How, Camillo,

Flo.

May this, almost a miracle, be done?

That I may call thee something more than man,
And, after that, trust to thee.

Cam.

A place, whereto you 'll go?

Flo.

Have you thought on

Not any yet:

But as the unthought-on accident is guilty

To what we wildly do; so we profess

Ourselves to be the slaves of chance, and flies
Of every wind that blows.

Cam.

Then list to me:

This follows, if you will not change your purpose,
But undergo this flight;-Make for Sicilia;

And there present yourself, and your fair princess,
(For so, I see, she must be,) fore Leontes;
She shall be habited, as it becomes

The partner of your bed. Methinks, I see
Leontes, opening his free arms, and weeping

6

His welcomes forth: asks thee, the son, forgiveness,

intreaties, &c. endeavour to soften your incensed father, and reconcile him to the match; to effect which, my best services shall not be wanting during your absence. Mr. Pope, without either authority or necessity, reads-I'll strive to qualify;-which has been followed by all the subsequent editors.

ed.

Discontenting is in our author's language the same as discontentMalone.

4 But as the unthought-on accident is guilty

To what we wildly do;] Guilty to though it sounds harsh to our ears, was the phraseology of the time, or at least of Shakspeare: and this is one of those passages that should caution us not to disturb his text merely because the language appears different from that now in use. See The Comedy of Errors, Act III, sc. ii: "But lest myself be guilty to self-wrong,

"I'll stop mine ears against the mermaid's song.”

Malone.

The unthought-on accident is the unexpected discovery made by Polixenes. M. Mason.

5 Ourselves to be the slaves of chance,] As chance has driven me to these extremities, so I commit myself to chance, to be conducted through them. Johnson.

6 asks thee, the son,] The old copy reads-thee there son. Corrected by the editor of the third folio. Malone.

Perhaps we should read-(as Mr. Ritson observes)

"Asks there the son forgiveness." Steevens,

As 'twere i' the father's person: kisses the hands
Of your fresh princess: o'er and o'er divides him
'Twixt his unkindness and his kindness; the one
He chides to hell, and bids the other grow,
Faster than thought, or time.

Flo.

Worthy Camillo,

What colour for my visitation shall I
Hold up before him?

Cam.
To greet him, and to give him comforts. Sir,
The manner of your bearing towards him, with
What you, as from your father, shall deliver,
Things known betwixt us three, I'll write you down:
The which shall point you forth at every sitting,
What you must say ;7 that he shall not perceive,
But that you have your father's bosom there,

Sent by the king your father

And speak his very heart.

Flo.

There is some sap in this.

Cam.

I am bound to you:

A course more promising

Than a wild dedication of yourselves

To unpath'd waters, undream'd shores; most certain,
To miseries enough: no hope to help you;

But, as you shake off one, to take another:"
Nothing so certain as your anchors; who
Do their best office, if they can but stay you
Where you'll be loath to be: Besides, you know,

7 Things known betwixt us three, I'll write you down: The which shall point you forth, at every sitting,

What you must say;] Every sitting, says Mr. Theobald, methinks, gives but a very poor idea. But a poor idea is better than none; which it comes to when he has altered it to every fitting. The truth is, the common reading is very expressive; and means, at every audience you shall have of the king and council. The council-days being, in our author's time, called, in common speech, the sittings. Warburton.

66

My lord president hopes

Howel, in one of his letters, says: to be at the next sitting in York." Farmer.

8 There is some sap in this.] So, in Antony and Cleopatra: "There's sap in 't yet." Steevens.

But, as you shake off one, to take another:] So, in Cymbeline:

66

to shift his being,

"Is to exchange one misery with another." Steevens.

Prosperity 's the very bond of love;

Whose fresh complexion and whose heart together
Affliction alters.

Per.

One of these is true:

I think, affliction may subdue the cheek,

But not take in the mind.1

Cam.

Yea, say you so

so?

There shall not, at your father's house, these seven years, Be born another such.

Flo.

She is as forward of her breeding, as

I' the rear of birth.2

Cam.

My good Camillo,

I cannot say, 'tis pity

She lacks instructions; for she seems a mistress

To most that teach.

Per.

I'll blush you thanks.3

Your pardon, sir, for this;

Flo. My prettiest Perdita.

But, O, the thorns we stand upon!-Camillo,-
Preserver of my father, now of me;

The medicin of our house!-how shall we do?
We are not furnish'd like Bohemia's son;

Nor shall appear in Sicily ·

Cam.

My lord,

Fear none of this: I think, you, know, my fortunes
Do all lie there: it shall be so my care

To have you royally appointed, as if

1 But not take in the mind.] To take in anciently meant to conto get the better of. So, in Antony and Cleopatra:

quer,

"He could so quickly cut th' Ionian seas,

"And take in Toryne."

Mr. Henley, however, supposes that to take in, in the present instance, is simply to include or comprehend. Steevens.

2 I' the rear of birth.] Old copy-i' th' rear our birth. Corrected by Sir Thomas Hanmer. The two redundant words in this line, She is, ought perhaps to be omitted. I suspect that they were introduced by the compositor's eye glancing on the preceding line.

Malone.

These unnecessary words are here omitted. Steevens.

3 Your pardon, sir, for this;

I'll blush you thanks.] Perhaps this passage should be rather pointed thus:

The scene you play, were mine. For instance, sir, That you may know you shall not want,-one word. [They talk aside.

4

Enter AUTOLYCUS.

Aut. Ha, ha! what a fool honesty is! and trust, his sworn brother, a very simple gentleman! I have sold all my trumpery; not a counterfeit stone, not a riband, glass, pomander, brooch, table-book, ballad, knife, tape, glove, shoe-tye, bracelet, horn-ring, to keep my pack from fasting: they throng who should buy first; as if my trinkets had been hallowed, and brought a benediction to the buyer: by which means, I saw whose purse was best in picture; and, what I saw, to my good use, I remembered. My clown (who wants but something to be a reasonable man) grew so in love with the wenches' song, that he would not stir his pettitoes, till he had both tune and words; which so drew the rest of the herd to me, that all their other senses stuck in ears:6 you might have pinched a placket, it was senseless; 'twas

4 pomander,] A pomander was a little ball made of perfumes, and worn in the pocket or about the neck, to prevent infection in times of plague. In a tract, intituled, Certain necessary Directions, as well for curing the Plague, as for preventing Infection, printed 1636, there are directions for making two sorts of pomanders, one for the rich, and another for the poor. Grey.

In Lingua, or a Combat of the Tongue, &c. 1607, is the following receipt given, Act IV, sc. iii:

"Your only way to make a good pomander is this: Take an ounce of the purest garden mould, cleansed and steeped seven days in change of motherless rose-water. Then take the best labdanum, benjoin, both storaxes, amber-gris and civet and musk. Incorporate them together, and work them into what form you please. This, if your breath be not too valiant, will make you smell as sweet as my lady's dog."

The speaker represents Odor. Steevens.

Other receipts for making pomander may be found in Plat's Delightes for Ladies to adorne their Persons, &c. 1611, and in The accomplisht Lady's Delight, 1675. They all differ. Douce.

5

as if my trinkets had been hallowed,] This alludes to beads often sold by the Romanists, as made particularly efficacious by the touch of some relick. Johnson.

6

all their other senses stuck in ears:] Read:-" stuck in their ears." M. Mason.

7

- a

a placket,] Placket is properly the opening in a woman's petticoat. It is here figuratively used, as perhaps in King Lear:

nothing, to geld a codpiece of a purse; I would have filed keys off, that hung in chains: no hearing, no feeling, but my sir's song, and admiring the nothing of it. So that, in this time of lethargy, I picked and cut most of their festival purses; and had not the old man come in with a hubbub against his daughter and the king's son, and scared my choughs from the chaff, I had not left a purse alive in the whole army.

[CAM. FLO. and PER. come forward. Cam. Nay, but my letters by this means being there So soon as you arrive, shall clear that doubt.

Flo. And those that you 'll procure from king Leon

We'll make an instrument of this; omit
Nothing, may give us aid.

Aut. If they have overheard me now,-why hang

ing.

[Aside. Cam. How now, good fellow? Why shakest thou so? Fear not, man; here's no harm intended to thee.

Aut. I am a poor fellow, sir.

Cam. Why, be so still; here 's nobody will steal that from thee: Yet, for the outside of thy poverty, we must make an exchange: therefore, discase thee instantly, (thou must think, there 's necessity in 't,) and change garments with this gentleman: Though the pennyworth, on his side, be the worst, yet hold thee, there's some boot.8

"Keep thy hand out of plackets." This subject, however, may receive further illustration from Skialetheia, a collection of Epigrams, &c. 1598. Epig. 32:

8

"Wanton young Lais hath a pretty note

"Whose burthen is-Pinch not my petticoate:
"Not that she feares close nips, for by the rood,
"A privy pleasing nip will cheare her blood:
"But she which longs to taste of pleasure's cup,
"In nipping would her petticoate weare up." Steevens.

boot.] That is, something over and above, or, as we now say, something to boot. Johnson.