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Would be filled up, my brother, with our thanks; Yet of your royal presence [to POLIXENES] I'll And yet we should, for perpetuity,

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Pol. Press me not, 'beseech you, so; There is no tongue that moves, none, none i' the world,

So soon as yours, could win me: so it should now,
Were there necessity in your request, although
'T were needful I denied it. My affairs
Do even drag me homeward: which to hinder
Were, in your love, a whip to me; my stay
To you a charge and trouble: to save both,
Farewell, our brother.

Leon. Tongue-tied, our queen? speak you.
Her. I had thought, sir, to have held my peace

until

adventure

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You put me off with limber vows: but I, Though you would seek to unsphere the stars with oaths,

Should yet say, "Sir, no going." Verily,
You shall not go; a lady's "verily" is
As potent as a lord's. Will you go yet?
Force me to keep you as a prisoner,
Not like a guest; so you shall pay your fees

When you depart, and save your thanks. How say you?

My prisoner, or my guest? By your dread "verily,"

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We were, fair queen, Two lads that thought there was no more behind, But such a day to-morrow as to-day,

You had drawn oaths from him not to stay. You, And to be boy eternal.

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Boldly, "Not guilty;"- the imposition cleared, the imposition cleared, Hereditary ours.

Her.

By this, we gather

You have tripped since.

Pol.

O my most sacred lady,

The one for ever earned a royal husband;
The other, for some while, a friend.

Leon.

[Giving her hand to POLIXENES. Too hot, too hot : [Aside. To mingle friendship far, is mingling bloods.

Temptations have since then been born to us: for I have tremor cordis on me: my heart dances;

In those unfledged days was my wife a girl:
Your precious self had not then crossed the eyes

Of my young playfellow.

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But not for joy, not joy. This entertainment
May a free face put on; derive a liberty
From heartiness, from bounty, fertile bosom,
And well become the agent: : it may, I grant:
But to the paddling palms and pinching fingers,
As now they are; and making practiced smiles,
As in a looking-glas; - and then to sigh as 't

were

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They say it's a copy out of mine. Come, captain,
We must be neat; not neat, but cleanly, captain;
When And yet the steer, the heifer, and the calf,
Are all called neat. Still virginalling

I pr'y thee, tell me : cram us with praise, and make

us

[Observing POLIXENES and HERMIONE. Upon his palm? How now, you wanton calf?

As fat as tame things. One good deed, dying tongue- Art thou my calf?

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As o'er-dyed blacks, as wind, as waters; false
As dice are to be wished by one that fixes
No bourn 'twixt his and mine; yet were it true
To say this boy were like me. Come, sir page,
Look on me with your welkin eye. Sweet villain !
- may 't

Three crabbed months had soured themselves to Most dear'st! my collop! Can thy dam

death,

be? Affection! thy intention stabs the center: And clap thyself my love:- then didst thou ut- Thou dost make possible, things not so held,

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Why, lo you now, I have spoken to the purpose Thou mayst co-join with something; and thou

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Leon. What cheer? how is 't with you, best And arms her with the boldness of a wife

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How sometimes nature will betray its folly,
Its tenderness, and make itself a pastime
To harder bosoms! Looking on the lines
Of my boy's face, methought I did recoil
Twenty-three years; and saw myself unbreeched,
In my green velvet coat; my dagger muzzled,
Lest it should bite its master, and so prove,
As ornaments oft do, too dangerous.

How like, methought, I then was to this kernel,
This quash, this gentleman :-Mine honest friend,
Will you take eggs for money?

Mam. No, my lord, I'll fight.

Leon. You will? why, happy man be his dole!
-My brother,

Are you so fond of your young prince as we
Do seem to be of ours?

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To her allowing husband! Gone already;

Inch-thick, knee-deep; o'er head and cars a forked

one.

[Exeunt POLIXENES, HERMIONE, and Attendants.

Go, play, boy, play; thy mother plays, and I Play too; but so disgraced a part, whose issue Will hiss me to my grave; contempt and clamor Will be my knell. Go, play, boy, play. There have been,

Or I am much deceived, cuckolds ere now;

And many a man there is, even at this present,
Now while I speak this, holds his wife by the arm,
That little thinks she has been sluiced in 's ab-
sence,

And his pond fished by his next neighbor; by
Sir Smile, his neighbor. Nay, there's comfort

in 't, Whiles other men have gates; and those gates

opened,

As mine, against their will: should all despair, That have revolted wives, the tenth of mankind Would hang themselves. Physic for 't there's none;

It is a bawdy planet, that will strike Where 't is predominant; and 't is powerful, think it,

From east, west, north and south. Be it concluded,

No barricado for a belly; know it; It will let in and out the enemy, With bag and baggage. Many a thousand of us Have the disease, and feel 't not. - How now, boy?

Mam. I am like you, they say.

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Cam. You had much ado to make his anchor A servant, grafted in my serious trust,

hold:

When you cast out, it still came home.

Leon.

Didst note it?

And therein negligent: or else a fool,

That seest a game played home, the rich stake drawn,

Cam. He would not stay at your petitions; And tak'st it all for jest.

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They're here with me already: whispering, round- But that his negligence, his folly, fear,

ing,

Didst perceive it?

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Amongst the infinite doings of the world,
Sometimes put forth. In your affairs, my lord,
If ever I were wilful-negligent,

It was my folly if industriously

I played the fool, it was my negligence,

:

Leon. At the queen's, be 't: "good" should be Not weighing well the end if ever fearful

pertinent;

But so it is, it is not. Was this taken
By any understanding pate but thine?

For thy conceit is soaking, will draw in

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Against the non-performance, 't was a fear
Which oft affects the wisest: - these, my lord,

More than the common blocks. Not noted, is 't, Are such allowed infirmities, that honesty

But of the finer natures? by some severals,

Of head-piece extraordinary? Lower messes,
Perchance, are to this business purblind; say.

Is never free of. But, 'beseech your grace,
Be plainer with me: let me know my trespass

By its own visage: if I then deny it,

Cam. Business, my lord? I think, most under-'T is none of mine.

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Cam. To satisfy your highness, and the en- Cannot be mute), or thought (for cogitation

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(Or else be impudently negative,

To have nor eyes, nor ears, nor thought), then say,
My wife's a hobby-horse; deserves a name
As rank as any flax-wench, that puts to
Before her troth-plight: say it, and justify it.

Cam. I would not be a stander-by, to hear
My sovereign mistress clouded so, without
My present vengeance taken. 'Shrew my heart,
You never spoke what did become you less
Than this; which to reiterate were sin

thou art not hon- As deep as that, though true.

If thou inclin'st that way, thou art a coward;
Which hoxes honesty behind, restraining

Leon.

Is whispering nothing?

Is leaning cheek to cheek; is meeting noses;
Kissing with inside lip; stopping the career

From course required: or else thou must be Of laughter with a sigh (a note infallible

counted

Of breaking honesty); horsing foot on foot;

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About his neck; Bohemia: who—if I
Had servants true about me, that bare eyes
To see alike mine honor as their profits,
Their own particular thrifts, they would do that
Which should undo more doing. Ay, and thou,
His cupbearer, whom I from meaner form
Have benched, and reared to worship; who mayst

see

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[Exit.

Cam. O miserable lady!— But for me,
What case stand I in? I must be the poisoner
Of good Polixenes: and my ground to do 't
Is the obedience to a master; one

Plainly as heaven sees earth, and earth sees Who, in rebellion with himself, will have

heaven,

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All that are his, so too. To do this deed
Promotion follows. If I could find example
Of thousands that have struck anointed kings,
And flourished after, I'd not do 't: but since
Nor brass, nor stone, nor parchment, bears not one,
Let villainy itself forswear 't. I must
Forsake the court: to do 't or no, is certain
To me a break-neck. Happy star, reign now!
Here comes Bohemia.

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