SCENE III. The same. A Room in the Palace. 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, the adultress;-for the harlot king Is quite beyond mine arm, out of the blank And level 1 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 Attend. My lord! [Advancing. He took good rest to-night; Leon. How does the boy? 1 Attend. 'Tis hop'd his sickness is discharg'd. Leon. His nobleness! To see, Conceiving the dishonour of his mother, thought of him; The very thought of my revenges that way 1 Blank and level mean mark and aim, or direction. They are terms of gunnery. See note 8, p. 50, of this play. Thus also in Hamlet, Act iv. Sc. 4: 'As level as the cannon to his blank.' 2 i. e. leave me alone. 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, More free, than he is jealous. Ant. That's enough. 1 Atten. Madam, he hath not slept to-night; com manded None should come at him. Not so hot, good sir; I come to bring him sleep. 'Tis such as you,— Honest, as either; to purge him of that humour, Leon. What noise there, ho? Paul. No noise, my lord; but needful conference About some gossips for your highness. Leon. How? Away with that audacious lady: Antigonus, I knew she would. Ant. I told her so, my lord, On your displeasure's peril, and on mine, She should not visit you. Leon. What, can'st not rule her? 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. 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 profess 3 From your good queen. Leon. Good queen! Paul. Good queen, my lord, good queen: I say, good queen; And would by combat make her good, so were I A man, the worst about you. Leon. Force her hence. Paul. Let him, that makes but trifles of his eyes, First hand me: on my 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: 3 The old copy has professes. Not so: 4 In comforting your evils.' To comfort, in old language, is to aid, to encourage. Evils here mean wicked courses. 5i. e. the weakest, or least warlike. 6 ' A mankind witch.' In Junius's Nomenclator, by Abraham Fleming, 1585, Virago is interpreted 'A manly woman, or a mankind woman.' Johnson asserts that the phrase is still used in the midland counties for a woman violent, ferocious, and mischievous. I am as ignorant in that, as you 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, unroosted By thy dame Partlet here: take up the bastard; Take't up, I say; give't to thy crone8. Paul. Unvenerable be thy hands, if thou For ever Takest up the princess, by that forced 9 baseness Which he has put upon't! Leon. He dreads his wife. Paul. So, I would, you did; then, 'twere past all doubt, But one, that's here; and that's himself: for he His hopeful son's, his babe's, betrays to slander, Whose sting is sharper than the sword's 10; and will not 7 i. e. hen-pecked. To tire in Falconry is to tear with the beak. Partlet is the name of the hen in the old story of Reynard the Fox. 8 A crone was originally a toothless old ewe; and thence became a term of contempt for an old woman. 9 Forced is false; uttered with violence to truth. Baseness for bastardy; we still say base born. 10 Whose sting is sharper than the sword's.' So in Cymbeline: 'Slander, Whose edge is sharper than the sword, whose tongue (For, as the case now stands, it is a curse He cannot be compell'd to't), once remove The root of his opinion, which is rotten, As ever oak, or stone, was sound. Leon, A callat 11, Of boundless tongue; who late hath beat her husband, And now baits me!-This brat is none of mine; It is the issue of Polixenes: Hence with it; and, together with the dam, Commit them to the fire. Paul. It is yours; And, might we lay the old proverb to your charge, The trick of his frown, his forehead; nay, the valley, Her children not her husband's! Leon. A gross hag!— And, lozel 13, thou art worthy to be hang'd, That wilt not stay her tongue. Ant. Hang all the husbands That cannot do that feat, you'll leave yourself Leon. Once more, take her hence. Paul. A most unworthy and unnatural lord Can do no more. 11 A callat is a trull, 12 No yellow, the colour of jealousy. 13 Lozel, a worthless fellow; one lost to all goodness. From the Saxon Losian, to perish, to be lost. Lorel, losel, loslicke, are all of the same family. |