2

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 sides
With violent hefts.3-I have drunk, and seen the
spider.

Camillo was his help in this, his pander.-
There is a plot against my life, my crown;
All's true that is mistrusted.-That false villain,
Whom I employed, was pre-employed by him:
He has discovered my design, and I

4

Remain a pinched thing; yea, a very trick
For them to play at will.-How came the posterns
So easily open?

1 Lord.

By his great authority; Which often hath no less prevailed than so,

On your command.

Leon.

I know't too well.

Give me the boy; I am glad you did not nurse him. Though he does bear some signs of me, yet you Have too much blood in him.

Her.

Leon. Bear the boy hence;

her;

What is this? sport?

he shall not come about

Away with him ;-and let her sport herself
With that she's big with; for 'tis Polixenes
Has made thee swell thus.

Her.

But I'd say, he had not,

You, my lords,

And, I'll be sworn, you would believe my saying,
Howe'er you lean to the nayward.

Leon.

Look on her, mark her well; be but about

1 That is, O that my knowledge were less!

2 Spiders were esteemed poisonous in our author's time.

3 Hefts, heavings.

4 i. e. "a thing pinched out of clouts; a puppet for them to move and actuate as they please."

To say, She is a goodly lady, and

The justice of your hearts will thereto add, 'Tis pity, she's not honest, honorable.

Praise her but for this her without-door form,

(Which, on my faith, deserves high speech,) and straight
The shrug, the hum, or ha: these petty brands,
That calumny doth use ;-O, I am out;
That mercy does; for calumny will sear

Virtue itself;-these shrugs, these hums, and ha's,
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,
She's an adult'ress.

Her.

Should a villain say so,

The most replenish 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 adult'ress; I have said with whom ;
More, she's a traitor! and Camillo is

A federary1 with her; and one that knows
What she should shame to know herself,

2

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.

Her.

No, by my life,
Privy to none of this. How will this grieve you,
When you shall come to clearer knowledge, that
You thus have published me? Gentle my lord,

1 Federary, confederate, accomplice.

2 One that knows what she should be ashamed to know herself, even if the knowledge of it was shared but with her paramour. It is the use of but for be-out (only, according to Malone) that obscures the sense.

You scarce can right me throughly, then, to say
You did mistake.

Leon.

No, no; if I mistake In those foundations which I build upon,

The centre is not big enough to bear

A school-boy's top.1 Away with her to prison.
He who shall speak for her, is afar off guilty,
But that he speaks.2

Her.

There's some ill planet reigns. I must be patient till the heavens look

With an aspect more favorable.-Good my lords,
I am not prone to weeping, as our sex
Commonly are; the want of which vain dew,
Perchance, shall dry your pities: but I have
That honorable grief lodged here, which burns
Worse than tears drown. 'Beseech you all, my lords,
With thoughts so qualified as your charities

Shall best instruct you, measure me;—and so
The king's will be performed!

Leon.

Shall I be heard?

[To the Guards.

Her. Who is't that goes with me?'Beseech your highness,

My women may be with me; for, you see,

My plight requires it. Do not weep, good fools;
There is no cause; when you shall know your mistress
Has deserved prison, then abound in tears,
As I come out. This action, I now go on,
Is for my better grace.—Adieu, my lord ;
I never wished to see you sorry; now,

I trust, I shall.My women, come; you have leave.
Leon. Go, do our bidding; hence.

[Exeunt Queen and Ladies. 1 Lord. 'Beseech your highness, call the queen

again.

Ant. Be certain what you do, sir; lest your justice Prove violence; in the which three great ones suffer, Yourself, your queen, your son

1 i. e. no foundation can be trusted.

2 He who shall speak for her, is remotely guilty in merely speaking.

1 Lord.

For her, my lord,

I dare my life lay down, and will do't, sir,
Please you to accept it, that the queen is spotless
I'the eyes of Heaven, and to you; I mean,

In this which you accuse her.

Ant. If it prove She's otherwise, I'll keep my stables1 where I lodge my wife; I'll go in couples with her; Than when I feel, and see her, no further trust her; For every inch of woman in the world,

Ay, every dram of woman's flesh, is false,

If she be.

Leon. Hold your peaces.

1 Lord.

Good my lord,

Ant. It is for you we speak, not for ourselves. You are abused, and by some putter-on,

That will be damned for't; 'would I knew the villain,
I would land-damn him. Be she honor-flawed,-
I have three daughters; the eldest is eleven;
The second, and the third, nine, and some five;
If this prove true, they'll pay for't; by mine honor,
I'll geld them all: fourteen they shall not see,
To bring false generations; they are coheirs;
And I had rather glib myself, than they
Should not produce fair issue.

Leon.

Cease; no more.

You smell this business with a sense as cold

As is a dead man's nose; but I do see't and feel't,
As you feel doing thus; and see withal

The instruments that feel.3

Ant.

If it be so,

We need no grave to bury honesty ;

1 This passage may be explained thus: "If she prove false, I'll make my stables or kennel of my wife's chamber; I'll go in couples with her like a dog, and never leave her for a moment; trust her no further than I can feel and see her."

2 "I would land-damn him." Johnson interprets this:-"I will damn or condemn him to quit the land."

3 I see and feel my disgrace, as you, Antigonus, now feel my doing this to you, and as you now see the instruments that feel, i. e. my fingers. Leontes must here be supposed to touch or lay hold of Antigonus.

There's not a grain of it, the face to sweeten
Of the whole dungy earth.

Leon.

What! lack I credit?

1 Lord. I had rather you did lack, than I, my lord, Upon this ground: and more it would content me To have her honor true, than your suspicion;

Be blamed for't how you might.

Leon. Why, what need we Commune with you of this? but rather follow Our forceful instigation? Our prerogative

Calls not your counsels; but our natural goodness
Imparts this; which, if you (or stupefied,
Or seeming so in skill) cannot, or will not,
Relish as truth, like us; inform yourselves.
We need no more of your advice: the matter,
The loss, the gain, the ordering on't, is all
Properly ours.

Ant.

And I wish, my liege,

You had only in your silent judgment tried it,
Without more overture.

Leon.

How could that be?

Either thou art most ignorant by age,

Or thou wert born a fool. Camillo's flight,
Added to their familiarity,

(Which was as gross as ever touched conjecture,
That lacked sight only, nought for approbation,"
But only seeing, all other circumstances

Made up to the deed,) doth push on this proceeding. Yet, for a greater confirmation,

(For, in an act of this importance, 'twere

Most piteous to be wild,) I have despatched in post,
To sacred Delphos, to Apollo's temple,
Cleomenes and Dion, whom you know

3

Of stuffed sufficiency. Now from the oracle
They will bring all; whose spiritual counsel, had,
Shall stop, or spur me. Have I done well?

1 Lord. Well done, my lord.

1 The old copy reads a truth. Rowe made the correction.
2 i. e. proof.

3 i. e. of abilities more than sufficient.