Thereof to be inform’d, imprison't not I may not answer. least Is not this suit of mine,—that thou declare What incidency thou dost guess of harm Is creeping toward me; how far off, how near ; Which way to be prevented, if to be; If not, how best to bear it. Cam. Sir, I will tell you ; counsel, On, good Camillo. By the king Por. For what? CAM. He thinks, nay, with all confidence, he As he had seen't, or been an instrument Pol. 0, then my best blood turn Swear his thought over By each particular star in heaven, and By all their influences, you may as well Forbid the sea for to obey the moon, As, or by oath remove, or counsel shake The fabric of his folly, whose foundation Is pil'd upon his faith, and will continue The standing of his body. Pol. ? CAM. I know not : but I am sure 't is safer to Avoid what's grown than question how 't is born. If therefore you dare trust my honesty,– That lies enclosed in this trunk, which you Shall bear along impawn'd-away to-night! Your followers I will whisper to the business ; And will, by twos and threes, at several posterns, swears, How should this grow a I am appointed him to murder you!] I am the agent fixed upon to murder you. To vice you to't,-) To screw you to it. So in "Twelfth Night,” Act V. Sc. 1, “- I partly know the instrument That screw's me from my true place in vour favour." c Be yok'd with his that did betray the Best !) That is, with the name of Judas. d Swear his thought over-] Theobald suggested, -"Swear this though, over," which, besides being foreign to the mode of expression in Shakespeare's time, is a change quite uncalled for; to swear over=over-swear, is merely to out-swear. seek to prove, Clear them o' the city: for myself, I'll put Must it be great ; and, as his person's mighty, Profess’d to him, why, his revenges must In that be made more bitter. Fear o'ershades me: I dare not stand by; nor shall you be safer Good expedition be my friend, and comfort Than one condemned by the king's own mouth, The gracious queen, part of his theme, but nothing Thereon his execution sworn. Of his ill-ta’en suspicion ! Come, Camillo ; Pol. I do believe thee; I will respect thee as a father, if I saw his heart in's face. Give me thy hand ; Thou bear’st my life off hence : let us avoid. Be pilot to me, and thy places a shall Cam. It is in mine authority to command Still neighbour mine. My ships are ready, and The keys of all the posterns. Please your highMy people did expect my hence departure ness Two days ago.—This jealousy To take the urgent hour : come, sir, away! Is for a precious creature: as she's rare, [Exeunt.(4) * – places-] By "places " are perhaps meant dignilies, or honours. Good expedition be my friend, and comfort of his ill-ta'en suspicion !) Warburton gives and comfort The gracious queen's ;" “Good expedition be my friend! Heaven comfort," &c.; nose Hark ye ; as if Enter HERMIONE, MAMILLIUS, and Ladies. 1 LADY. Blue, my lord. Mam. Nay, that's a mock : I have seen a lady's HER. Take the boy to you: he so troubles me 'Tis past enduring That has been blue, but not her eyebrows. 1 LADY. Come, my gracious lord, 2 Lady. Shall I be your playfellow ? The queen your mother rounds apace : we shall Mam. No, I'll none of you. Present our services to a fine new prince 1 LADY. Why, my sweet lord ? One of these days; and then you'd wanton with Mam. You'll kiss me hard, and speak to me us, If we would have you. I were a baby still.— I love you better. 1 LADY. She is spread of late 2 Lady. And why so, my lord ? Into a goodly bulk : good time encounter her ! Mam. Not for because HER. What wisdom stirs amongst you?—Come, Your brows are blacker; yet black brows, they sir, now I am for you again : pray you, sit by us, MAM. Merry, or sad, shall’t be ? Or a half-moon made with a pen. HER. As merry as you will. 2 Lady. Who taught you this ? * Mam. A sad tale's best for winter : Mam. I learn'd it out of women's faces. Pray I have one of sprites and goblins. HER. Let's have that, good sir. What colour are your eyebrows ? Come on, sit down :--come on, and do your best To fright me with your sprites; you're powerful a Who taught you this?] It has been customary, since the time at it. of Rowe, to read, "Who taught you this?" though in the old text Mam. There was a man,the pronoun is only indicated by an apostrophe. now : a HER. Nay, come, sit down; then on. And I'll be sworn,—you would believe my saying, Mam. Dwelt by a churchyard ;-I will tell it Howe'er you lean to the nayward. softly; LEON, You, my lords, Yond crickets shall not hear it. Look on her, mark her well; be but about HER. Come on then, To say, she is a goodly lady, and , And give’t me in mine ear. The justice of your hearts will thereto add, Praise her but for this her without-door form, Enter LEONTES, ANTIGONUS, Lords, and others. (Which, on my faith, deserves high speech) and straight LEON. Was he met there? his train? Camillo The shrug, the hum, or ha,—these petty brands with him? never That calumny doth use :-0, I am out, 1 LORD. Behind the tuft of pines I met them; That mercy does ; for calumny will sear Saw I men scour so on their way: : I ey'd them Virtue itself:—these shrugs, these hums and ha's, Even to their ships. When you have said she's goodly, come between, LEON. How bless'd am I Ere she's honest : but be't known, In my just censure in my true opinion !- From him that has most cause to grieve it should Alack, for lesser knowledge !-how accurs'd be, In being so bless'd !—There may be in the cup She's an adultress ! A spider steep'd," and one may drink, depart, HER. Should a villain say so, And yet partake no venom ; for his knowledge The most replenish'd villain in the world, Is not infected: but if one present He were as much more villain : you, my lord, The abhorr’d ingredient to his eye, make known Do but mistake. How he hath drunk, he cracks his gorge, his sides, LEON. You have mistook, my lady, With violent hefts:—I have drunk, and seen the Polixenes for Leontes : 0, thou thing, spider. Which I'll not call a creature of thy place, Camillo was his belp in this, his pander Lest barbarism, making me the precedent, There is a plot against my life, my crown ; Should a like language use to all degrees, All's true that is mistrusted :—that false villain, And mannerly distinguishment leave out Whom I employ'd, was pre-employ'd by him: Betwixt the prince and beggar !—I have said He has discover'd my design, and I She's an adultress; I have said with whom : What she should shame to know herself 1 LORD. By his great authority; But with her most vile principal, that she's That vulgars give bold'st titles ; ay, and privy To this their late escape. Give me the boy ;-I am glad you did not nurse HER. No, by my life, him : Privy to none of this ! How will this grieve you Though he does bear some signs of me, yet you When you shall come to clearer knowledge, that Have too much blood in him. You thus have publish'd me! Gentle my lord, HER. What is this? sport? You scarce can right me throughly then, to say LEON. Bear the boy hence, he shall not come You did mistake. about her ; LEON. No! if I mistake Away with him !—and let her sport herself In those foundations which I build upon, [Exit MAMILLIUS, with some of the Attendants. The centre is not big enough to bear With that she's big with ; for 't is Polixenes A schoolboy's top.—Away with her to prison ! Has made thee swell thus. He who shall speak for her is afar off guilty HER. But I'd say he had not,- But that he speaks. e your command. a A spider steep'd,-) It was a prevalent belief anciently that spiders were venomous, and that a person might be poisoned by drinking any liquid in which one was infused. From the context it would appear, however, that to render the draught fatal, the victim ought to see the spider. So, in Middleton's "No Wit, no Help like a Woman's," Act II. Sc. 1, " Even when my lip touch'd the contracting cup, Even then to see ihe spider?" b - and one may drink, depart, &c.] Mr. Collier's annotator a As you Is for my : HER. 1 Lord. Good my lord, — I must be patient till the heavens look Ant. It is for you we speak, not for ourselves, With an aspect more favourable.—Good my lords, You are abus’d, and by some putter-on, I am not prone to weeping, as our sex That will be damn'd for 't; would I knew the Commonly are, e,the want of which vain dew villain, Perchance shall dry your pities,—but I have I would land-damno him. Be she honour-flaw'd, That honourable grief lodg’d here, which burns I have three daughters ; the eldest is eleven ; Worse than tears drown : beseech you all, my lords, The second, and the third, nine, and some five; With thoughts so qualified as your charities If this prove true, they'll pay for't: by mine Shall best instruct you, measure me ;- and so honour, The king's will be perform'd! I'll geld 'em all; fourteen they shall not see, LEON. Shall I be heard ? [To the Guards. To bring false generations : they are co-heirs ; HER. Who is't that goes with me?-Beseech And I had rather glib myself than they your highness, Should not produce fair issue. My women may be with me, for, you see, LEON. Cease! no more. My plight requires it. Do not weep, good fools ; You smell this business with a sense as cold There is no cause : when you shall know your As is a dead man's nose: but I do see't and feel't, mistress feel doing thus ; and see withal Has deserv'd prison, then abound in tears The instruments that feel. As I come out : this action I now go on ANT. If it be so, better grace.—Adieu, my lord : We need no grave to bury honesty; I never wish'd to see you sorry; now [leave. There's not a grain of it the face to sweeten I trust I shall.(1)— My women, come; you have Of the whole dungy earth. Leon. Go, do our bidding ; hence ! LEON. What ! lack I credit ? [Exeunt Queen and Ladies, with Guards. 1 LORD. I had rather you did lack than I, my 1 LORD. Beseech your highness, call the queen lord, again. Upon this ground; and more it would content me Ant. Be certain what you do, sir, lest your To have her honour true than your suspicion, justice Be blam’d for 't how you might. Prove violence; in the which three great ones suffer, LEON. Why, what need we Yourself, your queen, your son. Commune with you of this, but rather follow 1 LORD. For her, my lord, Our forceful instigation ? Our prerogative I Or seeming so in skill®) cannot or will not Relish a truth, like us, inform yourselves ANT. We need no more of your advice: the matter, She's otherwise, I'll keep my stables where The loss, the gain, the ordering on 't, is all I lodge my wife ; I'll go in couples with her ;* Properly ours. Than when I feel and see her, no farther trust her ; ANT. And I wish, my liege, For every inch of woman in the world, You had only in your silent judgment tried it, Ay, every dram of woman's flesh, is false, Without more overture. If she be. LEON. How could that be ? LEON. Hold your peaces. Either thou art most ignorant by age, "I thank you: keep the door."-Hamlet, Act IV. Sc. 5. She's otherwise, I'll keep my stables where "Gratiano, keep the house," &c.-Othello, Act V. Sc. 2. I lodge my wife; I'll go in couples with her ;) and by some putter-on,-) “Putter-on" appears to have A prodigious amount of nonsense has been written on this unfor been a term of reproach, implying an instigator, or plotter. It tunate passage, but not a single editor or critic has shown the occurs again in “ Henry VIII." Act I. Sc. 2. See note (b), p. 650, faintest perception of what it means. The accepted explanation, Vol. II. that by "I'll keep my stables where I lodge my wife," &c. Anti c - land-damn him.) “ Land-damn". may almost with cer. gonus declares that he will have his stables in the same place with tainty be pronounced corrupt. The only tolerable attempt to his wife; or, as some writers express it, he will “ make his stable extract sense from it, as it stands, is that of Rann, who conor dog-kennel of his wife's chamber"! sets gravity completely at jectured that it meant "condemned to the punishment of being defiance. What he means and the excessive grossness of the idea built up in the earth"-a torture mentioned in “Titus Androni. can hardly be excused-is, unquestionably, that if Hermione be cus," Act V. Sc. 3,proved incontinent he should believe every woman is unchaste; his own wife as licentious as Semiramis, (" Equum adamatum a "Set him breast-deep in earth, and famish him," &c. Semiramide," &c.— Pliny, 1. viii. c. 42.) and where he lodged her he and see withal would "keep," that is, guard, or fasten the entry of his stables. The instruments that feel.) This sense of the word " keep" is so common, even in Shakespeare, that it is amazing no one should have seen its application here. A stage direction of some kind is required at these words. Hanmer gives, “Laying hold of his arı ; " Dr. Johnson, For example: “Striking his brows." b “ Dromio, kerp the gate."-Comedy of Errors, Act II. Sc. 2. c "Keep the door close, sirrah." -- Henry VIII. Act V. Sc. 1. e – in skill)- ] That is, cunning, design. VOL. III. 209 If it prove b d P |
