Cam. Sicilia cannot show himself over-kind to Bohemia. They were train'd together in their childhoods; and there rooted betwixt them then such an affection, which cannot choose but branch now. Since their more mature dignities and royal necessities made separation of their society, their encounters, though not personal, have been royally attorneyed, with interchange of gifts, letters, loving embassies; that they have seem'd to be together, though absent; shook hands, as over a vast; and embrac'd, as it were, from the ends of opposed winds. The heavens continue their loves!

Arch. I think there is not in the world either malice, or matter, to alter it. You have an unspeakable comfort of your young prince Mamillius it is a gentleman of the greatest promise that ever came into my note.

Cam. I very well agree with you in the hopes of him it is a gallant child; one that, indeed, physics the subject, makes old hearts fresh: they that went on crutches ere he was born desire yet their life, to see him a man.

Arch. Would they else be content to die?

Cam. Yes; if there were no other excuse why they should desire to live.

Arch. If the king had no son, they would desire to live on crutches till he had one. [Exeunt.

Vast is here used in much the same sense as in Hamlet, Act 1. sc. 2: In the dead vast and middle of the night." See, also, The Tempest, Act i. sc. 2, note 32. Likewise Milton in Paradise Lost, Book vi.: «Through the vast of heaven it sounded, and the faithful armies sung hosanna to the Highest."

H.

2 Physic, verb, was formerly used for to heal, or make healthy. Medicine is still used in like manner; as in Cymbeline, Act iv. sc. 2: Great griefs, I see, medicine the less."- Subject here bears the sense of subjects, the singular for the plural.

H.

Enter LEONTES, POLIXENES, HERMIONE, MAMILLIUS, CAMILLO, and Attendants.

Pol. Nine changes of the watery star have been The shepherd's note, since we have left our throne Without a burden: time as long again

Would be fill'd up, my brother, with our thanks;
And yet we should for perpetuity

Go hence in debt: And therefore, like a cipher,
Yet standing in rich place, I multiply

With one we-thank-you many thousands more
That go before it.

Leon.

Stay your thanks awhile,

Sir, that's to-morrow

And pay them when you part.

Pol.

I am question'd by my fears, of what may chance, Or breed upon our absence: That may blow No sneaping winds at home, to make us say, "This is put forth too truly!" Besides, I have stay'd

"That may blow" is here expressive of a wish; that for U that, or would that; a mode of speech not uncommon in the old writers. Sneaping for biting, or nipping. So in Love's La bour's Lost, Act i. sc. 1:

Biron is like an envious sneaping frost

That bites the first-born infants of the spring."

"This is put forth too truly," - that is, this fear of mine has too much cause; this presage is too true

H

Leon. One seven-night longer.

Pol.

Very sooth, to-morrow.

Leon. We'll part the time between's then; and

in that

I'll no gainsaying.

Pol.

Press me not, 'beseech you, so.

There is no tongue that moves, none, none, i'the

world,

So soon as yours, could win me: so it should now,
Were there necessity in your request, although
"Twere needful I denied it.

My affairs

Do even drag me homeward; which to hinder,
Were in your love a whip to me, my stay
To you a charge and trouble: to save both,
Farewell, our brother.

Leon. Tongue-tied, our queen? speak you.
Her. I had thought, sir, to have held my peace,

until

You had drawn oaths from him, not to stay. You,

sir,

Charge him too coldly: Tell him, you are sure
All in Bohemia's well: this satisfaction

The by-gone day proclaim'd: say this to him,
He's beat from his best ward.

Leon.

Well said, Hermione.

Her. To tell he longs to see his son, were strong

But let him say so then, and let him go;

But let him swear so, and he shall not stay,

We'll thwack him hence with distaffs.

[TO POLIX.] Yet of your royal presence I'll ad

venture

The borrow of a week. When at Bohemia
You take my lord, I'll give him my commission,

Ward was sometimes used for place or posture of defence

H.

1

3

To let him there a month behind the gest,"
Prefix'd for's parting: yet, good deed, Leontes,
I love thee not a jar o'the clock behind
What lady should her lord.' — You'll stay?

You put me off with limber vows; but I,

Though you would seek t'unsphere the stars with

oaths,

Should yet say, "Sir, no going." Verily,

You shall not go: a lady's verily is
As potent as a lord's. Will you go yet?
Force me to keep you as a prisoner,

Not like a guest, so you shall pay your fees,
When you depart, and save your thanks.

say you?

How

My prisoner, or my guest? by your dread verily, One of them you shall be.

Pol. Your guest, then, madam To be your prisoner should import offending; Which is for me less easy to commit,

Than you to punish.

3 To let had for its synonyms to stay or stop; to let him there is to stay him there. Gests were scrolls in which were marked the stages or places of rest in a progress or journey, especially a royal one. It is supposed to be derived from the old French word giste.

4 This is commonly printed, - What lady she her lord," as in the original. The change is taken by Mr. Collier from an old manuscript note in the copy owned by Lord Francis Egerton. From the same source we have already had several corrections so very apt as to suggest that they may have been made on the authority of the Poet's manuscript. In this case Shakespeare probably used some abbreviation for should, which the printer misread she. -"A jar o'the clock" is a tick o'the clock ; jar being at that time often used for tick

H.

Her.

Not your jailer, then,

But your kind hostess. Come, I'll question you Of my lord's tricks, and yours, when you were boys; You were pretty lordings then.

Pol. We were, fair queen, Two lads that thought there was no more behind, But such a day to-morrow as to-day,

And to be boy eternal.

Her. Was not my lord the verier wag o'the two? Pol. We were as twinn'd lambs, that did frisk

i'the sun,

And bleat the one at the other: what we chang'd,
Was innocence for innocence; we knew not
The doctrine of ill-doing, nor dream'd
That any did: Had we pursued that life,

And our weak spirits ne'er been higher rear'd
With stronger blood, we should have answer'd Heaven
Boldly, "Not Guilty;" the imposition clear'd,
Hereditary ours."

Her.

By this we gather,

You have tripp'd since.

Pol.

O! my most sacred lady,

Temptations have since then been born t'us: for In those unfledg'd days was my wife a girl; Your precious self had then not cross'd the eyes Of my young play-fellow.

Her.

Grace to boot!

6

Of this make no conclusion, lest you say
Your queen and I are devils: Yet, go on;
The offences we have made you do, we'll answer;
If you first sinn'd with us, and that with us

That is, setting aside original sin, bating the imposition from the offence of our first parents.

6 An exclamation equivalent to give us grace. In Richard III we have: St. George to boot."