Your Queen and I are devils.. Yet, go on;-
Th' offences we have made you do, we'll anfwer;
If you firft finn'd with us, and that with us
You did continue fault; and that you flipt 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 deareft, thou ne'er spok❜ft To better purpose..

Her Never?

Leo. Never, but once.

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

I pr'ythee, tell me; cram's with praise, and make's As fat as tame things: one good deed, dying tongue

lefs,

Slaughters a thoufand, waiting upon that..
Our praises are our wages. You may ride's
With one foft kiss a thousand furlongs, ere
With fpur we heat an acre, but to th' goal.
My laft good deed was to intreat his stay;
What was my firft? it has an elder fifter,

Or I mistake you: O, would her name were Grace!
But once before I fpake to th' purpofe? when?

Grace to boot! i. e. tho' tempta. tions have grown up, yet I hope grace too has kept pace with them. Grace to boot, was a proverbial expreffion on thefe occafions. To the other part, fhe replies, as for our tempting you, pray take heed you draw no conclufion from thence, for that would be making your Queen and me devils, &c.

WARBURTON.

2 With Spur we beat an acre.

But to th' goal: Thus this paffage has been always pointed; whence it appears, that

the Editors did not take the Poet's conceit. They imagined that, But to th' goal meant, but to come to the purpose; but the fenfe is different, and plain enough when the line is pointed thus,

ere

With pur we beat an acre, but to th' goal.

i. e. good ufage will win us to any thing; but, with ill, we ftop fhort, even there where both our intereft and our inclination would otherwife have carried us.

WARBURTON.

Nay,

Nay, let me have't; I long.

Leo. Why, that was when

Three crabbed months had fowr'd themselves to death,
Ere I could make thee open thy white hand,
And clepe thyfelf my love; then didst thou utter,
"I am yours for ever."

Her. 'Tis Grace, indeed.

L

Why, lo
you now; I've spoke to th' purpofe twice;
The one for ever earn'd a royal husband;
Th' other for some while a friend.

Leo. Too hot, too hot

[Afide.

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 bofom,
And well become the Agent: 't may, I grant;
But to be padling palms, and pinching fingers,
As now they are, and making practis'd smiles,
As in a looking-glafs-and then to figh, as 'twere
The mort o' th' deer, oh, that is entertainment
My bofom likes not, nor my brows-Mamillius,
Art thou my boy?

Mam. Ay, my good Lord.

Leo. ' fecks!

Why, that's my bawcock; what? has't fmutch'd thy

nofe?

They fay, 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. Sill virginalling

of the deer.

4

[Obferving Polixenes and Hermione.

3 The mort o' th' deer-] A leffon upon the horn at the death THEOBALD. *We must be neat.] Leontes, feeing his fon's nofe fmutched, cries, we must be neat; then, re

Upon his palm?-how now, you wanton calf!
Art thou my calf?

Mam. Yes, if you will, my Lord.

Leo. Thou want'ft 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 fay any thing; but were they false,
As o'er-dy'd blacks, as winds, as waters; falfe
As dice are to be wifh'd, by one that fixes

*

No bourne 'twixt his and mine; yet were it true To fay, this boy were like me. Come, Sir page, Look on me with your welkin-eye, fweet villain. Moft dear'ft, my collop-can thy dam-may't beImagination! thou doft ftab to th' center.

Thou doft make poffible things not be fo held,
Communicat'ft with dreams- -(how can this be?)
With what's unreal, Thou co-active art,

And fellow'ft Nothing. Then 'tis very credent,
Thou may'ft co-join with fomething, and thou doft,
And that beyond commiffion; and I find it;
And that to the infection of my brains,

And hardning of my brows.

Pol. What means Sicilia?

Her. He fomething feems unfettled.

Pol. How? my Lord?

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

Her. You look

As if you held a brow of much Distraction.

Are not you mov'd, my Lord?

Leo. No, in good earnest.

How fometimes nature will betray its folly
Its tenderness! and make itself a pastime
To harder bofoms! Looking on the lines
Of my boy's face, methoughts, I did recoil
Twenty-three years, and faw myself unbreech'd,

* As o'er-dy'd blacks.] Sir T. Hanmer understands, blacks died too much, and therefore rotten. VOL. II.

5

-welkin eye,] Blue eye; an eye of the fame colour with the welkin, or sky. R

In

In my green velvet coat; my dagger muzzled,
Left it should bite its mafter; and fo prove,
As ornaments oft do, too dangerous;

How like, methought, I then was to this kernel,
This fquafh, this gentleman. Mine honeft friend,
Will you take eggs for money?

Mam. No, my Lord, I'll fight.

*

Leo. You will!-why, happy man be's dole !--
My brother,

Are you fo fond of your young Prince, as we
Do feem to be of ours?

Pol. If at home, Sir,

He's all my exercife, my mirth, my matter;
Now my fworn friend, and then mine enemy;
My parafite, my foldier, ftates-man, all;
He makes a July's day fhort as December;
And with his varying childnefs, cures in me
Thoughts that should thick my blood.
Leo. So ftands this Squire

Offic'd with me: we two will walk, my Lord,
And leave you to your graver fteps. Hermione,
How thou lov❜ft us, fhew in our brother's welcome:
Let what is dear in Sicily, be cheap :

Next to thyself, and my young rover, he's

7

Apparent to my heart.

Her. If you will seek us,

We are yours i'th' garden: fhall's attend you there? Leo. To your own bents difpofe you; you'll be found, Be you beneath the fky.-I am angling now,

Tho' you perceive me not, how I give line;

"Will you take eggs for money?] eggs for money?] This feems to be a proverbial expreffion, used when a man fees himself wronged and makes no refiftance. Its original, or precife meaning, I cannot find, but I believe it means, Will you be a cuckold for hire. The cuckow is reported to lay her eggs in ano

[Afide, obferving Her.

ther bird's neft; he therefore that has eggs laid in his neft, is faid to be cuculatus, cuckow'd, or cuckold.

*-happy man be's dole!-] May his dole or share in life be to be a happy man.

7 Apparent-] That is, beir apparent, or the next claimant.

Go

Go to, go to.

How the holds up the neb! the bill to him!
And arms her with the boldnefs of a wife

[Exe. Polix. Her and attendants. Manent Leo.
Mam. and Cam.

To her allowing hufband. Gone already,
Inch-thick, knee-deep; o'er-head and ears,―a*fork'd

one.

Go, play, boy, play-thy mother plays, and I
Play too; but fo difgrac'd a part, whofe iffue
Will hifs 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 prefent,
Now while I fpeak this, holds his wife by th' arm,
That little thinks, fhe has been fluic'd in's abfence;
And his pond fifh'd by his next neighbour, by
Sir Smile, his neighbour : nay, there's comfort in't,
Whiles other men have gates; and thofe gates open'd,
As mine, againft their will. Should all defpair,
That have revolted wives, the tenth of mankind
Would hang themfelves. Phyfick for't, there is none:
It is a bawdy planet, that will strike

Where 'tis predominant; and 'tis powerful, think it.
From eaft, weft, north and fouth. Be it concluded,
No barricado for a belly. Know't,

It will let in and out the enemy,

With bag and baggage: many a thousand of's Have the difeafe, and feel't not.-How now, boy? Mam. I am like you, they fay.

Leo. Why, that's fome comfort.

What? is Camillo there?

Cam. Ay, my good Lord.

Leo. Go play, Mamill us--Thou'rt an honest man:

[Exit. Mamil.

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