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The mort o'the deer;" O, that is entertainment
My bosom likes not, nor my brows.-Mamillius,

Art thou my boy?>

Mam.

Leon.

Ay, my good lord.

I'fecks ?0

Why, that's my bawcock. What, has 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 POLIXEN ES and HERMIONE.

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

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Leon. 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:" Sweet villain !
Most dear'st! my collop!-Can thy dam?-may't be?

n The mort o'the deer ;] A lesson upon the horn at the death of the deer. STEEVENS.

• I' fecks?] A supposed corruption of—in faith.

P Why, that's my bawcock.] 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. Nares supposes it to mean my young cock from boy and cock.

Still virginalling-] Still playing with her fingers, as a girl playing on the virginals.-JOHNSON. A virginal 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.

Thou want'st a rough pash, and the shoots that I have,] Malone informs us, that a pash in Scotland signifies a head. The meaning is, thou wantest the rough head and the horns that I have to complete your resemblance to your father. o'er-died blacks,] i. e. Old clothes of other colours dyed black. Blacks was the common term for mourning. STEEVENS.

u

bourn] i. e. Boundary.

welkin eye:] Blue eye; an eye of the same colour with the welkin, or

sky.-JOHNSON.

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my collop!] So, in The First Part of King Henry VI.

"God knows, thou art a collop of my flesh."

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.

Her. He something seems unsettled.

Pol.

What means Sicilia?

How, my lord?

You look,

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

Her.

As if you held a brow of much distraction:

Are you mov'd, my lord?

Leon.

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,
In my green velvet coat; my dagger muzzled,
Lest it should bite its master, and so prove,
As ornaments oft do, too dangerous,

How like, methought, I then was to this kernel,

b

This squash, this gentleman :-Mine honest friend,
Will you take eggs for money?

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

y Affection! thy intention stabs the center:] Affection means here imagination, or perhaps more accurately," the disposition of the mind when strongly affected or possessed by a particular idea." Intention is eagerness of attention.

STEEVENS and M. MASON.

2- credent,] i. e. Credible.

a Leon. What cheer? &c.] This line is the property of Leontes in all the folios, and has been most arbitrarily given to Polixenes by the modern editors. Every actor will be glad to have it restored. Leontes, startled from his moody abstraction by the sudden address of Polixenes, endeavours to conceal the disturbance of his mind by an assumed tone of cheerfulness and careless ease. b This squash,] A squash is a pea-pod, in that state when the young peas begin to swell in it.-HENLEY.

Will you take eggs for money?] The meaning of this is, will you put up affronts? The French have a proverbial saying, A qui vendez vouz coquilles? i. e, Whom do you design to affront? Mamillius's answer plainly proves it. Mam. No, my Lord, I'll fight.—SMITH.

Leon. You will? why, happy man be his dole !d-
My brother,

Are you so fond of your young prince, as we

Do seem to be of ours ?

Pol.
If at home, sir,
He's all my exercise, my mirth, my matter:
Now my sworn friend, and then mine enemy;
My parasite, my soldier, statesman, all :

He makes a July's day short as December;
And, with his varying childness, cures in me
Thoughts that would thick my blood.

Leon.

So stands this squire

Offic'd with me: We two will walk, my lord,

And leave you to your graver steps.-Hermione,
How thou lov'st us, show in our brother's welcome;
Let what is dear in Sicily, be cheap :

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

Apparente to my heart.

Her.

If you would seek us,

We are your's i'the garden: Shall's attend you there?

Leon. To your own bents dispose you: you'll be found, 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 allowings husband! Gone already; Inch-thick, knee-deep, o'er head and ears a fork'd one."

[Exeunt POLIXENES, HERMIONE, and Attendants.

Go, play, boy, play :-thy mother plays, and I
Play too; but so disgrac'd a part, whose issue
Will hiss me to my grave; contempt and clamour

d

happy man be his dole !—] May his dole or share in life be to be a happy man.-JOHNSON. The expression is proverbial, and has been explained in the Taming of the Shrew, act i. sc. 1.

e Apparent] That is, heir apparent, or the next claimant.-JOHNSON.

f the neb,] The bill or beak. The word is commonly pronounced and written nib. It signifies here the mouth.

8

h

allowing-] This word in old language means approving.-MALONE.

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

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 present,
Now, while I speak this, holds his wife by the arm,
That little thinks she has been sluic'd in his absence,
And his pond fish'd by his next neighbour, by
Sir Smile, his neighbour: nay, there's comfort in't,
Whiles other men have gates; and those gates open'd,
As mine, against their will: Should all despair,
That have revolted wives, the tenth of mankind
Would hang themselves. Physick for't there is none;
It is a bawdy planet, that will strike

Where 'tis predominant; and 'tis 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.

What! Camillo there?

Cam. Ay, my good lord.

Why, that's some comfort.

Leon. Go play, Mamillius; thou'rt an honest man.

[Exit MAMILLius.

Camillo, this great sir will yet stay longer.

Cam. You had much ado to make his anchor hold :

When you cast out, it still came home.i

Leon.

Didst note it?

Cam. He would not stay at your petitions; made His business more material.k

Leon.

Didst perceive it?

They're here with me already; whispering, rounding,'
Sicilia is a so-forth: 'Tis far gone,

i — it still came home.] This is a seafaring expression, meaning, the anchor would not take hold.-STEEVENS.

His business more material.] i. e. The more you requested him to stay, the more urgent he represented that business to be which summoned him away.— STEEVENS.

1 rounding,] To round, or more properly to rown in the ear means to tell secretly and to whisper, but rounding in this place seems to mean hinting, or telling by circumlocution.

J

When I shall gust it last.-How came't, Camillo,
That he did stay?

Cam.

At the good queen's entreaty.

Leon. At the queen's, be't: good, should be perti

nent;

But so it is, it is not. Was this taken
By any understanding pate but thine?
For thy conceit is soaking," will draw in
More than common blocks :-Not noted, is't,
But of the finer natures? by some severals,
Of head-piece extraordinary? lower messes,
Perchance, are to this business purblind: say.
Cam. Business, my lord? I think, most understand
Bohemia stays here longer.

Leon.

Cam.

Leon. Ay, but why?

Ha?

Stays here longer.

Cam. To satisfy your highness, and the entreaties Of our most gracious mistress.

Leon.

Satisfy

The entreaties of your mistress?-satisfy?—
Let that suffice. I have trusted thee, Camillo,
With all the nearest things to my heart, as well
My chamber-councils: wherein, priest-like, thou
Hast cleans'd my bosom; I from thee departed
Thy penitent reform'd: but we have been
Deceiv'd in thy integrity, deceiv'd

In that which seems so.

Cam.

Be it forbid, my lord!

Leon. To bide upon't:-Thou art not honest: or, If thou inclin'st that way, thou art a coward:

Which hoxes honesty behind," restraining

From course requir'd or else thou must be counted
A servant, grafted in my serious trust,

And therein negligent: or else a fool,

m

n

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gust it-] i. e. Taste it.-STEEVENS.
soaking] i. e. Absorbent.

messes,] A mess is a party dining together: lower messes is used as an expression to signify the lowest degrees about the court.-STEEVENS.

P

hoxes,] i. e. Ham-strings. The proper word is, to hough, i. e. To cut the hough, or ham-string.

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