SCENE II.

The fame. A Room of State in the Palace.

Enter LEONTES, POLIXEN ES, HERMIONE, MAMILLIUS, CAMILLO, and Attendants.

POL. Nine changes of the wat'ry ftar have been The fhepherd's note, fince we have left our throne Without a burden: time as long again

Would be fill'd up, my brother, with our thanks;
And yet we fhould, for perpetuity,

Go hence in debt: And therefore, like a cipher,
Yet ftanding in rich place, I multiply,

With one we-thank-you, many thousands more
That go before it.

LEON.

And pay them when you part.

POL.

Stay your thanks awhile;

Sir, that's to-morrow.

I am queftion'd by my fears, of what may chance, Or breed upon our abfence: That may blow

No fneaping winds 5 at home, to make us say,

No fneaping winds-] Dr. Warburton calls this nonfenfe; and Dr. Johnson tells us it is a Gallicifm. It happens, however, to be both fenfe and English. That, for Oh! that-is not uncommon. In an old tranflation of the famous Alcoran of the Francifcans: "St. Francis obferving the holiness of friar Juniper, faid to the priors, That I had a wood of fuch Junipers!" And, in The Two Noble Kinsmen:

"That I poor man might eftfoons come between!" And fo in other places. This is the conftruction of the paffage in Romeo and Juliet:

"That runaway's eyes may wink!"

Which in other refpects Mr. Steevens has rightly interpreted.

FARMER.

This is put forth too truly! Besides, I have stay'd

To tire your royalty.

LEON. We'll part the time between's then: and

in that

I'll no gain-saying.

POL.

Prefs me not, 'befeech you, fo: There is no tongue that moves, none, none i' the

world,

So foon as yours, could win me: fo it fhould now,
Were there neceffity in your request, although
"Twere needful I denied 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,
Farewell, our brother.

LEON. Tongue-tied, our queen? speak 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

fneaping winds-] Nipping winds. So, in Gawin Douglas's Tranflation of Virgil's Eneid. Prologue of the feuynth Booke:

"Scharp foppis of fleit, and of the fnyppand fnaw." HOLT WHITE.

• This is put forth too truly!] i. e. to make me fay, I had too good reafon for my fears concerning what might happen in my absence from home. MALONE.

7

this fatisfaction] We had fatisfactory accounts

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

LEON.

Well faid, Hermione.

HER. To tell, he longs to fee his fon, 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 [To POLIXENES.] I'll adventure

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

8 I'll give him my commiffion,] We should read : I'll give you my commiffion,

The verb let, or hinder, which follows, fhows the neceflity of it: for she could not fay she would give her husband a commiffion to let or hinder himself. The commiffion is given to Polixenes, to whom she is speaking, to let or hinder her husband. WARBURTON.

"I'll give him my licence of abfence, fo as to obftru&t or retard his departure for a month," &c. To let him, however, may be used as many other reflective verbs are by Shakspeare, for to let or hinder himself: then the meaning will be: "I'll give him my permiffion to tarry for a month," &c. Dr. Warburton and the fubfequent editors read, I think, without neceffity"I'll give you my commiffion, &c. MALONE.

9

behind the geft-] Mr. Theobald says: 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 progresses the king's stages, as we may fee by the journals of them in the herald'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 entreats Cecil," to let him have the new refolved upon gefts, from that time to the end, that he might from time to time know where the king was."

Again, in Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay, 1594: "Caftile, and lovely Elinor with him,

"Have in their gets resolv'd for Oxford town."

Prefix'd for his parting: yet, good deed,' Leontes,
I love thee not a jar o' the clock 2 behind
What lady fhe her lord.—You'll stay?

You put me off with limber vows: But I,

Again, in The White Devil, or, Vittoria Corombona, 1612: Do, like the gefts in the progress,

66

"You know where you fhall find me." STEEVENS.

Gefts, or rather gifts, from the Fr. gifie, (which fignifies both a bed, and a lodging place,) were the names of the houses or towns where the King or Prince intended to lie every night during his PROGRESS. They were written in a scroll, and probably each of the royal attendants was furnished with a copy.

I

MALONE.

—yet, good-deed,] fignifies, indeed, in very deed, as Shakspeare in another place expreffes it. Good-deed, is used in the fame sense by the Earl of Surrey, Sir John Hayward, and Gascoigne.

Dr. Warburton would read-good heed,-meaning-take good heed. STEEVENS.

The second 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 children call the ticking of it. So, in King Richard II: My thoughts are minutes, and with fighs they jar." STEEVENS.

See Holinfhed's

A jar perhaps means a minute, for I do not fuppofe that the ancient clocks ticked or noticed the feconds. Defcription of England, p.241. TOLLET.

To jar certainly means to tick; as in T. Heywood's Troia Britannica, cant. iv. ft. 107; edit. 1609:

"He hears no

waking-clocke, nor watch to jarre." HOLT WHITE.

So, in The Spanish Tragedy, 1601 :-" the owle fhrieking, the toades croaking, the minutes jerring, and the clocke striking

Though you would feek to unfphere the ftars with oaths,

Should yet fay, Sir, no going. Verily,
You fhall 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.

But your kind hoftefs.

Not your gaoler then,

Come, I'll question you

Of my lord's tricks, and yours, when you were

boys;

You were pretty lordings 3 then.

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

i' the fun,

And bleat the one at the other: what we chang'd, Was innocence for innocence; we knew not

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, Mr. Tyrwhitt's edit:

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

STEEVENS.