Camillo was his help in this, his pander :- Remain a pinch'd thing; yea, a very trick For them to play at will:-How came the posterns 1 Lord. By his great authority; Which often hath no less prevail'd than so, On your command. Leon. I know 't too well.— Give me the boy; I am glad you did not nurse him : Have too much blood in him. Her. What is this? sport? Leon. Bear the boy hence, he shall not come about her; Away with him :-and let her sport herself With that she's big with; for 't is Polixenes Her. But I'd say, he had not, And, I'll be sworn, you would believe my saying, You, my lords, Leon. The justice of your hearts will thereto add, 'Tis pity she's not honest, honourable :" Praise her but for this her without-door form, (Which, on my faith, deserves high speech,) and straight The shrug, the hum, or ha; these petty brands That calumny doth use :-O, I am out, That mercy does; for calumny will sear Virtue itself: these shrugs, these hums, and haʼs, a A pinch'd thing. Heath explains this as "A mere child's baby, a thing pinched out of clouts." This is surely a forced interpretation; although pinch'd may convey the meaning of one made petty and contemptible, shrunk up, pinched, as we say, by poverty or hunger. 1 Ere you can say she's honest: But be 't known, From him that has most cause to grieve it should be, She's an adultress. Her. Should a villain say so, The most replenish'd villain in the world, He were as much more villain: you, my lord, Leon. You have mistook, my lady, Polixenes for Leontes: O thou thing, a A federary with her; and one that knows titles; ay, and privy No, by my life, That vulgars give bold'st In those foundations which I build upon, A schoolboy's top.-Away with her to prison: • No. The emphatic no, with a pause such as a judicious actor would supply, is turned in all modern editions into no, no. d Afar off-in a remote degree. Her. There's some ill planet reigns: I must be patient, till the heavens look With an aspect more favourable.—Good my lords, I am not prone to weeping, as our sex Perchance, shall dry your pities: but I have Leon. Shall I be heard? [To the Guards. Her. Who is 't that goes with me?-'Beseech your high ness, My women may be with me; for, you see, mistress My plight requires it. Do not weep, good fools; I trust, I shall.—My women, come; you have leave. [Exeunt QUEEN and Ladies. 1 Lord. 'Beseech your highness, call the queen again. Ant. Be certain what you do, sir; lest your justice Prove violence: in the which three great ones suffer, Yourself, your queen, your son. 1 Lord. For her, my lord, Please you t' accept it, that the queen is spotless In this which you accuse her. If it prove Ant. I lodge my wife; I'll go in couples with her; Thana when I feel and see her, no further trust her; Than was formerly spelt then; and we have to choose in this passage between For every inch of woman in the world, Ay, every dram of woman's flesh, is false, Leon. Hold your peaces. 1 Lord. Good my lord, Ant. It is for you we speak, not for ourselves : You are abus'd, and by some putter-on, That will be damn'd for 't; 'would I knew the villain, I would land-damna him: Be she honour-flaw'd I have three daughters; the eldest is eleven ; Should not produce fair issue. Leon. Cease; no more. You smell this business with a sense as cold As is a dead man's nose: but I do see 't, and feel't, We need no grave to bury honesty; There's not a grain of it, the face to sweeten Of the whole dungy earth. Leon. What lack I credit? 1 Lord. I had rather you did lack than I, my lord, Leon. Why, what need we than and then. Malone prefers then; but we think the sentence is comparative: I will trust her no farther than I see her. a Land-damn. We are unable to explain this; and it is scarcely necessary to trouble our readers with the notes of the commentators, some of which are not of the most delicate nature. Farmer's conjecture, that it meant laudanum him—poison him with laudanum-is, we suppose, intended for a joke. b The word nine refers to the second, and some five to the third. © But I do see't. This is frittered down by Steevens to I see't. d Some action must accompany this passage, as that of Leontes seizing hold of the arm of Antigonus. Commune with you of this? but rather follow Ant. And I wish, my liege, You had only in your silent judgment tried it, Leon. How could that be? Either thou art most ignorant by age, Or thou wert born a fool. Camillo's flight, (Which was as gross as ever touch'd conjecture, That lack'd sight only, nought for approbation," Made up to the deed), doth push on this proceeding. (For, in an act of this importance, 't were Most piteous to be wild), I have despatch'd in post, To sacred Delphos, to Apollo's temple, Cleomenes and Dion, whom you know Of stuff'd sufficiency: Now, from the oracle 1 Lord. Well done, my lord. Leon. Though I am satisfied, and need no more Than what I know, yet shall the oracle Give rest to the minds of others; such as he Whose ignorant credulity will not Come up to the truth: So have we thought it good, From our free person she should be confin'd; Lest that the treachery of the two, fled hence, a A truth. So the original. Rowe changed it to as truth. |