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LEON.
Polixenes for Leontes: O thou thing,
Which I'll not call a creature of thy place,
Left barbarism, making me the precedent,
Should a like language ufe to all degrees,
And mannerly diftinguishment leave out
Betwixt the prince and beggar!-I have faid,
She's an adultrefs; I have faid, with whom:
More, fhe's a traitor; and Camillo is
A federary with her; and one that knows
What she should shame to know herself,
But with her most vile principal, that she's
A bed-fwerver, even as bad as those
That vulgars give bold titles;
To this their late escape.

You have mistook, my lady,

ay, and privy

HER. No, by my life, Privy to none of this: How will this grieve you, When you fhall come to clearer knowledge, that You thus have publish'd me? Gentle my lord, You scarce can right me throughly then, to say You did mistake.

9 A federary with her ;] A federary (perhaps a word of our author's coinage) is a confederate, an accomplice. STEEVENS. We should certainly read-a feodary with her. There is no fuch word as federary. See Cymbeline, Act III. fc. ii. MALONE.

2 But with her most vile principal,] One that knows what we fhould be ashamed of, even if the knowledge of it rested only in her own breast and that of her paramour, without the participation of any confidant.-But, which is here ufed for only, renders this paffage fomewhat obfcure. It has the fame fignification again in this fcene:

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"He, who shall speak for her, is afar off guilty,
"But that he speaks." MALONE.

- give bold titles ;] The old copy reads-bold' titles; but if the contracted fuperlative be retained, the roughness of the line will be intolerable. STEEVENS.

LEON.

No, no; if I mistake

In those foundations which I build upon,
The center is not big enough to bear

A schoolboy's top.-Away with her to prison:
He, who shall speak for her, is afar off guilty,
But that he speaks.'

HER.

my lords,

There's fome ill planet reigns: I must be patient, till the heavens look With an aspéct more favourable."-Good I am not prone to weeping, as our sex Commonly are; the want of which vain dew, Perchance, shall dry your pities: but I have That honourable grief lodg'd here,' which burns

if I mistake

The center, &c.] That is, if the proofs which I can offer will not fupport the opinion I have formed, no foundation can be trusted. JOHNSON.

Milton, in his Mafque at Ludlow Castle, has expressed the same thought in more exalted language:

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if this fail,

"The pillar'd firmament is rottennefs,

"And earth's base built on ftubble." STEEVENS.

5 He, who shall speak for her, is afar off guilty,

But that he speaks.] Far off guilty, fignifies, guilty in a remote

degree. JOHNSON.

The fame expreffion occurs in K. Henry V :
"Or fhall we fparingly fhow you far off
"The dauphin's meaning?"

But that he speaks-means, in merely Speaking. MALONE.

till the heavens look

With an afpéct more favourable.] An aftrological phrase. The afpe of ftars was anciently a familiar term, and continued to be fuch till the age in which Milton tells us

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the swart ftar sparely looks." Lycidas, v. 138.

but I have

STEEVENS.

That honourable grief lodg'd here,] Again, in Hamlet:
"But I have that within which paffeth show." DOUCE.

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Worse than tears drown: 'Befeech you all, my

lords,

With thoughts fo qualified as your charities
Shall beft inftruct you, measure me ;-and fo
The king's will be perform'd!

LEON.

Shall I be heard? [To the guards.

HER. Who is't, that goes with me?-'befeech your highnefs,

My women may be with me; for, you fee,

My plight requires it. Do not weep, good fools; There is no caufe: when you shall know, your mif

trefs

Has deferv'd prifon, then abound in tears,
As I come out; this action, I now go on,"
Is for my better grace.-Adieu, my lord:
I never wifh'd to fee you forry; now,

I truft, I fhall.My women, come; you have leave.

LEON. Go, do our bidding; hence.

[Exeunt QUEEN and LADIES. 1. LORD. 'Befeech your highnefs, call the queen

again.

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Worfe than tears drown:] So, in King Henry VIII. Qucen Katharine fays

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my drops of tears

"I'll turn to parks of fire."

this action, I now go on,]

STEEVENS.

The word action is here taken in the lawyer's fenfe, for indictment, charge, or accufation.

JOHNSON.

We cannot fay that a perfon goes on an indictment, charge, or accufation. I believe, Hermione only means, "What I am now about to do." M. MASON.

Mr. M. Mafon's fuppofition may be countenanced by the following paffage in Much ado about nothing, A&I. fc.i:

When I went forward on this ended action." STEEVENS.

ANT. Be certain what you do, fir; left your juf

tice

Prove violence; in the which three great ones

fuffer,

Yourself, your queen, your fon.

1. LORD.

For her, my lord,—

I dare my life lay down, and will do't, fir, Please you to accept it, that the queen is spotless I'the eyes of heaven, and to you;

In this which you accufe her.

ANT.

I mean,

If it prove

She's otherwife, I'll keep my stables where
I lodge my wife;' I'll go in couples with her;

9 I'll keep my ftables where

I lodge my wife; Stable-ftand (ftabilis ftatio, as Spelman inter. prets it) is a term of the foreft-laws, and fignifies a place where a deer-ftealer fixes his ftand under fome convenient cover, and keeps watch for the purpose of killing deer as they pafs by. From the place it came to be applied alfo to the perfon, and any man taken in a foreft in that fituation, with a gun or bow in his hand, was prefumed to be an offender, and had the name of a ftable-ftand. In all former editions this hath been printed ftable; and it may perhaps be objected, that another fyllable added spoils the smooth, nefs of the verfe. But by pronouncing ftable fhort, the measure will very well bear it, according to the liberty allowed in this kind of writing, and which Shakfpeare never fcruples to ufe; therefore I read, ftable-ftand. HANMER.

There is no need of Sir T. Hanmer's addition to the text. So, in the ancient interlude of The Repentaunce of Marie Magdalaine, 1567:

"Where thou dwelleft, the devyll may have a ftable."

STEEVENS.

If Hermione prove unfaithful, I'll never truft my wife out of my fight; I'll always go in couples with her; and, in that refpect, my houfe fhall refemble a ftable, where dogs are kept in pairs. Though a kennel is a place where a pack of hounds is kept, every one, I fuppofe, as well as our author, has occafionally feen dogs tied up in couples under the manger of a ftable. A dog-couple is a term at this day. To this practice perhaps he alludes in King John:

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Than when I feel, and fee her, no further trust

her;" 9

For every inch of woman in the world,

Ay, every dram of woman's flesh, is falfe,

If the be.

LEON.

I. LORD.

Hold your peaces.

Good my lord,

ANT. It is for you we speak, not for ourselves: You are abus'd, and by fome putter-on," That will be damn'd for't; 'would I knew the villain, I would land-damn him: Be fhe honour-flaw'd,

"To dive like buckets in concealed wells,

"To crouch in litter of your ftable planks."

In the Teutonick language, hund-ftall, or dog-ftable, is the term for a kennel. Stables or fiable, however may mean ftation, ftabilis ftatio, and two diftinct propofitions may be intended. I'll keep my ftation in the fame place where my wife is lodged; I'll run every where with her, like dogs that are coupled together. MALONE.

9 Than, when I feel, and fee her, &c.] The old copies readThen when, &c. The correction is Mr. Rowe's. STEEVENS. The modern editors read-Than when, &c. certainly not without ground, for than was formerly fpelt then; but here, I believe, the latter word was intended. MALONE.

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-putter-on,] i. e. one who inftigates. So, in Macbeth: the powers divine

"Put on their inftruments." STEEVENS.

3 -land-damn him:] Sir T. Hanmer interprets, stop his urine. Land or lant being the old word for urine.

Land-damn is probably one of those words which caprice brought into fashion, and which, after a fhort time, reafon and grammar drove irrecoverably away. It perhaps meant no more than I will rid the country of him, condemn him to quit the land. JOHNSON.

Land-damn him, if fuch a reading can be admitted, may mean, be would procure fentence to be paft on him in this world, on this earth.

Antigonus could no way make good the threat of stopping his urine. Befides, it appears too ridiculous a punishment for fo atrocious a criminal. Yet it must be confeffed, that what Sir T

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