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,

Leon.

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.

Well said, Hermione. Her. To tell, he longs to see his son, were strong:

Pol.

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.
Yet of your royal presence I'll adventure
The borrow of a week. When at Bohemia

30

You take my lord, I'll give him my commission 40
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 she her lord. You'll stay?

Her. Nay, but you will?

Pol.

Her. Verily!

No, madam.

You put me off with limber vows; but I,

Pol.

Her.

Pol.

Her.

Though you would seek to unsphere the stars with

oaths,

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

You shall not go: a lady's 'Verily ''s
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

50

When you depart, and save your thanks. How say
you?

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

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

Than you to punish.

Not your gaoler, 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?

60

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.

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 changed

Was innocence for innocence; we knew not

The doctrine of ill-doing, no, nor dream'd

That any did. Had we pursued that life,

And our weak spirits ne'er been higher rear'd

70

With stronger blood, we should have answer'd

heaven

Her.

Pol.

Her.

Boldly 'not guilty'; the imposition clear'd

Hereditary ours.

You have tripp'd since.

By this we gather

O my most sacred lady

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

Grace to boot!

do we

'll answer,

Of this make no conclusion, lest you say
Your queen and I are devils: yet go on;
The offences we have made you
you first sinn'd with us, and that with us
You did continue fault, and that you slipp'd not
With any but with us.

Leon.

If

Her. He'll stay, my lord.

Leon.

Her.

Is he won yet?

At my request he would not.
Hermione, my dearest, thou never spokest
To better purpose.

Leon.

Never?

Never, but once.

80

Her. What! have I twice said well? when was 't before? I prithee tell me; cram's with praise, and make's 91 As fat as tame things: one good deed dying tongueless

Slaughters a thousand waiting upon that.

Our praises are our wages: you may ride's
With one soft kiss a thousand furlongs ere
With spur we heat an acre. But to the goal:
My last good deed was to entreat his stay:
What was my first? it has an elder sister,

Leon.

Her.

Or I mistake you: O, would her name were Grace!
But once before I spoke to the purpose: when? 100
Nay, let me have 't; I long.

Why, that was when Three crabbed months had sour'd themselves to death,

Ere I could make thee open thy white hand,
And clap thyself my love: then didst thou utter
'I am yours for ever.'

'Tis Grace indeed.

Why, lo you now, I have spoke to the purpose twice:
The one for ever earn'd a royal husband;

The other for some while a friend.

III

Leon.
[Aside] Too hot, too hot!
To mingle friendship far is mingling bloods.
I have tremor cordis on me: my heart dances;
But not for joy; not joy. This entertainment
May a free face put on, derive a liberty
From heartiness, from bounty, fertile bosom,
And well become the agent; 't may, I grant;
But to be paddling palms and pinching fingers,
As now they are, and making practised smiles,
As in a looking-glass, and then to sigh, as 'twere
The mort o' the deer; O, that is entertainment
My bosom likes not, nor my brows! Mamiilius,
Art thou my boy?

Mam.

Leon.

Ay, my good lord.

I' fecks!

120

Why, that's my bawcock. What, hast smutch'd thy

nose?

They say it is 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

Mam.

Are all call'd neat.-Still virginalling

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

Yes, if you will, my lord.

Leon. Thou want'st a rough pash and the shoots that I

Pol.

have,

130

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-dyed blacks, as wind, as waters, false
As dice are to be wish'd by one that fixes
No bourne '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?-

Affection! thy intention stabs the centre:

Thou dost make possible things not so held,

Communicatest with dreams;-how can this be?

With what's unreal thou coactive art,

And fellow'st nothing: then 'tis very credent

141

Thou mayst 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.

What means Sicilia?

How, my lord!

Her. He something seems unsettled.

Pol.

Her.

Leon.

What cheer? how is 't with you, best brother!

As if you held a brow of much distraction;
Are you moved, my lord?

You look

No, in good earnest. 150