2 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. Leon. Bear the boy hence; her; What is this? sport? he shall not come about Away with him ;-and let her sport herself 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 The justice of your hearts will thereto add, 'Tis pity, she's not honest, honorable. Praise her but for this her without-door form, (Which, on my faith, deserves high speech,) and straight Virtue itself;-these shrugs, these hums, and ha's, 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 2 But with her most vile principal, that she's 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.1 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 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; 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. 1 Lord. For her, my lord, I dare my life lay down, and will do't, sir, In this which you accuse her. Ant. If it prove She's otherwise, I'll keep my stables1 where I lodge my wife; I'll go in couples with her; Than when I feel, and see her, no further trust her; For every inch of woman in the world, Ay, every dram of woman's flesh, is false, If she be. Leon. Hold your peaces. 1 Lord. Good my lord, Ant. It is for you we speak, not for ourselves. You are abused, and by some putter-on, That will be damned for't; 'would I knew the villain, Leon. Cease; no more. You smell this business with a sense as cold As is a dead man's nose; but I do see't and feel't, The instruments that feel.3 Ant. If it be so, We need no grave to bury honesty ; 1 This passage may be explained thus: "If she prove false, I'll make my stables or kennel of my wife's chamber; I'll go in couples with her like a dog, and never leave her for a moment; trust her no further than I can feel and see her." 2 "I would land-damn him." Johnson interprets this:-"I will damn or condemn him to quit the land." 3 I see and feel my disgrace, as you, Antigonus, now feel my doing this to you, and as you now see the instruments that feel, i. e. my fingers. Leontes must here be supposed to touch or lay hold of Antigonus. There's not a grain of it, the face to sweeten Leon. What! lack I credit? 1 Lord. I had rather you did lack, than I, my lord, Upon this ground: and more it would content me To have her honor true, than your suspicion; Be blamed for't how you might. Leon. Why, what need we Commune with you of this? but rather follow Our forceful instigation? Our prerogative Calls not your counsels; but our natural goodness Ant. And I wish, my liege, You had only in your silent judgment tried it, Leon. How could that be? Either thou art most ignorant by age, Or thou wert born a fool. Camillo's flight, (Which was as gross as ever touched conjecture, Made up to the deed,) doth push on this proceeding. Yet, for a greater confirmation, (For, in an act of this importance, 'twere Most piteous to be wild,) I have despatched in post, 3 Of stuffed sufficiency. Now from the oracle 1 Lord. Well done, my lord. 1 The old copy reads a truth. Rowe made the correction. 3 i. e. of abilities more than sufficient. |