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I have one of fprites and goblins.

Let's have that, fir. 9

HER. Come on, fit down:-Come on, and do your best To fright me with your fprites; you're powerful

at it.

MAM. There was a man,

HER.

Nay, come, fit down; then on.

MAM. Dwelt by a church-yard; — I will tell it

foftly;

Yon crickets fhall not hear it.

HER.

And give't me in mine ear.

Come on then,

Enter LEONTES, ANTIGONUS, Lords, and Őihers.

LEON. Was he met there? his train? Camillo with him?

1. LORD. Behind the tuft of pines I met them;

never

Saw I men fcour fo on their way: I ey'd them
Even to their fhips.

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In my juft cenfure? in my true opinion? 3

This fuppofition may feem to be countenanced by our author's 98th Sonnet:

Yet not the lays of birds, &c.

"Could make me any Summer's flory tell."

And yet, I cannot help regarding the words-for winter (which fpoil the measure) as a playhouse interpolation. All children delight in telling difmal ftories; but why should a dismal story be best for winter? STEEVENS.

Let's have that, fir.] The old copy redundantly reads fir. STEEVENS.

good

How blefs'd am I For the fake of metre, 1 fuppofe, our author wrote How bleffed then am I

STEEVENS.

3 In my just cenfure? in my true opinion?] Genfure, in the time of our author, was generally ufed (as in this inftance) for judge

Alack, for leffer knowledge!.

How accurs'd,

In being fo bleft! There may be in the cup
A fpider fleep'd, 5 and one may drink; depart,
And yet partake no venom; for his knowledge
Is not infected: but if one present

The abhorr'd ingredient to his eye, make known How he hath drank, he cracks his gorge, his fides, With violent hefts:6-I have drank, and feen the

fpider.

Camillo was his help in this, his pander: -
There is a plot against my life, my crown;
All's true, that is miftrufted:

that falfe villain;

Whom I employ'd, was pre-employ'd by him:
He has discover'd my design, and I

7

Remain a pinch'd thing; yea, a very trick

ment, opinion. So, fir Walter Raleigh, in his commendatory verses prefixed to Gascoigne's Steel Glasse, 1576:

"Wherefore to write my cenfure of this book

MALONE.

4 Alack, for leffer knowledge!] That is, O that my knowledge were lefs. JOHNSON.

5

A fpider steep'd,] That spiders were esteemed venomous, appears by the evidence of a perfon who was examined in Sir T. Overbury's affair. "The counteffe wifhed me to get the strongest poyfon I could, &c. Accordingly I bought feven great Spiders, and cantharides. HENDERSON.

11

This was a notion generally prevalent in our author's time. So, in Holland's Leaguer, a pamphlet published in 1632: “— like the Spider, which turneth all things to poifon which it taffeth.

6

MALONE.

violent hefts:] Hefts are beavings, what is heaved up.

So, in Sir Arthur Gorges Tranflation of Lucan, 1614:
"But if a part of heavens huge fphere
"Thou chufe thy pond'ious heft to beare.

7 He has difcover'd my defign, and I

STEEVENS.

Remain a pinch'd thing; ] The fense, I think, is, He hath now difcovered my defign, and I am treated as a mere child's baby, a thing pinched out of clouts, a puppet for them to move and aduate as they pleafe. HEATH.

VOL. X.

E

For them to play at will:-How came the pofterns. So eafily open?

1. LORD.

By his great authority;

Which often hath no less prevail'd than fo,

On your command.

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Give me the boy; I am glad, you did not nurse

him:

Though he does bear fome figns of me, yet you Have too much blood in him.

HER.

What is this? fport?

LEON. Bear the boy hence, he shall not come
about her;

Away with him: - and let her fport herself
With that she's big with; for 'tis Polixenes
Has made thee fwell thus.

This fenfe is poffible; but many other meanings might ferve as well. JOHNSON.

"

The fame expreffion occurs in Eliofto Libidinofo, a novel by one John Hinde, 1606: "Sith then, Cleodora, thou art pinched, and haft none to pity thy paffions, diffemble thy affection, though it coft thee thy life. Again, in Greene's Never too late, 1616: "Had the queene of poetrie been pinched with fo many paffions, &c. Thefe inftances may ferve to show that pinched had anciently a more dignified meaning than it appears to have at prefent. Spenser, in his Faery Queen, B. III. c. xii. has equipped grief with a pair of pincers:

"A pair of pincers in his hand he had,

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"With which he pinched people to the heart. The fenfe propofed by the author of The Revifal may, however, be fupported by the following paffage in The City Match, by Jafper Maine, 1639:

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Pinch'd napkins, captain, and laid ·
Like fishes, fowls, or faces."

Again, by a paffage in All's well that ends well:

"If you pinch me like a pafty, [i. e. the cruft round the lid of it, which was an ciently moulded by the fingers into fantaftick fhapes, ] I can fay no Tore. STEEVENS.

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HER. But I'd fay, he had not,

And, I'll be fworn, you would believe my saying, Howe'er you lean to the nayward.

LEON. You, my lords, Look on her, mark her well; be but about To fay, he is a goodly lady, and

The juftice of your hearts will thereto add, 'Tis pity, fhe's not honeft, honourable:

Praife her but for this her without-door form, (Which, on my faith, deferves high speech,) and ftraight

The fhrug, the hum, or ha; these petty brands, That calumny doth use: O, I am out,

That mercy does; for calumny will fear

8

Virtue itself: these shrugs, these hums, and ha's, When you have faid, fhe's goodly, come between, Ere you can fay fhe's honeft: But it be known, From him that has most cause to grieve it should be, She's an adultrefs.

HER.

Should a villain fay fo,
The most replenish'd villain in the world,
He were as much more villain: you, my lord,
Do but mistake. 9

The fubfequent words

a very trick for them to play at will," appear ftrongly to confirm Mr. Heath's explanation. MALONE. for calumny will fear

Virtue itself: That is, will ftigmatize or brand as infamous. So, in All's well that ends well:

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jou, my lord,

Do but mistake. Otway had this paffage in his thoughts, when he put the following lines into the mouth of Caftalio:

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Should the braveft man

"That e'er wore conquering fword, but dare to whisper
"What thou proclaim'ft, he were the worft of liars:
"My friend may be mistaken." STEEVEns.

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 diftinguifhment leave out
Betwixt the prince and beggar!-- I have said,
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 fhe fhould fhame to know herself,
But with her moft vile principal, that he's
A bed-fwerver, even as bad as those
That vulgars give bold titles; ay, and privy
To this their late escape.

You have mistook, my lady,

3

2

No, by my life,

HER. 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 miftake.

9 A federary with her ;] A federary (perhaps a word of our author's coinage) is a confederate, an accomplice.

We should certainly read -a fendary with her. word as federa y. See Cymbeline, A& III. fc. ii.

STEEVENS.

There is no fuch

MALONE.

2 But with her most vile principal.] One that knows what we fhould be afhamed of, even if the knowledge of it refted 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

paflage fomewhat obfcure. It has the fame fignification again in

this fcene:

3

"He, who hall fpeak for her, is afar off guilty,

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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.

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