'Twere needful I deny'd it. My affairs
Do even drag me homeward: which to hinder,
Were, in your love, a whip to me; my stay,
To you a charge, and trouble: to fave both,
Farewel, our brother.

Leo. Tongue-ty'd, our queen? fpeak you.

Her. I had thought, fir, to have held my peace, until

You had drawn oaths from him, not to ftay. You, fir,
Charge him too coldly: Tell him, you are fure,
All in Bohemia's well: this fatisfaction 7

The by-gone day proclaim'd; fay this to him,
He's beat from his beft ward.

Leo. Well faid, Hermione.

Her. To tell, he longs to fee his son, were strong: But let him fay fo then, and let him go.;

But let him fwear fo, and he shall not stay,
We'll thwack him hence with diftaffs.-
Yet of your royal prefence I'll adventure

[To Polixenes.

The borrow of a week. When at Bohemia
You take my lord, I'll give you my commiffion,
To let him there a month, behind the geft

7

this fatisfaction]

We had fatisfactory accounts yesterday of the state of Bohemia.

-I'll give you my commiffion,

JOHNSON.

The verb let, or hinder, which follows, fhews the neceffity of it: for fhe could not fay fhe would give her husband a commiffion to let or hinder himfelf. The commiffion is given to Polixenes, to whom he is fpeaking, to let or hinder her husband.

9

-behind the geft]

WARBURTON.

Mr. Theobald fays: he can neither trace, nor understand the phrafe, and therefore thinks it fhould be juft: But the word geft is right, and fignifies a stage or journey. In the time of royal progreffes the king's stages, as we may fee by the journals of them in the he

U 3

rald's

Prefix'd for his parting: yet, good-deed, Leontes, I love thee not a jar o'the clock behind

What lady fhe her lord.
Pol. No, madam.

2

You'll stay?

Her. Nay, but you will?
Pol. I may not, verily.

rald's office, were called his gefts; from the old French word gifte, diverforium. WARBURTON.

In Strype's Memorials of Archbishop Cranmer, p. 283.-The archbishop intreats Cecil," to let him have the new-refolvedupon gets from that time to the end, that he might from time to time know where the king was."

Holland, in his tranflation of Pliny, fays, p. 282:"Thefe quailes have their fet gifts, to wit, ordinarie refting and baiting places."

Again, in Decker's Match me in London, 1631:

"It (i. e. the court) remov'd laft to the shop of a millener; "The gefts are so set down, because you ride.”

Again, in Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay, 1599: "Caftile, and lovely Elinor with him,

"Have in their gefts refolved for Oxford town."

Again, in Vittoria Corombona, 1612:

I

STEEVENS.

"Do like the gefts in the progrefs, "You know where you fhall find me." -yet, good heed, Leontes,]

i. e. you take good heed, Leontes, to what I fay. Which phrafe, Mr. Theobald not understanding, he alters it to, good deed.

-yet good-deed, Leontes,

is the reading of the old copy, and fignifies

WARBURTON.

indeed, in very deed, as Shakespeare in another place expreffes it. Good deed is ufed in the fame fenfe by the earl of Surry, fir John Hayward, and Gascoigne. STEEVENS.

The fecond folio reads-good heed, which, I believe, is right.

2

TYRWHITT.

a jar o'the clock] A jar is, I believe, a fingle repetition of the noife made by the pendulum of a clock; what chil dren call the ticking of it. So, in K. Richard III:

66

My thoughts are minutes, and with fighs they jar."
STEEVENS.

Ajar perhaps means a minute, for I do not fuppofe that the ancient clocks ticked or noticed the seconds, See Holinfhed's De▾ feription of England, p. 241, TOLLET,

Her,

Her. Verily!

You put me off with limber vows: But I,

Though you would feek to unfphere the ftars with

oaths,

Should yet fay, Sir, no going.

going.

Verily,

You shall not go; a lady's verily is

As potent as a lord's. Will you go yet?
Force me to keep you as a prifoner,

Not like a gueft; fo you fhall pay your fees,

When you depart, and fave your thanks. How fay you?

My prifoner? or my gueft? by your dread verily,
One of them you fhall be.

Pol. Your gueft then, madam:

To be your prifoner, fhould import offending;
Which is for me lefs eafy to commit,

Than you to punish.

Her. Not your goaler then,

But your kind hoftefs. Come, I'll queftion you
Of my lord's tricks, and yours, when you were boys;
You were pretty lordings then.

3

Pol. We were, fair queen,

Two lads, that thought there was no more behind, But fuch a day to-morrow as to-day,

And to be boy eternal.

Her. Was not my lord the verier wag o'the two? Pol. We were as twinn'd lambs, that did frisk

the fun,

And bleat the one at the other: what we chang'd,
Was innocence for innocence; we knew not
The doctrine of ill-doing, no, nor dream'd
That any did: Had we purfu'd that life,
And our weak spirits ne'er been higher rear'd

3 lordings -] This diminutive of lord is often used by Chaucer. So, in the prologue to his Canterbury Tales, the Hoft fays to the company, v. 790, late edit.

"Lordinges (quod he) now herkeneth for the beste."

STEEVENS.

With ftronger blood, we fhould have anfwer'd

heaven

Boldly, Not guilty; the impofition clear'd 4,
Hereditary ours.

Her By this we gather,
You have tripp'd fince..

Pal. O my moft facred lady,

Temptations have fince then been born to us: for
In those unfledg'd days was my wife a girl;
Your precious felf had then not cross'd the eyes
Of my young play-fellow.

5

Her. Grace to boot!

Of this make no conclufion; left you fay,
Your queen and I are devils;. Yet, go on;
The offences we have made you do, we'll answer;
If you first finn'd with us, and that with us
You did continue fault, and that you flipp'd not
With any but with us,

Leo. Is he won yet?
Her. He'll ftay, my lord.

Leo. At my request, he would not,

the impofition clear'd,

Hereditary ours.]

i. e. fetting afide original fin; bating the impofition from the offence of our first parents, we might have boldly protested our inpocence to heaven. WARBURTON,

s Grace to boot!

Of this make no conclufion; left you fay, &c.] Polixenes had faid, that fince the time of childhood and inno cence, temptations had grown to them; for that, in that interval, the two queens were become women. To each part of this obfervation the queen anfwers in order. To that of temptations. she replies, Grace to boot! i. e, though temptations have grown up, yet I hope grace too has kept pace with them. Grace to boot, was a proverbial expreffion on thefe occafions. To the other part, The replies, as for our tempting you, pray take heed you draw no conclufion from thence, for that would be making your queen and me devils, &c. WARBURTON.

The explanation is good; but I have no great faith in the exiftence of fuch a proverbial expreffion, STEEVENS,

Hermione,

Hermione, my deareft, thou never fpok'st

To better purpose.

Her. Never?

Leo. Never, but once.

Her. What

before?

have I twice faid well? when 'twas

I pr'ythee, tell me : Cram us with praise, and make us As fat as tame things: One good deed, dying tonguelefs,

Slaughters a thoufand, waiting upon that.
Our praises are our wages: You may ride us
With one foft kifs a thousand furlongs, ere
But to the goal
With fpur we heat an acre.
My laft good deed was, to intreat his stay:
What was my first? it has an elder fifter,

6

Or I mistake you: O, would her name were Grace! But once before I spoke to the purpose: When? Nay, let me have't; I long.

Leo. Why, that was when

Three crabbed months had four'd themfelves to death,

Ere I could make thee open thy white hand,

And clap thyself my love 7; then didst thou utter, I am yours for ever,

Her.

With Spur we heat an acre. But to the goal;] Thus this paffage has been always printed; whence it appears, that the editors did not take the poet's conceit. They imagined that, But to th' goal, meant, but to come to the purpose; but the fenfe is different, and plain enough when the line is pointed thus:

ere

With Spur we heat an acre, but to the goal,

i.. good ufage will win us to any thing; but, with ill, we stop fhort, even there where both our intereft and our inclination would otherwife have carried us. WARBURTON.`

I have followed the old copy, the pointing of which appears to afford as apt a meaning as that produced by the change recommended by Dr. Warburton, STEEVENS.

And clepe thyfelf my love;

-]

The old edition reads clap thyfelf. This reading may be explained: She open'd her hand, to clap the palm of it into his, as

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