Will never do him good, not one of you. So, so:-Farewel; we are gone. [Exit. Leon. Thou, traitor, hast set on thy wife to this.My child? away with 't!-even thou, that hast A heart so tender o'er it, take it hence, And see it instantly consum'd with fire; Even thou, and none but thou. Take it up straight: For thou sett'st on thy wife. Ant. I did not, sir: These lords, my noble fellows, if they please, 1 Lord. We e can; my royal liege, He is not guilty of her coming hither. Leon. You are liars all. 1 Lord. 'Beseech your highness, give us better credit: We have always truly serv'd you; and beseech So to esteem of us: And on our knees we beg, (As recompense of our dear services, Past, and to come,) that you do change this purpose; Which, being so horrible, so bloody, must Lead on to some foul issue: We all kneel. Leon. I am a feather for each wind that blows:- And call me father? Better burn it now, It shall not neither.-You, sir, come you hither; You, that have been so tenderly officious [To ANT. So sure as this beard's grey,3-what will you adventure To save this brat's life? 3 So sure as this beard's grey,] The King must mean the beard of Antigonus, which perhaps both here and on the former occasion, (See p. 205, n. 7,) it was intended, he should lay hold of. Leontes has himself told us that twenty-three years ago he was Ant. Any thing, my lord, That my ability may undergo, And nobleness impose; at least, thus much; Leon. It shall be possible: Swear by this sword, Ant. I will, my lord. Death to thyself, but to thy lewd-tongu'd wife; unbreech'd, in his green velvet coat, his dagger muzzled; and of course his age at the opening of this play must be under thirty. He cannot therefore mean his own beard. Malone. 4 Swear by this sword,] It was anciently the custom to swear by the cross on the handle of a sword. See a note on Hamlet, Act I, sc. v. Steevens. So, in The Penance of Arthur, sig. S. 2: "And therewith King Marke yielded him unto Sir Galeris, and then he kneeled downe and made his oath upon the crosse of the sword,” &c. I remember to have seen the name of Jesus engraved upon the pummel of the sword of a Crusader in the Church at Winchelsea. Douce. 5 commend it strangely to some place,] Commit it to some place, as a stranger, without more provision. Johnson. So, in Macbeth: "I wish your horses swift and sure of foot, To commend is to commit. See Minshieu's Dict. in v. Malone. To be thy nurses! Wolves, and bears, they say, In more than this deed does require! and blessing," Poor thing, condemn'd to loss!" [Exit with the Child. Leon. Another's issue. 1 Atten. Please your highness, posts, From those you sent to the oracle, are come An hour since: Cleomenes and Dion, Being well arriv'd from Delphos, are both landed, 1 Lord. So please you, sir, their speed Hath been beyond account. Leon. Twenty-three days They have been absent: 'Tis good speed; foretels, The truth of this appear. Prepare you, lords; 6 Leave me; [Exeunt. and blessing,] i. e. the favour of heaven. Malone. - condemn'd to loss!] i. e. to exposure, similar to that of a child whom its parents have lost. I once thought that loss was here licentiously used for destruction; but that this was not the primary sense here intended, appears from a subsequent passage, Act III, sc. iii: 66 Poor wretch, "That, for thy mother's fault, art thus expos'd "To loss, and what may follow!" Malone. 'Tis good speed; &c.] Surely we should read the passage thus: "This good speed foretels," &c. M. Mason. Enter CLEOMENES and DION.9 Cleo. The climate 's delicate; the air most sweet; Fertile the isle; the temple much surpassing The common praise it bears. Dion. I shall report, For most it caught me,2 the celestial habits, (Methinks, I so should term them) and the reverence Of the grave wearers. O, the sacrifice! How ceremonious, solemn, and unearthly It was i' the offering! Cleo. But, of all, the burst And the ear-deafening voice o' the oracle, Dion. If the event o' the journey Prove as successful to the queen,-O, be 't so!— 9 Cleomenes and Dion.] These two names, and those of Antigonus and Archidamus, our author found in North's Plutarch. Malone. 1 Fertile the isle;] But the temple of Apollo at Delphi was not in an island, but in Phocis, on the continent. Either Shakspeare, or his editors, had their heads running on Delos, an island of the Cyclades. If it was the editor's blunder, then Shakspeare wrote: Fertile the soil, which is more elegant too, than the present reading. Warburton. Shakspeare is little careful of geography. There is no need of this emendation in a play of which the whole plot depends upon a geographical error, by which Bohemia is supposed to be a maritime country. Johnson. In The History of Dorastus and Faunia, the queen desires the king to send "six of his noblemen, whom he best trusted, to the isle of Delphos," &c. Steevens. 2 For most it caught me,] It may relate to the whole spectacle. Johnson. 3 The time is worth the use on 't.] The time is worth the use on 't, means, the time which we have spent in visiting compensed us for the trouble of so spending it. Delos, has reJohnson. Cleo. Great Apollo, Turn all to the best! These proclamations, I little like. Will clear, or end, the business: When the oracle, (Thus by Apollo's great divine seal'd up) Shall the contents discover, something rare, Even then will rush to knowledge.Go,-fresh horses: And gracious be the issue! SCENE II. The same. A Court of Justice. [Exeunt. LEONTES, Lords, and Officers, appear properly seated. Produce the prisoner. - Offi. It is his highness' pleasure, that the queen Appear in person here in court.-Silence! HERMIONE is brought in, guarded; PAULINA and Ladies, attending. If the event prove fortunate to the Queen, the time which we have spent in our journey is worth the trouble it hath cost us. In other words, the happy issue of our journey will compensate for the time expended in it, and the fatigue we have undergone. We meet with nearly the same expression in Florio's translation of Montaigne's Essaies, 1603: "The common saying is, the time we live, is worth the money we pay for it." Malone. 4 66 · pushes 'gainst our heart:] So, in Macbeth: 5 Even to the guilt, or the purgation.] Mr. Roderick observes, that the word even is not to be understood here as an adverb, but as an adjective, signifying equal or indifferent. Steevens. The epithet even-handed, as applied in Macbeth to Justice, seems to unite both senses. Henley. |