have been royally attornied, 2 with interchange of gifts, letters, loving embassies; that they have seemed to be together, though absent; shook hands, as over a vast ;3 and embraced, 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, physicks the subject,4 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. The same. SCENE II A Room of State in the Palace. Enter LEONTES, POLIXENES, HERMIONE, MAMILLIUS, CAMILLO, and Attendants. Pol. Nine changes of the watry star have been Would be fill'd up, my brother, with our thanks; Go hence in debt: And therefore, like a cypher, With one we-thank-you, many thousands more [2] Nobly supplied by substitution of embassies, &c. JOHNS. [3] Vastum was the ancient term for waste uncultivated land. Over a vast, therefore, means at a great and vacant distance from each other. however, may be used for the sea. STEEVENS. Vast, Shakspeare has, more than once, taken his ingery from the prints, with which the books of his time were ornamented If my memory do not deceive me he had his eye on a wood cut in Holinshed; while writing the incantation of the weird sisters in Macbeth. In this passage he refers to a device common in the title-page of old books, of two hands extended from opposite clous and joined as in token of friendship over a wide waste of country. HENLEY.. [4] Affords a cordia to the state; has the power of assuaging the sense of misery. JOHNSON. Leo. Stay your thanks awhile; I am question'd by my fears, of what may chance, Leo. We are tougher, brother, Than you can put us to't. Pol. No longer stay. Leo. One seven-night longer. Pol. Very sooth, to-morrow. Leo. We'll part the time between's then and in that I'll no gain-saying. Pol. Press me not, 'beseech you, so ; There is no tongue that moves, none, none i'the world, Do even drag me homeward: which to hinder, Leo.. Tongue-tied, our queen? speak you. Her. I had thought, sir, to have held my peace, until The by-gone day proclaim'd ; say this to him, Leo. 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, [To POLIXENES. The borrow of a week. When at Bohemia Nipping winds. HOLT WHITE. We had satisfactory accounts yesterday of the state of Bohemia. JOHNSON, To let him there a month, behind the gest? Prefix'd for his parting: yet, good deed, Leontes, I love thee not a jar o' the clock behind What lady she her lord. 8-You'll stay? Pol. No, madam. Her. Nay, but you will? Pol. I may not, verily. You put me off with limber vows: But I, 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 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. How say you? Pol. Your guest then, madam : To be your prisoner, should import offending; Than you to punish. Her. Not your gaoler then, But your kind hostess. Come, I'll question you Pol. We were, fair queen, Two lads, that thought there was no more behind, 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, no, nor dream'd That any did: Had we pursued that life, And our weak spirits ne'er been higher rear'd [7] In the time of royal progresses the king's stages, as we may see by the journals of them in the herald's office were called his gests; from the old French word giste diversorium. WARB. Gests, or rather gists, from the French giste. (which signifies both a bed, and a lodging place,) were the names of the houses or towns where the King or Prince intended to lie every night during his Progress. MAL. [8] A jar is, I believe, a single repetition of the noise made by the pendu lum of a clock; what children call the ticking of it. STEEVENS. [9] This diminutive of lord is often used by Chaucer. STEEV. 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 to us: for Her. Grace to boot! Of this make no conclusion; lest you say, The offences we have made you do, we'll answer; Leo. Is he won yet? Her. He'll stay, my lord. Leo. At my request, he would not. Hermione, my dearest, thou never spok'st To better purpose. Her. Never? Leo. Never, but once. Her. What have I twice said well? when was't before? I pr'ythee, tell me : Cram us with praise, and make us Our praises are our wages: You may ride us, But to the goal; My last good was, to entreat his stay; What was my first? it has an elder sister, Or I mistake you: O, would her name were Grace ! But once before I spoke to the purpose: When? Nay, let me have't; I long. Leo. Why, that was when Three crabbed months had sour'd themselves to death, Ere I could make thee open thy white hand, [1] That is, setting aside original sin; bating the imposition from the offence of our first parents, we might have boldly protested our innocence to Heaven. WARB. And clap thyself my love; then didst thou utter, I am yours for ever. Her. It is 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. [Aside. [Giving her hand to POLIXENES. Leo. 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 it may, I grant : But to be paddling palms, and pinching fingers, As now they are; and making practis'd smiles, As in a looking-glass ;-and then to sigh, as 'twere The mort o' the deer ;3 O, that is entertainment My bosom likes not, nor my brows.-Mamillius, Art thou my boy? Mam. Ay, my good lord.. Leo. I'fecks ?4 Why,that's my bawcock. What, hast smutch'd thy nose? -They say, it's 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, Are all call'd, neat.-Still virginalling6 [Observing POLIX. and HERML. Upon his palm ?-How now, you wanton calf ? Art thou my calf? Mam. Yes, if you will, my lord.. [2] She opened her hand, to clap the palm of it into his, as people do when they confirm a bargain. Hence the phrase-to clap up a bargain, i. e. make one with no other ceremony than the junction of hands This was a regular part of the ceremony of troth-plighting, to which Shakspeare often alludes. MALONE. [3] A lesson upon the horn at the death of the deer. THEOBALD. [4] A supposed corruption of-in faith. Our present vulgar pronounce it -fegs. STEEV. [5] Perhaps from beau and coq. It is still said in vulgar language that such a one is a jolly cock, a cock of the game. STEEV. [6] Still playing with her fingers, as a girl playing on the virginals. JOHNS. A virginal, as I am informed is a very small kind of spinnet. Queen Eliz abeth's virginal book is yet in being, and many of the lessons in it have prov ed so difficult as to baffle our most expert players on the harpsicord. STEE. A virginal was strung like a spinnet, and shaped like a pianoforte. ·MAE. |