Turn then my freshest reputation to A favour, that may strike the dullest nostril Where I arrive; and my approach be shunn'd, Nay, hated too, worse than the great'st infection That e'er was heard, or read! CAM. Swear his thought over By each particular star in heaven, and As or, by oath, remove, or counsel, shake, * Swear his thought over. By each particular Star in heaven, &c.) The transposition of a fingle letter reconciles this passage to good sense. Polixenes, in the preceding speech, had been laying the deepest imprecations on himself, if he had ever abus'd Leontes in any familiarity with his queen. To which Camillo very pertinently replies: Swear this though over, &c. THEOBALD. Swear his thought over (may perhaps mean, overswear his present persuasion, that is, endeavour to overcome his opinion, by swearing oaths numerous as the ftars. JOHNSON. It may mean: "Though you should endeavour to fwear away his jealoufy, though you should strive, by your oaths, to change his present thoughts." - The vulgar still use a fimilar expreffion: "To Swear a person down." MALONE. This appears to me little better than nonsense; nor have either Malone or Johnson explained it into sense. I think therefore,that Theobald's amendment is necessary and well imagined. M. MASON. Perhaps the conftru&ion is "Over-swear his thought" - i. e. trive to bear down, or overpower, his conception by oaths. In our author we have weigh out for outweigh, overcome for come over, &c. and over-fwear, for Swear over in Twelfth Night, A& V. 6 you may as well STEEVENS. Forbid the sea for to obey the moon, We meet with the fame sentiment in The Merchant of Venice: "You may as well go stand upon the beach, DOUCE The fabrick of his folly; whose foundation How should this grow? POL. CAM. I know not: but, I am sure, 'tis safer to Avoid what's grown, than question how 'tis born. If therefore you dare trust my honesty,That lies enclosed in this trunk, which you Shall bear along impawn'd,-away to-night. Your followers I will whisper to the business; And will, by twos, and threes, at several posterns, Clear them o'the city; For myself, I'll put My fortunes to your service, which are here By this difcovery loft. Be not uncertain; For, by the honour of my parents, I Have utter'd truth: which if you seek to prove, I dare not stand by; nor shall you be safer Than one condemn'd by the king's own mouth, thereon His execution sworn. POL. I do believe thee: I saw his heart in his face. Give me thy hand; Be pilot to me, and thy places shall Still neighbour mine: * My ships are ready, and 6 whose foundation Is pil'd upon his faith, ) This folly which is ereaed on the foun dation of fettled belief. STEEVENS. 7 I Saw his heart in his face.) So, in Macbeth : "To find the mind's contruction in the face." STEEVENS. * --and thy places shall Still neighbour mine:) Perhaps Shakspeare wrote "And thy paces shall, &c. Thou shalt be my conductor, and we will both pursue the same path. - The old reading however may mean wherever thou art, I will still be near thee. MALONE. By places, our author means-preferments, or honours. STEEVENS This jealousy My people did expect my hence departure thing 9 Of his ill-ta'en fufpicion! Come, Camillo; Thou bear'st my life off hence: Let us avoid. • Good expedition be my friend, and comfort The gracious queen, part of his theme, but nothing Of his ill-ta'en fufpicion! But how could this expedition comfort the queen? on the contrary, it would increase her husband's suspicion. We should read: The and comfort gracious queen's i, e. be expedition my friend, and be comfort the queen's friend. WARBURTON. Dr. Warburton's conjecture is, I think, juft; but what shall be done with the following words, of which I can make nothing? Perhaps the line which connected them to the rest is loft. and comfort The gracious queen, part of his theme, but nothing Jealousy is a paffion compounded of love and fufpicion; this paffion is the theme or fubject of the King's thoughts. Polixenes, perhaps, wishes the queen, for her comfort, so much of that theme or subject as is good, but deprecates that which causes mifery. May part of the king's present sentiments comfort the queen, but away with his suspicion. This is fuch meaning as can be picked out. JOHNSON. Perhaps the fense is-May that good speed which is my friend. comfort likewife the queen who is part of its theme, i. e. partly on whofe account I go away; but may not the same comfort extend itself to the groundless fufpicions of the king; i. e, may not my de 1 CAM. It is in mine authority, to command The keys of all the posterns: Please your highness To take the urgent hour: come, fir, away. [Exeunt. АСТ II. SCENE I. The fame. ۱ Enter HERMIONE, MAMILLIUS, and Ladies. HER. Take the boy to you: he so troubles me, 'Tis past enduring. 1. LADY. Come, my gracious lord. Shall I be your play-fellow? No, I'll none of you. 1. LADY. Why, my sweet lord? MAM. You'll kiss me hard; and speak to me as if I were a baby still. - I love you better. parture support him in them! His for its is common with Shakspeare: and Paulina says, in a fubfequent scene, that she does not choose to appear a friend to Leontes, in comforting his evils, i. c. in ftrengthening his jealousy by appearing to acquiefce in it. STEEVENS. Comfort is, I apprehend, here used as a verb. Good expedition. befriend me, by removing me from a place of danger, and comfort the innocent queen, by removing the object of her husband's jealoufy the queen, who is the fubject of his conversation, but with. out reason the object of his fufpicion! We meet with a fimilar phraseology in Twelfth-Night: "Do me this courteous office, as to know of the knight, what my offence to him is; it is Something of my negligence, nothing of my purpose." MALONE, 1 Not for because 2. LADY. And why fo, my good lord?* MAM. Your brows are blacker; yet black brows, they say, Too much hair there, but in a semicircle, Or half-moon made with a pen. 2. LADY. 1 Who taught you this? Pray 1 MAM. I learn'd it out of women's faces. now What colour are your eye-brows? 1. LADY. Blue, my lord. MAM. Nay, that's a mock: I have seen a lady's nofe That has been blue, but not her eye-brows. 2. LADY. 1 Hark ye: The queen, your mother, rounds apace: we shall One of these days; and then you'd wanton with us, If we would have you. 1. LADY. She is spread of late Into a goodly bulk: Good time encounter her! HER. What wisdom stirs amongst you? Come, fir, now I am for you again: Pray you, fit by us, - my good lord?) The epithet - good, which is wanting in the old copies, is transplanted (for the fake of metre) from a redundant speech in the following page. STEEVENS. Who taught you this? You, which is not in the old copy, was added by Mr. Rowe. MALONE. 2 A fad tale's best for winter:) Hence, I suppose, the title of the play. TYRWHITT. |