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Were there necessity in your request, although
Twere needful I denied it. My affairs.

Do

even drag me homeward; which to hinder, Were, in your love, a whip to me; my stay, To you a charge and trouble. To save both, Farewell, our brother.

Leon.

Tongue-tied, our queen? Speak you.
Her. I had thought, sir, to have held my peace, until
You had drawn oaths from him not to stay. You, sir,
Charge him too coldly. Tell him, you are sure,
All in Bohemia's well; this satisfaction

The by-gone day proclaimed; say this to him,
He's beat from his best ward.

Leon.

Well said, Hermione.

Her. To tell he longs to see his son, were strong:
But let him say so then, and let him go;

But let him swear so, and he shall not stay;
We'll thwack him hence with distaffs.-

Yet of your royal presence [To POL.] I'll adventure
The borrow of a week. When at Bohemia
You take my lord, I'll give him my commission,
To let him there a month, behind the gest
Prefixed for his parting; yet, good deed, Leontes,
I love thee not a jar o' the clock behind
What lady she her lord.-You'll stay?

Pol.

Her. Nay, but you will?

Pol.

Her. Verily!

No, madam.

I may not, verily.

You put me off with limber vows; but I,

Though you would seek to unsphere the stars with oaths,
Should yet say, Sir, no going. Verily,
You shall not go; a lady's verily is
yet?

Force me to keep you as a prisoner,

Not like a guest: so you shall pay your fees,
When you depart, and save your thanks. How say you?
My prisoner, or my guest? By your dread verily,
One of them you shall be.

Pol.

Your guest, then, madam:

To be your prisoner, should import offending;
Which is for me less easy to commit,

Than you to punish.

Her.

Not your jailer, then,

But your kind hostess. Come, I'll question you

Of my lord's tricks, and yours, when you were boys; You were pretty, lordlings then.

Pol.

We were, fair queen, Two lads that thought there was no more behind, But such a day to-morrow as to-day,

And to be boy eternal.

Her. Was not my lord the verier wag o' the two? Pol. We were as twinned lambs, that did frisk i'the sun, And bleat the one at the other. What we changed, Was innocence for innocence; we knew not

The doctrine of ill doing, nor dreamed

That any did. Had we pursued that life,
And our weak spirits ne'er been higher reared
With stronger blood, we should have answered Heaven
Boldly, Not Guilty; the imposition cleared,
Hereditary ours.

Her.

By this we gather,
You have tripped since.
Pol.

O, my most sacred lady,
Temptations have since then been born to us; for
In those unfledged days was my wife a girl;
Your precious self had then not crossed the eyes
Of my young play-fellow.

Grace to boot!

Her.
Of this make no conclusion; lest you say,
Your queen and I are devils. Yet, go on;
The offences we have made you do, we'll answer;
If you first sinned with us, and that with us
You did continue fault, and that you slipped not
With any but with us.

Leon.

Is he won yet? Her. He'll stay, my lord.

Leon.

At my request he would not.

Hermione, my dearest, thou never spok'st

To better purpose.

Her.

Leon.

Never?

Never, but once.

Her. What? have I twice said well? When was't before?
I pr'ythee, tell me. Cram us with praise, and make us
As fat as tame things; one good deed dying tongueless,
Slaughters a thousand, waiting upon that.

Our praises are our wages: you may ride us,
With one soft kiss, a thousand furlongs, ere
With spur we heat an acre. But to the goal.-
My last good was, to entreat his stay;
What was my first? It has an elder sister,

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O, would her name were Grace!
spoke to the purpose. When?

Why, that was when

Or I mistake you.
But once before I
Nay, let me have't; I long.
Leon.
Three crabbed months had soured themselves to death,
Ere I could make thee open thy white hand,
And clap thyself my love; then didst thou utter,
I am yours forever.

Her.

It is grace, indeed.-
Why, lo you now, I have spoke to the purpose twice.
The one forever earned a royal husband;
The other, for some while, a friend.

Leon.

[Giving her hand to POLIXENES. Too hot, too hot.

[Aside.

To mingle friendship far, is mingling bloods.
I have tremoir cordis on me; -my heart dances;
But not for joy,—not joy.-This entertainment
May a free face put on; derive a liberty
From heartiness, from bounty, fertile bosom,
And well become the agent. It may, I grant:
But to be paddling palms, and pinching fingers,
As now they are; and making practised smiles
As in a looking-glass; and then to sigh, as 'twere
The mort o' the deer; O, that is entertainment
My bosom likes not, nor my brows.— Mamillius,
Art thou my boy?

Mam.

Leon.

Ay, my good lord.

I'feeks?

Why, that's my bawcock. What, hast smutched thy nose?—
They say, it's a copy out of mine. Come, captain,
We must be neat! not neat, but cleanly, captain;
And yet the steer, the heifer, and the calf,
Are all called neat.-Still virginalling

[Observing POLIXENES and HERMIONE.
Upon his palm?-How now, you wanton calf?
Art thou my calf?

Mam.

Yes, if you will, my lord.

Leon. Thou want'st a rough pash, and the shoots that I

have,

To be full like me: yet,

Almost

they say, we are

as like as eggs; women say so,

That will say any thing. But were they false

As o'er-dyed blacks, as

wind, as waters; false
As dice are to be wished, by one that fixes
No bourn 'twixt his and mine; yet were it true
say this boy were like me.-Come, sir page,

To

G*

Look on me with your welkin eye.

Sweet villain!

Most dearest! my collop!-can thy dam!-May't be? Affection! thy intention stabs the centre;

Thou dost make possible, things not so held;

Communicat'st with dreams;

(How can this be?)

With what's unreal thou coactive art,

And fellow'st nothing. Then, 'tis very credent. Thou mayst conjoin with something; and thou dost; (And that beyond commission, and I find it ;)

And that to the infection of my brains,

And hardening of my brows.

Pol.

What means Sicilia?

How, my lord?

Her. He something seems unsettled.
Pol.

What cheer? How is't with you, best brother?
Her.

As if you held a brow of much distraction.
Are you moved, my lord?

You look

Leon.
No, in good earnest.-
How sometimes nature will betray its folly,
Its tenderness, and make itself a pastime
To harder bosoms! Looking on the lines.
Of my boy's face, methought I did recoil.
Twenty-three years; and saw myself unbreeched,
In my green velvet coat; my dagger muzzled,
Lest it should bite its master, and so prove,
As ornaments oft do, too dangerous.

How like, methought, I then was to this kernel,
This squash, this gentleman. Mine honest friend,
Will you take eggs for money?

Mam. No, my lord, I'll fight,

Leon. You will? why, happy man be his dole! — My

brother,

Are you so fond of your young prince, as we

Do seem to be of ours?

Pol.
If at home, sir,
He's all my exercise, my mirth, my matter:
Now, my sworn friend, and then mine enemy;
My parasite, my soldier, statesman, all;
He makes a July's day short as December;
And, with his varying childness, cures in me
Thoughts that would thick my blood.

Leon.

So stands this squire Officed with me. We two will walk, my lord, And leave you to your graver steps.-Hermione, How thou lov'st us, show in our brother's welcome;

Let what is dear in Sicily be cheap.
Next to thyself, and my young rover's, he's
Apparent to my heart.

Her.

If you would seek us,

We are yours i'the garden. Shall's attend you there?
Leon. To your own bents dispose you: you'll be found,
Be you beneath the sky;-I am angling now,
Though you perceive me not how I give line.
Go to, go to!

[Aside. Observing POLIXENES and HERMIONE.
How she holds up the neb, the bill to him!
And arms her with the boldness of a wife
To her allowing husband! Gone already!
Inch-thick, knee-deep, o'er head and ears a forked one.-
[Exeunt PoL., HER., and Attendants.
Go, play, boy, play:-thy mother plays, and I
Play too; but so disgraced a part, whose issue
Will hiss me to my grave; contempt and clamor
Will be my knell.-Go, play, boy, play.—There have been,
Or I am much deceived, cuckolds ere now;
And many a man there is, even at this present,
Now, while I speak this, holds his wife by the arm,
That little thinks she has been sluiced in his absence,
And his pond fished by his next neighbor, by
Sir Smile, his neighbor. Nay, there's comfort in't,
Whiles other men have gates; and those gates opened,
As mine, against their will. Should all despair,
That have revolted wives, the tenth of mankind
Would hang themselves. Physic for't there is none;
bawdy planet, that will strike

It is a

Where 'tis predominant; and 'tis powerful, think it,
From east, west, north, and south: be it concluded,
No barricado for a belly; know it;

It will let in and out the enemy,

With bag and baggage. Many a thousand of us
Have the disease, and feel't not.-How now, boy?
Mam. I am like you, they say.

Leon.

What! Camillo there?

Cam. Ay, my good lord.

Why, that's some comfort.

Leon. Go play, Mamillius: thou'rt an honest man.—

[Exit MAMILLIUS.

Camillo, this great sir will yet stay longer.

Cam. You had much ado to make his anchor hold;

When

Leon.

you

cast out, it still came home.

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