To fave this baftard's life :-for 'tis a baftard,
So fure as this beard's grey,-what will you

ture

To fave this brat's life?

ANT.

Any thing, my lord,
That my ability may undergo,

And nobleness impofe: at least, thus much;
I'll pawn the little blood which I have left,
To fave the innocent: any thing poffible.

adven

LEON. It fhall be poffible: Swear by this sword,3 Thou wilt perform my bidding.

ANT.

I will, my lord. LEON. Mark, and perform it; (feeft thou?) for the fail

Of any point in't fhall not only be

Death to thyfelf, but to thy lewd-tongu'd wife;
Whom, for this time, we pardon. We enjoin thee,
As thou art liegeman to us, that thou carry
This female bastard hence; and that thou bear it
To fome remote and defert place, quite out
Of our dominions; and that there thou leave it,

So fure as this beard's grey,] The King muft mean the beard of Antigonus, which perhaps both here and on the former occafion, (See p. 267, n. 7,) it was intended, he should lay hold of. Leontes has himself told us that twenty-three years ago he was unbreech'd, in his green velvet coat, his dagger muzzled; and of course his age at the opening of this play must be under thirty. He cannot therefore mean his own beard, MALONE.

3

Swear by this fword,] It was anciently the custom to fwear by the crofs on the handle of a fword. See a note on Hamlet, A& I. fc. v. STEEVENS.

So, in The Penance of Arthur, fig. S. 2: "And therewith King Marke yielded him unto Sir Gaheris, and then he kneeled downe and made his oath upon the croffe of the fword," &c.

I remember to have seen the name of Jefus engraved upon the pummel of the sword of a Crusader in the Church at Winchelsea.

DOUCE.

Without more mercy, to its own protection,
And favour of the climate. As by strange fortune
It came to us, I do in justice charge thee,-
On thy foul's peril, and thy body's torture,-
That thou commend it ftrangely to fome place,4
Where chance may nurfe, or end it: Take it up.

ANT. I fwear to do this, though a prefent death
Had been more merciful.-Come on, poor babe:
Some powerful spirit inftruct the kites and ravens,
To be thy nurses! Wolves, and bears, they fay,
Cafting their favageness aside, have done
Like offices of pity.-Sir, be profperous

In more than this deed doth require! and bleffing,5 Against this cruelty, fight on thy fide,

Poor thing, condemn'd to lofs !6

LEON.

Another's iffue.

1 ATTEN.

Exit, with the Child.

No, I'll not rear

Please your highness, posts,

From those you fent to the oracle, are come

An hour fince: Cleomenes and Dion,

commend it ftrangely to fome place,] Commit it to fome place, as a stranger, without more provifion. JOHNSON. So, in Macbeth:

"I wish your horfes fwift and fure of foot,
"And fo I do commend you to their backs."

To commend is to commit. See Minfheu's Dict. in v.

S

MALONE.

and blessing,] i. e. the favour of heaven. MALONE. condemn'd to lofs !] i. e. to exposure, fimilar to that of a child whom its parents have loft. I once thought that loss was here licentiously used for destruction; but that this was not the primary fenfe here intended, appears from a fubfequent paffage A&t III. fc. iii:

"That, for thy mother's fault, art thus expos'd

Being well arriv'd from Delphos, are both landed, Hafting to the court.

1 LORD.

So please you, fir, their speed

Hath been beyond account.

LEON.

Twenty-three days They have been abfent: "Tis good fpeed ; foretels, The great Apollo fuddenly will have

The truth of this appear. Prepare you lords;
Summon a feffion, that we may arraign
Our moft difloyal lady: for, as the hath
Been publickly accus'd, fo fhall she have
A juft and open trial. While fhe lives,
My heart will be a burden to me. Leave me;
And think upon my bidding.

[Exeunt.

ACT III. SCENE I.

The fame. A Street in some Town.

Enter CLEOMENES and DION.8

CLEO. The climate's delicate; the air moft fweet; Fertile the ifle;9 the temple much furpaffing

7 "Tis good speed ; &c.] Surely we fhould read the passage

thus:

This good speed foretels, &c. M. MASON.

Cleomenes and Dion.] These two names, and those of Antigonus and Archidamus, our author found in North's Plutarch. MALONE.

9 Fertile the ifle ;] But the temple of Apollo at Delphi was not in an island, but in Phocis, on the continent. Either Shakfpeare, or his editors, had their heads running on Delos, an

I fhall report,

The common praise it bears.

DION.

For most it caught me,' the celestial habits, (Methinks, I fo fhould term them,) and the reve

rence

Of the grave wearers. O, the facrifice!
How ceremonious, folemn, and unearthly
It was i'the offering!

CLEO.

But, of all, the burst And the ear-deafening voice o'the oracle, Kin to Jove's thunder, fo furpriz'd my sense, That I was nothing.

DION.

If the event o'the journey Prove as fuccessful to the queen,-O, be't fo!— As it hath been to us, rare, pleasant, fpeedy, The time is worth the use on't."

ifland of the Cyclades. If it was the editor's blunder, then Shakspeare wrote: Fertile the foil,- -which is more elegant too, than the prefent reading. WARBURTON.

Shakspeare is little careful of geography. There is no need of this emendation in a play of which the whole plot depends upon a geographical error, by which Bohemia is supposed to be a maritime country. JOHNSON.

In The Hiftory of Doraftus and Fawnia, the queen defires the king to fend " fix of his noblemen, whom he best trusted, to the ife of Delphos," &c. STEEVENS.

1 For most it caught me,] It may relate to the whole spectacle. JOHNSON.

2 The time is worth the use on't.] The time is worth the ufe on't, means, the time which we have spent in vifiting Delos, has recompenfed us for the trouble of fo fpending it. JOHNSON.

If the event prove fortunate to the Queen, the time which we have spent in our journey is worth the trouble it hath coft us. In other words, the happy iffue of our journey will compenfate for the time expended in it, and the fatigue we have undergone. We meet with nearly the fame expreffion in Florio's tranflation of Montaigne's Effaies, 1603: "The common faying is, the time we live, is worth the money we pay for it." MALONE.

CLEO.

Great Apollo,

Turn all to the best! Thefe proclamations,

So forcing faults upon Hermione,

I little like.

DION.

The violent carriage of it

Will clear, or end, the bufinefs: When the oracle, (Thus by Apollo's great divine feal'd up,)

Shall the contents difcover, fomething rare,
Even then will rufh to knowledge.-

horfes ;

And gracious be the iffue!

SCENE II.

Go,-fresh

[Exeunt.

The fame. A Court of Justice.

LEONTES, Lords, and Officers, appear properly feated.

LEON. This feffions (to our great grief, we pro

nounce,)

Even pushes 'gainst our heart :3 The party tried,
The daughter of a king; our wife; and one
Of us too much belov'd.-Let us be clear'd
Of being tyrannous, fince wè fo openly
Proceed in juftice; which fhall have due course,
Even to the guilt, or the purgation.4-
Produce the prifoner.

3

pufhes 'gainft our heart:] So, in Macbeth:
every minute of his being thrufts

"Against my near'ft of life." STEEVENS.

4 Even to the guilt, or the purgation.] Mr. Roderick obferves, that the word even is not to be understood here as an adverb, but as an adjective, fignifying equal or indifferent. STEEVENS.

The epithet even-handed, as applied in Macbeth to Juftice, feems to unite both fenfes. HENLEY.