a Look on me with your welkin eye: Sweet villain! And fellow'st nothing: Then, 't is very credent, And hardening of my brows. Pol. What means Sicilia? Her. He something seems unsettled. Pol. How! my lord! Leon. What cheer? how is 't with you, best brother? d Her. As if you held a brow of much distraction : Are you mov'd, my lord? Leon. a Welkin eye-blue eye. b Affection is imagination; intention, eagerness of attention. c Credent-credible. You look d We restore this line to Leontes, according to the original. On the authority of Hanmer and Steevens, the passage is now invariably printed as follows: "Pol. How, my lord? What cheer? how is 't with you, best brother?" It is impossible, we think, for any alteration to be more tasteless than this, and more destructive of the spirit of the author. Leontes, even in his moody reverie, has his eye fixed upon his queen and Polixenes; and when he is addressed by the latter with "How, my lord?" he replies, with a forced gaiety, "What cheer? how is 't with you?" The addition of "best brother" is, we apprehend, meant to be uttered in a tone of bitter irony. All this is destroyed by making the line merely a prolongation of the inquiry of Polixenes. e This is usually printed "methoughts, I did recoil." The original has " me thoughts" as two words, without a comma following. Five lines lower we have "me thought," as a parenthesis. We have no doubt that me is a misprint for my, and that recoil is used as an active verb-"I did put back my thoughts." In my green velvet coat; my dagger muzzled, How like, methought, I then was to this kernel, Will you take eggs for money?2 Mam. No, my lord, I'll fight. Leon. You will? why, happy man be his dole! a—My brother, Are you so fond of your young prince, as we He's all my exercise, my mirth, my matter: He makes a July's day short as December; Leon. And leave you to your graver steps.-Hermione, How thou lov'st us, show in our brother's welcome; Next to thyself, and my young rover, he's a A proverbial expression; meaning, may his lot (dole) be happy. b We have been favoured with the following note by Mr. Richardson, the author of 'A New Dictionary of the English Language :'- "Johnson thinks' apparent to my heart' means 'heir apparent.' But why is he 'whose right of inheritance is indefeasible provided he outlives his ancestor' (Blackstone) called heir apparent? Surely because he is something more than apparently heir. The heir presumptive is that. The heir apparent is evidently so near the ancestor that no one can at any time intervene or become nearer. And in Cotgrave we find not only apparent (appearing), but' apparenté, m., ée f., of kin, or near kinsman unto.' In Richardson's Dictionary the old word paravaunt, used several times by Spenser, and adopted from the Fr. paravant, is explained by—' Advance, in the van or front, before; before in succession, next in succession, as heir paraunt, i. e. apparent.' And this latter interpretation is supported by a quotation from Fabian: auctoryte of the same Parliament, Syr Roger Mortymer, Erle of, &c., was proclaymed heyer paraunt vnto the crowne of Englonde:' anno 1386. In Lacomte and Roquefort paravant is explained— Devant, auparavant.' The contraction of auparavant into auparant, apparant, and thence, by ignorance, into apparente, is intelligible enough. Apparent to my heart,' then, is Next to my heart." " 6 By 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! How she holds up the neb, the bill to him! And arms her with the boldness of a wife [Aside. Observing POLIX. and HERM. To her allowing husband! Gone already; Inch-thick, knee-deep, o'er head and ears a fork'd one. [Exeunt POLIXENES, HERMIONE, and Attendants. Go, play, boy, play;-thy mother plays, and I Play too; but so disgrac'd a part, whose issue Will hiss me to my grave; contempt and clamour Will be my knell.-Go, play, boy, play ;-There have been, Or I am much deceiv'd, cuckolds ere now; And many a man there is, even at this present, Now, while I speak this, holds his wife by the arm, Where 't is predominant; and 't is powerful, think it, It will let in and out the enemy, With bag and baggage: many 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. Camillo, this great sir will yet stay longer. [Exit MAMILLius. Cam. You had much ado to make his anchor hold: When you cast out, it still came home. Leon. Didst note it? Cam. He would not stay at your petitions; made His business more material. Leon. Didst perceive it?— They're here with me already; whispering, rounding, "Sicilia is a-so-forth :" "T is far gone, When I shall gust it last.-How came 't, Camillo, Cam. At the good queen's entreaty. Leon. At the queen's, be 't: good, should be pertinent: But so it is, it is not. Was this taken By any understanding pate but thine? 3 More than the common blocks :-Not noted, is 't, Leon. Ha! Cam. Stays here longer. Leon. Ay, but why? Cam. To satisfy your highness, and the entreaties Of our most gracious mistress. Satisfy Leon. In that which seems so. Cam. Be it forbid, my lord! Leon. To bide upon 't;-Thou art not honest: or, If thou inclin'st that way, thou art a coward; • Rounding-telling secretly. Which hoxes a honesty behind, restraining From course requir'd: Or else thou must be counted And therein negligent: or else a fool, That seest a game play'd home, the rich stake drawn, I Cam. My gracious lord, But that his negligence, his folly, fear, It was my folly; if industriously I play'd the fool, it was my negligence, Against the non-performance, 't was a fear 'Tis none of mine. Leon. Have not you seen, Camillo, (But that's past doubt-you have; or your eye-glass Is thicker than a cuckold's horn,) or heard, (For, to a vision so apparent, rumour Cannot be mute,) or thought, (fox cogitation a Hoxes. To hox is to hamstring—to hough. b We print this as in the original. Theobald defends his well-known line of "None but himself can be his parallel" by this example; and Pope-perhaps to rob Theobald of his authority-reads, "for cogitation Resides not in that man that does not think it." Malone justly shows that the addition of it is unnecessary; that this is not an abstract proposition; and that the words "my wife is slippery," though disjoined from "think" by the parenthesis, are evidently to be received in construction with that verb. |