Leon. 1 Lord. Hold your peaces. 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-damn 13 him: Be she honour-flaw'd,I have three daughters; the eldest is eleven; The second, and the third, nine, and some five; 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 coheirs; And I had rather glib 14 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, As you feel doing thus; and see withal The instruments that feel15. Ant. If it be so, We need no grave to bury honesty; 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 Commune with you of this? but rather follow Our forceful instigation? Our prerogative 13 I would land-damn him. Johnson interprets this: "I will damn or condemn him to quit the land. It may have meant to encompass him by land, ensnare him: and then it should be printed land-damm: we have words of the same formation, as landlockt, &c. Hanmer's interpretation from lant or land urine wants support. Mr. Nares thinks that it suits best with the gross complexion of the whole speech. 14 Glib or lib, i. e. castrate. 15 I see and feel my disgrace, as you, Antigonus, now feel my doing this to you, and as you now see the instruments that feel, i. e. my fingers. Leontes must here be supposed to touch or lay hold of Antigonus. Calls not your counsels; but our natural goodness Ant. And I wish, my liege, You had only in your silent judgment tried it, Leon. How could that be? Either thou art most ignorant by age, Or thou wert born a fool. Camillo's flight, (Which was as gross as ever touch'd conjecture, That lack'd sight only, nought for approbation 17, But only seeing, all other circumstances Made up to the deed) doth push on this proceeding: Of stuff'd sufficiency18: Now, from the oracle Leon. Though I am satisfied, and need no more Come up to the truth: So have we thought it good, 16 The old copy reads a truth. Rowe made the correction. 17 i. e. proof. 18 i. e. of abilities more than sufficient. Vol. IV. 2* We are to speak in public: for this business Ant. [Aside.] To laughter, as I take it, SCENE II. [Exeunt. The same. The outer Room of a Prison. Enter PAULINA and Attendants. Paul. The keeper of the prison,-call to him; [Exit an Attendant. Let him have knowledge who I am.-Good lady! No court in Europe is too good for thee, What dost thou then in prison?-Now, good sir, Re-enter Attendant, with the Keeper. You know me, do you not? Keeper. And one whom much I honour. Paul. Conduct me to the queen. For a worthy lady, Pray you, then, Keep. I may not, madam; to the contrary I have express commandment. Paul. Here's ado, The access of gentle visitors!--Is it lawful, Keep. So please you, madam, to put Apart these your attendants,. I shall bring Paul. I pray now, call her. Withdraw yourselves. Кеер. [Exeunt Attend. And, madam, I must be present at your conference. Paul. Well, be it so, pr'ythee. [Erit Keeper. Here's such ado to make no stain a stain, As passes colouring. Biol Re-enter Keeper, with EMILIA. Dear gentlewoman, how fares our gracious lady? Emil. A daughter; and a goodly babe, Lusty, and like to live: the queen receives Much comfort in't: says, My poor prisoner, I am innocent as you. Paul. I dare be sworn: These dangerous unsafe lunes1 o'the king! beshrew them! He must be told on't, and he shall: the office The trumpet any more:-Pray you, Emilia, Emil. Most worthy madam, Your honour, and your goodness, is so evident, That your free undertaking cannot miss A thriving issue; there is no lady living, So meet for this great errand: Please your ladyship Acquaint the queen of your most noble offer; Lunes. This word has not been found in any other English writer; but it is used in old French for frenzy, lunacy, folly. A similar expression occurs in The Revenger's Tragedy, 1608: T know it was but some peevish moon in him. In As You Like It, we have the expression, a moonish youth. But durst not tempt a minister of honour, Paul. Tell her, Emilia, I'll use that tongue I have: if wit flow from it, Emil. Now be you blest for it! I'll to the queen: Please you, come something nearer. Keep. Madam, if't please the queen to send the babe, I know not what I shall incur, to pass it, Paul. You need not fear it, sir: The child was prisoner to the womb; and is, By law and process of great nature, thence Freed and enfranchis'd: not a party to The anger of the king; nor guilty of, If any be, the trespass of the queen. Keep. I do believe it. Paul. Do not you fear: upon Mine honour, I will stand 'twixt you and danger. [Exeunt. SCENE III. The same. A Room in the Palace. Enter LEONTES, ANTIGONUS, Lords, and other Attendants. Leon. Nor night, nor day, no rest: It is but weakness To bear the matter thus; mere weakness, if The cause were not in being; part o' the cause, She, the adultress;-for the harlot king Is quite beyond mine arm, out of the blank And level of my brain, plot-proof: but she I can hook to me: Say, that she were gone, 1 Blank und level mean mark and aim, or direction. They are terms of gunnery See note 8, p. 48, of this play. Thus also in Hamlet, Act iv. Sc. 4: 'As level as the cannon to his blank. |