Clerk-like, experienc'd, which no less adorns In whose success we are gentle,-I beseech you, you know aught which does behove my knowledge If Thereof to be inform'd, imprison it not In ignorant concealment. CAM. I may not answer. POL. A sickness caught of me, and yet I well! I must be answer'd.-Dost thou hear, Camillo, I conjure thee, by all the parts of man, Which honour does acknowledge,-whereof the least Is not this suit of mine,-that thou declare Is creeping toward me; how far off, how near; If not, how best to bear it. CAM. Sir, I'll tell you; Since I am charg'd in honour, and by him That I think honourable: Therefore, mark my counsel; Which must be even as swiftly follow'd, as I mean to utter it; or both yourself and me POL. On, good Camillo. 5 In whose suCCESS we are GENTLE,] I know not whether success here does not mean succession. JOHNSON. Gentle in the text is evidently opposed to simple; alluding to the distinction between the gentry and yeomanry. So, in. The Insatiate Countess, 1613: "And make thee gentle being born a beggar.” "In whose success we are gentle, may, indeed, mean quence of whose success in life,' &c. STEEVENS. Success seems clearly to have been speare, in this, as in other instances. HENLEY. ' in con used for succession in Shak I think Dr. Johnson's explanation of success the true one. So, in Titus Andronicus : Plead my successive title with your swords." MALONE. CAM. I am appointed Him to murder you o. CAM. POL. By the king. For what? CAM. He thinks, nay, with all confidence he swears, As he had seen't, or been an instrument To vice you to't',-that you have touch'd his queen Forbiddenly. POL. O, then my best blood turn Be yok'd with his, that did betray the best! A savour, that may strike the dullest nostril 6 I am appointed HIм to murder you.] i. e. I am the person appointed to murder you. STEEVENS. By is understood: I am appointed by him to murder you. BOSWELL. 7 TO VICE you to't,] i. e. to draw, persuade you. The character called the Vice, in the old plays, was the tempter to evil. WARBURTON. The vice is an instrument well known its operation is to hold things together. So, the Bailiff, speaking of Falstaff: "If he come but within my vice," &c. A vice, however, in the age of Shakspeare, might mean any kind of clock-work or machinery. So, in Holinshed, p. 245: " -the rood of Borleie in Kent, called the rood of grace, made with diverse vices to moove the eyes and lips," &c. It may, indeed, be no more than a corruption of "to advise you." So, in the old metrical romance of Syr Guy of Warwick, bl. 1. no date : Then said the emperour Ernis, But my first attempt at explanation is, I believe, the best. STEEVENS. 8 - did betray the BEST!] Perhaps Judas. The word best is spelt with a capital letter thus, Best, in the first folio. HENDERSON. Mr. Henderson's conjecture that Judas is here meant is certainly well founded. A clause in the sentence against excommunicated persons was: "let them have part with Judas that betrayed Christ. Amen;" and this is here imitated. Douce. Nay, hated too, worse than the great'st infection That e'er was heard, or read! Swear his thought over Сам. POL. How should this grow? CAM. I know not: but, I am sure, 'tis safer to 9 Swear HIS THOUGHT Over By each particular star in heaven, &c.] The transposition of a single letter reconciles this passage to good sense. Polixenes, in the preceding speech, had been laying the deepest imprecations on himself, if he had ever abused Leontes in any familiarity with his Queen. To which Camillo very pertinently replies: Swear this though, over," &c. THEOBALD. Swear his thought over, may perhaps mean, overswear his present persuasion, that is, endeavour to overcome his opinion, by swearing oaths numerous as the stars. JOHNSON. 66 It may mean: Though you should endeavour to swear away his jealousy, though you should strive, by your oaths, to change his present thoughts."-The vulgar still use a similar expression : "To swear a person down." MALONE. This appears to me little better than nonsense; nor have either Malone or Johnson explained it into sense. I think, therefore, that Theobald's amendment is necessary and well imagined. M. MASON. Perhaps the construction is-" Over-swear his thought,"i. e. strive to bear down, or overpower, his conception by oaths. -In our author we have weigh out for outweigh, overcome for come over, &c. and over-swear for swear over, in Twelfth-Night, Act V. vol. xi. p. 498. STEEVENS. I you may as well Forbid the sea for to obey the moon,] We meet with the same sentiment in The Merchant of Venice: 2 66 You may as well go stand upon the beach, "And bid the main flood 'bate his usual height." DOUCE. whose foundation Is pil'd upon his faith,] This folly which is erected on the foundation of settled belief. STEEVENS. Avoid what's grown, than question how 'tis born. Have utter'd truth: which if you seek to prove, His execution sworn. POL. I do believe thee: Give me thy hand; I saw his heart in his face. Be pilot to me, and thy places shall Still neighbour mine*: My ships are ready, and My people did expect my hence departure Two days ago.-This jealousy Is for a precious creature: as she's rare, Must it be great; and, as his person's mighty, In that be made more bitter. Fear o'ershades me: 3 I saw his heart in his face.] So, in Macbeth: 66 To find the mind's construction in the face." STEEVENS. and thy PLACES shall Still neighbour mine:] Perhaps Shakspeare wrote-" And thy paces shall," &c. Thou shalt be my conductor, and we will both pursue the same path.-The old reading, however, may mean-wherever thou art, I will still be near thee. MALONE. By places, our author means-preferments, or honours. STEEVENS. The gracious queen, part of his theme, but nothing Thou bear'st my life off hence: Let us avoid. 5 Good expedition be my friend, and comfort The gracious queen, part of his theme, but nothing Of his ill-ta'en suspicion!] But how could this expedition comfort the Queen? on the contrary, it would increase her husband's suspicion. We should read: 66 and comfort "The gracious queen's; i. e. be expedition my friend, and be comfort the queen's friend. WARBURTON. Dr. Warburton's conjecture is, I think, just; but what shall be done with the following words, of which I can make nothing? Perhaps the line which connected them to the rest is lost : "The gracious queen, part of his theme, but nothing -!" Jealousy is a passion compounded of love and suspicion; this passion is the theme or subject of the King's thoughts.-Polixenes, perhaps, wishes the Queen, for her comfort, so much of that theme or subject as is good, but deprecates that which causes misery. May part of the King's present sentiments comfort the Queen, but away with his suspicion.' This is such meaning as can be picked out. JOHNSON. Perhaps the sense is-May that good speed which is my friend, comfort likewise the Queen who is "part of its theme," i. e. partly on whose account I go away; but may not the same comfort extend itself to the groundless suspicions of the King; i. e. may not my departure support him in them! His for its is common with Shakspeare: and Paulina says, in a subsequent scene, that she does not choose to appear a friend to Leontes, “in comforting his evils," i. e. in strengthening his jealousy by appearing to acquiesce in it. STEEVENS. .. Comfort is, I apprehend, here used as a verb. Good expedition befriend me, by removing me from a place of danger, and comfort the innocent Queen, by removing the object of her husband's jealousy; the Queen, who is the subject of his conversation, but without reason the object of his suspicion !-We meet with a similar phraseology in Twelfth-Night: "Do me this courteous office, as to know of the knight; what my offence to him is it is something of my negligence, nothing of my purpose." MALONE. |
