The Arden Shakespeare Complete Works

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The Arden Shakespeare Complete Works Page 562

by William Shakespeare


  45

  HERMIONE Verily!

  You put me off with limber vows; but I,

  Though you would seek t’unsphere the stars with oaths,

  Should yet say ‘Sir, no going’. Verily,

  You shall not go: a lady’s Verily’s

  50

  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?

  My prisoner? or my guest? By your dread ‘Verily’,

  55

  One of them you shall be.

  POLIXENES Your guest then, madam:

  To be your prisoner should import offending;

  Which is for me less easy to commit

  Than you to punish.

  HERMIONE Not your gaoler then,

  But your kind hostess. Come, I’ll question you

  60

  Of my lord’s tricks, and yours, when you were boys.

  You were pretty lordings then?

  POLIXENES 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.

  HERMIONE Was not my lord

  65

  The verier wag o’th’ two?

  POLIXENES

  We were as twinn’d lambs that did frisk i’th’ sun,

  And bleat the one at th’other: what we chang’d

  Was innocence for innocence: we knew not

  The doctrine of ill-doing, nor dream’d

  70

  That any did. Had we pursu’d that life,

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

  With stronger blood, we should have answer’d heaven

  Boldly ‘not guilty’, the imposition clear’d

  Hereditary ours.

  HERMIONE By this we gather

  75

  You have tripp’d since.

  POLIXENES O my most sacred lady,

  Temptations have since then been born to ’s: for

  In those unfledg’d days was my wife a girl;

  Your precious self had then not cross’d the eyes

  Of my young play-fellow.

  HERMIONE Grace to boot!

  80

  Of this make no conclusion, lest you say

  Your queen and I are devils. Yet go on;

  Th’offences we have made you do, we’ll answer,

  If you first sinn’d with us, and that with us

  You did continue fault, and that you slipp’d not

  85

  With any but with us.

  LEONTES Is he won yet?

  HERMIONE He’ll stay, my lord.

  LEONTES At my request he would not.

  HERMIONE, my dearest, thou never spok’st

  To better purpose.

  HERMIONE Never?

  LEONTES Never but once.

  HERMIONE

  What! have I twice said well? when was’t before?

  90

  I prithee tell me: cram’s with praise, and make’s

  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

  95

  With spur we heat an acre. But to th’ goal:

  My last good deed 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 th’ purpose? when?

  100

  Nay, let me have’t: I long!

  LEONTES 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.’

  HERMIONE ’Tis Grace indeed.

  105

  Why lo you now; I have spoke to th’ purpose twice:

  The one, for ever earn’d a royal husband;

  Th’other, for some while a friend.

  [giving her hand to Polixenes]

  LEONTES [aside] Too hot, too hot!

  To mingle friendship far, is mingling bloods.

  I have tremor cordis on me: my heart dances,

  110

  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,

  115

  As now they are, and making practis’d smiles

  As in a looking-glass; and then to sigh, as ’twere

  The mort o’th’ deer – O, that is entertainment

  My bosom likes not, nor my brows. Mamillius,

  Art thou my boy?

  MAMILLIUS Ay, my good lord.

  LEONTES 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

  Are all call’d neat. – Still virginalling

  125

  Upon his palm! – How now, you wanton calf!

  Art thou my calf?

  MAMILLIUS Yes, if you will, my lord.

  LEONTES

  Thou want’st a rough pash and the shoots that I have

  To be full like me: yet they say we are

  Almost as like as eggs; women say so,

  130

  (That will say any thing): but were they false

  As o’er-dy’d blacks, as wind, as waters; false

  As dice are to be wish’d by one that fixes

  No bourn ’twixt his and mine, yet were it true

  To say this boy were like me. Come, sir page,

  135

  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,

  Communicat’st with dreams; – how can this be? –

  140

  With what’s unreal thou coactive art,

  And fellow’st nothing: then ’tis very credent

  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

  145

  And hard’ning of my brows).

  POLIXENES What means Sicilia?

  HERMIONE He something seems unsettled.

  POLIXENES How, my lord?

  What cheer? how is’t with you, best brother?

  HERMIONE You look

  As if you held a brow of much distraction:

  Are you mov’d, my lord?

  LEONTES No, in good earnest.

  150

  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, methoughts I did recoil

  Twenty-three years, and saw myself unbreech’d,

  155

  In my green velvet coat; my dagger muzzl’d

  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, this gentleman. Mine honest friend,

  160

  Will you take eggs for money?

  MAMILLIUS No, my lord, I’ll fight.

  LEONTES

  You will? Why, happy man be’s dole! My brother,

&n
bsp; Are you so fond of your young prince, as we

  Do seem to be of ours?

  POLIXENES If at home, sir,

  165

  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

  170

  Thoughts that would thick my blood.

  LEONTES 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:

  175

  Next to thyself, and my young rover, he’s

  Apparent to my heart.

  HERMIONE If you would seek us,

  We are yours i’th’ garden: shall’s attend you there?

  LEONTES

  To your own bents dispose you: you’ll be found,

  Be you beneath the sky. [aside] I am angling now,

  180

  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

  To her allowing husband!

  Exeunt Polixenes, Hermione and attendants.

  Gone already!

  185

  Inch-thick, knee-deep; o’er head and ears a fork’d one.

  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 havec been,

  190

  (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 th’ arm,

  That little thinks she has been sluic’d in’s absence

  And his pond fish’d by his next neighbour, by

  195

  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. Physic for’t there’s none;

  200

  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’t,

  It will let in and out the enemy,

  205

  With bag and baggage: many thousand on’s

  Have the disease, and feel’t not. How now, boy?

  MAMILLIUS I am like you, they say.

  LEONTES Why, that’s some comfort.

  What, Camillo there?

  CAMILLO Ay, my good lord.

  210

  LEONTES Go play, Mamillius; thou’rt an honest man.

  Exit Mamillius.

  Camillo, this great Sir will yet stay longer.

  CAMILLO You had much ado to make his anchor hold:

  When you cast out, it still came home.

  LEONTES Didst note it?

  CAMILLO He would not stay at your petitions; made

  215

  His business more material.

  LEONTES Didst perceive it?

  [aside] They’re here with me already; whisp’ring, rounding

  ‘Sicilia is a so-forth’: ’tis far gone,

  When I shall gust it last. – How cam’t, Camillo,

  That he did stay?

  CAMILLO At the good queen’s entreaty.

  220

  LEONTES

  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,

  225

  But of the finer natures? by some severals

  Of head-piece extraordinary? lower messes

  Perchance are to this business purblind? say!

  CAMILLO Business, my lord? I think most understand

  Bohemia stays here longer.

  LEONTES Ha?

  CAMILLO Stays here longer.

  230

  LEONTES Ay, but why?

  CAMILLO To satisfy your highness, and the entreaties

  Of our most gracious mistress.

  LEONTES Satisfy?

 

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