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Leon.

A gross hag!And, lozel, thou art worthy to be hang'd,

2

That wilt not stay her tongue.

Ant.
That cannot do that feat, you'll leave yourself

Hardly one subject.

Hang all the husbands,

Once more, take her hence.

Leon.
Paul. A most unworthy and unnatural lord

Can do no more.

Leon.

Paul.

I'll have thee burn'd.

It is an heretick, that makes the fire,

I care not:

Not she, which burns in 't. I'll not call you tyrant; But this most cruel usage of your queen

(Not able to produce more accusation

Than your own weak-hing'd fancy) something savours Of tyranny, and will ignoble make you,

Yea, scandalous to the world.

Leon.

On your allegiance,
Were I a tyrant,
Where were her life? she durst not call me so,
If she did know me one. Away with her.

Out of the chamber with her.

Paul. I pray you, do not push me; I'll be gone. Look to your babe, my lord; 'tis yours: Jove send her A better guiding spirit!-What need these hands? You, that are thus so tender o'er his follies,

lina, therefore, certainly attributes to it, in the present instance, a pang that it can never give. Malone.

I regard this circumstance as a beauty, rather than a defect. The seeming absurdity in the last clause of Paulina's ardent address to Nature, was undoubtedly designed, being an extravagance characteristically preferable to languid correctness, and chastised declamation. Steevens.

2 And, lozel,] "A Losel is one that hath lost, neglected, or cast off his owne good and welfare, and so is become lewde and carelesse of credit and honesty." Verstegan's Restitution, 1605, p. 335. Reed.

This is a term of contempt frequently used by Spenser. I likewise meet with it in The Death of Robert Earl of Huntington,1601: "To have the lozel's company."

A lozel is a worthless fellow. Again, in The Pinner of Wakefield, 1599:

"Peace, prating lozel," &c. Steevens.

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*

Will never do him good, not one of you.

So, so:-Farewel; we are gone.

Exit.

Leon. Thou, traitor, hast set on thy wife to this.
My child? away with 't!-even thou, that hast
A heart so tender o'er it, take it hence,

And see it instantly consum'd with fire;

Even thou, and none but thou. Take it up straight:
Within this hour bring me word 'tis done,
(And by good testimony) or I'll seize thy life,
With what thou else call'st thine: If thou refuse,
And wilt encounter with my wrath, say so:
The bastard brains with these my proper hands
Shall I dash out. Go, take it to the fire;

For thou sett'st on thy wife.

Ant.

I did not, sir:

These lords, my noble fellows, if they please,
Can clear me in 't.

1 Lord.

We can; my royal liege,

He is not guilty of her coming hither.

Leon. You are liars all.

1 Lord. 'Beseech your highness, give us better credit: We have always truly serv'd you; and beseech

So to esteem of us: And on our knees we beg,

(As recompense of our dear services,

Past, and to come,) that you do change this purpose; Which, being so horrible, so bloody, must

Lead on to some foul issue: We all kneel.

Leon. I am a feather for each wind that blows:Shall I live on, to see this bastard kneel

And call me father? Better burn it now,

Than curse it then. But, be it; let it live:

It shall not neither.-You, sir, come you hither;

You, that have been so tenderly officious
With lady Margery, your midwife, there,
To save this bastard's life:-for 'tis a bastard,
So sure as this beard's grey,3-what will you
To save this brat's life?

[To ANT.

adventure

3 So sure as this beard's grey,] The King must mean the beard of Antigonus, which perhaps both here and on the former occasion, (See p. 205, n. 7,) it was intended, he should lay hold of. Leontes has himself told us that twenty-three years ago he was

Ant.

Any thing, my lord,

That my ability may undergo,

And nobleness impose; at least, thus much;
I'll pawn the little blood which I have left,
To save the innocent: any thing possible.

Leon. It shall be possible: Swear by this sword,4
Thou wilt perform my bidding.

Ant.

I will, my lord.
Leon. Mark, and perform it; (seest thou?) for the fail
Of any point in 't shall not only be

Death to thyself, but to thy lewd-tongu'd wife;
Whom, for this time, we pardon. We enjoin thee,
As thou art liegeman to us, that thou carry
This female bastard hence: and that thou bear it
To some remote and desert place, quite out
Of our dominions; and that there thou leave it,
Without more mercy, to its own protection,
And favour of the climate. As by strange fortune
It came to us, I do in justice charge thee,-
On thy soul's peril, and thy body's torture,—
That thou commend it strangely to some place,5
Where chance may nurse, or end it: Take it up.

Ant. I swear to do this, though a present death
Had been more merciful.-Come on, poor babe:
Some powerful spirit instruct the kites and ravens,

unbreech'd, in his green velvet coat, his dagger muzzled; and of course his age at the opening of this play must be under thirty. He cannot therefore mean his own beard.

Malone.

Swear by this sword,] It was anciently the custom to swear by the cross on the handle of a sword. See a note on Hamlet, Act I, sc. v.

Steevens.

So, in The Penance of Arthur, sig. S. 2: "And therewith King Marke yielded him unto Sir Gaheris, and then he kneeled downe and made his oath upon the crosse of the sword," &c.

I remember to have seen the name of Jesus engraved upon the pummel of the sword of a Crusader in the Church at Winchelsea.

5

Douce.

commend it strangely to some place,] Commit it to some place, as a stranger, without more provision. Johnson. So, in Macbeth:

"I wish your horses swift and sure of foot,
"And so I do commend you to their backs."

To commend is to commit. See Minshieu's Dict. in v. Malone.

To be thy nurses! Wolves, and bears, they say,
Casting their savageness aside, have done
Like offices of pity.-Sir, be prosperous

In more than this deed does require! and blessing,"
Against this cruelty, fight on thy side,

Poor thing, condemn'd to loss!7

Leon.

Another's issue.

1 Atten.

[Exit with the Child. No, I'll not rear

Please your highness, posts,

From those you sent to the oracle, are come

An hour since: Cleomenes and Dion,

Being well arriv'd from Delphos, are both landed,
Hasting to the court.

1 Lord.

So please you, sir, their speed

Hath been beyond account.

Leon.

Twenty-three days

They have been absent: 'Tis good speed; foretels,
The great Apollo suddenly will have

The truth of this appear. Prepare you, lords;
Summon a session, that we may arraign
Our most disloyal lady: for, as she hath
Been publickly accus'd, so shall she have
A just and open trial. While she lives,
My heart will be a burden to me.
And think upon my bidding.

6

7

Leave me;

[Exeunt.

and blessing,] i. e. the favour of heaven. Malone.

· condemn'd to loss!] i, e. to exposure, similar to that of a child whom its parents have lost. I once thought that loss was here licentiously used for destruction; but that this was not the primary sense here intended, appears from a subsequent passage, Act III, sc. iii:

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Poor wretch,

"That, for thy mother's fault, art thus expos'd

"To loss, and what may follow!" Malone.

8 'Tis good speed; &c.] Surely we should read the passage thus: "This good speed foretels," &c. M. Mason.

ACT III.....SCENE I.

The same. A Street in some town.

Enter CLEOMENES and DION.9

Cleo. The climate 's delicate; the air most sweet; Fertile the isle; the temple much surpassing

The common praise it bears.

Dion.

I shall report,

For most it caught me,2 the celestial habits,

(Methinks, I so should term them) and the reverence Of the grave wearers. O, the sacrifice!

How ceremonious, solemn, and unearthly

It was i' the offering!

Cleo.

But, of all, the burst

And the ear-deafening voice o' the oracle,
Kin to Jove's thunder, so surpriz'd my sense,
That I was nothing.

Dion.

If the event o' the journey

Prove as successful to the queen,-O, be 't so!-
As it hath been to us, rare, pleasant, speedy,
The time is worth the use on 't.3

9

Cleomenes and Dion.] These two names, and those of Antigonus and Archidamus, our author found in North's Plutarch. Malone.

1 Fertile the isle,] But the temple of Apollo at Delphi was not in an island, but in Phocis, on the continent. Either Shakspeare, or his editors, had their heads running on Delos, an island of the Cyclades. If it was the editor's blunder, then Shakspeare wrote: "Fertile the soil, which is more elegant too, than the presentreading. Warburton.

Shakspeare is little careful of geography! There is no need of this emendation in a play of which the whole plot depends upon a geographical error, by which Bohemia is supposed to be a maritime country. Johnson.

In The History of Dorastus and Faunia, the queen desires the king to send "six of his noblemen, whom he best trusted, to the isle of Delphos," &c.

Steevens.

2 For most it caught me,] It may relate to the whole spectacle. Johnson. 3 The time is worth the use on 't.] The time is worth the use on 't, means, the time which we have spent in visiting Delos, has recompensed us for the trouble of so spending it. Johnson.

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