Of his ill-ta'en suspicion! Come, Camillo; Thou bear'st my life off hence. Let us avoid. [Exeunt. ACT II. SCENE I. The same. Enter HERMIONE, MAMILLIUS, and Ladies. Her. Take the boy to you: he so troubles me, 'Tis past enduring. 1 Lady. Come, my gracious lord, No, I'll none of you. Shall I be your playfellow? Mam. 1 Lady. Why, my sweet lord? Mam. You'll kiss me hard; and speak to me as if I were a baby still.-I love you better. 2 Lady. And why so, my lord? Not for because Mam. Too much hair there, but in a semicircle, Or half-moon made with a pen. 2 Lady. Who taught you this? Mam. I learned it out of women's faces.-Pray now What color are your eyebrows? 1 Johnson might well say, "I can make nothing of the following words: and comfort The gracious queen, part of his theme, but nothing Of his ill-ta'en suspicion."" He suspected the line which connected them to the rest to have been lost. 1 Lady. Blue, my lord. Mam. Nay, that's a mock; I have seen a lady's nose That has been blue, but not her eyebrows. 2 Lady. Hark ye; The queen, your mother, rounds apace: we shall One of these days; and then you'd wanton with us, 1 Lady. She is spread of late Into a goodly bulk. Good time encounter her! Her. What wisdom stirs amongst you? Come, sir, I have one of sprites and goblins. Her. Let's have that, good sir. Come on, sit down.-Come on, and do your best To fright me with your sprites: you're powerful at it. Mam. There was a man, Her. Nay, come, sit down; then on. Mam. Dwelt by a churchyard ;-I will tell it softly; Yon crickets shall not hear it. Her. And give't me in mine ear. Come on then, Enter LEONTES, ANTIGONUS, Lords, and others. Leon. Was he met there? his train? Camillo with him? 1 Lord. Behind the tuft of pines I met them; never Saw I men scour so on their way. I eyed them Leon. In my just censure! How blessed am I 1 i. e. judgment. Alack, for lesser knowledge! How accursed, The abhorred ingredient to his eye; make known, Camillo was his help in this, his pander.- 4 Remain a pinched thing; yea, a very trick 1 Lord. By his great authority; Which often hath no less prevailed than so, On your command. Leon. I know't too well. Give me the boy; I am glad you did not nurse him. Though he does bear some signs of me, yet you Have too much blood in him. Her. What is this? sport? Leon. Bear the boy hence; he shall not come about her; Away with him ;-and let her sport herself With that she's big with; for 'tis Polixenes Has made thee swell thus. Her. But I'd say, he had not, You, my lords, And, I'll be sworn, you would believe my saying, Leon. Look on her, mark her well; be but about 1 That is, O that my knowledge were less! 2 Spiders were esteemed poisonous in our author's time. 3 Hefts, heavings. 4 i. e. "a thing pinched out of clouts; a puppet for them to move and actuate as they please." To say, She is a goodly lady, and Praise her but for this her without-door form, (Which, on my faith, deserves high speech,) and straight The shrug, the hum, or ha: these petty brands, That calumny doth use ;-O, I am out; That mercy does; for calumny will sear Virtue itself;—these shrugs, these hums, and ha's, When you have said, she's goodly, come between, Ere you can say she's honest. But be it known, From him that has most cause to grieve it should be, She's an adult'ress. Her. Should a villain say so, The most replenish villain in the world, He were as much more villain. You, my lord, Do but mistake. Leon. You have mistook, my lady, Polixenes for Leontes. O thou thing, A federary1 with her; and one that knows That vulgars give bold'st titles; ay, and privy Her. No, by my life, 1 Federary, confederate, accomplice. 2 One that knows what she should be ashamed to know herself, even if the knowledge of it was shared but with her paramour. It is the use of but for be-out (only, according to Malone) that obscures the sense. You scarce can right me throughly, then, to say Leon. No, no; if I mistake In those foundations which I build upon, The centre is not big enough to bear A school-boy's top.' Away with her to prison. Her. There's some ill planet reigns. I must be patient till the heavens look With an aspect more favorable.-Good my lords, Shall best instruct you, measure me;—and so The king's will be performed! Leon. Shall I be heard? [To the Guards. Her. Who is't that goes with me?'Beseech your highness, My women may be with me; for, you see, My plight requires it. Do not weep, good fools; There is no cause; when you shall know your mistress As I come out. This action, I now go on, I trust, I shall. My women, come; you have leave. [Exeunt Queen and Ladies. 1 Lord. 'Beseech your highness, call the queen again. Ant. Be certain what you do, sir; lest your justice Prove violence; in the which three great ones suffer, Yourself, your queen, your son. 1 i. e. no foundation can be trusted. 2 He who shall speak for her, is remotely guilty in merely speaking. |