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Re-enter Jailor, with EMILIA.

Dear gentlewoman,

How fares our gracious lady?

Emil. As well as one so great, and so forlorn, May hold together. On her frights, and griefs, (Which never tender lady hath borne greater,) She is, something before her time, deliver'd.

Paul. A boy?

Emil.

A daughter; and a goodly babe,

Lusty, and like to live: the queen receives
Much comfort in't, says, "My poor prisoner,

I am innocent as you."

Paul.

I dare be sworn :

These dangerous, unsane lunes i' the king, beshrew them!
He must be told on't, and he shall: the office
Becomes a woman best; I'll take't upon me.
If I prove honey-mouth'd, let my tongue blister,
And never to my red-look'd anger be
The trumpet any more.-Pray you, Emilia,
Commend my best obedience to the queen :
If she dares trust me with her little babe,
I'll show't the king, and undertake to be
Her advocate to the loud'st. We do not know
How he may soften at the sight o' the child:
The silence often of pure innocence

Persuades, when speaking fails.

Emil.

Most worthy madam,

Your honour, and your goodness, is so evident,
That your free undertaking cannot miss

A thriving issue: there is no lady living

So meet for this great errand. Please your ladyship

2 These dangerous, UNSANE LUNES i' the king,] The word "lunes" does not occur in any other English dramatist of the time, but moon is used precisely in the same sense in Cyril Tourneur's "Revenger's Tragedy," 1608, A. iii. sc. 1:

"I know 'twas but some peevish moon in him." Shakespeare is partial to "lunes," and it is met with in "The Merry Wives of Windsor," A. iv. sc. 2, if not in "Troilus and Cressida," A. ii. sc. 3, where the word is, however, misprinted lines in the folios. Cotgrave has "lune folie;" and Theobald derives the phrase from the French, in which "il y a de la lune" is a familiar expression. The corr. fo. 1632 changes "unsafe" to unsane, which certainly is more appropriate, and to say that the king's lunes are "dangerous" and unsafe is mere tautology. Malone and Steevens take some credit for correcting "i' the king" into "o' the king;" but where was the necessity or even propriety of the change?

To visit the next room, I'll presently
Acquaint the queen of your most noble offer,
Who, but to-day, hammer'd of this design,
But durst not tempt a minister of honour,

Lest she should be denied.

Paul.

Tell her, Emilia,

I'll use that tongue I have: if wit flow from it,
As boldness from my bosom, let it not be doubted

I shall do good.

Emil.

Now, be you blest for it!

I'll to the queen.-Please you, come something nearer.

Jailor. Madam, if't please the queen to send the babe,

I know not what I shall incur to pass it,

Having no warrant.

Paul.

You need not fear it, sir:

The child was prisoner to the womb, and is,

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Enter LEONTES, ANTIGONus, Lords, and other Attendants.

Leon. Nor night, nor day, no rest. It is but weakness

To bear the matter thus, mere weakness. If
The cause were not in being, part o' the cause,

She, th' adultress; for the harlot king

Is quite beyond mine arm, out of the blank
And level of my brain, plot-proof; but she
I can hook to me: say, that she were gone,

Given to the fire, a moiety of my rest

Might come to me again. -Who's there?

1 Atten.

My lord.

Leon. How does the boy?

1 Atten.

He took good rest to-night:

'Tis hop'd, his sickness is discharg'd.

Leon.

To see his nobleness !

Conceiving the dishonour of his mother,

He straight declin'd, droop'd, took it deeply,
Fasten'd and fix'd the shame on't in himself,

Threw off his spirit, his appetite, his sleep,

And downright languish'd.-Leave me solely :-go,

See how he fares. [Exit Attend.] - Fie, fie! no thought of

him:

The very thought of my revenges that way
Recoil upon me: in himself too mighty,
And in his parties, his alliance';-let him be,
Until a time may serve: for present vengeance,
Take it on her. Camillo and Polixenes

Laugh at me; make their pastime at my sorrow :
They should not laugh, if I could reach them; nor

Shall she, within my power.

1 Lord.

Enter PAULINA, with a Child.

You must not enter.

Paul. Nay, rather, good my lords, be second to me.

Fear you his tyrannous passion more, alas!

Than the queen's life? a gracious innocent soul,

More free than he is jealous.

Ant.

That's enough.

1 Atten. Madam, he hath not slept to-night; commanded

None should come at him.

Not so hot, good sir:

Paul.

3 Fie, fie! no thought of HIM:-] i. e. Of Polixenes, to whom the thoughts of Leontes naturally revert without naming him. Coleridge called this, in his lectures, we think, in 1812, an admirable instance of propriety in soliloquy, where the mind leaps from one object to another, however distant, without any apparent interval; the operation here being perfectly intelligible without mentioning Polixenes. The king is talking to himself, while his lords and attendants stand at a distance.

4 And in his parties, his ALLIANCE;] So, in Greene's novel: "Pandosto, although he felt that revenge was a spurre to warre, and that envy alwaies proffereth steele, yet he saw Egistus was not only of great puissance and prowesse to withstand him, but also had many kings of his alliance to ayde him, if neede should serve; for he married the Emperour's daughter of Russia. These and the like considerations something daunted Pandosto his courage, so that he was content rather to put up a manifest injurie with peace, than hunt after revenge, dishonor, and losse; determining, since Egistus had escaped scotfree, that Bellaria should pay for all at an unreasonable price." Shakespeare's Library, Part i. p. 14.

I come to bring him sleep. 'Tis such as you,-
That creep like shadows by him, and do sigh
At each his needless heavings,--such as you
Nourish the cause of his awaking: I
Do come with words as medicinal as true,
Honest as either, to purge him of that humour,

That presses him from sleep.

Leon.

What noise there, ho?

Paul. No noise, my lord; but needful conference,

About some gossips for your highness.

Leon.

[Coming forward.

How?

Away with that audacious lady. Antigonus,

I charg'd thee that she should not come about me :

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Paul. From all dishonesty he can: in this, (Unless he take the course that you have done,

Commit me for committing honour) trust it,

He shall not rule me..

Ant.

Lo, you now! you hear.

When she will take the rein, I let her run;

But she'll not stumble.

Paul.

Good my liege, I come,

And, I beseech you, hear me, who professes
Myself your loyal servant, your physician,

Your most obedient counsellor, yet that dares
Less appear so in comforting your evils 6,

Than such as most seem your's, -I say, I come

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Paul. Good queen, my lord, good queen:

queen;

And would by combat make her good, so were I
A man, the worst about you.

I say, good

5 WHAT noise there, ho?] The first folio reads who: the error was corrected in the second folio.

6

in COMFORTING your evils,] "Comforting" is here used, as Monck Mason observes, in the legal sense of comforting and abetting a person in any

criminal action.

Leon.

Force her hence.

Paul. Let him that makes but trifles of his eyes

First hand me. On mine own accord I'll off,

But first I'll do my errand. The good queen,
For she is good, hath brought you forth a daughter :

Here 'tis; commends it to your blessing.

Leon.

[Laying down the Child.

Out!

A mankind witch'! Hence with her, out o' door;

A most intelligencing bawd!

Paul.

I am as ignorant in that, as you

Not so:

In so entitling me, and no less honest

Than you are mad; which is enough, I'll warrant,

As this world goes, to pass for honest.

Leon.

Traitors!

Will you not push her out? Give her the bastard.

Thou, dotard, [To ANTIGONUs.] thou art woman-tir'd, un

roosted

By thy dame Partlet here. -Take up the bastard :
Take't up, I say; give't to thy croneo.

Paul.

Unvenerable be thy hands, if thou

For ever

Tak'st up the princess by that forced baseness 10

Which he has put upon't!

Leon.

He dreads his wife.

Paul. So I would you did; then, 'twere past all doubt,

You'd call your children your's.

Leon.

nest of traitors!

Nor I; nor any,

Ant. I am none, by this good light.

Paul.

7 A MANKIND witch!] i. e. A masculine witch: "mankind" was frequently used in this sense. In "Coriolanus," A. iv. sc. 2, Sicinius asks Volumnia, "Are you man kind?" meaning, are you of the male sex?

8

thou art WOMAN-TIR'D,] i. e. In familiar terms, hen-peck'd: "dame Partlet," which Leontes just afterwards mentions, was the proverbial name for a hen, obtained originally, perhaps, from "Reynard the Fox," and it occurs in Chaucer. To tire on is to peck at, and rend with the beak. In "Timon of Athens," A. iii. sc. 6, we read:-"Upon that were my thoughts tiring." The use of the word in that sense is not at all uncommon in our old dramatists: to tire and to tear appear to have the same etymology.

9

thy CRONE.] A "crone" is an old woman. poets employ the word.

10

Chaucer and other early

by that FORCED baseness] i. e. "Falsed baseness;" and perhaps one word misheard for the other.

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