Without a burden: time as long again

Would be fill'd up, my brother, with our thanks;
And yet we should for perpetuity

Go hence in debt: and therefore, like a cipher,

Yet standing in rich place, I multiply

With one we-thank-you many thousands more
That go before it.

Leon.

Stay your thanks awhile,

And pay them when you part.

Pol.

Sir, that's to-morrow.

I am question'd by my fears, of what may chance,

Or breed upon our absence; that may

blow

No sneaping winds at home, to make us say,

"This is put forth too truly "." Besides, I have stay'd To tire your royalty.

Leon. We'll part the time between's then; and in that I'll no gain-saying.

Pol.

Press me not, beseech you3.

There is no tongue that moves, none, none i' the world,

So soon as your's could win me: so it should now,
Were there necessity in your request, although
"Twere needful I denied it. My affairs

Do even drag me homeward; which to hinder,
Were in your love a whip to me, my stay

"This is put forth too truly."] We leave the old reading unchanged, although the corr. fo. 1632 instructs us to print as follows:

"May there blow

No sneaping winds at home, to make us say,

This is put forth too early."

The image in the mind of the old corrector was the "sneaping" or nipping winds in spring, which might induce people to say that buds have put forth too early. The expression, we admit, is awkward “that may blow," &c., but Polixenes means to state his fears, that his anticipations of misfortune at home might have been indulged too truly. Warburton hastily condemns the passage as "nonsense," and some corruption is pretty evident, which the annotator on the folio, 1632, has not in our opinion remedied. The poet's meaning is clear, though the wording of the passage may be defective.

• Press me not, beseech you.] The old copies have so at the end of this line, which whether we regard metre or meaning is mere surplusage. The corr. fo. 1632 omits it, most properly, as an interpolation.

To you a charge, and trouble: to save both,
Farewell, our brother.

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
All in Bohemia's well: this satisfaction

The by-gone day proclaim'd. Say this to him,
He's beat from his best ward.

Leon.

Well said, Hermione.

[He walks apart o.

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.

Yet of your royal presence [To POLIXENES.] I'll adventure
The borrow of a week. When at Bohemia

You take my lord, I'll give him my commission,
To let him there a month behind the gest

Prefix'd for's parting: yet, good deed, Leontes,
I love thee not a jar o' the clock, behind
What lady should her lord'. You'll stay?
Pol.

No, madam.

Her. Nay, but you
Pol.

will?

I may not, verily.

6 He walks apart.] This stage-direction is in MS. in the corr. fo. 1632, and it shows, most likely, the custom of the actor of the character of Leontes to turn away, while Hermione urges her suit to Polixenes. This course seems very judicious: he comes forward with the words "Is he won yet?"

7 TO LET him there a month, behind the GEST

Prefix'd for's parting:] i. e. I will give him leave to detain himself there a month beyond the time arranged for his departure. "Gest" was a term employed with reference to the royal progresses, and meant a place of abiding for a certain period. Malone properly derives it from the French giste.

8 - yet, good DEED,] The second folio has it "good heed," which is not less forced than to take "good deed" in the sense of indeed. In the old copies the two words are in parenthesis.

9 I love thee not A JAR O' THE CLOCK behind

46

What lady SHOULD her lord.] A jar o' the clock" is a tick of the clock; "jar" being used for tick by many writers of the time. The words "what lady should her lord" have hitherto stood very unintelligibly, "what lady she her lord." The emendation is made on the authority of the old MS. corrector of the first folio belonging to Lord Ellesmere. "Should" was perhaps written, in the MS., from which the printer composed the first folio, with an abbreviation, which he misread she, and it is repeated in all the later folios, one having copied from the other. It is also "should her lord" in the corr. fo. 1632.

Her. 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 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?
My prisoner, or my guest? by your dread verily,
One of them you shall be.

Pol.
To be your prisoner should import offending;
Which is for me less easy to commit,

Your guest then, madam :

Than you to punish.

Her.

Not your jailor then,

But your kind hostess. Come, I'll question you
Of my lord's tricks, and your's, when you were boys;
You were pretty lordings then.

queen.

Pol.
We were, fair
Two lads, that thought there was no more behind,
But such a day to-morrow as to-day,

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 th' 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

With stronger blood, we should have answer'd heaven
Boldly, "not guilty;" the imposition clear'd,

Hereditary our's.

O! my most sacred lady,

You have tripp'd since.

Pol.

Temptations have since then been born to's'; for

1 The doctrine of ill-doing, No, nor dream'd] The folio, 1623, omits "no," which is found in the folio, 1632, and probably was accidentally omitted by the compositor, confused by "no" and "nor," following each other. The measure is improved, and the meaning strengthened by "no."

2 Temptations have since then been born To's ;] If, with Malone, we read "to us" as two syllables, the verse is redundant: therefore, to show that the two words were to form one syllable, they are printed "to's" in the old copies.

VOL. III.

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.

Her.

Grace to boot!

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
With any, but with us.

Leon.

Is he won yet?

Her. He'll stay, my lord.

Leon.

[Coming forward.

At my request he would not.

Her. What? have I twice said well? when was't before?

I pr'ythee, 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
With spur we clear an acre.
But to the good*:
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 the purpose: when ?

Nay, let me have't; I long.

Leon.
Why, that was when
Three crabbed months had sour'd themselves to death,
Ere I could make thee open thy white hand,

3 I pr'ythee tell me. CRAM'S with praise, and MAKE's] i. e. "Cram us with praise and make us :" but, for the sake of the metre, the old copies, by their mode of printing, inform us that "cram us " and "make us were each to be read as one syllable. Such doubtless was the mode in which the words were written in the MS. used by the old compositor, and we may presume that in this form they came from the pen of Shakespeare. This remark will apply to "to's," on the preceding page, and to various other portions of this play.

4 With spur we CLEAR an acre. But to the GOOD:] These are two emendations obtained from the corr. fo. 1632: "clear" was misprinted heat, and "good" goal. Hermione reverts from her simile to the "good" Leontes had imputed to her. The compositor misread "good" goal, erroneously thinking that the figure derived from horsemanship was still carried on.

And clap thyself my love: then didst thou utter, "I am your's 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,

Th' other for some while a friend.

Leon.

[Giving her hand to POLIXENES.
[Aside.] 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's fertile bosom,
And well become the agent: 't 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; O! that is entertainment
My bosom likes not, nor my brows.-Mamillius,
Art thou my boy?

Mam.

Leon.

Ay, my good lord.

Why, that's my bawcock".

nose ?

I' fecks' ?

What! hast smutch'd thy

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'

[Observing POLIXENES and HERMIONE.

Upon his palm ?-How now, you wanton calf!
Art thou my calf?

5 From BOUNTY's fertile bosom,] This was Malone's judicious emendation, and it accords with the corr. fo. 1632: the old wording is "from bounty, fertile bosom :" the printer perhaps mistook the s of the Saxon genitive for a comma, which he therefore placed after "bounty."

and then to sigh, as 'twere

The MORT O' the deer;] The "mort o' the deer" is the death of the deer. Leontes probably likens the violence of the supposed sighs of Hermione to the long blast of a horn at "the mort o' the deer;" or, it may be, to the heavy sighs of the animal while dying.

'I' fecks?] Steevens supposes this exclamation to be a corruption of i' faith: it is as likely to be a corruption of in fact-if indeed they are not the same.

Why, that's my BAWCOCK.] Perhaps, says Steevens, from beau and coq.

9 Still virginalling] i. e. Playing with her fingers, as on the virginals.