Without ripe moving to't? Would I do this? I must believe you, sir; Thou dost advise me, Even so as I mine own course have set down: I'll give no blemish to her honour, none. Cam. My lord, This is all: I'll do't, my lord. Leon. I will seem friendly, as thou hast advis'd [Erit. Cam. 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, me. 48 To blench is to start off, to shrink. Thus in Hamlet : if he do blench, I know my course.' Leontes means, could any man so start or fly off from propriety of behaviour ? Let villany itself forswear't. I must Enter POLIXENES. This is strange! methinks, My favour here begins to warp. Not speak?-Good-day, Camillo. Cam. Hail, most royal sir! · Pol. What is the news i' the court? Cam. None rare, my lord. Cam. I dare not know, my lord. and dare not 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. Pol. 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, I may not answer. Sir, I'll tell you; counsel; On, good Camillo. By the king Pol. For what? Cam. He thinks, nay, with all confidence he swears, As he had seen't, or been an instrument To vice 51 you to't,--that you have touch'd his queen Forbiddenly Pol. 0, then my best blood turn To an infected jelly; and my name 49 Success, for succession. Gentle, well born, was opposed to simple. 50 'I am appointed him to murder you,' I am the person ap. pointed to murder you. 51 i. e. to screw or move you to it, A vice in Shakspeare's time meant any kiud of winding screw. The vice of a clock was a common espression. Be yok'd with his, that did betray the best52! Swear his thought over53 How should this grow? Cam. 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. Pol. I do believe thee : I saw his heart in his face55. Give me thy hand; 52 That is Judas. A clause in the sentence of excommunicated persons was: 'let them have part with Judas that betrayed Christ.' 53 “Swear his thought over.' The meaning apparently is 'overswear his thought by,' &c. 54 "Is pil'd upon his faith.' This folly which is erected on the foundation of settled belief. 55 I saw his heart in his face." In Macbeth we have: "To find the mind's construction in the face, Vol IV. Be pilot to me, and thy places shall Cam. It is in mine authority, to command Exeunt. Enter HERMIONE, MAMILLIUS, and Ladies. Her. Take the boy to you: he so troubles me, ”Tis past enduring. 1 Lady. Come, my gracious lord, Shall I be your playfellow? 56 i. e. I will place thee in elevated rank always near to my own in dignity, or near my person. 57 Johnson might well say, 'I can make nothing of the following words : --and comfort Of his ill-ta'en suspicion.' he suspected the line which connected them to the rest to have been lost. I have sometimes thought that we should read not noting instead of but nothing. Perhaps they will bear this construction: ‘Good expedition be my friend, and may my, absence bring comfort to the gracious queen who is part of his theme. but who knows nothing of his unjust suspicion.' |