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The Winter’s Tale - Act 1, scene 2
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The Winter’s Tale - Act 1, scene 2Act 1, scene 2
Scene 2
Synopsis:
Leontes suddenly grows insanely jealous of the friendship between his queen, Hermione, and his visiting friend Polixenes. Leontes forces Camillo to promise to murder Polixenes. Camillo informs Polixenes of the murder threat and the two plan a hasty departure for Bohemia.
Enter Leontes, Hermione, Mamillius, Polixenes, Camillo,⌜and Attendants.⌝
POLIXENES
0049 Nine changes of the wat’ry star hath been
0050 The shepherd’s note since we have left our throne
0051 Without a burden. Time as long again
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0052
Would be filled up, my brother, with our thanks,0053 5 And yet we should for perpetuity
0054 Go hence in debt. And therefore, like a cipher,
0055 Yet standing in rich place, I multiply
0056 With one “We thank you” many thousands more
0057 That go before it.
LEONTES 0058 10 Stay your thanks awhile,
0059 And pay them when you part.
POLIXENES 0060 Sir, that’s tomorrow.
0061 I am questioned by my fears of what may chance
0062 Or breed upon our absence, that may blow
0063 15 No sneaping winds at home to make us say
0064 “This is put forth too truly.” Besides, I have stayed
0065 To tire your Royalty.
LEONTES 0066 We are tougher, brother,
0067 Than you can put us to ’t.
POLIXENES 0068 20 No longer stay.
LEONTES
0069 One sev’nnight longer.
POLIXENES 0070 Very sooth, tomorrow.
LEONTES
0071 We’ll part the time between ’s, then, and in that
0072 I’ll no gainsaying.
POLIXENES 0073 25 Press me not, beseech you, so.
0074 There is no tongue that moves, none, none i’ th’
0075 world,
0076 So soon as yours could win me. So it should now,
0077 Were there necessity in your request, although
0078 30 ’Twere needful I denied it. My affairs
0079 Do even drag me homeward, which to hinder
0080 Were in your love a whip to me, my stay
0081 To you a charge and trouble. To save both,
0082 Farewell, our brother.
LEONTES 0083 35 Tongue-tied, our queen?
0084 Speak you.
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HERMIONE 0085 I had thought, sir, to have held my peace until
0086 You had drawn oaths from him not to stay. You, sir,
0087 Charge him too coldly. Tell him you are sure
0088 40 All in Bohemia’s well. This satisfaction
0089 The bygone day proclaimed. Say this to him,
0090 He’s beat from his best ward.
LEONTES 0091 Well said, Hermione.
HERMIONE
0092 To tell he longs to see his son were strong.
0093 45 But let him say so then, and let him go.
0094 But let him swear so and he shall not stay;
0095 We’ll thwack him hence with distaffs.
0096 ⌜To Polixenes.⌝ Yet of your royal presence I’ll
0097 adventure
0098 50 The borrow of a week. When at Bohemia
0099 You take my lord, I’ll give him my commission
0100 To let him there a month behind the gest
0101 Prefixed for ’s parting.—Yet, good deed, Leontes,
0102 I love thee not a jar o’ th’ clock behind
0103 55 What lady she her lord.—You’ll stay?
POLIXENES 0104 No, madam.
HERMIONE
0105 Nay, but you will?
POLIXENES 0106 I may not, verily.
HERMIONE 0107 Verily?
0108 60 You put me off with limber vows. But I,
0109 Though you would seek t’ unsphere the stars with
0110 oaths,
0111 Should yet say “Sir, no going.” Verily,
0112 You shall not go. A lady’s “verily” is
0113 65 As potent as a lord’s. Will you go yet?
0114 Force me to keep you as a prisoner,
0115 Not like a guest, so you shall pay your fees
0116 When you depart and save your thanks. How say you?
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0117
My prisoner or my guest? By your dread “verily,”0118 70 One of them you shall be.
POLIXENES 0119 Your guest, then, madam.
0120 To be your prisoner should import offending,
0121 Which is for me less easy to commit
0122 Than you to punish.
HERMIONE 0123 75 Not your jailer, then,
0124 But your kind hostess. Come, I’ll question you
0125 Of my lord’s tricks and yours when you were boys.
0126 You were pretty lordings then?
POLIXENES 0127 We were, fair queen,
0128 80 Two lads that thought there was no more behind
0129 But such a day tomorrow as today,
0130 And to be boy eternal.
HERMIONE 0131 Was not my lord
0132 The verier wag o’ th’ two?
POLIXENES
0133 85 We were as twinned lambs that did frisk i’ th’ sun
0134 And bleat the one at th’ other. What we changed
0135 Was innocence for innocence. We knew not
0136 The doctrine of ill-doing, nor dreamed
0137 That any did. Had we pursued that life,
0138 90 And our weak spirits ne’er been higher reared
0139 With stronger blood, we should have answered
0140 heaven
0141 Boldly “Not guilty,” the imposition cleared
0142 Hereditary ours.
HERMIONE 0143 95 By this we gather
0144 You have tripped since.
POLIXENES 0145 O my most sacred lady,
0146 Temptations have since then been born to ’s, for
0147 In those unfledged days was my wife a girl;
0148 100 Your precious self had then not crossed the eyes
0149 Of my young playfellow.
HERMIONE 0150 Grace to boot!
0151 Of this make no conclusion, lest you say
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0152
Your queen and I are devils. Yet go on.0153 105 Th’ offenses we have made you do we’ll answer,
0154 If you first sinned with us, and that with us
0155 You did continue fault, and that you slipped not
0156 With any but with us.
LEONTES 0157 Is he won yet?
HERMIONE
0158 110 He’ll stay, my lord.
LEONTES 0159 At my request he would not.
0160 Hermione, my dearest, thou never spok’st
0161 To better purpose.
HERMIONE 0162 Never?
LEONTES 0163 115 Never but once.
HERMIONE
0164 What, have I twice said well? When was ’t before?
0165 I prithee tell me. Cram ’s with praise, and make ’s
0166 As fat as tame things. One good deed dying
0167 tongueless
0168 120 Slaughters a thousand waiting upon that.
0169 Our praises are our wages. You may ride ’s
0170 With one soft kiss a thousand furlongs ere
0171 With spur we heat an acre. But to th’ goal:
0172 My last good deed was to entreat his stay.
0173 125 What was my first? It has an elder sister,
0174 Or I mistake you. O, would her name were Grace!
0175 But once before I spoke to th’ purpose? When?
0176 Nay, let me have ’t; I long.
LEONTES 0177 Why, that was when
0178 130 Three crabbèd months had soured themselves to
0179 death
0180 Ere I could make thee open thy white hand
0181 ⌜And⌝ clap thyself my love; then didst thou utter
0182 “I am yours forever.”
HERMIONE 0183 135 ’Tis grace indeed.
0184 Why, lo you now, I have spoke to th’ purpose twice.
p.
19
0185
The one forever earned a royal husband,0186 Th’ other for some while a friend.
⌜She gives Polixenes her hand.⌝
LEONTES, ⌜aside⌝ 0187 Too hot, too hot!
0188 140 To mingle friendship far is mingling bloods.
0189 I have tremor cordis on me. My heart dances,
0190 But not for joy, not joy. This entertainment
0191 May a free face put on, derive a liberty
0192 From heartiness, from bounty, fertile bosom,
0193 145 And well become the agent. ’T may, I grant.
0194 But to be paddling palms and pinching fingers,
0195 As now they are, and making practiced smiles
0196 As in a looking glass, and then to sigh, as ’twere
0197 The mort o’ th’ deer—O, that is entertainment
0198 150 My bosom likes not, nor my brows.—Mamillius,
0199 Art thou my boy?
MAMILLIUS 0200 Ay, my good lord.
LEONTES 0201 I’ fecks!
0202 Why, that’s my bawcock. What, hast smutched thy
0203 155 nose?
0204 They say it is a copy out of mine. Come, captain,
0205 We must be neat—not neat, but cleanly, captain.
0206 And yet the steer, the heifer, and the calf
0207 Are all called neat.—Still virginalling
0208 160 Upon his palm?—How now, you wanton calf?
0209 Art thou my calf?
MAMILLIUS 0210 Yes, if you will, my lord.
LEONTES
0211 Thou want’st a rough pash and the shoots that I
0212 have
0213 165 To be full like me; yet they say we are
0214 Almost as like as eggs. Women say so,
0215 That will say anything. But were they false
0216 As o’erdyed blacks, as wind, as waters, false
0217 As dice are to be wished by one that fixes
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0218
170 No bourn ’twixt his and mine, yet were it true0219 To say this boy were like me. Come, sir page,
0220 Look on me with your welkin eye. Sweet villain,
0221 Most dear’st, my collop! Can thy dam?—may ’t
0222 be?—
0223 175 Affection, thy intention stabs the center.
0224 Thou dost make possible things not so held,
0225 Communicat’st with dreams—how can this be?
0226 With what’s unreal thou coactive art,
0227 And fellow’st nothing. Then ’tis very credent
0228 180 Thou may’st co-join with something; and thou dost,
0229 And that beyond commission, and I find it,
0230 And that to the infection of my brains
0231 And hard’ning of my brows.
POLIXENES 0232 What means Sicilia?
HERMIONE
0233 185 He something seems unsettled.
POLIXENES 0234 How, my lord?
LEONTES
0235 What cheer? How is ’t with you, best brother?
HERMIONE 0236 You look
0237 As if you held a brow of much distraction.
0238 190 Are you moved, my lord?
LEONTES 0239 No, in good earnest.
0240 How sometimes nature will betray its folly,
0241 Its tenderness, and make itself a pastime
0242 To harder bosoms! Looking on the lines
0243 195 Of my boy’s face, methoughts I did recoil
0244 Twenty-three years, and saw myself unbreeched,
0245 In my green velvet coat, my dagger muzzled
0246 Lest it should bite its master and so prove,
0247 As ornaments oft ⌜do,⌝ too dangerous.
0248 200 How like, methought, I then was to this kernel,
0249 This squash, this gentleman.—Mine honest friend,
0250 Will you take eggs for money?
MAMILLIUS 0251 No, my lord, I’ll fight.
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LEONTES 0252 You will? Why, happy man be ’s dole!—My brother,
0253 205 Are you so fond of your young prince as we
0254 Do seem to be of ours?
POLIXENES 0255 If at home, sir,
0256 He’s all my exercise, my mirth, my matter,
0257 Now my sworn friend and then mine enemy,
0258 210 My parasite, my soldier, statesman, all.
0259 He makes a July’s day short as December,
0260 And with his varying childness cures in me
0261 Thoughts that would thick my blood.
LEONTES 0262 So stands this
0263 215 squire
0264 Officed with me. We two will walk, my lord,
0265 And leave you to your graver steps.—Hermione,
0266 How thou lov’st us show in our brother’s welcome.
0267 Let what is dear in Sicily be cheap.
0268 220 Next to thyself and my young rover, he’s
0269 Apparent to my heart.
HERMIONE 0270 If you would seek us,
0271 We are yours i’ th’ garden. Shall ’s attend you there?
LEONTES
0272 To your own bents dispose you. You’ll be found,
0273 225 Be you beneath the sky. ⌜Aside.⌝ I am angling now,
0274 Though you perceive me not how I give line.
0275 Go to, go to!
0276 How she holds up the neb, the bill to him,
0277 And arms her with the boldness of a wife
0278 230 To her allowing husband!
⌜Exit Hermione, Polixenes, and Attendants.⌝
0279 Gone already.
0280 Inch thick, knee-deep, o’er head and ears a forked
0281 one!—
0282 Go play, boy, play. Thy mother plays, and I
0283 235 Play too, but so disgraced a part, whose issue
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25
0284
Will hiss me to my grave. Contempt and clamor0285 Will be my knell. Go play, boy, play.—There have
0286 been,
0287 Or I am much deceived, cuckolds ere now;
0288 240 And many a man there is, even at this present,
0289 Now while I speak this, holds his wife by th’ arm,
0290 That little thinks she has been sluiced in ’s absence,
0291 And his pond fished by his next neighbor, by
0292 Sir Smile, his neighbor. Nay, there’s comfort in ’t
0293 245 Whiles other men have gates and those gates
0294 opened,
0295 As mine, against their will. Should all despair
0296 That have revolted wives, the tenth of mankind
0297 Would hang themselves. Physic for ’t there’s none.
0298 250 It is a bawdy planet, that will strike
0299 Where ’tis predominant; and ’tis powerful, think it,
0300 From east, west, north, and south. Be it concluded,
0301 No barricado for a belly. Know ’t,
0302 It will let in and out the enemy
0303 255 With bag and baggage. Many thousand on ’s
0304 Have the disease and feel ’t not.—How now, boy?
MAMILLIUS
0305 I am like you, ⌜they⌝ say.
LEONTES 0306 Why, that’s some comfort.—
0307 What, Camillo there?
CAMILLO, ⌜coming forward⌝ 0308 260 Ay, my good lord.
LEONTES
0309 Go play, Mamillius. Thou ’rt an honest man.
⌜Mamillius exits.⌝
0310 Camillo, this great sir will yet stay longer.
CAMILLO
0311 You had much ado to make his anchor hold.
0312 When you cast out, it still came home.
LEONTES 0313 265 Didst note it?
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27
CAMILLO 0314 He would not stay at your petitions, made
0315 His business more material.
LEONTES 0316 Didst perceive it?
0317 ⌜Aside.⌝ They’re here with me already, whisp’ring,
0318 270 rounding:
0319 “Sicilia is a so-forth.” ’Tis far gone
0320 When I shall gust it last.—How came ’t, Camillo,
0321 That he did stay?
CAMILLO 0322 At the good queen’s entreaty.
LEONTES
0323 275 “At the queen’s” be ’t. “Good” should be pertinent,
0324 But so it is, it is not. Was this taken
0325 By any understanding pate but thine?
0326 For thy conceit is soaking, will draw in
0327 More than the common blocks. Not noted, is ’t,
0328 280 But of the finer natures, by some severals
0329 Of headpiece extraordinary? Lower messes
0330 Perchance are to this business purblind? Say.
CAMILLO
0331 Business, my lord? I think most understand
0332 Bohemia stays here longer.
LEONTES
0333 285 Ha?
CAMILLO 0334 Stays here longer.
LEONTES 0335 Ay, but why?
CAMILLO
0336 To satisfy your Highness and the entreaties
0337 Of our most gracious mistress.
LEONTES 0338 290 Satisfy?
0339 Th’ entreaties of your mistress? Satisfy?
0340 Let that suffice. I have trusted thee, Camillo,
0341 With all the nearest things to my heart, as well
0342 My chamber-counsels, wherein, priestlike, thou
0343 295 Hast cleansed my bosom; I from thee departed
0344 Thy penitent reformed. But we have been
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29
0345
Deceived in thy integrity, deceived0346 In that which seems so.
CAMILLO 0347 Be it forbid, my lord!
LEONTES
0348 300 To bide upon ’t: thou art not honest; or,
0349 If thou inclin’st that way, thou art a coward,
0350 Which hoxes honesty behind, restraining
0351 From course required; or else thou must be
0352 counted
0353 305 A servant grafted in my serious trust
0354 And therein negligent; or else a fool
0355 That seest a game played home, the rich stake
0356 drawn,
0357 And tak’st it all for jest.
CAMILLO 0358 310 My gracious lord,
0359 I may be negligent, foolish, and fearful.
0360 In every one of these no man is free,
0361 But that his negligence, his folly, fear,
0362 Among the infinite doings of the world,
0363 315 Sometime puts forth. In your affairs, my lord,
0364 If ever I were willful-negligent,
0365 It was my folly; if industriously
0366 I played the fool, it was my negligence,
0367 Not weighing well the end; if ever fearful
0368 320 To do a thing where I the issue doubted,
0369 Whereof the execution did cry out
0370 Against the non-performance, ’twas a fear
0371 Which oft infects the wisest. These, my lord,
0372 Are such allowed infirmities that honesty
0373 325 Is never free of. But, beseech your Grace,
0374 Be plainer with me; let me know my trespass
0375 By its own visage. If I then deny it,
0376 ’Tis none of mine.
LEONTES 0377 Ha’ not you seen, Camillo—
0378 330 But that’s past doubt; you have, or your eyeglass
p.
31
0379
Is thicker than a cuckold’s horn—or heard—0380 For to a vision so apparent, rumor
0381 Cannot be mute—or thought—for cogitation
0382 Resides not in that man that does not think—
0383 335 My wife is slippery? If thou wilt confess—
0384 Or else be impudently negative
0385 To have nor eyes nor ears nor thought—then say
0386 My wife’s a ⌜hobby-horse,⌝ deserves a name
0387 As rank as any flax-wench that puts to
0388 340 Before her troth-plight. Say ’t, and justify ’t.
CAMILLO
0389 I would not be a stander-by to hear
0390 My sovereign mistress clouded so without
0391 My present vengeance taken. ’Shrew my heart,
0392 You never spoke what did become you less
0393 345 Than this, which to reiterate were sin
0394 As deep as that, though true.
LEONTES 0395 Is whispering nothing?
0396 Is leaning cheek to cheek? Is meeting noses?
0397 Kissing with inside lip? Stopping the career
0398 350 Of laughter with a sigh?—a note infallible
0399 Of breaking honesty. Horsing foot on foot?
0400 Skulking in corners? Wishing clocks more swift?
0401 Hours minutes? Noon midnight? And all eyes
0402 Blind with the pin and web but theirs, theirs only,
0403 355 That would unseen be wicked? Is this nothing?
0404 Why, then the world and all that’s in ’t is nothing,
0405 The covering sky is nothing, Bohemia nothing,
0406 My wife is nothing, nor nothing have these nothings,
0407 If this be nothing.
CAMILLO 0408 360 Good my lord, be cured
0409 Of this diseased opinion, and betimes,
0410 For ’tis most dangerous.
LEONTES 0411 Say it be, ’tis true.
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CAMILLO 0412 No, no, my lord.
LEONTES 0413 365 It is. You lie, you lie.
0414 I say thou liest, Camillo, and I hate thee,
0415 Pronounce thee a gross lout, a mindless slave,
0416 Or else a hovering temporizer that
0417 Canst with thine eyes at once see good and evil,
0418 370 Inclining to them both. Were my wife’s liver
0419 Infected as her life, she would not live
0420 The running of one glass.
CAMILLO 0421 Who does infect her?
LEONTES
0422 Why, he that wears her like her medal, hanging
0423 375 About his neck—Bohemia, who, if I
0424 Had servants true about me, that bare eyes
0425 To see alike mine honor as their profits,
0426 Their own particular thrifts, they would do that
0427 Which should undo more doing. Ay, and thou,
0428 380 His cupbearer—whom I from meaner form
0429 Have benched and reared to worship, who mayst see
0430 Plainly as heaven sees Earth and Earth sees heaven
0431 How I am galled—mightst bespice a cup
0432 To give mine enemy a lasting wink,
0433 385 Which draft to me were cordial.
CAMILLO 0434 Sir, my lord,
0435 I could do this, and that with no rash potion,
0436 But with a ling’ring dram that should not work
0437 Maliciously like poison. But I cannot
0438 390 Believe this crack to be in my dread mistress,
0439 So sovereignly being honorable. I have loved thee—
LEONTES 0440 Make that thy question, and go rot!
0441 Dost think I am so muddy, so unsettled,
0442 To appoint myself in this vexation, sully
0443 395 The purity and whiteness of my sheets—
0444 Which to preserve is sleep, which being spotted
p.
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0445
Is goads, thorns, nettles, tails of wasps—0446 Give scandal to the blood o’ th’ Prince, my son,
0447 Who I do think is mine and love as mine,
0448 400 Without ripe moving to ’t? Would I do this?
0449 Could man so blench?
CAMILLO 0450 I must believe you, sir.
0451 I do, and will fetch off Bohemia for ’t—
0452 Provided that, when he’s removed, your Highness
0453 405 Will take again your queen as yours at first,
0454 Even for your son’s sake, and thereby for sealing
0455 The injury of tongues in courts and kingdoms
0456 Known and allied to yours.
LEONTES 0457 Thou dost advise me
0458 410 Even so as I mine own course have set down.
0459 I’ll give no blemish to her honor, none.
CAMILLO 0460 My lord,
0461 Go then, and with a countenance as clear
0462 As friendship wears at feasts, keep with Bohemia
0463 415 And with your queen. I am his cupbearer.
0464 If from me he have wholesome beverage,
0465 Account me not your servant.
LEONTES 0466 This is all.
0467 Do ’t and thou hast the one half of my heart;
0468 420 Do ’t not, thou splitt’st thine own.
CAMILLO 0469 I’ll do ’t, my lord.
LEONTES
0470 I will seem friendly, as thou hast advised me.
He exits.
CAMILLO
0471 O miserable lady! But, for me,
0472 What case stand I in? I must be the poisoner
0473 425 Of good Polixenes, and my ground to do ’t
0474 Is the obedience to a master, one
0475 Who in rebellion with himself will have
0476 All that are his so too. To do this deed,
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0477
Promotion follows. If I could find example0478 430 Of thousands that had struck anointed kings
0479 And flourished after, I’d not do ’t. But since
0480 Nor brass, nor stone, nor parchment bears not one,
0481 Let villainy itself forswear ’t. I must
0482 Forsake the court. To do ’t or no is certain
0483 435 To me a breakneck. Happy star reign now!
0484 Here comes Bohemia.
Enter Polixenes.
POLIXENES, ⌜aside⌝ 0485 This is strange. Methinks
0486 My favor here begins to warp. Not speak?—
0487 Good day, Camillo.
CAMILLO 0488 440 Hail, most royal sir.
POLIXENES
0489 What is the news i’ th’ court?
CAMILLO 0490 None rare, my lord.
POLIXENES
0491 The King hath on him such a countenance
0492 As he had lost some province and a region
0493 445 Loved as he loves himself. Even now I met him
0494 With customary compliment, when he,
0495 Wafting his eyes to th’ contrary and falling
0496 A lip of much contempt, speeds from me, and
0497 So leaves me to consider what is breeding
0498 450 That changes thus his manners.
CAMILLO 0499 I dare not know, my
0500 lord.
POLIXENES
0501 How, dare not? Do not? Do you know and dare not?
0502 Be intelligent to me—’tis thereabouts;
0503 455 For to yourself what you do know, you must,
0504 And cannot say you dare not. Good Camillo,
0505 Your changed complexions are to me a mirror
0506 Which shows me mine changed too, for I must be
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0507
A party in this alteration, finding0508 460 Myself thus altered with ’t.
CAMILLO 0509 There is a sickness
0510 Which puts some of us in distemper, but
0511 I cannot name the disease, and it is caught
0512 Of you that yet are well.
POLIXENES 0513 465 How caught of me?
0514 Make me not sighted like the basilisk.
0515 I have looked on thousands who have sped the
0516 better
0517 By my regard, but killed none so. Camillo,
0518 470 As you are certainly a gentleman, thereto
0519 Clerklike experienced, which no less adorns
0520 Our gentry than our parents’ noble names,
0521 In whose success we are gentle, I beseech you,
0522 If you know aught which does behoove my
0523 475 knowledge
0524 Thereof to be informed, imprison ’t not
0525 In ignorant concealment.
CAMILLO 0526 I may not answer.
POLIXENES
0527 A sickness caught of me, and yet I well?
0528 480 I must be answered. Dost thou hear, Camillo?
0529 I conjure thee by all the parts of man
0530 Which honor does acknowledge, whereof the least
0531 Is not this suit of mine, that thou declare
0532 What incidency thou dost guess of harm
0533 485 Is creeping toward me; how far off, how near;
0534 Which way to be prevented, if to be;
0535 If not, how best to bear it.
CAMILLO 0536 Sir, I will tell you,
0537 Since I am charged in honor and by him
0538 490 That I think honorable. Therefore mark my counsel,
0539 Which must be e’en as swiftly followed as
0540 I mean to utter it, or both yourself and me
0541 Cry lost, and so goodnight.
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41
POLIXENES
0542
On, good Camillo.CAMILLO
0543 495 I am appointed him to murder you.
POLIXENES
0544 By whom, Camillo?
CAMILLO 0545 By the King.
POLIXENES 0546 For what?
CAMILLO
0547 He thinks, nay with all confidence he swears,
0548 500 As he had seen ’t or been an instrument
0549 To vice you to ’t, that you have touched his queen
0550 Forbiddenly.
POLIXENES 0551 O, then my best blood turn
0552 To an infected jelly, and my name
0553 505 Be yoked with his that did betray the Best!
0554 Turn then my freshest reputation to
0555 A savor that may strike the dullest nostril
0556 Where I arrive, and my approach be shunned,
0557 Nay, hated too, worse than the great’st infection
0558 510 That e’er was heard or read.
CAMILLO 0559 Swear his thought over
0560 By each particular star in heaven and
0561 By all their influences, you may as well
0562 Forbid the sea for to obey the moon
0563 515 As or by oath remove or counsel shake
0564 The fabric of his folly, whose foundation
0565 Is piled upon his faith and will continue
0566 The standing of his body.
POLIXENES 0567 How should this grow?
CAMILLO
0568 520 I know not. But I am sure ’tis safer to
0569 Avoid what’s grown than question how ’tis born.
0570 If therefore you dare trust my honesty,
0571 That lies enclosèd in this trunk which you
0572 Shall bear along impawned, away tonight!
p.
43
0573
525 Your followers I will whisper to the business,0574 And will by twos and threes at several posterns
0575 Clear them o’ th’ city. For myself, I’ll put
0576 My fortunes to your service, which are here
0577 By this discovery lost. Be not uncertain,
0578 530 For, by the honor of my parents, I
0579 Have uttered truth—which if you seek to prove,
0580 I dare not stand by; nor shall you be safer
0581 Than one condemned by the King’s own mouth,
0582 thereon
0583 535 His execution sworn.
POLIXENES 0584 I do believe thee.
0585 I saw his heart in ’s face. Give me thy hand.
0586 Be pilot to me and thy places shall
0587 Still neighbor mine. My ships are ready and
0588 540 My people did expect my hence departure
0589 Two days ago. This jealousy
0590 Is for a precious creature. As she’s rare,
0591 Must it be great; and as his person’s mighty,
0592 Must it be violent; and as he does conceive
0593 545 He is dishonored by a man which ever
0594 Professed to him, why, his revenges must
0595 In that be made more bitter. Fear o’ershades me.
0596 Good expedition be my friend, and comfort
0597 The gracious queen, part of his theme, but nothing
0598 550 Of his ill-ta’en suspicion. Come, Camillo,
0599 I will respect thee as a father if
0600 Thou bear’st my life off hence. Let us avoid.
CAMILLO
0601 It is in mine authority to command
0602 The keys of all the posterns. Please your Highness
0603 555 To take the urgent hour. Come, sir, away.
They exit.