By thy dame Partlet here,-take up the bastard;
Take 't up, I say; give 't to thy crone.

Paul.

Unvenerable be thy hands, if thou

For ever

Tak'st up the princess, by that forced baseness*
Which he has put upon 't!

He dreads his wife.

Leon. Paul. So, I would, you did; then, 'twere past all doubt, You'd call your children yours.

Leon.

A nest of traitors!

Nor I, nor any,

Ant. I am none, by this good light.
Paul.

But one, that 's here: and that's himself: for he
The sacred honour of himself, his queen's,

His hopeful son's, his babe's, betrays to slander,
Whose sting is sharper than the sword's; and will not

thy crone.] i. e. thy old worn-out woman. A croan is an old toothless sheep: thence an old woman. So, in Chaucer's Man of Lawes Tale:

"This olde Soudanesse, this cursed crone." Again, in The Malcontent, 1606: "There is an old crone in the court, her name is Maquerelle." Again, in Love's Mistress, by T. Heywood, 1636:

"Witch and hag, crone and beldam." Again, in Heywood's Golden Age, 1611: "All the gold in Crete cannot get one of you old crones with child." Again, in the ancient interlude of The Repentance of Marie Magdalene, 1567: "I have knowne painters, that have made old crones, "To appear as pleasant as little prety young Jones." Steevens.

5 Unvenerable be thy hands, if thou

Tak'st up the princess, by that forced baseness-] Leontes had ordered Antigonus to take up the bastard; Paulina forbids him to touch the Princess under that appellation. Forced is false, uttered with violence to truth. Johnson.

A base son was a common term in our author's time. So, in King Lear:

7

66 Why brand they us

"With base? with baseness? bastardy?" Malone.

his babe's,] The female infant then on the stage.

slander,

Malone.

Whose sting is sharper than the sword's;] Again, in Cymbeline :

"Whose edge is sharper than the sword, whose tongue "Out-venoms all the worms of Nile." Douce.

(For as the case now stands, it is a curse
He cannot be compell'd to 't) once remove
The root of his opinion, which is rotten,
As ever oak, or stone, was sound.

Leon.

A callat,

Of boundless tongue; who late hath beat her husband, And now baits me!-This brat is none of mine;

It is the issue of Polixenes;

Hence with it; and, together with the dam,
Commit them to the fire.

And, might we lay the old proverb to your charge
So like you, 'tis the worse.-Behold, my lords,
Although the print be little, the whole matter
And copy of the father: eye, nose, lip,

The trick of his frown, his forehead; nay,, the valley,
The pretty dimples of his chin, and cheek; his smiles;&
The very mould and frame of hand, nail, finger:—
And, thou, good goddess nature, which hast made it
So like to him that got it, if thou hast

The ordering of the mind too, 'mongst all colours
No yellow in 't; lest she suspect, as he does,
Her children not her husband's!1

8

his smiles;] These two redundant words might be reject ed, especially as the child has already been represented as the inheritor of his father's dimples and frowns. Steevens.

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

That wilt not stay her tongue.

Hang all the husbands,

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

Hardly one subject.

Leon.

Once more, take her hence. 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.

Out of the chamber with her.

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.

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.

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,

[TO ANT.

So sure as this beard's grey,3-what will you adventure To save this brat's life?

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,
Thou wilt perform my bidding.

Ant.

I will, my lord.

4

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.

4

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 Galeris, 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.