Act 1, Scene 2

The same. A Room of State in the Palace.

[Enter LEONTES, POLIXENES, HERMIONE, MAMILLIUS, CAMILLO, and Attendants.]
Polixenes
41 Nine changes of the watery star hath been
42 The shepherd's note since we have left our throne
43 Without a burden: time as long again
44 Would be fill'd up, my brother, with our thanks;
45 And yet we should, for perpetuity,
46 Go hence in debt: and therefore, like a cipher,
47 Yet standing in rich place, I multiply
48 With one we-thank-you many thousands more
49 That go before it.
Leontes
50 Stay your thanks a while,
51 And pay them when you part.
Polixenes
52 Sir, that's to-morrow.
53 I am question'd by my fears, of what may chance
54 Or breed upon our absence; that may blow
55 No sneaping winds at home, to make us say,
56 'This is put forth too truly.' Besides, I have stay'd
57 To tire your royalty.
Leontes
58 We are tougher, brother,
59 Than you can put us to't.
Polixenes
60 No longer stay.
Leontes
61 One seven-night longer.
Polixenes
62 Very sooth, to-morrow.
Leontes
63 We'll part the time between 's then: and in that
64 I'll no gainsaying.
Polixenes
65 Press me not, beseech you, so,
66 There is no tongue that moves, none, none i' the world,
67 So soon as yours, could win me: so it should now,
68 Were there necessity in your request, although
69 'Twere needful I denied it. My affairs
70 Do even drag me homeward: which to hinder,
71 Were, in your love a whip to me; my stay
72 To you a charge and trouble: to save both,
73 Farewell, our brother.
Leontes
74 Tongue-tied, our queen? Speak you.
Hermione
75 I had thought, sir, to have held my peace until
76 You had drawn oaths from him not to stay. You, sir,
77 Charge him too coldly. Tell him you are sure
78 All in Bohemia's well: this satisfaction
79 The by-gone day proclaimed: say this to him,
80 He's beat from his best ward.
Leontes
81 Well said, Hermione.
Hermione
82 To tell he longs to see his son were strong:
83 But let him say so then, and let him go;
84 But let him swear so, and he shall not stay,
85 We'll thwack him hence with distaffs.—
[To POLIXENES]
Hermione
86 Yet of your royal presence I'll adventure
87 The borrow of a week. When at Bohemia
88 You take my lord, I'll give him my commission
89 To let him there a month behind the gest
90 Prefix'd for's parting:—yet, good deed, Leontes,
91 I love thee not a jar of the clock behind
92 What lady she her lord.—You'll stay?
Polixenes
93 No, madam.
Hermione
94 Nay, but you will?
Polixenes
95 I may not, verily.
Hermione
96 Verily!
97 You put me off with limber vows; but I,
98 Though you would seek to unsphere the stars with oaths,
99 Should yet say 'Sir, no going.' Verily,
100 You shall not go; a lady's verily is
101 As potent as a lord's. Will go yet?
102 Force me to keep you as a prisoner,
103 Not like a guest: so you shall pay your fees
104 When you depart, and save your thanks. How say you?
105 My prisoner or my guest? by your dread 'verily,'
106 One of them you shall be.
Polixenes
107 Your guest, then, madam:
108 To be your prisoner should import offending;
109 Which is for me less easy to commit
110 Than you to punish.
Hermione
111 Not your gaoler then,
112 But your kind hostess. Come, I'll question you
113 Of my lord's tricks and yours when you were boys.
114 You were pretty lordings then.
Polixenes
115 We were, fair queen,
116 Two lads that thought there was no more behind
117 But such a day to-morrow as to-day,
118 And to be boy eternal.
Hermione
119 Was not my lord the verier wag o' the two?
Polixenes
120 We were as twinn'd lambs that did frisk i' the sun
121 And bleat the one at th' other. What we chang'd
122 Was innocence for innocence; we knew not
123 The doctrine of ill-doing, nor dream'd
124 That any did. Had we pursu'd that life,
125 And our weak spirits ne'er been higher rear'd
126 With stronger blood, we should have answer'd heaven
127 Boldly 'Not guilty,' the imposition clear'd
128 Hereditary ours.
Hermione
129 By this we gather
130 You have tripp'd since.
Polixenes
131 O my most sacred lady,
132 Temptations have since then been born to 's! for
133 In those unfledg'd days was my wife a girl;
134 Your precious self had then not cross'd the eyes
135 Of my young play-fellow.
Hermione
136 Grace to boot!
137 Of this make no conclusion, lest you say
138 Your queen and I are devils: yet, go on;
139 The offences we have made you do we'll answer;
140 If you first sinn'd with us, and that with us
141 You did continue fault, and that you slipp'd not
142 With any but with us.
Leontes
143 Is he won yet?
Hermione
144 He'll stay, my lord.
Leontes
145 At my request he would not.
146 Hermione, my dearest, thou never spok'st
147 To better purpose.
Hermione
148 Never?
Leontes
149 Never but once.
Hermione
150 What! have I twice said well? when was't before?
151 I pr'ythee tell me; cram 's with praise, and make 's
152 As fat as tame things: one good deed dying tongueless
153 Slaughters a thousand waiting upon that.
154 Our praises are our wages; you may ride 's
155 With one soft kiss a thousand furlongs ere
156 With spur we heat an acre. But to the goal:—
157 My last good deed was to entreat his stay;
158 What was my first? it has an elder sister,
159 Or I mistake you: O, would her name were Grace!
160 But once before I spoke to the purpose—when?
161 Nay, let me have't; I long.
Leontes
162 Why, that was when
163 Three crabbed months had sour'd themselves to death,
164 Ere I could make thee open thy white hand
165 And clap thyself my love; then didst thou utter
166 'I am yours for ever.'
Hermione
167 It is Grace indeed.
168 Why, lo you now, I have spoke to the purpose twice;
169 The one for ever earn'd a royal husband;
170 Th' other for some while a friend.
[Giving her hand to POLIXENES.]
[Aside.]
Leontes
171 Too hot, too hot!
172 To mingle friendship far is mingling bloods.
173 I have _tremor cordis_ on me;—my heart dances;
174 But not for joy,—not joy.—This entertainment
175 May a free face put on; derive a liberty
176 From heartiness, from bounty, fertile bosom,
177 And well become the agent:'t may, I grant:
178 But to be paddling palms and pinching fingers,
179 As now they are; and making practis'd smiles
180 As in a looking-glass; and then to sigh, as 'twere
181 The mort o' the deer: O, that is entertainment
182 My bosom likes not, nor my brows,—Mamillius,
183 Art thou my boy?
Mamillius
184 Ay, my good lord.
Leontes
185 I' fecks!
186 Why, that's my bawcock. What! hast smutch'd thy nose?—
187 They say it is a copy out of mine. Come, captain,
188 We must be neat;—not neat, but cleanly, captain:
189 And yet the steer, the heifer, and the calf,
190 Are all call'd neat.—
[Observing POLIXENES and HERMIONE]
Leontes
191 Still virginalling
192 Upon his palm?—How now, you wanton calf!
193 Art thou my calf?
Mamillius
194 Yes, if you will, my lord.
Leontes
195 Thou want'st a rough pash, and the shoots that I have,
196 To be full like me:—yet they say we are
197 Almost as like as eggs; women say so,
198 That will say anything: but were they false
199 As o'er-dy'd blacks, as wind, as waters,—false
200 As dice are to be wish'd by one that fixes
201 No bourn 'twixt his and mine; yet were it true
202 To say this boy were like me.—Come, sir page,
203 Look on me with your welkin eye: sweet villain!
204 Most dear'st! my collop!—Can thy dam?—may't be?
205 Affection! thy intention stabs the centre:
206 Thou dost make possible things not so held,
207 Communicat'st with dreams;—how can this be?—
208 With what's unreal thou co-active art,
209 And fellow'st nothing: then 'tis very credent
210 Thou mayst co-join with something; and thou dost,—
211 And that beyond commission; and I find it,—
212 And that to the infection of my brains
213 And hardening of my brows.
Polixenes
214 What means Sicilia?
Hermione
215 He something seems unsettled.
Polixenes
216 How! my lord!
217 What cheer? How is't with you, best brother?
Hermione
218 You look
219 As if you held a brow of much distraction:
220 Are you mov'd, my lord?
Leontes
221 No, in good earnest.—
222 How sometimes nature will betray its folly,
223 Its tenderness, and make itself a pastime
224 To harder bosoms! Looking on the lines
225 Of my boy's face, methoughts I did recoil
226 Twenty-three years; and saw myself unbreech'd,
227 In my green velvet coat; my dagger muzzled,
228 Lest it should bite its master, and so prove,
229 As ornaments oft do, too dangerous.
230 How like, methought, I then was to this kernel,
231 This squash, this gentleman.—Mine honest friend,
232 Will you take eggs for money?
Mamillius
233 No, my lord, I'll fight.
Leontes
234 You will? Why, happy man be 's dole!—My brother,
235 Are you so fond of your young prince as we
236 Do seem to be of ours?
Polixenes
237 If at home, sir,
238 He's all my exercise, my mirth, my matter:
239 Now my sworn friend, and then mine enemy;
240 My parasite, my soldier, statesman, all:
241 He makes a July's day short as December;
242 And with his varying childness cures in me
243 Thoughts that would thick my blood.
Leontes
244 So stands this squire
245 Offic'd with me. We two will walk, my lord,
246 And leave you to your graver steps.—Hermione,
247 How thou lov'st us show in our brother's welcome;
248 Let what is dear in Sicily be cheap:
249 Next to thyself and my young rover, he's
250 Apparent to my heart.
Hermione
251 If you would seek us,
252 We are yours i' the garden. Shall 's attend you there?
Leontes
253 To your own bents dispose you: you'll be found,
254 Be you beneath the sky.
[Aside]
Leontes
255 I am angling now.
256 Though you perceive me not how I give line.
257 Go to, go to!
[Observing POLIXENES and HERMIONE]
Leontes
258 How she holds up the neb, the bill to him!
259 And arms her with the boldness of a wife
260 To her allowing husband!
[Exeunt POLIXENES, HERMIONE, and Attendants.]
Leontes
261 Gone already!
262 Inch-thick, knee-deep, o'er head and ears a fork'd one!—
263 Go, play, boy, play:—thy mother plays, and I
264 Play too; but so disgrac'd a part, whose issue
265 Will hiss me to my grave: contempt and clamour
266 Will be my knell.—Go, play, boy, play.—There have been,
267 Or I am much deceiv'd, cuckolds ere now;
268 And many a man there is, even at this present,
269 Now while I speak this, holds his wife by the arm
270 That little thinks she has been sluic'd in his absence,
271 And his pond fish'd by his next neighbour, by
272 Sir Smile, his neighbour; nay, there's comfort in't,
273 Whiles other men have gates, and those gates open'd,
274 As mine, against their will: should all despair
275 That hath revolted wives, the tenth of mankind
276 Would hang themselves. Physic for't there's none;
277 It is a bawdy planet, that will strike
278 Where 'tis predominant; and 'tis powerful, think it,
279 From east, west, north, and south: be it concluded,
280 No barricado for a belly: know't;
281 It will let in and out the enemy
282 With bag and baggage. Many thousand of us
283 Have the disease, and feel't not.—How now, boy!
Mamillius
284 I am like you, they say.
Leontes
285 Why, that's some comfort.—
286 What! Camillo there?
Camillo
287 Ay, my good lord.
Leontes
288 Go play, Mamillius; thou'rt an honest man.—
[Exit MAMILLIUS.]
Leontes
289 Camillo, this great sir will yet stay longer.
Camillo
290 You had much ado to make his anchor hold:
291 When you cast out, it still came home.
Leontes
292 Didst note it?
Camillo
293 He would not stay at your petitions; made
294 His business more material.
Leontes
295 Didst perceive it?—
[Aside.]
Leontes
296 They're here with me already; whispering, rounding,
297 'Sicilia is a so-forth.' 'Tis far gone
298 When I shall gust it last.—How came't, Camillo,
299 That he did stay?
Camillo
300 At the good queen's entreaty.
Leontes
301 At the queen's be't: 'good' should be pertinent;
302 But so it is, it is not. Was this taken
303 By any understanding pate but thine?
304 For thy conceit is soaking, will draw in
305 More than the common blocks:—not noted, is't,
306 But of the finer natures? by some severals
307 Of head-piece extraordinary? lower messes
308 Perchance are to this business purblind? say.
Camillo
309 Business, my lord! I think most understand
310 Bohemia stays here longer.
Leontes
311 Ha!
Camillo
312 Stays here longer.
Leontes
313 Ay, but why?
Camillo
314 To satisfy your highness, and the entreaties
315 Of our most gracious mistress.
Leontes
316 Satisfy
317 Th' entreaties of your mistress!—satisfy!—
318 Let that suffice. I have trusted thee, Camillo,
319 With all the nearest things to my heart, as well
320 My chamber-councils, wherein, priest-like, thou
321 Hast cleans'd my bosom; I from thee departed
322 Thy penitent reform'd: but we have been
323 Deceiv'd in thy integrity, deceiv'd
324 In that which seems so.
Camillo
325 Be it forbid, my lord!
Leontes
326 To bide upon't,—thou art not honest; or,
327 If thou inclin'st that way, thou art a coward,
328 Which hoxes honesty behind, restraining
329 From course requir'd; or else thou must be counted
330 A servant grafted in my serious trust,
331 And therein negligent; or else a fool
332 That seest a game play'd home, the rich stake drawn,
333 And tak'st it all for jest.
Camillo
334 My gracious lord,
335 I may be negligent, foolish, and fearful;
336 In every one of these no man is free,
337 But that his negligence, his folly, fear,
338 Among the infinite doings of the world,
339 Sometime puts forth: in your affairs, my lord,
340 If ever I were wilful-negligent,
341 It was my folly; if industriously
342 I play'd the fool, it was my negligence,
343 Not weighing well the end; if ever fearful
344 To do a thing, where I the issue doubted,
345 Whereof the execution did cry out
346 Against the non-performance, 'twas a fear
347 Which oft affects the wisest: these, my lord,
348 Are such allow'd infirmities that honesty
349 Is never free of. But, beseech your grace,
350 Be plainer with me; let me know my trespass
351 By its own visage: if I then deny it,
352 'Tis none of mine.
Leontes
353 Have not you seen, Camillo,—
354 But that's past doubt: you have, or your eye-glass
355 Is thicker than a cuckold's horn,—or heard,—
356 For, to a vision so apparent, rumour
357 Cannot be mute,—or thought,—for cogitation
358 Resides not in that man that does not think it,—
359 My wife is slippery? If thou wilt confess,—
360 Or else be impudently negative,
361 To have nor eyes nor ears nor thought,—then say
362 My wife's a hobby-horse; deserves a name
363 As rank as any flax-wench that puts to
364 Before her troth-plight: say't and justify't.
Camillo
365 I would not be a stander-by to hear
366 My sovereign mistress clouded so, without
367 My present vengeance taken: 'shrew my heart,
368 You never spoke what did become you less
369 Than this; which to reiterate were sin
370 As deep as that, though true.
Leontes
371 Is whispering nothing?
372 Is leaning cheek to cheek? is meeting noses?
373 Kissing with inside lip? Stopping the career
374 Of laughter with a sigh?—a note infallible
375 Of breaking honesty;—horsing foot on foot?
376 Skulking in corners? wishing clocks more swift;
377 Hours, minutes; noon, midnight? and all eyes
378 Blind with the pin and web but theirs, theirs only,
379 That would unseen be wicked?—is this nothing?
380 Why, then the world and all that's in't is nothing;
381 The covering sky is nothing; Bohemia nothing;
382 My is nothing; nor nothing have these nothings,
383 If this be nothing.
Camillo
384 Good my lord, be cur'd
385 Of this diseas'd opinion, and betimes;
386 For 'tis most dangerous.
Leontes
387 Say it be, 'tis true.
Camillo
388 No, no, my lord.
Leontes
389 It is; you lie, you lie:
390 I say thou liest, Camillo, and I hate thee;
391 Pronounce thee a gross lout, a mindless slave;
392 Or else a hovering temporizer, that
393 Canst with thine eyes at once see good and evil,
394 Inclining to them both.—Were my wife's liver
395 Infected as her life, she would not live
396 The running of one glass.
Camillo
397 Who does infect her?
Leontes
398 Why, he that wears her like her medal, hanging
399 About his neck, Bohemia: who—if I
400 Had servants true about me, that bare eyes
401 To see alike mine honour as their profits,
402 Their own particular thrifts,—they would do that
403 Which should undo more doing: ay, and thou,
404 His cupbearer,—whom I from meaner form
405 Have bench'd and rear'd to worship; who mayst see,
406 Plainly as heaven sees earth and earth sees heaven,
407 How I am galled,—mightst bespice a cup,
408 To give mine enemy a lasting wink;
409 Which draught to me were cordial.
Camillo
410 Sir, my lord,
411 I could do this; and that with no rash potion,
412 But with a ling'ring dram, that should not work
413 Maliciously like poison: but I cannot
414 Believe this crack to be in my dread mistress,
415 So sovereignly being honourable.
416 I have lov'd thee,—
Leontes
417 Make that thy question, and go rot!
418 Dost think I am so muddy, so unsettled,
419 To appoint myself in this vexation; sully
420 The purity and whiteness of my sheets,—
421 Which to preserve is sleep; which being spotted
422 Is goads, thorns, nettles, tails of wasps;
423 Give scandal to the blood o' the prince, my son,—
424 Who I do think is mine, and love as mine,—
425 Without ripe moving to't?—Would I do this?
426 Could man so blench?
Camillo
427 I must believe you, sir:
428 I do; and will fetch off Bohemia for't;
429 Provided that, when he's remov'd, your highness
430 Will take again your queen as yours at first,
431 Even for your son's sake; and thereby for sealing
432 The injury of tongues in courts and kingdoms
433 Known and allied to yours.
Leontes
434 Thou dost advise me
435 Even so as I mine own course have set down:
436 I'll give no blemish to her honour, none.
Camillo
437 My lord,
438 Go then; and with a countenance as clear
439 As friendship wears at feasts, keep with Bohemia
440 And with your queen: I am his cupbearer.
441 If from me he have wholesome beverage,
442 Account me not your servant.
Leontes
443 This is all:
444 Do't, and thou hast the one-half of my heart;
445 Do't not, thou splitt'st thine own.
Camillo
446 I'll do't, my lord.
Leontes
447 I will seem friendly, as thou hast advis'd me.
[Exit.]
Camillo
448 O miserable lady!—But, for me,
449 What case stand I in? I must be the poisoner
450 Of good Polixenes: and my ground to do't
451 Is the obedience to a master; one
452 Who, in rebellion with himself, will have
453 All that are his so too.—To do this deed,
454 Promotion follows: if I could find example
455 Of thousands that had struck anointed kings
456 And flourish'd after, I'd not do't; but since
457 Nor brass, nor stone, nor parchment, bears not one,
458 Let villainy itself forswear't. I must
459 Forsake the court: to do't, or no, is certain
460 To me a break-neck. Happy star reign now!
461 Here comes Bohemia.
[Enter POLIXENES.]
Polixenes
462 This is strange! methinks
463 My favour here begins to warp. Not speak?—
464 Good-day, Camillo.
Camillo
465 Hail, most royal sir!
Polixenes
466 What is the news i' the court?
Camillo
467 None rare, my lord.
Polixenes
468 The king hath on him such a countenance
469 As he had lost some province, and a region
470 Lov'd as he loves himself; even now I met him
471 With customary compliment; when he,
472 Wafting his eyes to the contrary, and falling
473 A lip of much contempt, speeds from me;
474 So leaves me to consider what is breeding
475 That changes thus his manners.
Camillo
476 I dare not know, my lord.
Polixenes
477 How! dare not! do not. Do you know, and dare not
478 Be intelligent to me? 'Tis thereabouts;
479 For, to yourself, what you do know, you must,
480 And cannot say, you dare not. Good Camillo,
481 Your chang'd complexions are to me a mirror
482 Which shows me mine chang'd too; for I must be
483 A party in this alteration, finding
484 Myself thus alter'd with't.
Camillo
485 There is a sickness
486 Which puts some of us in distemper; but
487 I cannot name the disease; and it is caught
488 Of you that yet are well.
Polixenes
489 How! caught of me!
490 Make me not sighted like the basilisk:
491 I have look'd on thousands who have sped the better
492 By my regard, but kill'd none so. Camillo,—
493 As you are certainly a gentleman, thereto
494 Clerk-like, experienc'd, which no less adorns
495 Our gentry than our parents' noble names,
496 In whose success we are gentle,—I beseech you,
497 If you know aught which does behove my knowledge
498 Thereof to be inform'd, imprison't not
499 In ignorant concealment.
Camillo
500 I may not answer.
Polixenes
501 A sickness caught of me, and yet I well!
502 I must be answer'd.—Dost thou hear, Camillo,
503 I conjure thee, by all the parts of man
504 Which honour does acknowledge,—whereof the least
505 Is not this suit of mine,—that thou declare
506 What incidency thou dost guess of harm
507 Is creeping toward me; how far off, how near;
508 Which way to be prevented, if to be;
509 If not, how best to bear it.
Camillo
510 Sir, I will tell you;
511 Since I am charg'd in honour, and by him
512 That I think honourable: therefore mark my counsel,
513 Which must be ev'n as swiftly follow'd as
514 I mean to utter it, or both yourself and me
515 Cry lost, and so goodnight!
Polixenes
516 On, good Camillo.
Camillo
517 I am appointed him to murder you.
Polixenes
518 By whom, Camillo?
Camillo
519 By the king.
Polixenes
520 For what?
Camillo
521 He thinks, nay, with all confidence he swears,
522 As he had seen't or been an instrument
523 To vice you to't, that you have touch'd his queen
524 Forbiddenly.
Polixenes
525 O, then my best blood turn
526 To an infected jelly, and my name
527 Be yok'd with his that did betray the best!
528 Turn then my freshest reputation to
529 A savour that may strike the dullest nostril
530 Where I arrive, and my approach be shunn'd,
531 Nay, hated too, worse than the great'st infection
532 That e'er was heard or read!
Camillo
533 Swear his thought over
534 By each particular star in heaven and
535 By all their influences, you may as well
536 Forbid the sea for to obey the moon
537 As, or by oath remove, or counsel shake
538 The fabric of his folly, whose foundation
539 Is pil'd upon his faith, and will continue
540 The standing of his body.
Polixenes
541 How should this grow?
Camillo
542 I know not: but I am sure 'tis safer to
543 Avoid what's grown than question how 'tis born.
544 If, therefore you dare trust my honesty,—
545 That lies enclosed in this trunk, which you
546 Shall bear along impawn'd,—away to-night.
547 Your followers I will whisper to the business;
548 And will, by twos and threes, at several posterns,
549 Clear them o' the city: for myself, I'll put
550 My fortunes to your service, which are here
551 By this discovery lost. Be not uncertain;
552 For, by the honour of my parents, I
553 Have utter'd truth: which if you seek to prove,
554 I dare not stand by; nor shall you be safer
555 Than one condemn'd by the king's own mouth, thereon
556 His execution sworn.
Polixenes
557 I do believe thee;
558 I saw his heart in his face. Give me thy hand;
559 Be pilot to me, and thy places shall
560 Still neighbour mine. My ships are ready, and
561 My people did expect my hence departure
562 Two days ago.—This jealousy
563 Is for a precious creature: as she's rare,
564 Must it be great; and, as his person's mighty,
565 Must it be violent; and as he does conceive
566 He is dishonour'd by a man which ever
567 Profess'd to him, why, his revenges must
568 In that be made more bitter. Fear o'ershades me;
569 Good expedition be my friend, and comfort
570 The gracious queen, part of this theme, but nothing
571 Of his ill-ta'en suspicion! Come, Camillo;
572 I will respect thee as a father, if
573 Thou bear'st my life off hence: let us avoid.
Camillo
574 It is in mine authority to command
575 The keys of all the posterns: please your highness
576 To take the urgent hour: come, sir, away.
[Exeunt.]

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Word definitions on hover

Notes

TLN 41archaic vocab
“Nine changes of the watery star”
'The watery star' is the moon, which governs the tides; it was called 'watery' both because of its influence on the sea and because it was associated with the element of water in classical astronomy. 'Nine changes' means nine full cycles of the moon — nine months. Polixenes is saying he has stayed nine months since leaving his own kingdom of Bohemia unattended.
TLN 46archaic vocab
“like a cipher, Yet standing in rich place, I multiply”
A 'cipher' is a zero — in arithmetic, it has no value by itself, but placed after significant digits it multiplies them (1 becomes 10). Polixenes means: his single 'we-thank-you' is like a zero placed after many thousands of unspoken thanks, multiplying them to an incalculable sum. It is an elaborate mathematical compliment: his one spoken word of gratitude stands for more than he can count.
TLN 53archaic vocab
“what may chance Or breed upon our absence; that may blow No sneaping winds”
'Sneaping' means nipping, biting, or blighting — as a sharp frost nips young buds. Polixenes fears bad news 'breeding' while he is away from his kingdom: that is, troubles arising in Bohemia that will justify people saying his long absence caused them. He is anxious, not merely polite, about leaving his throne unguarded for nine months.
TLN 64archaic vocab
“I'll no gainsaying”
'Gainsaying' means contradiction or refusal. Leontes is saying: 'I will have no argument against it' — the matter of dividing the remaining time equally is settled, and he will not hear objections. 'Gainsay' (from Old English 'gean-secgan,' to say against) means to deny or contradict.
TLN 80archaic vocab
“He's beat from his best ward”
A 'ward' in fencing is a defensive posture or guard — the position you hold to deflect a blow. Hermione is using a swordfighting metaphor: she is telling Leontes that if he delivers the news about Bohemia correctly, Polixenes will be knocked out of his strongest defensive argument for leaving. The language treats the conversation as a duel.
TLN 85archaic vocab
“We'll thwack him hence with distaffs”
A distaff is the stick used in spinning wool or flax — the standard hand-tool of women's domestic labor. To threaten to drive someone off 'with distaffs' is to say the women of the household will chase him away with their spinning sticks like a servant dismissed for overstaying. It is a comic, deliberately undignified image: a king expelled not by soldiers but by housewives armed with spinning equipment.
TLN 89archaic vocab
“a month behind the gest”
A 'gest' (also 'geste') is a stage of a royal journey — a scheduled stopping-point or the fixed date set for a royal progress to move on. Hermione is offering to let Polixenes keep Leontes in Bohemia for a month past the date they had agreed he would leave. The word comes from official court language for the itinerary of royal travel.
TLN 91archaic vocab
“I love thee not a jar of the clock”
'A jar of the clock' is the tick of the clock — a single audible jerk of the mechanism, the smallest measurable unit of time. Hermione is reassuring Leontes that the offer to lend him to Bohemia does not mean she loves him one tick less than any other wife loves her husband. A 'jar' (also 'jarr') referred to the clicking sound of a clock's escapement wheel.
TLN 97archaic vocab
“You put me off with limber vows”
'Limber' means limp, flaccid, or flexible — not firm. 'Limber vows' are weak, easily bent promises: Polixenes has been giving soft, non-committal assurances that he is about to leave, while never actually leaving. Hermione is pressing him past polite excuses.
TLN 98archaic vocab
“seek to unsphere the stars with oaths”
In Ptolemaic astronomy each planet and star was fixed in a crystalline sphere rotating around the earth; to 'unsphere' a star would be to wrench it from its ordained orbit — an impossibly violent act. Hermione means: even if Polixenes swore oaths powerful enough to hurl the stars from their courses, she would still say 'no going.' It is an image of hyperbolic oath-taking that she refuses to be moved by.
TLN 103archaic vocab
“you shall pay your fees When you depart”
When a prisoner was discharged from an Elizabethan gaol, he had to pay a fee to the gaoler before he could leave — the 'discharge fees.' Hermione jokes that if she keeps Polixenes as her prisoner rather than her guest, he will have to pay these gaol fees on leaving. The pun doubles back on Leontes's offer to 'save your thanks' (line 51): the prisoner saves nothing.
TLN 116archaic vocab
“thought there was no more behind But such a day to-morrow as to-day”
'Behind' here means 'still to come,' 'remaining ahead.' The two boys believed there was nothing beyond the present moment — that tomorrow would simply be another today, an endless innocent present. It is Polixenes's image of childhood as a state outside time, with no future guilt to dread. 'Behind' as 'still in reserve' or 'yet to come' is archaic.
TLN 120rhetorical device
“as twinn'd lambs that did frisk i' the sun And bleat the one at th' other. What we chang'd Was innocence for innocence”
Polixenes compares himself and the young Leontes to twin lambs frisking in sunlight and calling to each other — creatures of pure innocence exchanging only innocence. The image is both pastoral and theological: lambs are the classic symbol of innocence (and of Christ's sacrifice), and 'twinned' stresses their perfect equality. The speech sets up an Eden before the Fall that their marriage to women ends. The rhetorical device is extended metaphor (conceit).
biblical The serpent in the Garden of Eden
TLN 125biblical allusion
“our weak spirits ne'er been higher rear'd With stronger blood, we should have answer'd heaven Boldly 'Not guilty,' the imposition clear'd Hereditary ours”
'Stronger blood' means sexual desire and passion — blood was the bodily fluid associated with hot, lustful temperament. 'The imposition clear'd / Hereditary ours' refers to Original Sin: the sin inherited from Adam and Eve, 'imposed' on all humanity by the Fall. Polixenes is saying: had they stayed boys — innocent, without adult sexual desire — they could have stood before God on Judgment Day and pleaded 'not guilty' to the guilt of inherited sin. Meeting women (the wives who tempted them) was their fall.
biblical The serpent in the Garden of Eden
TLN 136archaic vocab
“Grace to boot!”
'To boot' means 'in addition,' 'on top of that,' 'besides' — from Old English 'bot' (advantage, extra). Hermione is exclaiming: 'And divine grace as well!' or 'God's grace, on top of everything!' She is reacting with wry alarm to Polixenes's implication that women are the source of men's temptations. The exclamation is mock-theological: if their wives are the cause of their sin, then surely the women need God's forgiveness too.
TLN 152rhetorical device
“one good deed dying tongueless Slaughters a thousand waiting upon that”
Hermione is making a practical argument: praise is the wage that motivates further good deeds. When a good deed is left unacknowledged ('dying tongueless' — spoken of by no tongue), it kills a thousand potential good deeds that were waiting to follow its example. The image is vivid: praise is what keeps a line of virtuous actions alive, and silence murders the whole succession. The rhetorical figure is personification (good deeds 'dying').
TLN 173archaic vocab
“I have _tremor cordis_ on me”
Latin: 'tremor of the heart' — a palpitation or irregular, frightened beating of the heart. Shakespeare italicizes it as a technical medical term. Leontes is diagnosing himself: his heart is physically shaking, but 'not for joy' (line 174). In Elizabethan medical theory the heart was the seat of the passions; a trembling heart indicated powerful emotional disturbance. This is the first open sign that something is wrong inside Leontes.
TLN 174syntax grammar
“This entertainment May a free face put on; derive a liberty From heartiness, from bounty, fertile bosom, And well become the agent”
Leontes is reasoning with himself in broken syntax: 'This behaviour [Hermione's warmth with Polixenes] can be given an innocent face — it could be explained as coming from open-heartedness, generosity, a warm nature — and such behaviour would suit its performer.' He is trying and failing to suppress his jealousy by offering himself rational excuses. The parenthetical 'I grant' and 'It may' show him grasping at counter-arguments he cannot believe.
TLN 178archaic vocab
“paddling palms and pinching fingers”
'Paddling' means playful stroking or fingering — as you might paddle your fingers in water. 'Paddling palms' is the lovers' gesture of pressing and stroking each other's hands, a recognized sign of intimacy in the period (see also the hand-clasp the stage direction specifies at line 170). Together with 'pinching fingers' the phrase describes what Leontes reads as an unmistakable erotic signal passing between Hermione and Polixenes.
TLN 180archaic vocab
“to sigh, as 'twere The mort o' the deer”
The 'mort' (French for 'death') was the note blown on a hunting horn to signal that the deer had been killed. Leontes is saying the sighs he imagines Hermione and Polixenes exchanging sound to him like the death-note of a hunt — the signal that the quarry has been caught. 'The deer' in this context is bawdy: 'deer' was punned on 'dear' and 'do-er' in Elizabethan slang for sexual conquest. Leontes hears their courtship as a concluded seduction.
TLN 185archaic vocab
“I' fecks!”
'I' fecks' is a mild oath — a weakened form of 'in faith' or 'i' faith,' softened to avoid blasphemy. It means roughly 'indeed!' or 'in truth!' Leontes uses it here as a sharp, distracted exclamation of surprise or emphasis after Mamillius answers him. These tiny interjections mark Leontes's mental agitation throughout the scene.
TLN 186archaic vocab
“that's my bawcock”
'Bawcock' is a term of fond address to a boy or man, roughly equivalent to 'fine fellow' or 'good lad.' It comes from French 'beau coq' (fine cock, fine fellow). The word was used affectionately and without the modern meaning of 'cock.' Here Leontes says it to Mamillius with a father's pride — but the very word 'cock' carries an edge in a scene saturated with cuckold-anxiety.
TLN 188wordplay
“We must be neat;—not neat, but cleanly, captain: And yet the steer, the heifer, and the calf, Are all call'd neat”
Leontes puns on two meanings of 'neat': (1) tidy, clean; (2) cattle (from Old English 'neat,' an ox or cow). He catches himself: telling a boy 'be neat' is fine, but 'neat' also names horned cattle — and a man whose wife is unfaithful is a 'cuckold' (he grows horns). So 'neat' quietly points at the horned animals and, in Leontes's diseased mind, at himself. The steer, heifer, and calf are all 'neat' — all horned — which Leontes's paranoia reads as emblems of his own condition.
TLN 191archaic vocab
“Still virginalling Upon his palm”
'Virginalling' means playing the virginals — a small keyboard instrument played by rapidly moving the fingers up and down the keys. Leontes invents the verb to describe Hermione running her fingers playfully over Polixenes's palm as if playing the instrument. The image fuses music-making with erotic hand-touch; the virginals were also associated with young women ('virgins'), which sharpens the jealous overtone.
TLN 195archaic vocab
“Thou want'st a rough pash, and the shoots that I have”
'Pash' means the head — specifically, the forehead or brow. 'Shoots' are horns just beginning to grow, as a young animal's first nubs of horn. Leontes is saying: Mamillius lacks a rough forehead and the new horn-buds that he himself has — the 'shoots' are the budding horns of a cuckold. The phrase is affectionate on the surface (admiring how Mamillius looks like him) but poisoned by Leontes's private obsession: cuckold's horns are what he means.
TLN 199archaic vocab
“As o'er-dy'd blacks”
'O'er-dyed blacks' are fabrics dyed black over another colour — a cheaper process that gave an inferior, fading black. Such cloth was thought to be false in its colour, since the underlying hue would eventually show through. Leontes is listing things proverbially false: overdyed black cloth, the wind, water, and loaded dice. The phrase is a period proverb for deceptive appearances.
TLN 204archaic vocab
“my collop”
A 'collop' is a slice of meat cut from the body — Leontes means Mamillius is a piece cut from himself, his own flesh. The word was commonly used for a child as a parent's piece of themselves: 'mine own flesh and blood.' The tender term is undercut by what precedes it: Leontes has just been rehearsing reasons not to believe in the resemblance, making 'my collop' simultaneously loving and uncertain.
TLN 205syntax grammar
“Affection! thy intention stabs the centre: Thou dost make possible things not so held, Communicat'st with dreams”
This is the most notoriously difficult speech in the scene. Leontes addresses 'Affection' (obsessive passion, jealousy) directly as a force that: stabs to the centre (strikes to the heart of things); makes possible what people say is impossible; shares dreams with sleeping minds; acts with unreal things; and follows nothing. The argument is: if passion can work with unreality (dreams), then equally it can join with something real — and so his suspicion might be real. The speech is deliberately fragmented and hard to parse, enacting Leontes's collapsing rationality.
TLN 226archaic vocab
“saw myself unbreech'd”
To be 'unbreed' or 'unbreeched' meant to be too young to wear breeches — boys were dressed in skirts or gowns until about age five or six, when they were first put into breeches (trousers) in a ceremony called 'breeching,' marking a passage into boyhood. Leontes is remembering himself at about age four or five: before that social threshold, still in a child's gown, with a little muzzled toy-dagger.
TLN 230archaic vocab
“this kernel, This squash, this gentleman”
A 'squash' is an unripe peapod — still small, soft, and green, not yet mature. Leontes applies it affectionately to the child Mamillius: a kernel (seed) inside a soft pod, not yet a full pea. The word is a favourite Shakespearean term for a young boy not yet grown into a man: Olivia uses it in Twelfth Night for Viola. The mock-formality of 'this gentleman' after 'this squash' is gently comic.
TLN 232archaic vocab
“Will you take eggs for money?”
A proverbial expression meaning 'will you accept something worthless instead of what you are owed?' or 'will you be fooled into a bad bargain?' — eggs being much cheaper than coin. To 'take eggs for money' was to be swindled or to suffer an insult without fighting back. Leontes is testing young Mamillius: will he be passive when wronged? The child's answer — 'I'll fight' — pleases his father and shows spirit. The proverb is first recorded in the period.
TLN 234archaic vocab
“happy man be 's dole”
A proverbial phrase meaning 'may his lot (dole) be that of a happy man' — a hearty blessing, roughly 'good luck to him!' 'Dole' is an allotment or portion: what fate deals out to a person. Leontes says it with warm approval after Mamillius announces he will fight rather than be cheated. The phrase was a common Elizabethan benediction, equivalent to 'God speed him!'
TLN 242archaic vocab
“his varying childness cures in me Thoughts that would thick my blood”
'Thick my blood' means to make the blood sluggish, heavy, and melancholy — in Elizabethan medicine, thickened blood was the physical cause of depression and sadness. Polixenes is saying his son's lively, unpredictable company cures the heavy moods that would otherwise thicken his blood. The contrast between the quick child and dull, melancholy adult blood is a medical observation as well as an emotional one.
TLN 249archaic vocab
“my young rover, he's Apparent to my heart”
'Apparent' here carries its legal sense: 'heir apparent,' meaning next in line by right of birth, not just by likelihood. Leontes is saying Polixenes is heir-apparent to his heart — next after Hermione and Mamillius in the line of Leontes's affection. The word was instantly familiar from royal succession ('the Prince of Wales, heir apparent to the throne'), so its use here playfully elevates friendship to quasi-dynastic status.
TLN 255archaic vocab
“I am angling now. Though you perceive me not how I give line”
'Angling' is fishing with a rod and line; to 'give line' is to let out slack, allowing the fish to run before you reel it in — a technique used to tire a large fish. Leontes is watching Hermione and Polixenes in the garden and comparing himself to a fisher playing his catch on a long line. The metaphor is both predatory and controlled: he is giving them rope, watching, and already certain of the outcome. The aside signals that his surveillance is hidden.
TLN 258archaic vocab
“How she holds up the neb, the bill to him!”
'Neb' and 'bill' are both words for a bird's beak — here applied to Hermione's face turned toward Polixenes. Leontes is watching them from a distance and reading her upturned face as a bird lifts its beak. The double synonym ('neb, the bill') is contemptuous: reducing the queen to an animal, a bird presenting itself to its mate. The image anticipates the far cruder animal-language Leontes uses moments later.
TLN 263wordplay
“thy mother plays, and I Play too; but so disgrac'd a part”
Three meanings of 'play' collide in two lines: (1) Mamillius plays (as a child); (2) Hermione 'plays' in the sense of sexual dalliance; (3) Leontes 'plays' a role in the theatrical sense — but a disgraced, shameful part, a cuckold's role, that will make the audience hiss him to his grave. Leontes sees his marriage as a bad drama in which he is the humiliated, laughed-at husband. The theatrical metaphor is also Shakespeare's self-referential art: the stage convention of the deceived husband who is the last to know.
TLN 277historical topical
“It is a bawdy planet, that will strike Where 'tis predominant”
In Elizabethan astrology, each planet 'struck' or influenced human behaviour when it was 'predominant' — dominant in the heavens. The planet of lust (Venus, the 'bawdy planet') was believed to inflame sexual appetite in both men and women when it ruled the sky. Leontes is using astrological determinism sardonically: cuckoldry is as universal and unstoppable as a planetary influence raining down from east, west, north, and south on every married man.
TLN 296archaic vocab
“They're here with me already; whispering, rounding, 'Sicilia is a so-forth.'”
'Rounding' means whispering privately in someone's ear — from Old English 'round,' a secret whisper. 'Sicilia is a so-forth' means 'the King of Sicilia is a such-and-such' — a cuckold, the word being unspeakable. Leontes believes the court is already gossiping about him; 'so-forth' is the obscene word his paranoid imagination fills in for him. The aside reveals that his jealousy has progressed to persecution: he imagines everyone knows what he now believes.
TLN 304archaic vocab
“thy conceit is soaking, will draw in More than the common blocks”
'Conceit' here means understanding or intelligence, not vanity. 'Soaking' means absorbent — it will drink in more than ordinary minds ('common blocks,' blockheads). Leontes is complimenting Camillo's intelligence in order to accuse him: a man as perceptive as Camillo must have noticed the queen's adultery. The compliment is a trap, pressuring Camillo to confirm what Leontes believes.
TLN 307archaic vocab
“lower messes Perchance are to this business purblind”
At a formal banquet, diners were seated by rank; those at the lower tables (the 'lower messes') were of lesser social standing. Leontes is saying the servants and common attendants — those below the 'finer natures' and men of 'extraordinary head-piece' — are perhaps too dim to notice what is happening. 'Purblind' means partially or completely blind, often implying obtuse dullness. Leontes is distinguishing between the clever few who see (supposedly) and the dull many who do not.
TLN 319historical topical
“all the nearest things to my heart, as well My chamber-councils, wherein, priest-like, thou Hast cleans'd my bosom”
'Chamber-councils' are private, secret deliberations held in the king's inner chamber — the most confidential affairs of state, distinct from the open Privy Council. The comparison to a priest ('priest-like, thou / Hast cleans'd my bosom') likens Camillo to a confessor hearing private sins: a king would unburden his conscience to a trusted counsellor as a Catholic penitent might confess to a priest. Leontes is saying he treated Camillo as both private secretary and spiritual confidant.
TLN 328archaic vocab
“Which hoxes honesty behind”
'Hox' (also 'hock') means to hamstring — to cut the tendons at the back of the knee, disabling an animal or person and making them unable to run or act. Leontes is telling Camillo: if Camillo is a coward, his cowardice hamstrings his honesty from behind, disabling it, preventing it from taking the action required. The image is violent and precise: cowardice does not merely slow honesty, it cripples it entirely.
TLN 332archaic vocab
“seest a game play'd home, the rich stake drawn, And tak'st it all for jest”
'Play'd home' means played to a conclusion, brought to its decisive end. 'The rich stake drawn' means the wagered prize has been collected by the winner. The gambling metaphor accuses the third type of Camillo — the fool who watches a game reach its climax, sees the stakes carried off by the winner, and still treats it as a joke. Leontes is using the image to press Camillo: the game (the affair) is over, the stakes (his honour) are gone, and only a fool pretends not to see it.
TLN 354archaic vocab
“your eye-glass Is thicker than a cuckold's horn”
'Eye-glass' is the lens or crystal of the eye — the cornea or lens of vision. Leontes is saying: unless Camillo's eyesight is obscured by something thicker than a cuckold's horn, he must have seen what happened. A cuckold's horn was proverbially hard and opaque; the joke is that a horn before the eye would block any vision, but even a horn cannot be Camillo's excuse — the evidence was too obvious. The bawdy undercurrent: the cuckold's horn is always nearby in this speech.
TLN 362archaic vocab
“My wife's a hobby-horse”
A 'hobby-horse' was (1) a toy horse on a stick ridden by children; (2) a figure in the Morris dance, a man with an imitation horse strapped round his waist, cavorting wildly; (3) in Elizabethan slang, a loose, promiscuous woman — a 'mount' for any rider. Leontes is using the third meaning in his most brutal accusation of Hermione. The word appears in several contemporary plays and ballads in this degrading sense.
TLN 363archaic vocab
“As rank as any flax-wench that puts to Before her troth-plight”
A 'flax-wench' is a low-born woman who works with flax (linen fiber) — among the most menial of rural women. 'Puts to' is slang for submitting sexually. 'Troth-plight' is a formal betrothal — a binding promise of marriage made before the wedding ceremony. For a woman to 'put to before her troth-plight' meant to have sex before the engagement or wedding, which was considered dishonorable, especially for a woman of rank. Leontes is calling his queen worse than the lowest peasant woman.
TLN 371rhetorical device
“Is whispering nothing? Is leaning cheek to cheek? is meeting noses?”
This is a rhetorical catalogue of evidence delivered as a rapid sequence of questions — a figure called 'erotema' or rhetorical questioning. Leontes itemises eleven physical actions he claims to have observed: whispering, cheeks together, touching noses, inside-lip kissing, laughter cut short by a sigh, foot-on-foot 'horsing,' lurking in corners, wishing the hours away, and eyes blind to everyone but each other. The cumulative effect is overwhelming paranoia: every ordinary social gesture becomes proof of guilt.
TLN 377archaic vocab
“all eyes Blind with the pin and web but theirs, theirs only, That would unseen be wicked”
'Pin and web' was a common term for cataract — the white opacity on the eye (the 'web') with a central spot (the 'pin') that caused blindness or severely impaired vision. Leontes is saying all other eyes are blinded by cataracts — only the adulterous pair can see, and what they want to see unseen is their own wickedness. The image ironically fits Leontes himself: his own mental cataracts prevent him seeing clearly.
TLN 394archaic vocab
“Were my wife's liver Infected as her life, she would not live The running of one glass”
In Elizabethan medical thought, the liver was the seat of love and desire, but also the organ that filtered poisons from the blood. An 'infected liver' meant a body corrupted by venereal disease. 'The running of one glass' means the time it takes a sandglass (hourglass) to run out — half an hour or an hour. Leontes is saying: if Hermione's liver were as diseased as her life (conduct), she would be dead within an hour. The statement conflates moral and physical infection.
TLN 398archaic vocab
“he that wears her like her medal, hanging About his neck, Bohemia”
A 'medal' was a medallion — a small portrait or emblem worn on a chain around the neck, often given as a love-token or mark of favour. Leontes is saying Polixenes wears Hermione like a man displays a love-token: hanging at his neck, close to his heart, openly showing her off as his possession. The image transforms the queen into an adulterous trophy. Lovers exchanging portrait-medallions was common Elizabethan practice.
TLN 403historical topical
“thou, His cupbearer,—whom I from meaner form Have bench'd and rear'd to worship”
A cupbearer was the royal servant who carried and presented the king's cup of wine — a position of high trust and proximity to the monarch, since the person could easily administer poison. Leontes is reminding Camillo that he raised him from lower status ('meaner form') to this elevated, worshipful post of honour. 'Bench'd' means seated in dignity, promoted to a high seat. The implication is that Camillo now owes this elevation entirely to Leontes — and should therefore be loyal enough to poison Polixenes.
TLN 407archaic vocab
“mightst bespice a cup, To give mine enemy a lasting wink”
'Bespice a cup' means to poison it — to 'spice' it with poison, as wine was spiced with herbs and drugs. 'A lasting wink' means eternal sleep — permanent closed eyes, i.e. death. Leontes is explicitly directing Camillo to poison Polixenes: a laced cup handed by the cupbearer to the king's guest, closing his eyes forever. The euphemism ('lasting wink') is thin cover for a murder instruction.
TLN 409archaic vocab
“Which draught to me were cordial”
A 'cordial' was a medicinal or restorative drink — from Latin 'cor' (heart) — prescribed to revive and strengthen a weakened patient. Leontes is saying that news of Polixenes's death would be a cordial to him: what kills Polixenes would be medicine to Leontes. The cruel inversion — poison-as-cure — encapsulates Leontes's diseased thinking: his enemy's death is his remedy.
TLN 421rhetorical device
“which being spotted Is goads, thorns, nettles, tails of wasps”
A rapid list of stinging, piercing objects — goads (pointed rods used to drive cattle), thorns, nettles, wasp-stings — piled up as an image of how the thought of a spotted (dishonoured, stained) bed torments Leontes. The rhetorical figure is 'asyndeton': items listed without connecting 'and,' making the accumulation faster and more overwhelming. The clean, white sheets that preserve sleep become an engine of torture the moment they are 'spotted' with infidelity.
TLN 426archaic vocab
“Could man so blench?”
'Blench' means to start aside, flinch, or go astray from a course — as a hunting dog 'blenches' when it turns from the scent. Leontes is demanding: could a man with no cause 'blench' — swerve so far from reason and natural affection — without being driven by genuine evidence? He is using the word to argue that his jealousy cannot be groundless because no sane man would deviate from reason without reason. The word also carries a sense of growing pale from shock.
TLN 455historical topical
“struck anointed kings And flourish'd after, I'd not do't; but since Nor brass, nor stone, nor parchment, bears not one”
'Anointed kings' are monarchs consecrated by the church's anointing with holy oil at their coronation — a ritual that, under the doctrine of divine right, set them apart from ordinary men and made them God's deputies on earth. Camillo is making an argument from history: he knows of no recorded precedent (in brass inscription, stone monument, or parchment document) of anyone who murdered a consecrated king and afterward thrived. He refuses the commission on practical and sacred grounds together.
historical The divine right of kings
TLN 490classical allusion
“Make me not sighted like the basilisk: I have look'd on thousands who have sped the better By my regard, but kill'd none so”
The basilisk (also called the cockatrice) was a legendary serpent whose very gaze killed whatever it looked upon — a creature of classical and medieval natural history. Polixenes is protesting: do not say that my presence infected Leontes as if I were a basilisk killing by sight. He has looked on thousands and brought them benefit, not death, by his friendly regard. The irony is sharp: Polixenes will shortly learn that Leontes is indeed 'infected' — though by jealousy, not by any real gaze from Polixenes.
TLN 533rhetorical device
“Swear his thought over By each particular star in heaven and By all their influences, you may as well Forbid the sea for to obey the moon”
Camillo is using an analogy from classical astronomy: just as it is impossible to forbid the tides from obeying the moon (their governing body in Ptolemaic thought), so it is impossible to dislodge Leontes's jealousy by oaths or argument. Even swearing by every individual star and all the astral influences in heaven would not shake Leontes's fixed conviction. 'The fabric of his folly, whose foundation / Is piled upon his faith' means his delusion is built on his own certainty, which is itself the foundation — there is nothing rational beneath it to argue with.
TLN 544archaic vocab
“my honesty,— That lies enclosed in this trunk, which you Shall bear along impawn'd”
'This trunk' refers to Camillo's body — his chest, his person, the container of his honest soul. 'Impawned' means pledged as a security, held in pawn. Camillo is telling Polixenes: take my body as a pledge — hold me personally as security for my word. He is offering himself as a hostage for his own honesty, saying that Polixenes can hold his person in trust as he would hold a pawned object until the debt (his promise) is redeemed by their safe escape.
TLN 568archaic vocab
“Fear o'ershades me; Good expedition be my friend, and comfort The gracious queen, part of this theme, but nothing Of his ill-ta'en suspicion”
'Expedition' means swift departure, speed in leaving. Polixenes is calling on quick flight as if it were a friend or ally: 'let haste be my companion.' 'Part of this theme' means Hermione is involved in this whole story ('theme' = subject of discussion and action); 'but nothing of his ill-ta'en suspicion' means she has no part in, and no guilt attached to, Leontes's wrongly conceived (ill-taken) jealousy. It is Polixenes's clearest statement of Hermione's innocence as he flees.