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! Gone already;
Inch-thick, knee-deep; o'er head and ears a

forked one.

[Exeunt POLIXENES, HERMIONE, & Attendants. Go, play, boy, play ;-thy mother plays, and I Play too; but so disgraced 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 deceived, cuckolds ere now;
And many a man there is, even at this present,
Now while I speak this, holds his wife by the arm,
That little thinks she has been sluiced in 's absence,
And his pond fished by his next neighbour; by
Sir Smile, his neighbour. Nay, there's comfort in't,
Whiles other men have gates; and those gates
opened,

As mine, against their will: should all despair,
That have revolted wives, the tenth of mankind
Would hang themselves. Physic for't there's none;
It is a bawdy planet, that will strike

Where 't is predominant; and 't is 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.

Why, that's some comfort.

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,
Sometimes put forth. In your affairs, my lord,
If ever I were wilful-negligent,

It was my folly: if industriously

I played 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, 't was a fear
Which oft affects the wisest :-these, my lord,
Are such allowed 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 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), 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 hobby-horse; 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.

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,

Cam. O miserable lady!-But for me,
What case stand I in? I must be the poisoner
Of good Polixenes: and my ground to do't
Is the obedience to a master; one
Who, in rebellion with himself, will have
All that are his, so too.-To do this deed
Promotion follows. If I could find example
Of thousands that have struck anointed kings,
And flourished after, I'd not do't: but since
Nor brass, nor stone, nor parchment, bears not one,
Let villany itself forswear 't. I must

Forsake the court: to do 't or no, is certain
To me a break-neck. Happy star, reign now!—
Here comes Bohemia.

Pol. The king hath on him such a countenance As he had lost some province, and a region Loved as he loves himself: even now I met him With customary compliment; when he, Wafting his eyes to the contrary, and falling A lip of much contempt, speeds from me; and So leaves me, to consider what is breeding That changes thus his manners.

Cam. I dare not know, my lord.

Pol. How! dare not? do not? Do you know, and dare not

Be intelligent to me? "Tis thereabouts:

For to yourself, what you do know you must,And cannot say you dare not. Good Camillo, Your changed complexions are to me a mirror, Which shews me mine changed too: for I must be A party in this alteration, finding

Myself thus altered with it.

Cam. He thinks, As he had seen 't, To vice you to 't, Forbiddenly. Pol.

nay, with all confidence he swears, or been an instrument

that you have touched his queen

O, then my best blood turn
To an infected jelly; and my name
Be yoked with his, that did betray the Best!
Turn then my freshest reputation to

A savour, that may strike the dullest nostril
Where I arrive; and my approach be shunned,
Nay, hated too, worse than the great'st infection
That e'er was heard or read!

Cam. Swear his thought over
By each particular star in heaven, and
By all their influences, you may as well
Forbid the sea for to obey the moon,
As, or by oath, remove, or counsel, shake
The fabric of his folly; whose foundation
Is piled upon his faith, and will contiuue
The standing of his body.

Cam. I know not: but I am sure 'tis safer to Avoid what's grown, than question how 'tis born. If therefore you dare trust my honesty,— That lies enclosed in this trunk, which you Shall bear along impawned,-away to-night. Your followers I will whisper to the business; And will, by twos and threes, at several posterns, Clear them of the city for myself, I'll put My fortunes to your service, which are here By this discovery lost. Be not uncertain; For, by the honour of my parents, I Have uttered truth: which if you I dare not stand by; nor shall you be safer Than one condemned by the king's own mouth, thereon

seek to prove,

I saw his heart in his face. Give me thy hand;
Be pilot to me, and thy places shall
Still neighbour mine. My ships are ready, and
My people did expect my hence departure
Two days ago.-This jealousy

Is for a precious creature as she's rare,
Must it be great; and, as his person's mighty,
Must it be violent; and as he does conceive
He is dishonoured by a man which ever
Professed to him, why, his revenges must
In that be made more bitter. Fear o'ershades me:
Good expedition be my friend, and comfort
The gracious queen, part of his theme, but nothing
Of his ill-ta'en suspicion! Come, Camillo;
I will respect thee as a father, if
Thou bear'st my life off hence. Let us avoid.
Cam. It is in mine authority to command
The keys of all the posterns: please your highness
To take the urgent hour. Come, sir, away.

[Exeunt.

Saw I men scour so on their way. I eyed them Even to their ships.

Leon. How blessed am I

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

The abhorred ingredient to his eye, make known
How he hath drunk, he cracks his gorge, his

(Which, on my faith, deserves high speech), and straight

The shrug, the "hum," or "ha;" these petty brands
That calumny doth use :-(0, I am out,-
That mercy does; for calumny will sear
Virtue itself:)—these shrugs, these "hums," and
"has,"

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,

Should a villain say so,

She's an adultress.
Her.
The most replenished villain in the world,
He were as much more villain: you, my lord,
Do but mistake.

Leon.

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'st titles; ay, and privy To this their late escape.