon. Tongue-tied, our queen? speak you. Her. I had thought, sir, to have held my peace, until [You, sir, You had drawn oaths from him, not to stay. Charge him too coldly: Tell him, you are sure, All in Bohemia's well: this satisfaction The by-gone day proclaim'd: say this to him, He's beat from his best ward. Not like a guest; so you shall pay your fees, Pol. [two? Her. Was not my lord the verier wag o' the Pol. We were as twinn'd lambs, that did frisk i' the sun, [changed, And bleat the one at the other: what we Was innocence for innocence; we knew not The doctrine of ill-doing, no, nor dream'd That any did: Had we pursued that life, And our weak spirits ne'er been higher rear'd With stronger blood, we should have answer'd heaven Boldly, Not guilty; the imposition clear'd, Her. You have tripp'd since. Her. Grace to boot! Of this make no conclusion; lest you say, Your queen and I are devils: Yet, go on; The offences we have made you do, we'll [make us Her. What? have I twice said well? when was't before? I pr'ythee, tell me : Cram us with praise, and As fat as tame things: One good deed, dying tongueless, Slaughters a thousand, waiting upon that. ⚫ Nipping. Gests were the names of the stages where the king appointed to liel during a royal progress. Indeed. A diminutive of lords. Tick. ** Setting aside original sin. Flimsy. 1 But once before I spoke to the purpose: Ere I could make thee open thy white hand, The one for ever earn'd a royal husband; But not for joy,-not joy.-This entertainment And yet the steer, the heifer, and the calf, Her. He something seems unsettled. How, my lord? Leon. As if you held a brow of much distraction: In my green velvet coat; my dagger muzzled, Are you so fond of your young prince, as we Observing POLIXENES and HERMIONE. true To be full like me :-yet, they say, we are Trembling of the heart. Her. [Aside. Observing PoL. and HER. [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 clamour [There have been, Will be my knell.-Go, play, boy, play;— ** Blue. + The tune played at the death of the deer. Hearty fellow, i. e., Playing with her fingers as if on a spinnet. Thou wantest a rough head, and the budding horns that I have. Boundary. ++ Credible. #Pea-cod. Will you be cajoled? May his share of life be an happy one! ¶¶ Heir apparent, next claimant. ttt Approving. III A horned one, a cuckold. *** Mouth. the arm, Or I am much deceived, cuckolds ere now; man. Cam. Ay, my good lord. Leon. Go play, Mamillius; thou'rt an honest [Exit MAMILLIUS. Camillo, this great sir will yet stay longer. Cam. You had much ado to make his anchor When you cast out, it still came home. [hold: Leon. Didst note it? Cam. He would not stay at your petitions; His business more material. [made Leon. Didst perceive it? They're here with me already; whispering, Sicilia is a so-forth: 'Tis far gone, [rounding, When I shall gust † it last.-How came't, CaThat he did stay? [millo, Cam. At the good queen's entreaty. Leon. At the queen's, be't: good, should be But so it is, it is not. Was this taken [pertinent; By any understanding pate but thine? For thy conceit is soaking, will draw in [is't, More than the common blocks:-Not noted 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 understand Bohemia stays here longer. Leon. Cam. Ha? Stays here longer. Leon. Ay, but why? [treaties Cam. To satisfy your highness, and the enOf 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 cleansed my bosom; I from thee departed Thy penitent reform'd: but we have been Deceived in thy integrity, deceived • To round in the ear was to tell secretly. To hox is to hamstring. Cam. A servant, grafted in my serious trust, Leon. Have not you seen, Camillo, (But that's past doubt: you have; or your eye glass 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, [say, To have nor eyes, nor ears, nor thought,) then My wife's a hobby-horse; 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? [blind Hours, minutes? noon, midnight? and all eyes 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 nothings, + Taste. Say, it be; 'tis true. Cam. No, no, my lord. It is; you lie, you lie: Cam. About his neck, Bohemia: who-if I Plainly, as heaven sees earth, and earth sees Sir, my lord, Leon. Make't thy question, and go rot! Dost think, I am so muddy, so unsettled, To appoint myself in this vexation? sully The purity and whiteness of my sheets,[spotted, Which to preserve is sleep; which being 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 blenchý? Cam. The injury of tongues, in courts and kingdoms Gothen; and with a countenance as clear [mia, • Hour-glass + Hasty. Leon. I will seem friendly as thou hast ad. vised 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 [one, Nor brass nor stone, nor parchment, bears not Let vilany 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. 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 counte nance, As he had lost some province, and a region, Loved 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; A party in this alteration, finding Cam. There is a sickness Which puts some of us in distemper; but I cannot name the disease; and it is caught Of you that yet are well. Pol. How! caught of me? Make me not sighted like the basilisk: [better I have look'd on thousands, who have sped the 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 T,-I beseech you, [knowledge If you know aught which does behove my Thereof to be inforım'd, imprison it not In ignorant concealment. Cam. I may not answer. Pol. Asickness 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, Maliciously, with effects openly hurtful. § i.e., Could any man For succession, ¶ Gentle was opposed to simple; well born. |