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I am angling now,

Though you perceive me not how I give line. [Exeunt HERMIONE and POLIXEN ES, followed by all the COURT, except LEONTES, MAMILLIUS, and CAMILLO.

Go to-go to!

How she holds up the neb, the bill to him!
And arms her with the boldness of a wife
To her allowing husband!-Gone already;
Inch-thick, knee-deep;―o'er head and ears a fork'd

one.

Go play, boy, play;-thy mother plays, and I
Play too; but so disgrac'd a part, whose issue
Will hiss me to my grave; contempt and clamour
Will be my knell.-Go play, boy, play.-There have
been,

Or I am much deceiv'd, cuckolds ere now;

And many a man there is, even at this present, Now, while I speak this, holds his wife by the arm, That little thinks she has

Should all despair

That have revolted wives, the tenth of mankind Would hang themselves.-Physic for't there is none; It is a bawdy planet, that will strike

Where 'tis predominant; and 'tis powerful, think it, From east, west, north, and south:

Many a thousand of us

Have the disease, and feel't not.-How now, boy?
Mam. I am like you, they say.

Leon. Why, that's some comfort.

What! Camillo there?

Cam. Ay, my good lord.

Leon. Go play, Mamillius; thou'rt an honest man.

[Exit MAMILLIUS.

Camillo, this great sir will yet stay longer.

Cam. You had much ado to make his anchor hold;

When you cast out, it still came home.

Leon. Didst note it?

Cam. He would not stay at your petitions; made His business more material.

Leon. Didst perceive it?—

They're here with me already; whispering, rounding, "Sicilia is a so forth :" "Tis far gone,

When I shall gust it last.-How cam't, Camillo,
That he did stay?

Cam. At the good queen's entreaty.

Leon. At the queen's, be't: good should be pertinent;

But so it is, it is not. Was this taken
By any understanding pate but thine?
For thy conceit is soaking, will draw in
More than the common blocks :- Not noted, is't,
But of the finer natures? by some severals
Of head-piece extraordinary? Lower messes,
Perchance, are to this business purblind? say.

Cam. Business, my lord? I think, most understand, Bohemia stays here longer.

Leon. Ha?

Cum. Stays here longer.

Leon. Ay, but why?

Cam. To satisfy your highness, and the entreaties Of our most gracious mistress.

Leon. Satisfy

The entreaties of your mistress?—Satisfy !—-
Let that suffice. I have trusted thee, Camillo,
With all the nearest things to my heart, as well
My chamber-councils: wherein, priest-like, thou
Hast cleans'd my bosom; I from thee departed
Thy penitent reform'd. But we have been
Deceiv'd in thy integrity, deceiv'd

In that which seems so.

Cam. Be it forbid, my lord!

Leon. To bide upon't;-Thou art not honest: or, If thou inclin'st that way, thou art a coward ; Which hoxes honesty behind, restraining

From course requir'd: Or else thou must be counted

A servant, grafted in my serious trust,
And therein negligent: or else a fool,

That seest a game play'd home, the rich stake drawn,
And tak'st it all for jest.

Cam. In your affairs, my lord,
If ever I were wilful negligent,
It was my folly; if industriously
I play'd the fool, it was my negligence,
Not weighing well the end; if ever fearful
To do a thing, where I the issue doubted,
'Twas a fear

Which oft infects the wisest: these, my lord,
Are such allowed infirmities, that honesty
Is never free of. But, 'beseech your grace,
Be plainer with me; let me know my trespass
By its own visage: if I then deny it,

"Tis none of mine..

Leon. Have not you seen, Camillo,

(But that's

Or heard,

past doubt: you have ;-)

(For to a vision so apparent, rumour

Cannot be mute;-) or thought, (for cogitation
Resides not in that man that does not think it,-)
My wife is slippery? If thou wilt confess,
(Or else be impudently negative,

To have nor eyes, nor ears, nor thought,) then say,
My wife's a hobby-horse; deserves a name
As rank as any flax-wench, that puts to
Before her troth-plight: say it, and justify it.
Cam. I would not be a stander-by, to hear
My sovereign mistress clouded so, without
My present vengeance taken: 'Shrew my heart,
You never spoke what did become you less
Than this; which to reiterate, were sin
As deep as that, though true.

Leon. Is whispering nothing?

Is leaning cheek to cheek? is meeting noses?
Kissing with inside lip? stopping the career

Of laughter with a sigh? (a note infallible
Of breaking honesty :)

Skulking in corners? wishing clocks more swift?
Hours, minutes? noon, midnight? and all eyes blind
With the pin and web, but theirs, theirs only,

That would, unseen, be wicked? Is this nothing?
Why, then the world, and all that's in't, is nothing;
The covering sky is nothing; Bohemia nothing;
My wife is nothing; nor nothing have these nothings,
If this be nothing.

Cam. Good my lord, be cur'd

Of this diseas'd opinion, and betimes;
For 'tis most dangerous.

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Leon. Say, it be; 'tis true.

Cam. No, no, my lord.

Leon. You lie, you lie; it is:

say, thou liest, Camillo, and I hate thee; Pronounce thee a gross lout, a mindless slave;

Or else a hovering temporizer, that

Canst with thine eyes at once see good and evil,
Inclining to them both: Were my wife's liver
Infected as her life, she would not live

The running of one glass.

Cam. Who does infect her?

Leon. Why, he, that wears her like her medal, hanging

About his neck, Bohemia :-Who,—if I

Had servants true about me, that bare eyes
To see alike mine honour as their profits,-

They would do that

Which should undo more doing: Ay, and thou,
His cup-bearer-

Who may'st see

Plainly, as heaven sees earth, and earth sees heaven,

How I am galled,-might'st bespice a cup,

To give mine enemy a lasting wink;

Which draught to me were cordial.

Cam. Sir, my lord,

I could do this; and that with no rash potion,
But with a ling'ring dram, that should not work
Maliciously, like poison:-But I cannot

Believe this crack to be in my dread mistress,
So sovereignly being honourable.

Leon. I've lov'd thee,-make't thy question, and go rot!

Dost think, I am so muddy, so unsettled,
To appoint myself in this vexation ;—sully
The purity and whiteness of my sheets,
Which to preserve, is sleep; which being spotted,
Is goads, thorns, nettles, tails of wasps :-
Give scandal to the blood o'the prince, my son,
Who, I do think is mine, and love as mine ;-
Without ripe moving to't? Would I do this?
Could man so blench?

Cam. I must believe you, sir;

I do; and will fetch off Bohemia, for't:
Provided that, when he's remov'd, your highness
Will take again your queen, as yours at first;
Even for your son's sake; and, thereby, for sealing
The injury of tongues, in courts and kingdoms
Known and allied to yours.

Leon. Thou dost advise me,

Even so, as I my own course have set down:
I'll give no blemish to her honour, none.
Cam. My lord,

Go then; and with a countenance as clear

As friendship wears at feasts, keep with Bohemia,
And with your queen-I am his cup-bearer;
If from me he have wholesome beverage,
Account me not your servant.

Leon. This is all:

Do't, and thou hast the one-half of my heart;
Do't not, thou splitt'st thine own.—
I will seem friendly, as thou hast advis'd me.
[Exit LEONTES.

Cam. O miserable lady !-But, for me,

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