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And, with his varying childness, cures in me
Thoughts that would thick my blood.

Leon.
So stands this squire
Offic'd with me: We two will walk, my lord,
And leave you to your graver steps.-Hermione,
How thou lov'st us, show in our brother's welcome;
Let what is dear in Sicily, be cheap:

Next to thyself, and my young rover, he's
Apparent' to my heart.

Her.

If you would seek us,
We are your's i'the garden: Shall's attend you there?
Leon. To your own bents dispose you: you'll be
found,

Be you beneath the sky :-I am angling now,
Though you perceive me not how I give line.
Go to, go to!

[Aside. Observing POLIXENES and HERMIONE,
How she holds up the neb, the bill to him!
And arms her with the boldness of a wife
To her allowing husband!3 Gone already;
Inch-thick, knee-deep, o'er head and ears a fork'd

one.1

[Exeunt POLIXENES, HERMIONE, and At

tendants.

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

Or I am much deceiv'd, cuckolds ere now;
And many a man there is, even at this present,

2

1 Apparent] That is, heir apparent, or the next claimant. the neb,] The word is commonly pronounced and written nib. It signifies here the mouth.

3 To her allowing husband!] Allowing in old language is approving. MALONE.

- a fork'd one.] That is, a horned one; a cuckold.

9

Now, while I speak this, holds his wife by the arm, That little thinks she has been sluic'd in his absence, And his pond fish'd by his next neighbour, by

Sir Smile, his neighbour: nay, there's comfort in't, Whiles other men have gates; and those gates open'd,

As mine, against their will: Should all despair, That have revolted wives, the tenth of mankind Would hang themselves. Physick for't there is

none;

It is a bawdy planet, that will strike

Where 'tis predominant; and 'tis 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.

Leon.

What! Camillo there?

Why, that's some comfort.

Cam. Ay, my good lord.

Leon. Go play, Mamillius; thou'rt an honest

man.

[Exit MAMILLIUS.

Camillo, this great sir will yet stay longer.

Cam. You had much ado to make his anchor

hold:

When you cast out, it still came home."

Leon.

Didst note it?

Cam. He would not stay at your petitions; made His business more material.

Leon.

Didst perceive it ?—

3 it still came home.] This is a sea-faring expression, meaning, the anchor would not take hold.

made

His business more material.] i. e. the more you requested him to stay, the more urgent he represented that business to be which summoned him away.

They're here with me already; whispering, round

ing,7

Sicilia is a so-forth: "Tis far gone,

When I shall gust it last.-How came't, Camillo, That he did stay?

Cam.

At the good queen's entreaty.

Leon. At the queen's, be't: good, should be 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
More than the common blocks :-Not noted, is't
But of the finer natures? by some severals,
Of head-piece extraordinary? lower messes,"
Perchance, are to this business purblind: say.
Cam. Business, my lord? I think, most under-
stand

Bohemia stays here longer.

9

Leon.

Cam.

Leon. Ay, but why?

Ha?

Stays here longer.

Cam. To satisfy your highness, and the entreaties Of our most gracious mistress.

Leon.

Satisfy mistress?satisfy?—

The entreaties of your mistress?

Let that suffice. I have trusted thee, Camillo,
With all the nearest things to my heart, as well
My chamber-councils: wherein, priest-like, thou
Hast cleans'd my bosom; I from thee departed
Thy penitent reform'd: but we have been
Deceiv'd in thy integrity, deceiv'd

In that which seems so.

7 — whispering, rounding,] To round in the ear is to whisper, or to tell secretly.

8

9

-gust it —] i. e. taste it. STEEVENS.

lower messes,] lower messes is perhaps used as an expression to signify the lowest degree about the court.

Cam.

Be it forbid, my lord!

Leon. To bide upon't;-Thou art not honest: or, If thou inclin'st that way, thou art a coward; Which hoxes honesty behind,' restraining

From course requir'd: Or else thou must be counted A servant, grafted in my serious trust,

And therein negligent or else a fool,

That see'st a game play'd home, the rich stake drawn,
And tak'st it all for jest.

Cam.
My gracious lord,
I may be negligent, foolish, and fearful;
In every one of these no man is free,
But that his negligence, his folly, fear,
Amongst the infinite doings of the world,
Sometime puts forth: In your affairs, my lord,
If ever I were wilful-negligent,

It was my folly; if industriously

I play'd the fool, it was my negligence,
Not weighing well the end; if ever fearful
To do a thing, where I the issue doubted,
Whereof the execution did cry out
Against the non-performance,' 'twas a fear
Which oft affects the wisest: these, my lord,
Are such allow'd infirmities, that honesty
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,

"Tis none of mine.

Leon. Have not you seen, Camillo, (But that's past doubt: you have; or your eye-glass

I hoxes honesty behind,] To hox, is to ham-string. The proper word is, to hough, i. e. to cut the hough, or ham-string. Whereof the execution did cry out

2

Against the non-performance,] This is one of the expressions by which Shakspeare too frequently clouds his meaning. This Bounding phrase means, I think, no more than a thing necessary to be done.. Johnson.

Is thicker than a cuckold's horn ;) or heard,
(For, to a vision so apparent, rumour
Cannot be mute,) or thought, (for cogitation
Resides not in that man, that does not think it,)
My wife is slippery? If thou wilt confess,
(Or else be impudently negative,

To have nor eyes, nor ears, nor thought,) then say,
My wife's a hobbyhorse; 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

As deep as that, though true.

Leon.
Is whispering nothing?
Is leaning cheek to cheek? is meeting noses?
Kissing with inside lip? stopping the career
Of laughter with a sigh? (a note infallible
Of breaking honesty :) horsing foot on foot?
Skulking in corners? wishing clocks more swift?
Hours, minutes? noon, midnight? and all eyes
blind

With the pin and web,' but theirs, theirs only,
That would unseen be wicked? is this nothing?
Why, then the world, and all that's in't, is nothing;
The covering sky is nothing; Bohemia nothing;
My wife is nothing; nor nothing have these no-
things,

If this be nothing.

Cam.

Good my lord, be cur'd

Of this diseas'd opinion, and betimes;

For 'tis most dangerous.

Leon.

Say, it be; 'tis true.

the pin and web,] Disorders in the eye.

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