My wife is slippery? If thou wilt confess, (Or else be impudently negative, To have nor eyes, nor ears, nor thought,) then say, As deep as that, though true. Is whispering nothing? Leon. Is leaning cheek to cheek? is meeting noses? Kissing with inside lip? stopping the career Of laughter with a sigh? (a note infallible Of breaking honesty :) horsing foot on foot? Skulking in corners? wishing clocks more swift? Hours, minutes? noon, midnight? and all eyes Blind with the pin and web,a but theirs, theirs only, That would unseen be wicked? is this nothing? Why, then the world, and all that's in 't, is nothing; The covering sky is nothing; Bohemia nothing; My wife is nothing; nor nothing have these nothings, If this be nothing. Cam. Good my lord, be cur'd Of this diseas'd opinion, and betimes; For 't is most dangerous. I say, thou liest, Camillo, and I hate thee; Pronounce thee a gross lout, a mindless slave; Or else a hovering temporizer, that Canst with thine eyes at once see good and evil, The running of one glass. 6 Cam. Who does infect her? Leon. Why, he that wears her like her medal, hanging About his neck, Bohemia: Who-if I Had servants true about me, that bare eyes To see alike mine honour as their profits, To give mine enemy a lasting wink; Which draught to me were cordial. Cam. Sir, my lord, I could do this; and that with no rash potion, Believe this crack to be in my dread mistress, I have lov'd thee, Leon. Make that thy question, and go rot !a Dost think, I am so muddy, so unsettled, To appoint myself in this vexation? sully Which to preserve is sleep; which being spotted, Cam. I must believe Provided, that when he's remov'd, your highness Even for your son's sake; and, thereby, for sealing a Disregarding Camillo's "I have lov'd thee," Leontes is enraged at his making a question of the alleged dishonour of his "dread mistress." Leon. Thou dost advise me, Even so as I mine own course have set down: I'll give no blemish to her honour, none. Go then; and with a countenance as clear As friendship wears at feasts, keep with Bohemia, If from me he have wholesome beverage, Account me not your servant. Do't, and thou hast the one half of my heart; Cam. I'll do 't, my lord. Leon. I will seem friendly, as thou hast advis'd me. [Exit. What case stand I in? I must be the poisoner Forsake the court: to do 't, or no, is certain To me a break-neck. Happy star, reign now! Pol. Enter POLIxenes. This is strange! methinks, My favour here begins to warp. Not speak?- Cam. Pol. What is the news i' the court? Cam. Hail, most royal sir! None rare, my lord. Pol. The king hath on him such a countenance With customary compliment; when he, A lip of much contempt, speeds from me; and Cam. I dare not know, my lord. Pol. How! dare not? do not? Do you know, and dare not Be intelligent to me. "T is thereabouts; a For, to yourself, what you do know you must; Myself thus alter'd with it. Cam. There is a sickness Which puts some of us in distemper; but Pol. How caught of me? Make me not sighted like the basilisk: I have look'd on thousands who have sped the better As you are certainly a gentleman; thereto In ignorant concealment. Cam. I may not answer. Pol. A sickness caught of me, and yet I well! I must be answer'd.-Dost thou hear, Camillo? I conjure thee, by all the parts of man Which honour does acknowledge,-whereof the least a We point this as in the original. The general reading is, "Do you know, and dare not Be intelligent to me?" b Success-succession. What incidency thou dost guess of harm Is creeping toward me; how far off, how near; If not, how best to bear it. Cam. Sir, I will tell you; Since I am charg'd in honour, and by him That I think honourable: Therefore, mark my counsel; I mean to utter it; or both yourself and me Pol. Pol. By whom, Camillo? Cam. Pol. you. By the king. For what? Cam. He thinks, nay, with all confidence, he swears, To vice you to 't, that you have touch'd his queen Pol. O, then my best blood turn Be yok'd with his that did betray the Best! a A savour that may strike the dullest nostril Cam. Swear his thought over b • We print Best with a capital as in the folio. The allusion is to Judas. The sentence against excommunicated persons contains a clause that they should have part with that betrayer. b Over-swear his thought. |