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That seest a game play'd home, the rich stake drawn, |
And tak'st it all for jest. |
CAMILLO. My gracious lord, |
I may be negligent, foolish, and fearful: |
In every one of these no man is free |
But that his negligence, his folly, fear, |
Among the infinite doings of the world, |
Sometime puts forth. In your affairs, my lord, |
If ever I were wilfull-negligent, |
It was my folly; if industriously |
I play'd the fool, it was my negligence, |
Not weighing well the end; if ever fearful |
To do a thing where I the issue doubted, |
Whereof the execution did cry out |
Against the non-performance, 'twas a fear |
Which oft infects the wisest. These, my lord, |
Are such allow'd infirmities that honesty |
Is never free of. But, beseech your Grace, |
Be plainer with me; let me know my trespass |
By its own visage; if I then deny it, |
'Tis none of mine. |
LEONTES. Ha' not you seen, Camillo- |
But that's past doubt; you have, or your eye-glass |
Is thicker than a cuckold's horn- or heard- |
For to a vision so apparent rumour |
Cannot be mute- or thought- for cogitation |
Resides not in that man that does not think- |
My wife is slippery? If thou wilt confess- |
Or else be impudently negative, |
To have nor eyes nor ears nor thought- then say |
My wife's a hobby-horse, deserves a name |
As rank as any flax-wench that puts to |
Before her troth-plight. Say't and justify't. |
CAMILLO. I would not be a stander-by to hear |
My sovereign mistress clouded so, without |
My present vengeance taken. Shrew my heart! |
You never spoke what did become you less |
Than this; which to reiterate were sin |
As deep as that, though true. |
LEONTES. Is whispering nothing? |
Is leaning cheek to cheek? Is meeting noses? |
Kissing with inside lip? Stopping the career |
Of laughter with a sigh?- a note infallible |
Of breaking honesty. Horsing foot on foot? |
Skulking in corners? Wishing clocks more swift; |
Hours, minutes; noon, midnight? And all eyes |
Blind with the pin and web but theirs, theirs only, |
That would unseen be wicked- is this nothing? |
Why, then the world and all that's in't is nothing; |
The covering sky is nothing; Bohemia nothing; |
My is nothing; nor nothing have these nothings, |
If this be nothing. |
CAMILLO. Good my lord, be cur'd |
Of this diseas'd opinion, and betimes; |
For 'tis most dangerous. |
LEONTES. Say it be, 'tis true. |
CAMILLO. No, no, my lord. |
LEONTES. It is; you lie, you lie. |
I say thou liest, Camillo, and I hate thee; |
Pronounce thee a gross lout, a mindless slave, |
Or else a hovering temporizer that |
Canst with thine eyes at once see good and evil, |
Inclining to them both. Were my wife's liver |
Infected as her life, she would not live |
The running of one glass. |
CAMILLO. Who does her? |
LEONTES. Why, he that wears her like her medal, hanging |
About his neck, Bohemia; who- if I |
Had servants true about me that bare eyes |
To see alike mine honour as their profits, |
Their own particular thrifts, they would do that |
Which should undo more doing. Ay, and thou, |
His cupbearer- whom I from meaner form |
Have bench'd and rear'd to worship; who mayst see, |
Plainly as heaven sees earth and earth sees heaven, |
How I am gall'd- mightst bespice a cup |
To give mine enemy a lasting wink; |
Which draught to me were cordial. |
CAMILLO. Sir, my lord, |
I could do this; and that with no rash potion, |
But with a ling'ring dram that should not work |
Maliciously like poison. But I cannot |
Believe this crack to be in my dread mistress, |
So sovereignly being honourable. |
I have lov'd thee- |
LEONTES. Make that thy question, and go rot! |
Dost think I am so muddy, so unsettled, |
To appoint myself in this vexation; sully |
The purity and whiteness of my sheets- |
Which to preserve is sleep, which being spotted |
Is goads, thorns, nettles, tails of wasps; |
Give scandal to the blood o' th' Prince, my son- |
Who I do think is mine, and love as mine- |
Without ripe moving to 't? Would I do this? |
Could man so blench? |
CAMILLO. I must believe you, sir. |
I do; and will fetch off Bohemia for't; |
Provided that, when he's remov'd, your Highness |
Will take again your queen as yours at first, |
Even for your son's sake; and thereby for sealing |
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