Camillo was his help in this, his pander :-
There is a plot against my life, my crown;
All's true that is mistrusted:-that false villain,
Whom I employ'd, was pre-employ'd by him:
He has discover'd my design, and I

Remain a pinch'd thing; yea, a very trick

For them to play at will:-How came the posterns
So easily open?

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 :
Though he does bear some signs of me, yet you

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
Has made thee swell thus.

Her.

But I'd say, he had not,

And, I'll be sworn, you would believe my saying,
Howe'er you lean to the nayward.

You, my lords,

Leon.
Look on her, mark her well; be but about
To say "she is a goodly lady," and

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,
When you have said she's goodly, come between,

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,
Do but mistake.

Leon.

You have mistook, my lady,

Polixenes for Leontes: O thou thing,
Which I'll not call a creature of thy place,
Lest barbarism, making me the precedent,
Should a like language use to all degrees,
And mannerly distinguishment leave out
Betwixt the prince and beggar!—I have said,
She's an adultress; I have said, with whom :
More, she's a traitor; and Camillo is

a

A federary with her; and one that knows
What she should shame to know herself,
But with her most vile principal, that she's
A bed-swerver, even as bad as those

titles; ay, and privy

No, by my life,

That vulgars give bold'st
To this their late escape.
Her.
Privy to none of this: How will this grieve you
When you shall come to clearer knowledge, that
You thus have publish'd me! Gentle my lord,
You scarce can right me throughly then, to say
You did mistake.

In those foundations which I build upon,
The centre is not big enough to bear

A schoolboy's top.-Away with her to prison:
He who shall speak for her is afar off guilty,
But that he speaks.

• 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
Commonly are; the want of which vain dew,

Perchance, shall dry your pities: but I have
That honourable grief lodg'd here, which burns
Worse than tears drown: 'Beseech you all, my lords,
With thoughts so qualified as your charities
Shall best instruct you, measure me;—and so
The king's will be perform❜d!

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;
There is no cause : when you shall know your
Has deserv'd prison, then abound in tears,
As I come out this action I now go on
Is for my better grace.-Adieu, my lord;
I never wish'd to see you sorry; now,

I trust, I shall.—My women, come; you have leave.
Leon. Go, do our bidding; hence.

[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,
I dare my life lay down, and will do 't, sir,

Please you t' accept it, that the queen is spotless
I' the eyes of heaven, and to you; I mean,

In this which you accuse her.

If it prove

Ant.
She's otherwise, I'll keep my stables where

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,
If she be.

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 ;
The second, and the third, nine, and some five;b
If this prove true, they'll pay for 't: by mine honour,
I'll geld them all fourteen they shall not see,
To bring false generations: they are co-heirs;
And I had rather glib myself than they

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,
Upon this ground: and more it would content me
To have her honour true, than your suspicion;
Be blam'd for 't how you might.

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
Our forceful instigation? Our prerogative
Calls not your counsels; but our natural goodness
Imparts this: which-if you (or stupified,
Or seeming so in skill) cannot, or will not,
Relish a trutha like us; inform yourselves,
We need no more of your advice: the matter,
The loss, the gain, the ordering on 't, is all
Properly ours.

Ant.

And I wish, my liege,

You had only in your silent judgment tried it,
Without more overture.

Leon.

How could that be?

Either thou art most ignorant by age,

Or thou wert born a fool. Camillo's flight,
Added to their familiarity

(Which was as gross as ever touch'd conjecture,

That lack'd sight only, nought for approbation,"
But only seeing, all other circumstances

Made up to the deed), doth push on this proceeding.
Yet, for a greater confirmation

(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
They will bring all; whose spiritual counsel had
Shall stop, or spur me. Have I done well?

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.