William Shakespeare
-
Tragedies
- Antony and Cleopatra
- Coriolanus
- Hamlet
- Julius Caesar
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- Macbeth
- Othello
- Romeo and Juliet
- Timon of Athens
- Titus Andronicus
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Histories
- King Henry IV Part 1
- King Henry IV Part 2
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Comedies
- A Midsummer Night's Dream
- All's Well That Ends Well
- As You Like It
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- Love's Labour's Lost
- Measure for Measure
- Much Ado About Nothing
- Pericles, Prince of Tyre
- The Comedy of Errors
- The Merchant of Venice
- The Merry Wives of Windsor
- The Taming of the Shrew
- The Tempest
- The Two Gentlemen of Verona
- The Winter's Tale
- Troilus and Cressida
- Twelfth Night
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Poetry
- A Lover's Complaint
- Sonnets 1 to 50
- Sonnets 50 to 100
- Sonnets 100 to 154
- The Passionate Pilgrim
- The Phoenix and the Turtle
- The Rape of Lucrece
- Venus and Adonis
The Winter's Tale (c. 1594 or 1610)
Charles Robert Leslie, Florizel and Perdita, 1837" style="width: 300px; height: 220px; float: right;" class="PopBoxImageSmall" title="Click to magnify/shrink" onclick="Pop(this,50,'/');"/>ACT ONE
SCENE 1. Sicilia. An Antechamber in LEONTES' Palace.
[Enter CAMILLO and ARCHIDAMUS]
ARCHIDAMUS.
- If you shall chance, Camillo, to visit Bohemia, on the
- like occasion whereon my services are now on foot, you shall see,
- as I have said, great difference betwixt our Bohemia and your
- Sicilia.
CAMILLO.
- I think this coming summer the King of Sicilia means to
- pay Bohemia the visitation which he justly owes him.
ARCHIDAMUS.
- Wherein our entertainment shall shame us we will be
- justified in our loves; for indeed,—
CAMILLO.
- Beseech you,—
ARCHIDAMUS.
- Verily, I speak it in the freedom of my knowledge: we
- cannot with such magnificence—in so rare—I know not what to
- say.—We will give you sleepy drinks, that your senses,
- unintelligent of our insufficience, may, though they cannot
- praise us, as little accuse us.
CAMILLO.
- You pay a great deal too dear for what's given freely.
ARCHIDAMUS.
- Believe me, I speak as my understanding instructs me
- and as mine honesty puts it to utterance.
CAMILLO.
- Sicilia cannot show himself overkind to Bohemia. They were
- trained together in their childhoods; and there rooted betwixt
- them then such an affection which cannot choose but branch now.
- Since their more mature dignities and royal necessities made
- separation of their society, their encounters, though not
- personal, have been royally attorneyed with interchange of gifts,
- letters, loving embassies; that they have seemed to be together,
- though absent; shook hands, as over a vast; and embraced as it
- were from the ends of opposed winds. The heavens continue their
- loves!
ARCHIDAMUS.
- 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.
CAMILLO.
- I very well agree with you in the hopes of him. It is a
- gallant child; one that indeed physics the subject, makes old
- hearts fresh: they that went on crutches ere he was born desire
- yet their life to see him a man.
ARCHIDAMUS.
- Would they else be content to die?
CAMILLO.
- Yes; if there were no other excuse why they should desire to
- live.
ARCHIDAMUS.
- If the king had no son, they would desire to live on crutches
- till he had one.
[Exeunt.]
SCENE 2. The same. A room of State in the palace.
[Enter LEONTES, POLIXENES, HERMIONE, MAMILLIUS, CAMILLO, and Attendants.]
POLIXENES.
- Nine changes of the watery star hath been
- The shepherd's note since we have left our throne
- 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.
LEONTES.
- Stay your thanks a while,
- And pay them when you part.
POLIXENES.
- 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.
LEONTES.
- We are tougher, brother,
- Than you can put us to't.
POLIXENES.
- No longer stay.
LEONTES.
- One seven-night longer.
POLIXENES.
- Very sooth, to-morrow.
LEONTES.
- We'll part the time between's then: and in that
- I'll no gainsaying.
POLIXENES.
- Press me not, beseech you, so,
- There is no tongue that moves, none, none i' the world,
- So soon as yours, 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
- To you a charge and trouble: to save both,
- Farewell, our brother.
LEONTES.
- Tongue-tied, our queen? Speak you.
HERMIONE.
- 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 proclaimed: say this to him,
- He's beat from his best ward.
LEONTES.
- Well said, Hermione.
HERMIONE.
- 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 of the clock behind
- What lady she her lord.—You'll stay?
POLIXENES.
- No, madam.
HERMIONE.
- Nay, but you will?
POLIXENES.
- I may not, verily.
HERMIONE.
- 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 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.
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
- 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 the verier wag o' the two?
POLIXENES.
- 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, nor dream'd
- 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
- 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!
- Of this make no conclusion, lest you say
- Your queen and I are devils: yet, go on;
- The 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.
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?
- 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 heat an acre. But to the 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 the purpose—when?
- 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.
- 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.
[Giving her hand to POLIXENES.]
LEONTES.
- Too hot, too hot! [Aside.]
- 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: '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?
MAMILLIUS.
- Ay, my good lord.
LEONTES.
- I' fecks!
- 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
[Observing POL. and HER.]
- 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,
- That will say anything: 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,
- 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?—
- With what's unreal thou co-active art,
- And fellow'st nothing: then 'tis very credent
- Thou mayst 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.
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.—
- 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,
- 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, this gentleman.—Mine honest friend,
- Will you take eggs for money?
MAMILLIUS.
- No, my lord, I'll fight.
LEONTES.
- You will? Why, happy man be 's dole!—My brother,
- Are you so fond of your young prince as we
- Do seem to be of ours?
POLIXENES.
- 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.
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:
- Next to thyself and my young rover, he's
- Apparent to my heart.
HERMIONE.
- If you would seek us,
- We are yours i' the 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.
- Though you perceive me not how I give line.
- Go to, go to!
[Observing POL. and HER.]
- How she holds up the neb, the bill to him!
- And arms her with the boldness of a wife
- To her allowing husband!
- Gone already!
[Exeunt POLIXENES, HERMIONE, and Attendants.]
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 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 his 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 hath revolted wives, the tenth of mankind
- Would hang themselves. Physic for't there's 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't;
- It will let in and out the enemy
- With bag and baggage. Many thousand of us
- 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.
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
- His business more material.
LEONTES.
- Didst perceive it?—
- They're here with me already; whispering, rounding,
- 'Sicilia is a so-forth.' 'Tis far gone
- When I shall gust it last.—How came't, Camillo,
- That he did stay?
CAMILLO.
- At the good queen's entreaty.
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,
- 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.
LEONTES.
- Ay, but why?
CAMILLO.
- To satisfy your highness, and the entreaties
- Of our most gracious mistress.
LEONTES.
- Satisfy
- Th' 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.
CAMILLO.
- Be it forbid, my lord!
LEONTES.
- To bide upon't,—thou art not honest; or,
- If thou inclin'st that way, thou art a coward,
- Which hoxes 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 seest a game play'd home, the rich stake drawn,
- And tak'st it all for jest.
CAMILLO.
- 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
- I play'd the fool, it was my negligence,
- Not weighing well the end; if ever fearful
- To do a thing, where I the issue doubted,
- Whereof the execution did cry out
- Against the non-performance, 'twas a fear
- Which oft affects the wisest: these, my lord,
- Are such allow'd infirmities that honesty
- Is never free of. But, beseech your grace,
- Be plainer with me; let me know my trespass
- By its own visage: if I then deny it,
- 'Tis none of mine.
LEONTES.
- Have not you seen, Camillo,—
- But that's past doubt: you have, or your eye-glass
- Is thicker than a cuckold's horn,—or heard,—
- For, to a vision so apparent, rumour
- Cannot be mute,—or thought,—for cogitation
- Resides not in that man that does not think it,—
- My wife is slippery? If thou wilt confess,—
- Or else be impudently negative,
- To have nor eyes nor ears nor thought,—then say
- My wife's a hobby-horse; deserves a name
- As rank as any flax-wench that puts to
- Before her troth-plight: say't and justify't.
CAMILLO.
- I would not be a stander-by to hear
- My sovereign mistress clouded so, without
- My present vengeance taken: 'shrew my heart,
- You never spoke what did become you less
- Than this; which to reiterate were sin
- As deep as that, though true.
LEONTES.
- Is whispering nothing?
- Is leaning cheek to cheek? is meeting noses?
- Kissing with inside lip? Stopping the career
- Of laughter with a sigh?—a note infallible
- Of breaking honesty;—horsing foot on foot?
- Skulking in corners? wishing clocks more swift;
- Hours, minutes; noon, midnight? and all eyes
- Blind with the pin and web but theirs, theirs only,
- That would unseen be wicked?—is this nothing?
- Why, then the world and all that's in't is nothing;
- The covering sky is nothing; Bohemia nothing;
- My wife is nothing; nor nothing have these nothings,
- If this be nothing.
CAMILLO.
- Good my lord, be cur'd
- Of this diseas'd opinion, and betimes;
- For 'tis most dangerous.
LEONTES.
- Say it be, 'tis true.
CAMILLO.
- No, no, my lord.
LEONTES.
- It is; you lie, you lie:
- I say thou liest, Camillo, and I hate thee;
- Pronounce thee a gross lout, a mindless slave;
- Or else a hovering temporizer, that
- Canst with thine eyes at once see good and evil,
- Inclining to them both.—Were my wife's liver
- Infected as her life, she would not live
- The running of one glass.
CAMILLO.
- Who does infect her?
LEONTES.
- Why, he that wears her like her medal, hanging
- About his neck, Bohemia: who—if I
- Had servants true about me, that bare eyes
- To see alike mine honour as their profits,
- Their own particular thrifts,—they would do that
- Which should undo more doing: ay, and thou,
- His cupbearer,—whom I from meaner form
- Have bench'd and rear'd to worship; who mayst see,
- Plainly as heaven sees earth and earth sees heaven,
- How I am galled,—mightst bespice a cup,
- To give mine enemy a lasting wink;
- Which draught to me were cordial.
CAMILLO.
- Sir, my lord,
- I could do this; and that with no rash potion,
- But with a ling'ring dram, that should not work
- Maliciously like poison: but I cannot
- Believe this crack to be in my dread mistress,
- So sovereignly being honourable.
- I have lov'd thee,—
LEONTES.
- Make that thy question, and go rot!
- Dost think I am so muddy, so unsettled,
- To appoint myself in this vexation; sully
- The purity and whiteness of my sheets,—
- Which to preserve is sleep; which being spotted
- Is goads, thorns, nettles, tails of wasps;
- Give scandal to the blood o' the prince, my son,—
- Who I do think is mine, and love as mine,—
- Without ripe moving to 't?—Would I do this?
- Could man so blench?
CAMILLO.
- I must believe you, sir:
- I do; and will fetch off Bohemia for't;
- Provided that, when he's remov'd, your highness
- Will take again your queen as yours at first,
- Even for your son's sake; and thereby for sealing
- The injury of tongues in courts and kingdoms
- Known and allied to yours.
LEONTES.
- Thou dost advise me
- Even so as I mine own course have set down:
- I'll give no blemish to her honour, none.
CAMILLO.
- My lord,
- Go then; and with a countenance as clear
- As friendship wears at feasts, keep with Bohemia
- And with your queen: I am his cupbearer.
- If from me he have wholesome beverage,
- Account me not your servant.
LEONTES.
- This is all:
- Do't, and thou hast the one-half of my heart;
- Do't not, thou splitt'st thine own.
CAMILLO.
- I'll do't, my lord.
LEONTES.
- I will seem friendly, as thou hast advis'd me.
[Exit.]
CAMILLO.
- O miserable lady!—But, for me,
- What case stand I in? I must be the poisoner
- Of good Polixenes: and my ground to do't
- Is the obedience to a master; one
- Who, in rebellion with himself, will have
- All that are his so too.—To do this deed,
- Promotion follows: if I could find example
- Of thousands that had struck anointed kings
- And flourish'd after, I'd not do't; but since
- Nor brass, nor stone, nor parchment, bears not one,
- Let villainy itself forswear't. I must
- Forsake the court: to do't, or no, is certain
- To me a break-neck. Happy star reign now!
- Here comes Bohemia.
[Enter POLIXENES.]
POLIXENES.
- This is strange! methinks
- My favour here begins to warp. Not speak?—
- Good-day, Camillo.
CAMILLO.
- Hail, most royal sir!
POLIXENES.
- What is the news i' the court?
CAMILLO.
- None rare, my lord.
POLIXENES.
- The king hath on him such a countenance
- As he had lost some province, and a region
- Lov'd as he loves himself; even now I met him
- With customary compliment; when he,
- Wafting his eyes to the contrary, and falling
- A lip of much contempt, speeds from me;
- So leaves me to consider what is breeding
- That changes thus his manners.
CAMILLO.
- I dare not know, my lord.
POLIXENES.
- How! dare not! do not. Do you know, and dare not
- Be intelligent to me? 'Tis thereabouts;
- For, to yourself, what you do know, you must,
- And cannot say, you dare not. Good Camillo,
- Your chang'd complexions are to me a mirror
- Which shows me mine chang'd too; for I must be
- A party in this alteration, finding
- Myself thus alter'd with't.
CAMILLO.
- There is a sickness
- Which puts some of us in distemper; but
- I cannot name the disease; and it is caught
- Of you that yet are well.
POLIXENES.
- How! caught of me!
- Make me not sighted like the basilisk:
- I have look'd on thousands who have sped the better
- By my regard, but kill'd none so. Camillo,—
- As you are certainly a gentleman; thereto
- Clerk-like, experienc'd, which no less adorns
- Our gentry than our parents' noble names,
- In whose success we are gentle,—I beseech you,
- If you know aught which does behove my knowledge
- Thereof to be inform'd, imprison't not
- In ignorant concealment.
CAMILLO.
- I may not answer.
POLIXENES.
- A sickness caught of me, and yet I well!
- I must be answer'd.—Dost thou hear, Camillo,
- I conjure thee, by all the parts of man
- Which honour does acknowledge,—whereof the least
- Is not this suit of mine,—that thou declare
- What incidency thou dost guess of harm
- Is creeping toward me; how far off, how near;
- Which way to be prevented, if to be;
- If not, how best to bear it.
CAMILLO.
- Sir, I will tell you;
- Since I am charg'd in honour, and by him
- That I think honourable: therefore mark my counsel,
- Which must be ev'n as swiftly follow'd as
- I mean to utter it, or both yourself and me
- Cry lost, and so goodnight!
POLIXENES.
- On, good Camillo.
CAMILLO.
- I am appointed him to murder you.
POLIXENES.
- By whom, Camillo?
CAMILLO.
- By the king.
POLIXENES.
- For what?
CAMILLO.
- He thinks, nay, with all confidence he swears,
- As he had seen 't or been an instrument
- To vice you to't, that you have touch'd his queen
- Forbiddenly.
POLIXENES.
- O, then my best blood turn
- To an infected jelly, and my name
- Be yok'd with his that did betray the best!
- Turn then my freshest reputation to
- A savour that may strike the dullest nostril
- Where I arrive, and my approach be shunn'd,
- Nay, hated too, worse than the great'st infection
- That e'er was heard or read!
CAMILLO.
- Swear his thought over
- By each particular star in heaven and
- By all their influences, you may as well
- Forbid the sea for to obey the moon
- As, or by oath remove, or counsel shake
- The fabric of his folly, whose foundation
- Is pil'd upon his faith, and will continue
- The standing of his body.
POLIXENES.
- How should this grow?
CAMILLO.
- I know not: but I am sure 'tis safer to
- Avoid what's grown than question how 'tis born.
- If, therefore you dare trust my honesty,—
- That lies enclosed in this trunk, which you
- Shall bear along impawn'd,—away to-night.
- Your followers I will whisper to the business;
- And will, by twos and threes, at several posterns,
- Clear them o' the city: for myself, I'll put
- My fortunes to your service, which are here
- By this discovery lost. Be not uncertain;
- For, by the honour of my parents, I
- Have utter'd truth: which if you seek to prove,
- I dare not stand by; nor shall you be safer
- Than one condemn'd by the king's own mouth, thereon
- His execution sworn.
POLIXENES.
- I do believe thee;
- I saw his heart in his face. Give me thy hand;
- Be pilot to me, and thy places shall
- Still neighbour mine. My ships are ready, and
- My people did expect my hence departure
- Two days ago.—This jealousy
- Is for a precious creature: as she's rare,
- Must it be great; and, as his person's mighty,
- Must it be violent; and as he does conceive
- He is dishonour'd by a man which ever
- Profess'd to him, why, his revenges must
- In that be made more bitter. Fear o'ershades me;
- Good expedition be my friend, and comfort
- The gracious queen, part of this theme, but nothing
- Of his ill-ta'en suspicion! Come, Camillo;
- I will respect thee as a father, if
- Thou bear'st my life off hence: let us avoid.
CAMILLO.
- It is in mine authority to command
- The keys of all the posterns: please your highness
- To take the urgent hour: come, sir, away.
[Exeunt.]