of their society, their encounters, though not personal, have been royally attornied, with interchange of gifts, letters, loving embassies ; that they have seemed to be together, though absent; shook hands, as over a vast;' and embraced, as it were, from the ends of opposed winds. The heavens continue their loves !

Arch. I think, there is not in the world either malice, or matter, to alter it. You have an unspeakable comfort of your young prince Mamillius; it is a gentleman of the greatest promise, that ever came into my note.

Cam. I very well agree with you in the hopes of him : It is a gallant child; one that, indeed, physicks the subject,d makes old hearts fresh; they, that went on crutches ere he was born, desire yet their life, to see him a man.

Arch. Would they else be content to die?

Cam. Yes; if there were no other excuse why they should desire to live.

Arch. If the king had no son, they would desire to live on crutches till he had one.

[Exeunt.

SCENE II.

The same. A Room of State in the Palace.

Enter LEONTES, POLIXENES, HERMIONE, MAMILLIUS,

CAMILLO, and Attendants.

Pol. Nine changes of the wat’ry star have been
The shepherd's note, since we have left our throne
Without a burden: time as long again
Would be fill'd up, my brother, with our thanks;

a

C

b

royally attornied,] Nobly supplied by substitution of embassies, &c. -Johnson.

shook hands, as over a vast,] i. e. A vast space. The second folio reads a vast sea. Shakspeare has, more than once, taken his imagery from the prints, with which the books of his time were omamented. If my memory do not deceive me, he had his eye on a wood-cut in Holinshed, while writing the incantation of the weird sisters in Macbeth. There is also an allusion to a print of one of the Henries holding a sword adorned with crowns. he refers to a device common in the title-page of old books, of two hands extended from opposite clouds, and joined as in token of friendship over a wide waste of country.--HENLEY.

- physicks the subject,] Keeps the people in a wholesome political temperament.--SEYMOUR.

In this passage

d

And yet we should, for perpetuity,
Go hence in debt: And therefore, like a cipher,
Yet standing in rich place, I multiply,
With one we-thank-you, many thousands more
That go before it.
Leon.

Stay your thanks awhile;
And pay them when you part.
Pol.

Sir, that's to-morrow.
I am question’d by my fears, of what may chance, ,
Or breed upon our absence: That may blow
No sneaping winds at home, to make us say,
This is put forth too truly ! Besides, I have stay'd
To tire your royalty.
Leon.

We are tougher, brother,
Than

you can put us to't. Pol.

No longer stay.
Leon. One seven-night longer.
Pol.

Very sooth, to-morrow.
Leon. We'll part the time between's then : and in that
I'll no gain-saying.
Pol.

Press me not, 'beseech you, so ; There is no tongue that moves, none, none i’the world, So soon as yours, could win me: so it should now, Were there necessity in your request, although "Twere needful I denied it. My affairs Do even drag me homeward; which to hinder, Were, in your love, a whip to me; my stay, To you a charge, and trouble: to save both, Farewell, our brother. Leon.

Tongue-tied, our queen ? speak you. Her. I had thought, sir, to have held my peace, until You had drawn oaths from him, not to stay. . You, sir, Charge him too coldly: Tell him, you are sure, All in Bohemia's well: this satisfaction The by-gone day proclaim'd; say this to him, He's beat from his best ward.

e

That may blow No sneaping winds, &c.] i. e. Oh! that there may blow no rebuking winds at home to make me say, I had too good reason for my fears.-Farmer and MALONE.

Leon.

Well said, Hermione.
Her. To tell, he longs to see his son, were strong:
But let him say so then, and let him go;
But let him swear so, and he shall not stay,
We'll thwack him hence with distaffs. -
Yet of your royal presence [to Polixenes] I'll adventure,
The borrow of a week. When at Bohemia
You take my lord, I'll give you my commission,
To let him there a month, behind the gest
Prefix'd for his parting : yet, good-deed, Leontes,
I love thee not a jar o'the clock behind
What lady she her lord.-You'll stay?
Pol.

No, madam.
Her. Nay, but you will ?
Pol.

I may not verily.

I
Her. Verily!
You put me off with limber vows: But I,
Though you would seek to unsphere the stars with oaths,
Should yet say, Sir, no going. Verily,
You shall not go; a lady's verily is
As potent as a lord's. Will you go yet?
Force me to keep you as a prisoner,
Not like a guest; so you shall pay your fees,
When you depart, and save your thanks. How say you?
My prisoner? or my guest? by your dread verily,
One of them you shall be.
Pol.

Your guest then, madam:
To be your prisoner, should import offending ;
Which is for me less easy to commit,
Than you to punish.
Her.

Not your gaoler then,

* To let him there a month, behind the gest-) To let him there is to detain him there; behind the gest is beyond the time appointed for his stay. Gest" * is a lodging or stage for rest in a royal journey." Strype says, that Cranmer entreated Cecil •* to let him have the new-resolved-upon gests, from that time to the end, that he might from time to time know where the king was.' From which passage we find that the table of the gests limited not only the places, but the time of staying at each.--NARES.

-good-deed,]-signifies, indeed. The second folio reads goodheed.

8 h

But your kind hostess. Come, I'll question you
Of my lord's tricks, and yours, when you were boys ;
You were pretty lordlings then.
Pol.

We were, fair queen,
Two·lads, that thought there was no more behind,
But such a day to-morrow as to day,
And to be boy eternal.

Her. Was not my lord the verier wag o'the two ?

Pol. We were as twinn'd lambs, that did frisk i'the sun,
And bleat the one at the other : What we chang'd
Was innocence for innocence: we knew not
The doctrine of ill-doing, no, nor dream'd
That any did : Had we pursued that life,
And our weak spirits ne'er been higher rear'd
With stronger blood, we should have answer'd Heaven
Boldly, Not guilty; the imposition clear'd,
Hereditary ours.
Her.

By this we gather,
You have tripp'd since.
Pol.

O my most sacred lady,
Temptations have since then been born to us : for
In those unfledg'd days was my wife a girl ;
Your precious self had then not cross'd the eyes
Of my young play-fellow.
Her.

Grace to boot!"
Of this make no conclusion ; lest you say,
Your queen and I are devils : Yet, go on;
The offences we have made you do, we'll answer;
If you first sinn'd with us, and that with us
You did continue fault, and that you slipp'd not
With any but with us.
Leon.

Is he won yet?
Her. He'll stay, my lord.
Leon.

At my request, he would not.
Hermione, my dearest, thou never spok'st
To better purpose.

Her.

Never? Leon.

Never, but once. Her. What ? have I twice said well ? when was't before? I pr’ythee, tell me: Cram us with praise, and make us As fat as tame things : One good deed, dying tongueless, Slaughters a thousand, waiting upon that. Our praises are our wages : You may ride us, With one soft kiss, a thousand furlongs, ere With spur we heat' an acre. But to the goal ;My last good was, to entreat his stay; What was my first? it has an elder sister, Or I mistake you: 0, would her name were Grace : But once before I spoke to the purpose: When? Nay, let me have't; I long. Leon.

Why, that was when
Three crabbed months had sour'd themselves to death,
Ere I could make thee open thy white hand,
And clap thyself my love ;m then did'st. thou utter,
I am yours for ever.
Her.

It is Grace, indeed.
Why, lo you now, I have spoke to the purpose twice:
The one for ever earn’d a royal husband;
The other, for some while a friend.

[Giving her hand to Polixenes. Leon.

Too hot, too hot: [Aside.
To mingle friendship far, is mingling bloods.
I have tremor cordis on me:---my heart dances;
But not for joy,—not joy.--This entertainment
May a free face put on; derive a liberty
From heartiness, from bounty, fertile bosom,
And well become the agent: it may, I grant:

,
But to be paddling palms, and pinching fingers,
As now they are; and making practis'd smiles,
As in a looking glass ;-and then to sigh, as 'twere

m

1

— we heat-] i. e. Run a heat, as in a race. m And clap thyself my love ;] She opened her hand, to clap the palm of it into his, as people do when they confirm a bargain. Hence the phrase-to clap up a bargain, i. e. make one with no other ceremony than the junction of hands. Steevens. This was, says Malone, a regular part of the ceremony of troth plighting