My women may be with me; for, you see, My plight requires it. Do not weep, good fools; There is no cause; when you shall know, your mistress Has deserv'd prison, then abound in tears, As I come out: this action, I now go on, Is for better my grace. Adieu, my lord; I never wish'd to see you sorry: now, I trust, I shall. My women, come; you have leave.. Leon. Go, do our bidding; hence. [Exeunt Queen and Ladies. 1 Lord. 'Beseech your highness, call the queen again. Ant. Be certain what you do, sir; lest your justice Prove violence; in the which three great ones suffer, Yourself, your queen, your son. 1 Lord. For her, my lord, I dare my life lay down, and will do't, sir, Please you to accept it, that the queen is spotless In this which you accuse her. If it prove Ant. She's otherwise, I'll keep my stables where I lodge my wife2; I'll go in couples with her; + Than when I feel, and see her, no further trust her; For every inch of woman in the world, Ay, every dram of woman's flesh, is false, If she be. Leon. 1 Lord. Hold your peaces. Good my lord, Ant. It is for you we speak, not for ourselves: You are abus'd, and by some putter-on, 3 That will be damn'd for't; 'would I knew the villain, 2 I'll keep my stables where I lodge my wife ;] If Hermione prove unfaithful, I'll never trust my wife out of my sight; I'll always go in couples with her; and, in that respect, my house shall resemble a stable, where dogs are kept in pairs. I would land-damn him': Be she honour-flaw'd,- Leon. Cease; no more, You smell this business with a sense as cold We need no grave to bury honesty; There's not a grain of it, the face to sweeten Of the whole dungy earth. Leon. What! lack I credit? 1 Lord. I had rather you did lack, than I, my lord, Upon this ground: and more it would content me To have her honour true, than your suspicion; Be blam'd for't how you might. Leon. Why, what need we Commune with you of this? but rather follow 4 land-damn him:] Mr. Steevens, after giving various opínions on this expression, says, After all these awkward struggles to obtain a meaning, we might, I think, not unsafely read "I'd laudanum him,—” i. e. poison him with laudanum. 5 I see't and feel't, As you feel doing thus; and see withal The instruments that feel.] Some stage direction seems necessary in this place; but what that direction should be, it is not easy to decide. Sir T. Hanmer gives-Laying hold of his arm: Dr. Johnson-striking his brows. Mr. Henley thinks that Leonfes, perhaps, touches the forehead of Antigonus with his fore and middle fingers forked in imitation of a SNAIL'S HORNS; for these, or imaginary horns of his own like them, are the instruments that feel, to which he alluded. Mr. Malone reads “but I do see't," &c. Calls not your counsels; but our natural goodness Ant. And I wish, my liege, You had only in your silent judgment tried it, Leon. How could that be? Camillo's flight, Either thou art most ignorant by age, Or thou wert born a fool. Added to their familiarity, (Which was as gross as ever touch'd conjecture, That lack'd sight only, nought for approbation, But only seeing, all other circumstances 6 Made up to the deed,) doth push on this proceeding: Yet, for a greater confirmation, (For, in an act of this importance, 'twere Most piteous to be wild,) I have despatch'd in post, Of stuff'd sufficiency7: Now, from the oracle 1 Lord. Well done, my lord. Leon. Though I am satisfied, and need no more Than what I know, yet shall the oracle Give rest to the minds of others; such as he, Whose ignorant credulity will not Come up to the truth: So have we thought it good, t "Relish a truth," - MALONE. 6 7 ·nought for approbation,] Approbation is put for proof. Be left her to perform. Come, follow us; Ant. [aside.] To laughter, as I take it, SCENE II. The same. The outer Room of a Prison. Enter PAULINA and Attendants. [Exeunt. Paul. The keeper of the prison, -call to him; Let him have knowledge who I am.-Good lady! Re-enter Attendant, with the Keeper. You know me, do you not? For a worthy lady, Pray you then, Keep. I may not, madam; to the contrary I have express commandment. Paul. Here's ado, To lock up honesty and honour from The access of gentle visitors!Is it lawful, Keep. So please you, madam, to put Emilia forth. Paul. Well, be it so, pr'ythee. Here's such ado to make no stain a stain, As passes colouring. [Exit. Keeper. Re-enter Keeper, with EMILIA. Dear gentlewoman, how fares our gracious lady? Emil. A daughter; and a goodly babe, Paul. I dare be sworn : 8 These dangerous unsafe lunes o' the king! beshrew them! He must be told on't, and he shall: the office my The trumpet any more:-Pray you, Emilia, Persuades, when speaking fails. Most worthy madam, 8 These dangerous unsafe lunes o' the king!] I have no where, but in our author, observed this word adopted in our tongue, to signify frenzy, lunacy. But it is a mode of expression with the FrenchIl y a de la lune : (i. e. he has got the moon in his head; he is frantick.) Cotgrave. "Lune, folie. Les femmes ont des lunes dans la tête. Richelet." THEOBALD. |