Leo. Stay your thanks awhile;
And pay them when you part.
Pol. Sir, that's to-morrow.

I am question'd by my fears, of what may chance,
Or breed upon our absence: That may blow
No sneaping winds at home," to make us say,
This is put forth too truly! Besides, I have stay'd
To tire your royalty.

Leo. We are tougher, brother,
Than you can put us to't.

Pol. No longer stay

Leo. One seven-night longer.

Pol. Very sooth, to-morrow.

Leo. We'll part the time between's then and in that I'll no gain-saying.

Pol. Press me not, 'beseech you, so;

There is no tongue that moves, none, none i'th' world,
So soon as yours, could win me so it should now,
Were there necessity in your request, although
'Twere 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.

Leo. Tongue-tied, our queen? speak you.

Her. I had thought, sir, to have held my peace, until
You had drawn oaths from him, not to stay. You, sir,
Charge him too coldly: Tell him, you are sure,
All in Bohemia's well: this satisfaction

The by-gone day proclaim'd; say this to him,
He's beat from his best ward.

Leo. Well said, Hermione.

Her. To tell, he longs to see his son, were strong:

But let him say so then, and let him go;

But let him swear so, and he shall not stay,
We'll thwack him hence with distaffs.-
Yet of your royal presence I'll adventure

[TO POLIXENES

The borrow of a week. When at Bohemia
You take my lord, I'll give him my commission,

Nipping winds. HOLT WHITE.

We had satisfactory accounts yesterday of the state of Bohemia. JOHNSON
VOL. III.

2

To let him there a month, behind the gest
Prefix'd for's parting: yet, good deed, Leontes,
I love thee not a jar o' th' clock behind

What lady she her lord."--You'll stay?

Pol. No, madam.

Her. Nay, but you will?

Pol. I may not, verily

Her. Verily!

You put me off with limber vows: But I,

Though you would seek t' 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,

One of them you shall be.

Pol. Your guest then, madam:

To be your prisoner, should import offending;
Which is for me less easy to commit,

Than you to punish.

Of

Her. Not your gaoler then,

But your kind hostess. Come, I'll question you
my lord's tricks, and yours, when you were boys;
You were pretty lordlings then.'

Pol. We were, fair queen,

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

And to be boy eternal.

Her. Was not my lord the verier wag o' th' two?

Pol. We were as twinn'd lambs, that did frisk i'th 'sun, And bleat the one at th' other: what we chang'd,

Was innocence for innocence; we knew not
The doctrine of ill-doing, no, nor dream'd
That any did: Had we pursued that life,

And our weak spirits ne'er been higher rear'd

[7] In the time of royal progresses the king's stages, as we may see by the journals of them in the herald's office, were called his gests; from the old French word giste diversorium. WARBURTON.

Gests, or rather gists, from the French giste, (which signifies both a bed, and a lodging place,) were the names of the houses or towns where the King or Prince intended to lie every night during his progress. MALONE.

[8] A jar is, I believe, a single repetition of the noise made by the pendulum of

a clock; what children call the ticking of it. STEEVENS.

[9] This diminutive of lord is often used by Chaucer. STEEVENS.

With stronger blood, we should have answer'd heaven Boldly, Not guilty; the imposition clear'd,

Hereditary ours.'

Her. By this we gather,

You have tripp'd since.

Pol. O my most sacred lady,

Temptations have since then been born to us: for
In those unfledg'd days was my wife a girl;
Your precious self had then not cross'd the eyes
Of my young play-fellow.

Her. Grace to boot!

Of this make no conclusion; lest you say,
Your queen and I are devils: Yet, go on;
The offences we have made you do, we'll answer;
If you first sinn'd with us, and that with us
You did continue fault, and that you slipp'd not
With any but with us.

Leo. Is he won yet?

Her. He'll stay, my lord.

Leo. At my request, he would not.

Hermione, my dearest, thou never spok❜st

To better purpose.

Her. Never?

Leo. Never, but once.

Her. What? have I twice said well? when was't before?

I pr'ythee, tell me : Cram us with praise, and make us
As fat as tame things: One good deed, dying tongueless
Slaughters a thousand, waiting upon that.

Our praises are our wages: You may ride us,
With one soft kiss, a thousand furlongs, ere

With spur we heat an acre.

But to the goal ;— My last good was, to entreat his stay;

What was my first? it has an elder sister,

Or I mistake you: O, would her name were Grace !
But once before I spoke to th' purpose: When?

Nay, let me have't; I long.

Leo. Why, that was when

Three crabbed months had sour'd themselves to death, Ere I could make thee open thy white hand,

[1] That is, setting aside originat sin; bating the imposition from the offence of our first parents, we might have boldly protested our innocence to Heaven.

WARBURTON

And clap thyself my love; then didst thou utter,

I am yours for ever.

Her. It is Grace, indeed.—

Why, lo you now, I have spoke to the purpose twice: The one for ever earn'd a royal husband;

The other, for some while a friend.

[Giving her hand to POLIXENES.

Leo. Too hot, too hot:
To mingle friendship far, is mingling bloods.
I have tremor cordis on me :-my heart dances;
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 be paddling palms, and pinching fingers,
As now they are; and making practis'd smiles,
As in a looking-glass ;—and then to sigh, as 'twere
The mort o' th' deer;3 O, that is entertainment
My bosom likes not, nor my brows.-Mamillius,
Art thou my boy?

Mam. Ay, my good lord.

Leo. I'fecks ?*

[Aside.

Why, that's my bawcock. What, hast smutch'd thy nose?
-They say, it's a copy out of mine. Come, captain,
We must be neat; not neat, but cleanly, captain:

And yet the steer, the heifer, and the calf,

Are all call'd, neat.—Still virginalling

[Observing POLIX. and HERMI.

Upon his palm ?-How now, you wanton calf?

Art thou my calf?

Mam. Yes, if you will, my lord.

[2] She opened her hand, to clap the palm of it into his, as people do when they confirm a bargain. Hence the phrase-to clap up a bargain, i. e. make one with no other ceremony than the junction of hands. This was a regular part of the ceremony of troth-plighting, to which Shakespeare often alludes. MALONE.

[3] A lesson upon the horn at the death of the deer. THEOBALD. [4] A supposed corruption of-in faith. Our present vulgar pronounce it--fegs STEEVENS

[5] Perhaps from beau and coq. It is still said in vulgar language that such a one is a jolly cock, a cock of the game. STEEVENS.

[6] Still playing with her fingers, as a girl playing on the virginals.

JOHNSON. A virginal, as I am informed is a very small kind of spinnet. Queen Elizabeth's virginal-book is yet in being, and many of the lessons in it have proved so difficult as to baffle our most expert players on the harpsichord. STEEVENS.

A virginal was strung like a spinnet, and shaped like a piano forte. MALONE.

Leo. Thou want'st a rough pash, and the shoots that I

have,"

To be full like me :-yet, they say, we are
Almost as like as eggs; women say so,
That will say any thing: But were they false
As o'er-died blacks, as wind, as waters; false
As dice are to be wish'd, 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:9 Sweet villain!
Most dear'st! my collop!-Can thy dam?-may't be?
Affection! thy intention stabs the center:'

Thou dost make possible, things not so held,*
Communicat'st with dreams ;-(How can this be?)—
With what's unreal thou coactive art,

And fellow'st nothing: Then, 'tis very credent,
Thou may'st co-join with something; and thou dost;
(And that beyond commission; and I find it)
And that to the infection of my brains,

And hardening of my brows.

Pol. What means Sicilia ?

Her. He something seems unsettled.
Pol. How, my lord?

What cheer? how is't with you, best brother?

Her. You look,

As if you held a brow of much distraction:
Are you mov'd, my lord?

Leo. No, in good earnest.—

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, methoughts, I did recoil
Twenty-three years; and saw myself unbreech'd,

[7] Thou want'st a rough pash, and the shoots that I have, in connexion with the context, signifies-to make thee a calf thou must have the tuft on thy forehead and the young horns that shoot up in it, as I have. HENLEY.

I have lately learned that pash in Scotland signifies a head. Many words, that are now only used in that country, were perhaps once common to the whole island of Great Britain, or at least to the northern part of England. MALONE.

[8] It is common with tradesmen, to die their faded or damaged stuff's black. O'er-died blacks may mean those which have received a die over their former colour. STEEVENS.

[9] Blue-eye; an eye of the same colour with the welkin, or sky. JOHNSON. [1] Intention, in this passage, means eagerness of attention. M. MASON. [21 i. e. thou dost make those things possible, which are conceived to be impossible. JOHNSON.

[3] Credent-i e. credible. STEEVENS.