A thriving issue: there is no lady living

So meet for this great errand. Please your ladyship
To visit the next room, I'll presently

Acquaint the queen of your most noble offer;
Who but to-day hammer'd of this design,
But durst not tempt a minister of honour,
Lest she should be denied.

I'll use that tongue I have: if wit flow from 't,
As boldness from my bosom, let 't not be doubted
I shall do good.

I'll to the queen: please you, come something nearer.
GAOL. Madam, if 't please the queen to send the babe,
I know not what I shall incur to pass it,

Having no warrant.

PAUL. You need not fear it, sir:

This child was prisoner to the womb, and is,

By law and process of great Nature, thence

Freed and enfranchis'd; not a party to
The anger of the king, nor guilty of,

If any be, the trespass of the queen.

GAOL. I do believe it.

PAUL. Do not you fear; upon mine honour, I

Will stand betwixt you and danger.

[Exeunt.

SCENE III.-The same. A Room in the Palace.

ANTIGONUS, Lords, and other Attendants, in waiting behind.
Enter LEONTES.

LEON. Nor night nor day no rest. It is but weakness

To bear the matter thus ;-mere weakness. If

The cause were not in being,-part o' the cause,
She the adultress; for the harlot king
Is quite beyond mine arm, out of the blank
And level of my brain, plot-proof; but she
I can hook to me:-say that she were gone,
Given to the fire, a moiety of my rest
Might come to me again.-Who's there?
1 ATTEND. [Advancing.]
LEON. How does the boy?

1 ATTEND.

My lord!

He took good rest to-night;

"T is hop'd his sickness is discharg'd.

LEON.

To see his nobleness!

"Blank" and "level" are terms in gunnery; the former means mark, the latter range.

Conceiving the dishonour of his mother,
He straight declin'd, droop'd, took it deeply;
Fasten'd and fix'd the shame on 't in himself;
Threw off his spirit, his appetite, his sleep,
And downright languish'd.-Leave me solely:-go,

See how he fares. [Exit Attend.]-Fie, fie! no thought of him ;-
The very thought of my revenges that way
Recoil upon me: in himself too mighty,

And in his parties, his alliance,-let him be,
Until a time may serve: for present vengeance,
Take it on her. Camillo and Polixenes

Laugh at me; make their pastime at my sorrow:
They should not laugh, if I could reach them; nor
Shall she, within my power.

1 LORD.

Enter PAULINA, with a Child.

You must not enter.

PAUL. Nay, rather, good my lords, be second to me: Fear you his tyrannous passion more, alas,

Than the queen's life? a gracious innocent soul,

More free than he is jealous.

ANT.

That's enough.

2 ATTEND. Madam, he hath not slept to-night; commanded None should come at him.

PAUL.

Not so hot, good sir;

I come to bring him sleep.
"Tis such as you,-
That creep like shadows by him, and do sigh
At each his needless heavings, such as you
Nourish the cause of his awaking: I

Do come with words as med'cinal as true,
Honest as either, to purge him of that humour
That presses him from sleep.

What noise there ho?

LEON.
PAUL. No noise, my lord; but needful conference
About some gossips for your highness.

LEON.

How!

Away with that audacious lady!—Antigonus,
I charg'd thee that she should not come about me:
I knew she would.

ANT.

I told her so, my lord,

What, canst not rule her?

On your displeasure's peril and on mine,
She should not visit you.

LEON.
PAUL. From all dishonesty he can in this,
(Unless he take the course that you have done,
Commit me, for committing honour) trust it,
He shall not rule me.

When she will take the rein, I let her run;

But she'll not stumble.

PAUL.

Good my liege, I come,-
And, I beseech you, hear me, who professes

Myself your loyal servant, your physician,
Your most obedient counsellor; yet that dares
Less appear so, in comforting a your evils,
Than such as most seem yours:-I say, I come
From your good queen.

LEON.

Good queen!

PAUL. Good queen, my lord, good queen: I say, good queen; And would by combat make her good, so were I

A man, the worst about you.

PAUL. Let him that makes but trifles of his eyes
First hand me: on mine own accord I'll off;
But first I'll do my errand.-The good queen,

For she is good, hath brought you forth a daughter;
Here 't is; commends it to your blessing.

LEON.

[Laying down the Child. Out!

A mankind witch! Hence with her, out o' door:
A most intelligencing bawd!

PAUL.

I am as ignorant in that as you

Not so:

In so entitling me: and no less honest

Than you are mad; which is enough, I'll warrant,
As this world goes, to pass for honest.

LEON.

Traitors!

Will you not push her out? Give her the bastard.-—

Thou dotard [To ANTIGONUS.], thou art woman-tir'd, unroosted
By thy dame Partlet here:-take up the bastard;

Take 't up, I say; give 't to thy crone.

PAUL.

Unvenerable be thy hands, if thou

For ever

Tak'st up the princess by that forced basenesse
Which he has put upon 't!

LEON.

He dreads his wife!

PAUL. So I would you did; then 't were past all doubt

You'd call your children yours.

LEON.

A nest of traitors!

Nor I; nor any,

ANT. I am none, by this good light.
PAUL.

But one, that's here, and that's himself; for he
The sacred honour of himself, his queen's,

His hopeful son's, his babe's, betrays to slander,

in comforting your evils,-] "Comforting" is here employed in the old and forensic sense of encouraging, abetting, &c.

b A mankind witch!] See note (*), p. 672.

e

e

honest-] That is, chaste.

-woman-tir'd,-] As we say, hen-pecked.

- by that forced baseness-] By that false appellation, bastard.

Whose sting is sharper than the sword's; and will not
(For, as the case now stands, it is a curse
He cannot be compell'd to 't) once remove
The root of his opinion, which is rotten,
As ever oak, or stone, was sound.

Of boundless tongue, who late hath beat her husband,
And now baits me!-This brat is none of mine;

It is the issue of Polixenes:

Hence with it; and, together with the dam,
Commit them to the fire!

PAUL.

It is yours;

And, might we lay the old proverb to your charge,
So like you, 't is the worse. Behold, my lords,
Although the print be little, the whole matter
And copy of the father, eye, nose, lip;

The trick of's frown; his forehead; nay, the valley,
The pretty dimples of his chin and cheek; his smiles;
The very mould and frame of hand, nail, finger:-
And thou, good goddess Nature, which hast made it
So like to him that got it, if thou hast

The ordering of the mind too, 'mongst all colours
No yellow in 't, lest she suspect, as he does,
Her children not her husband's!

It is an heretic that makes the fire,

I care not:

Not she which burns in 't. I'll not call you tyrant;
But this most cruel usage of your queen

(Not able to produce more accusation

Than your own weak-hing'd fancy) something savours
Of tyranny, and will ignoble make you,

Yea, scandalous to the world.

LEON.

On your allegiance,

Out of the chamber with her! Were I a tyrant,

a

And, might we lay the old proverb to your charge,
So like you, 't is the worse.-]

Overbury quotes this "old proverb" in his character of "A Sargeant":-"The devill cals him his white sonne; he is so like him, that he is the worse for it, and hee lokes after his father."-OVERBURY's Works, Ed. 1616.

b- - losel,-] Said to be derived from the Saxon Losian, to lose, and to mean an abandoned, worthless fellow.

Where were her life? she durst not call me so,
If she did know me one. Away with her!

PAUL. I pray you, do not push me; I'll be gone.
Look to your babe, my lord; 't is yours: Jove send her
A better guiding spirit!-What needs these hands?-
You, that are thus so tender o'er his follies,
Will never do him good, not one of you.

So, so-farewell; we are gone.

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:
Within this hour bring me word 't is done,
(And by good testimony) or I'll seize thy life,
With what thou else call'st thine. If thou refuse,
And wilt encounter with my wrath, say so;
The bastard brains with these my proper hands
Shall I dash out. Go, take it to the fire;
For thou sett'st on thy wife.

ANT.
I did not, sir:
These lords, my noble fellows, if they please,
Can clear me in 't.

1 LORD.

We can

my royal liege,

He is not guilty of her coming hither.

LEON. You're liars all.

1 LORD. Beseech your highness, give us better credit: We have always truly serv'd you; and bescecha

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:Shall I live on, to see this bastard kneel

And call me father?

Than curse it then.

It shall not neither.

Better burn it now,
But be it; let it live:—

[Exit.

You, sir, come you hither;

[To ANTIGON US.

You that have been so tenderly officious

With lady Margery, your midwife, there,

To save this bastard's life,-for 't is a bastard,

So sure as this beard's grey,b-what will you adventure

To save this brat's life?

and beseech-] Here again in the old text the elision of you is marked by an apostrophe; thus, beseech'.

b So sure as this beard's grey,-] Unless we read according to a marginal annotation in Lord Ellesmere's copy of the first folio,-" thy beard," we must suppose the king to point to, or touch the beard of Antigonus; he himself, who twenty-three years before the play began was unbreeched, could hardly have a grey beard.