I play'd 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 34, 'twas a fear
Which oft infects the wisest. These, my lord,
Are such allow'd 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 35)—
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

34 Whereof the execution did cry out

Against the non-performance.

less

This is expressed obscurely, but seems to mean "the execution of which (when done) cried out against the non-performance of it before;" or, the non-performance of which was impeached afterwards by the crying reasons that favoured its execution.

35 Leontes means to say, "Have you not thought that my wife is slippery (for cogitation resides not in that man that does not think my wife is slippery?") The four latter words, though disjoined from the word think by the necessity of a parenthesis, are evidently to be connected in construction with it.

Than this, which to reiterate, were sin
As deep as that, though true 36

Leon. Is whispering nothing? 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 web37, 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 nothings, If this be nothing.

Cam.

Good my lord, be cur'd

Of this diseas'd opinion, and betimes;

For 'tis most dangerous.

Say, it be; 'tis true.

It is: you lie, you

lie:

I say, thou liest, Camillo, and I hate thee;
Pronounce thee a gross lout, a mindless slave;
Or else a hovering temporizer, that

Canst with thine eyes at once see good and evil,
Inclining to them both: Were my wife's liver
Infected as her life, she would not live

The running of one glass 38.

Cam.

Who does infect her?

Leon. Why he, that wears her like her medal 39, .

hanging

36 To reiterate your accusation of her would be as great a sin as that (if committed) of which you accuse her.

37 The pin and web is the cataract in an early stage. See King Lear, Act iii. Sc. 4.

38 One glass, i. e. one hour.

39 Thus the old copy; later editors have his. The allusion is

About his neck, Bohemia: Who-if I

Had servants true about me: that bare eyes
To see alike mine honour as their profits,

Their own particular thrifts,—they would do that
Which should undo more doing: Ay, and thou,
His cup-bearer,—whom I from meaner form
Have bench'd, and rear'd to worship; who may'st see
Plainly, as heaven sees earth, and earth sees heaven,
How I am gall'd,-might'st bespice a cup 40,

To give mine enemy a lasting wink;

Which draught to me were cordial.

Cam.

Sir, my lord,

I could do this: and that with no rash 11 potion,
But with a ling'ring dram, that should not work
Maliciously like poison: But I cannot

Believe this crack to be in my dread mistress,
So sovereignly being honourable.

I have lov'd thee,

Leon.

Make that thy question, and go rot 42!

Dost think I am so muddy, so unsettled,
To appoint myself in this vexation? sully
The purity and whiteness of my sheets,
Which to preserve, is sleep; which being spotted,
Is goads, thorns, nettles, tails of wasps?
Give scandal to the blood o' the prince my son,
(Who, I do think is mine, and love as mine)

to the custom of wearing a medallion or jewel appended to a ribbon about the neck. Thus in Gervase Markham's Honour in Perfection, 1624, "he hath hung about the neck of his kinsman, Sir Horace Vere, like a rich jewel."

40 Bespice a cup. So in Chapman's Translation of the tenth book of the Odyssey:

"With a festival

She'll first receive thee; but will spice thy bread
With flowery poisons."

41 Rash is hasty; as in King Henry IV. Part II. "rash gunpowder." Maliciously is malignantly, with effects openly hurtful. 42 Make that (i. e. Hermione's disloyalty, which is a clear point) a subject of doubt, and go rot!

Without ripe moving to't? Would I do this?
Could man so blench 43?

Cam.

I must believe you, sir;

I do and will fetch off Bohemia for❜t;

:

Provided, that when he's remov'd, your highness
Will take again your queen, as yours at first;
Even for your son's sake; and, thereby, for sealing
The injury of tongues in courts and kingdoms

Known and allied to yours.

Leon.

Thou dost advise me,

Even so as I mine own course have set down:

I'll give no blemish to her honour, none.

Cam. My lord,

Go then; and with a countenance as clear

As friendship wears at feasts, keep with Bohemia,
And with your queen: I am his cupbearer;

If from me he have wholesome beverage,

Account me not your servant.

Leon.

Do't and thou hast the one half of

This is all :

my heart;

I'll do't, my

lord.

Do't not, thou split'st thine own.

Cam.
Leon. I will seem friendly, as thou hast advis'd me.

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 had struck anointed kings,

[Exit.

43 To blench is to start off, to shrink. Thus in Hamlet :"If he do blench,

I know my course."

Leontes means, could any man so start or fly off from propriety of behaviour?

And flourish'd after, I'd not do't: but since

Nor brass, nor stone, nor parchment, bears not one, Let villainy 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.

Enter POLIXENES.

This is strange! methinks,

My favour here begins to warp. Not speak?

Good day, Camillo.

Cam.

Pol. What is the news i'the court?

Cam.

Hail, most royal sir!

None rare, my

lord.

Pol. The king hath on him such a countenance, As he had lost some province, and a region, Lov'd 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 chang'd complexions are to me a mirror,
Which shows me mine chang'd too: for I must be
A party in this alteration, finding

Myself thus alter'd with it.

Cam.

There is a sickness

Which puts some of us in distemper; but
I cannot name the disease; and it is caught
Of you that yet are well.