Communicat'st with dreams;-(how can this be?)—
With what's unreal thou coactive art,

And fellow'st nothing: Then, 'tis very credent 21,
Thou may'st 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.

Pol.

Her. He something seems unsettled.

Pol.

What means Sicilia ?

How now 22, my lord?

You look,

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

Her.

As if

you

held a brow of much distraction :

Are mov'd, my lord?

you

Leon.

No, in good earnest.-
How sometimes nature will betray its folly,
Its tenderness, and make itself a pastime
To harder bosoms! Looking on the lines
Of my boy's face, my thoughts I did recoil
Twenty-three years; and saw myself unbreech'd,
In my green velvet coat; my dagger muzzled,
Lest it should bite its master, and so prove,
As ornaments oft do, too dangerous.

How like, methought, I then was to this kernel,
This squash 23, this gentleman.—Mine honest friend,
Will you take eggs for money 24?

sympathy shall betray a crime to the injured person, not only at the time of commission, but even after-beyond the time of commission.

21 Credent, i. e. credible.

22 In the old copies, now is omitted in this line. The correction is made in my second folio.

a The folio has " methoughts I did recoil." The alteration is by Mr. Collier, from a MS. correction in Lord Ellesmere's copy of the first folio.

23 This squash, i. e. an immature pea-pod. In Twelfth Night we have:

"As a squash before it is a peascod," &c.

24 Will you take eggs for money? A proverbial phrase for putting up with an affront, or being cajoled or imposed upon.

Mam. No, my lord, I'll fight.

Leon. You will? why, happy man be his dole 25!— My brother,

Are you so fond of your young prince, as we

Do seem to be of ours?

Pol.

If at home, sir,

He's all my exercise, my mirth, my matter:
Now my sworn friend, and then mine enemy;
My parasite, my soldier, statesman, all :
He makes a July's day short as December;
And, with his varying childness, cures in me
Thoughts that would thick my blood.

Leon.
So stands this squire
Offic'd with me: We two will walk, my lord,
And leave you to your graver steps.-Hermione,
How thou lov'st us, show in our brother's welcome;
Let what is dear in Sicily be cheap :

Next to thyself, and my young rover, he's
Apparent 26 to my heart.

Her.

If would seek us,

you

We are yours i' the garden; shall's attend you there. Leon. To your own bents dispose you: you'll be

found,

Be you beneath the sky :-[Aside. Observing POLIX-
ENES and HERMIONE.I am angling now,
Though you perceive me not how I give line.
Go to, go to !

How she holds up the neb, the bill to him!

And arms her with the boldness of a wife

25 Happy man be his dole, i. e. may happiness be his portion! See Merry Wives of Windsor and Taming of the Shrew. So in Ray's Proverbs, p. 136, ed. 1737, "happy man, happy dole, or happy man by his dole."

26 Apparent is here used in the sense of the O. Fr. apparenté, of kin or near kinsman unto. The heir apparent is the next of kin. Leonato therefore means to say, my young rover is "next to my heart." In Nicot, Parenté is consanguinity, proximity.

a Shall's. This abbreviation is not unusual; in modern phraseology it would be shall we.

To her allowing husband! Gone already!

[Exeunt POL. HER. and Attendants. Inch-thick, knee-deep, o'er head and ears a fork'd

one 27!

Go play, boy, play ;-thy mother plays, and I
Play too; but so disgrac'd a part, whose issue
Will hiss me to my grave; contempt and clamour
Will be my knell.-Go play, boy, play.-There have
been,

Or I am much deceiv'd, cuckolds ere now;

And many a man there is, even at this present,
Now, while I speak this, holds his wife by the arm,
That little thinks, she has been sluic'd in's absence,
And his pond fish'd by his next neighbour, by
Sir Smile, his neighbour. Nay, there's comfort in't,
Whiles other men have gates; and those gates open'd,
As mine, against their will. Should all despair,
That have revolted wives, the tenth of mankind
Would hang themselves. Physick for't there is none;
It is a bawdy planet, that will strike

Where 'tis predominant; and 'tis powerful, think it,
From east, west, north, and south: Be it concluded,
No barricado for a belly; know it;

It will let in and out the enemy,

With bag and baggage. Many thousand on's 28 Have the disease, and feel't not.-How now, boy? Mam. I am like you, they say.

Leon.

What! Camillo there?

Why, that's some comfort.—

Cam. Ay, my good lord.

Leon. Go play, Mamillius; thou'rt an honest

man.

[Exit MAMILLIUS.

27 A fork'd one, i. e. a horned one, a cuckold.

28 Many thousand on's. This would now be considered a vul. garism. But the license taken by Malone in altering it is quite inadmissible. On was frequently used for of and of for on, and it is here characteristic of the tone of the speaker.

Camillo, this great sir will yet stay longer.

Cam. You had much ado to make his anchor hold: When you cast out, it still came home 29.

Leon.

Didst note it?

Cam. He would not stay at your petitions; made His business more material.

Leon.

Didst perceive it?

They're here with me already 30: whispering, round

ing,

Sicilia is a so-forth! 'Tis far gone,

When I shall gust 31 it last.-How came't, Camillo, That he did stay?

Cam.

At the good queen's entreaty. Leon. At the queen's, be't: good, should be pertinent;

But so it is, it is not. Was this taken
By any understanding pate but thine?
For thy conceit is soaking, will draw in
More than the common blocks :-Not noted, is't,
But of the finer natures? by some severals
Of head-piece extraordinary? lower messes
Perchance, are to this business purblind: say.
Cam. Business, my lord? I think, most understand

32

29 It still came home, a nautical term, meaning, the anchor would not take hold.

30 They're here with me already, i. e. not Polixenes and Hermione, but casual observers. To round in the ear was to tell secretly, to whisper.

31 Gust it last, i. e. taste it last: be the last to perceive it :-
"Dedecus ille domus sciet ultimus."
Juv. Sat. x.

:

32 Lower messes is here put for degrees, conditions. The company at great tables were divided according to their rank into higher and lower messes. Those of lower condition sitting below the great standing salt in the centre of the table. Sometimes the messes were served at different tables, and seem to have been arranged in fours, whence the word came to express four in vulgar speech" a messe (vulgairement) le nombre de quatre.”—Sherwood's Dict. 1632.

Cam. To satisfy your highness, and the entreaties Of our most gracious mistress.

Satisfy

Leon.
The entreaties of your mistress?- -satisfy?—
Let that suffice. I have trusted thee, Camillo,
With all the nearest things to my heart, as well
My chamber-councils; wherein, priest-like, thou
Hast cleans'd my bosom : I from thee departed
Thy penitent reform'd; but we have been
Deceiv'd in thy integrity, deceiv'd

In that which seems so.

Cam.

Be it forbid, my lord!

Leon. To bide upon't, thou art not honest: or, If thou inclin'st that way, thou art a coward; Which hoxes 33 honesty behind, restraining

From course requir'd. Or else thou must be counted A servant, grafted in my serious trust,

And therein negligent; or else a fool,

That see'st a game play'd home, the rich stake drawn,
And tak'st it all for jest.

Cam.
My gracious lord,
I may be negligent, foolish, and fearful;
In every one of these no man is free,
But that his negligence, his folly, fear,
Among the infinite doings of the world,
Sometime puts forth: In your affairs, my lord,
If ever I were wilful-negligent,

It was my folly; if industriously

a To bide upon't is equivalent to rest assured, or be certain of any thing. It is still in use provincially; no phrase is more common than "for sartin, you may bide on't.”

33 To hox is to hamstring, the word is now written hough.