LEON. Thoy, traitor, haft set on thy wife to this.
My child? away with't!-even thou, that haft
A heart fo tender o'er it, take it hence,
And fee it inftantly confum'd with fire;

Even thou, and none but thou. Take it up straight:
Within this hour bring me word 'tis done,
(And by good teftimony,) or I'll feize thy life,
With what thou elfe call'ft thine: If thou refufe,
And wilt encounter with my wrath, fay fo;
The baftard brains with these my proper hands
Shall I dash out. Go, take it to the fire;
For thou fett'ft on thy wife.

ANT.

I did not, fir: These lords, my noble fellows, if they please, Can clear me in't.

1 LORD.

We can; my royal liege,

He is not guilty of her coming hither.

LEON. You are liars all.

1 LORD. 'Beseech your highness, give us better

credit:

We have always truly serv'd

you; and befeech So to esteem of us: And on our knees we beg, (As recompenfe of our dear fervices,

Paft, and to come,) that you do change this pur pofe;

Which, being fo horrible, fo bloody, muft
Lead on to fome foul iffue: We all kneel.

LEON. I am a feather for each wind that blows :-
Shall I live on, to fee this baftard kneel
And call me father? Better burn it now,
Than curse it then. But, be it ; let it live:
It shall not neither.-You, fir, come you hither;

[To ANTIGONUS.

You, that have been fo tenderly officious
With lady Margery, your midwife, there,

To fave this baftard's life :-for 'tis a baftard,

So fure as this beard's grey,—what will

ture

To fave this brat's life?

ANT.

you adven

Any thing, my lord,
That my ability may undergo,

And nobleness impofe: at least, thus much;
I'll pawn the little blood which I have left,
To fave the innocent: any thing poffible.

LEON. It fhall be poffible: Swear by this sword,3 Thou wilt perform my bidding.

ANT.

I will, my lord. LEON. Mark, and perform it; (seest thou?) for the fail

Of any point in't shall not only be

Death to thyfelf, but to thy lewd-tongu'd wife;
Whom, for this time, we pardon. We enjoin thee,
As thou art liegeman to us, that thou carry
This female bastard hence; and that thou bear it
To fome remote and defert place, quite out
Of our dominions; and that there thou leave it,

2

So fure as this beard's grey,] The King muft mean the beard of Antigonus, which perhaps both here and on the former occafion, (See p. 267, n. 7,) it was intended, he should lay hold of. Leontes has himself told us that twenty-three years ago he was unbreech'd, in his green velvet coat, his dagger muzzled; and of course his age at the opening of this play must be under thirty. He cannot therefore mean his own beard. MALONE.

3

Swear by this fword,] It was anciently the custom to fwear by the crofs on the handle of a fword. See a note on Hamlet, A&t I. fc. v. STEEVENS.

So, in The Penance of Arthur, fig. S. 2: "And therewith King Marke yielded him unto Sir Gaheris, and then he kneeled downe and made his oath upon the croffe of the fword," &c.

I remember to have feen the name of Jefus engraved upon the. pummel of the fword of a Crufader in the Church at Winchelsea.

DOUCE.

Without more mercy, to its own protection,
And favour of the climate. As by ftrange fortune
It came to us, I do in justice charge thee,-
On thy foul's peril, and thy body's torture,-
That thou commend it ftrangely to fome place,4
Where chance may nurfe, or end it: Take it up.

ANT. I fwear to do this, though a present death Had been more merciful.-Come on, poor babe: Some powerful spirit instruct the kites and ravens, To be thy nurses! Wolves, and bears, they say, Cafting their favagenefs afide, have done

Like offices of pity.-Sir, be profperous

In more than this deed doth require! and bleffing,5 Against this cruelty, fight on thy fide,

Poor thing, condemn'd to lofs !6

LEON.

Another's iffue.

1 ATTEN.

No, I'll not rear

[Exit, with the Child.

Please your highness, pofts,

From thofe you fent to the oracle, are come
An hour fince: Cleomenes and Dion,

commend it ftrangely to fome place,] Commit it to fome place, as a stranger, without more provifion. JOHNSON. So, in Macbeth:

"I wish your horses swift and fure of foot,
"And fo I do commend you to their backs."

To commend is to commit. See Minfheu's Dict. in v.

5

MALONE.

•and blessing,] i. e. the favour of heaven. MALONE. condemn'd to lofs !] i. e. to exposure, fimilar to that of a child whom its parents have loft. I once thought that lofs was here licentiously used for destruction; but that this was not the primary fenfe here intended, appears from a fubfequent paffage A&t III. fc. iii :

"That, for thy mother's fault, art thus expos'd
"To lofs, and what may follow!" MALONE.

Being well arriv'd from Delphos, are both landed, Hafting to the court.

1 LORD.

So please you, fir, their speed

Hath been beyond account.

LEON.

Twenty-three days They have been abfent: "Tis good speed;" foretels, The great Apollo fuddenly will have

The truth of this appear. Prepare you lords;
Summon a feffion, that we may arraign
Our most difloyal lady: for, as fhe hath
Been publickly accus'd, fo fhall the have
A juft and open trial. While fhe lives,
My heart will be a burden to me. Leave me;
And think upon my bidding.

[Exeunt

ACT III. SCENE I.

The fame. A Street in fome Town.

Enter CLEOMENES and DION.8

CLEO. The climate's delicate; the air most sweet; Fertile the ifle; the temple much furpaffing

7 "Tis good speed; &c.] Surely we should read the passage thus:

This good speed foretels, &c. M. MASON.

Cleomenes and Dion.] These two names, and those of Antigonus and Archidamus, our author found in North's Plutarch. MALONE.

9 Fertile the ifle ;] But the temple of Apollo at Delphi was not in an island, but in Phocis, on the continent. Either Shakfpeare, or his editors, had their heads running on Delos, an

I fhall report,

The common praise it bears.

DION.

For moft it caught me,' the celestial habits, (Methinks, I fo fhould term them,) and the reve

rence

Of the grave wearers. O, the facrifice!
How ceremonious, folemn, and unearthly
It was i'the offering!

CLEO.

But, of all, the burft And the ear-deafening voice o'the oracle, Kin to Jove's thunder, fo furpriz'd my sense, That I was nothing.

DION.

If the event o'the journey Prove as fuccessful to the queen,-O, be't fo!As it hath been to us, rare, pleasant, speedy, The time is worth the use on't.2

island of the Cyclades. If it was the editor's blunder, then Shakspeare wrote: Fertile the foil,-which is more elegant too, than the present reading. WARburton.

Shakspeare is little careful of geography. There is no need of this emendation in a play of which the whole plot depends upon a geographical error, by which Bohemia is fuppofed to be a maritime country. JOHNSON.

In The Hiftory of Doraftus and Fawnia, the queen defires the king to fend " fix of his noblemen, whom he best trusted, to the ife of Delphos," &c. STEEVENS.

For most it caught me,] It may relate to the whole spectacle.
JOHNSON.

• The time is worth the use on't.] The time is worth the use on't, means, the time which we have spent in vifiting Delos, has recompenfed us for the trouble of so spending it. JOHNSON.

If the event prove fortunate to the Queen, the time which we have spent in our journey is worth the trouble it hath coft us. In other words, the happy iffue of our journey will compensate for the time expended in it, and the fatigue we have undergone. We meet with nearly the fame expreffion in Florio's tranflation of Montaigne's Effaies, 1603: "The common faying is, the time we live, is worth the money we pay for it." MALONE.