Mam. Nay, that's a mock: I've seen a lady's nose That has been blue, but not her eye-brows.

2 Lady. Hark ye:

The queen, your mother, rounds apace: we shall
Present our services to a fine new prince,

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, sir, now I am for you again: Pray you, sit by us,

And tell's a tale.

Mam. Merry, or sad, shall't be ?

Her. As merry as you will.

Mam. A sad tale's best for winter:

I have one of sprites and goblins.

Her. Let's have that, sir.

Come on, sit down :-Come on, and do your best

To fright me with your sprites: you're powerful at it. Mam. There was a man,—

Her. Nay, come, sit down; then on.

Mam. Dwelt by a church-yard;-I will tell it softly; Yon crickets shall not hear it.

Her. Come on then,

And give't me in mine ear.

Enter LEONTES, ANTIGONUS, Lords, and others.

Leo. Was he met there? his train? Camillo with him? 1 Lord. Behind the tuft of pines I met them; never Saw I men scour so on their way: I ey'd them Even to their ships.

Leo. How bless'd am I

In my just censure ?9 in my true opinion?—
Alack, for lesser knowledge !'-How accurs'd
In being so blest! There may be in the cup
A spider steep'd, and one may drink; depart,
And yet partake no venom; for his knowledge
Is not infected: but if one present

[9] Censure, in the time of our author, was generally used (as in this instance,) for judgment, opinion. MALONE.

[1] That is, O that my knowledge were less. JOHNSON.

[2] That spiders were esteemed venomous appears by the evidence of a person who was examined in Sir T. Overbury's affair: The Countesse wished me to get the strongest poyson I could, &c. Accordingly I bought seven-great spiders and cantharides." HENDERSON

Th' abhorr'd ingredient to his eye, make known

How he hath drank, he cracks his gorge, his sides,
With violent hefts :3-I have drank, and seen the spider.
Camillo was his help in this, his pander :-
There is a plot against my life, my crown;
All's true that is mistrusted :—that false villain,
Whom I employ'd, was pre-employ'd by him :
He has discover'd my design, and I

Remain a pinch'd thing; yea, a very trick

For them to play at will:-How came the posterns
So easily open?

1 Lord. By his great authority;

Which often hath no less prevail'd than so,
On your command.

Leo. I know't too well.

Give me the boy; I am glad, you did not nurse him :
Though he does bear some signs of me, yet you

Have too much blood in him.

Her. What is this? sport ?

Leo. Bear the boy hence, he shall not come about her: Away with him :-and let her sport herself

With that she's big with; for 'tis Polixenes

Has made thee swell thus.

Her. But I'd say, he had not;

And, I'll be sworn, you would believe my saying,
Howe'er you lean to th' nayward.

Leo. You, my lords,

Look on her, mark her well; be but about

To say, she is a goodly lady, and

The justice of your hearts will thereto add,

'Tis pity she's not honest, honourable :

Praise her but for this her without-door form,

(Which, on my faith, deserves high speech,) and straight The shrug, the hum, or ha; these petty brands, That calumny doth use :-O, I am out,

That mercy does; for calumny will sear

Virtue itself:-these shrugs, these hums, and ha's,
When you have said, she's goodly, come between,
Ere you can say she's honest: But be it known,
From him that has most cause to grieve it should be,
She's an adultress.

Her. Should a villain say so,

[3] Hefts are heavings. STEEVENS.

The most replenish'd villain in the world,

He were as much more villain: you, my lord,
Do but mistake.'

Leo. You have mistook, my lady,

Polixenes for Leontes: O thou thing,
Which I'll not call a creature of thy place,
Lest barbarism, making me the precedent,
Should a like language use to all degrees,
And mannerly distinguishment leave out
Betwixt the prince and beggar!—I have said,
She's an adultress; I have said with whom:
More, she's a traitor; and Camillo is

A federary with her ; and one that knows
What she should shame to know herself,
But with her most vile principal," that she's
A bed-swerver, even as bad as those
That vulgars give bold titles; ay, and privy
To this their late escape.

Her. No, by my life,

Privy to none of this: How will this grieve you,
When you shall come to clearer knowledge, that
You thus have publish'd me? Gentle my lord,
You scarce can right me throughly then, to say
You did mistake.

Leo. No, no; if I mistake

In those foundations which I build upon,
The centre is not big enough to bear

A school-boy's top.-Away with her to prison:
He, who shall speak for her, is afar off guilty,
But that he speaks.

Her. There's some ill planet reigns:

[4] Otway had this passage in his thoughts, when he put the following lines into the mouth of Castalio:

"Should the bravest man

That e'er wore conquering sword but dare to whisper
What thou proclaim'st, he were the worst of liars:
My friend may be mistaken." STEEVENS.

[5] A federary (perhaps a word of our author's coinage) is a confederate, an accomplice. STEEVENS.

[6] But, which is here used for only, renders this passage somewhat obscure. MALONE.

[7] That is, if the proofs which I can offer will not support the opinion I have formed, no foundation can be trusted. JOHNSON.

Milton has expressed the same thought in more exalted language:

-"if this fail,

The pillar'd firmament is rottenness,

And earth's base built on stubble." STEEVENS.

I must be patient, till the heavens look

With an aspéct more favourable.-Good my lords,
I am not prone to weeping, as our sex

Commonly are; the want of which vain dew,
Perchance, shall dry your pities: but I have
That honourable grief lodg'd here, which burns
Worse than tears drown: 'Beseech you all, my lords,
With thoughts so qualified as your charities

Shall best instruct you, measure me ;—and so

The king's will be perform'd!

Leo. Shall I be heard?

[To the Guards.

Her. Who is't, that goes with me?—'beseech your highness,

My women may be with me; for, you see,

My plight requires it. Do not weep, good fools;

There is no cause when you shall know, your mistress Has deserv'd prison, then abound in tears,

As I come out: this action, I now go on,

Is for my better grace.—Adieu, my

lord:

I never wish'd to see you sorry; now,

I trust, I shall.-My women, come; you have leave.
Leo. Go, do our bidding; hence.

[Exeunt Queen and Ladies. 1 Lord. 'Beseech your highness, call the queen again. Ant. Be certain what you do, sir; lest your justice Prove violence; in the which three great ones suffer, Yourself, your queen, your son.

1 Lord. For her, my lord,

I dare my life lay down, and will do't, sir,

Please you t' accept it, that the queen is spotless

I' th' eyes of heaven, and to you; I mean,

In this which you accuse her.

Ant. If it prove

She's otherwise, I'll keep my stables where

I lodge my wife; I'll go in couples with her;

Than when I feel, and see her, no further trust her;
For every inch of woman in the world,

[8] An astrological phrase. The aspect of the stars was anciently a familiar term, and continued to be such till the age in which Milton tells us―

"--the swart star sparely looks." STEEVENS.

[9] In the Teutonick language, hund-stall or dog-stable, is the term for a kennel. Stables or stable, however, may mean station, stabillis statio, and two distinct propositions may be intended. I'll keep my station in the same place where my wife is lodged; I'll run every where with her, like dogs that are coupled together.

MALONE.

Ay, every dram of woman's flesh, is false,
If she be.

Leo. Hold your peaces.

1 Lord. 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 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 co-heirs;
And I had rather glib myself, than they
Should not produce fair issue.

Leo. Cease; no more.

You smell this business with a sense as cold
As is a dead man's nose: I see't, and feel't,
As you feel doing thus ; and see withal

The instruments that feel.'

Ant. If it be so,

We need no grave to bury honesty ;

There's not a grain of it, the face to sweeten
Of the whole dungy earth.

Leo. 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.

Leo. Why, what need we

Commune with you of this? but rather follow
Our forceful instigation? Our prerogative

Calls not your counsels; but our natural goodness
Imparts this which, if you (or stupified,

:

Or seeming so in skill,) cannot, or will not,
Relish as truth, like us; inform yourselves,
We need no more of your advice: the matter,

[1]Land-damn is probably one of those words which caprice brought into fashion, and which after a short time, reason and grammar drove irrecoverably away. It perhaps meant no more than I will rid the country of him, condemn him to quit the land. JOHNSON.

[2] Some stage direction seems necessary in this place; but what that direction should be, it is not easy to decide. Dr. Johnson gives-striking his brows. STEEVENS. Leontes must here be supposed to lay hold of either the beard, or arm, or some other part of Antigonus. MALONE.