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 I am innocent as you." Paul. I dare be sworn : These dangerous, unsane lunes i' the king, beshrew them! Persuades, when speaking fails. Emil. Most worthy madam, Your honour, and your goodness, is so evident, 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 Lest she should be denied. Paul. Tell her, Emilia, I'll use that tongue I have: if wit flow from it, 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, 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 She, th' adultress; for the harlot king Is quite beyond mine arm, out of the blank 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, 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 Laugh at me; make their pastime at my sorrow : 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 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 : 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 Your most obedient counsellor, yet that dares Than such as most seem your's, -I say, I come Paul. Good queen, my lord, good queen: queen; And would by combat make her good, so were I 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, 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 : 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. |