THE WINTER'S TALE. ACT I. SCENE I. Sicilia. An Antechamber in LEONTES' Palace. Enter CAMILLO and ARCHIDAMUS. Arch. If you shall chance, Camillo, to visit Bohemia, on the like occasion whereon my services are now on foot, you shall see, as I have said, great difference betwixt our Bohemia and your Sicilia. Cam. I think, this coming summer, the King of Sicilia means to pay Bohemia the visitation which he justly owes him. Arch. Wherein our entertainment shall shame us, we will be justified in our loves: for, indeed, Cam. Beseech you, Arch. Verily, I speak it in the freedom of my knowledge: we cannot with such magnificence · in so rare-I know not what to say. - We will give you sleepy drinks, that your senses, unintelli gent of our insufficience, may, though they cannot praise us, as little accuse us. Cam. You pay a great deal too dear for what's given freely. Arch. Believe me, I speak as my understanding instructs me, and as mine honesty puts it to utter ance 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 2 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 f'he 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; Go hence in debt: And therefore, like a cipher, With one we-thank-you many thousands more 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, stay'd To tire your royalty. Leon. 99 1 We are tougher, brother, Than you can put us to❜t. Pol. No longer stay. "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 Labour's Lost, Act i. se. 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, Do even drag me homeward; which to hinder, 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 The by-gone day proclaim'd: say this to him, 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 • Ward was sometimes used for place or posture of defence A. To let him there a month behind the gest,3 You put me off with limber vows; but I, Though you would seek t'unsphere the stars wit oaths, Should yet say, "Sir, no going." Verily, You shall not go: a lady's verily is 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; 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.-66 A jar o'the clock" is a tick o'the clock; ja being at that time often used for tick H. |