I now name to you; and with speed so pace And what to her adheres, which follows after, SCENE I. [Exit. The fame. A Room in the Palace of Polixenes. Enter POLIXENES and CAMILLO. POL. I pray thee, good Camillo, be no more importunate 'tis a fickness, denying thee any thing; a death, to grant this. imagine we Gentle fpectators, that you now may be, &c. Let us imagine that you, who behold these scenes, are now in Bohemia. JOHNSON. Imagine me, means imagine with me, or imagine for me; and is a common mode of expreffion. Thus we fay " do me fuch a thing,"-" fpell me fuch a word." In King Henry IV. Falstaff fays, fpeaking of fack: "It afcends me into the brain, dries me there," &c. Again, in King Lear, Glofter fays to Edmund, speaking of Edgar : "Wind me into him," &c. M. MASON. 1 Is the argument of time:] Argument is the fame with subject. 2 JOHNSON. Of this allow,] To allow in our author's time fignified to approve. MALONE. CAM. It is fifteen years,3 fince I faw my country: though I have, for the most part, been aired abroad, I defire to lay my bones there. Besides, the penitent king, my mafter, hath fent for me: to whose feeling forrows I might be fome allay, or I o'erween to think fo; which is another fpur to my departure. POL. As thou lovest me, Camillo, wipe not out the rest of thy fervices, by leaving me now: the need I have of thee, thine own goodness hath made; better not to have had thee, than thus to want thee: thou, having made me bufineffes, which none, without thee can fufficiently manage, muft either ftay to execute them thyfelf, or take away with thee the very fervices thou haft done: which if I have not enough confidered, (as too much I cannot,) to be more thankful to thee, shall be my study; and my profit therein, the heaping friendships.4 that fatal country Sicilia, pr'ythee speak no more: whofe very naming punishes me with the remem Of 3 It is fifteen years,] We should read-fixteen. Time has just faid: that I fide O'er fixteen years Again, Act V. fc. iii: "Which lets go by fome fixteen years." -Again, ibid: "Which fixteen winters cannot blow away." 4 STEEVENS. and my profit therein, the heaping friendships.] The fenfe of heaping friendships, though like many other of our author's, unufual, at least unusual to modern ears, is not very obfcure. To be more thankful fhall be my fiudy; and my profit therein the heaping friendships. That is, I will for the future be more liberal of recompence, from which I shall receive this advantage, that as I heap benefits I fhall heap friendships, as I confer favours on thee I shall increase the friendship between us. JOHNSON. Friendships is, I believe, here used, with fufficient licence, brance of that penitent, as thou call'ft him, and reconciled king, my brother; whofe lofs of his moft precious queen, and children, are even now to be afresh lamented. Say to me, when faw'st thou the prince Florizel my fon? Kings are no lefs unhappy, their iffue not being gracious, than they are in lofing them, when they have approved their virtues. CAM. Sir, it is three days, fince I faw the prince: What his happier affairs may be, are to me unknown but I have, miffingly, noted,5 he is of late much retired from court; and is lefs frequent to his princely exercises, than formerly he hath appeared. POL. I have confidered fo much, Camillo; and with fome care; fo far, that I have eyes under my fervice, which look upon his removedness: from whom I have this intelligence; That he is feldom from the house of a moft homely fhepherd; a man, they fay, that from very nothing, and beyond the imagination of his neighbours, is grown into an unfpeakable eftate. CAM. I have heard, fir, of fuch a man, who hath a daughter of most rare note: the report of her is extended more, than can be thought to begin from fuch a cottage. Poz. That's likewife part of my intelligence. But, I fear the angle that plucks our fon thither. S but I have, miffingly, noted,] Missingly noted means, I have observed him at intervals, not conftantly or regularly, but occafionally. STEEVENS. 6 But, I fear the angle-] Mr. Theobald reads,—and I fear the engle. JOHNSON. Angle in this place means a fishing-rod, which he represents as drawing his fon, like a fish, away. So, in K. Henry ÏV. P. I : Thou fhalt accompany us to the place: where we will, not appearing what we are, have fome queftion with the fhepherd; from whofe fimplicity, I think it not uneafy to get the caufe of my fon's refort thither. Pr'ythee, be my prefent partner in this business, and lay afide the thoughts of Sicilia. CAM. I willingly obey your command. POL. My best Camillo !-We must disguise ourfelves. [Exeunt. SCENE II. The fame. A Road near the Shepherd's Cottage. Enter AUTOLYCUs, finging. When daffodils begin to peer,9————— With, heigh! the doxy over the dale,— Why, then comes in the fweet o'the year; For the red blood reigns in the winter's pale. "The hearts of all that he did angle for." Again, in All's well that ends well: "She knew her distance, and did angle for me.” So, in Lyly's Sapho and Phao, 1591: STEEVENS. "Thine angle is ready, when thine oar is idle; and as sweet is the fifh which thou getteft in the river, as the fowl which other buy in the market." MALONE. 7 - some question —] i. e. fome talk. n. 8. MALONE. 8 See Vol. VI. p. 280, Autolycus,] Autolycus was the fon of Mercury, and as famous for all the arts of fraud and thievery as his father: "Non fuit Autolyci tam piceata manus." Martial. See also, Homer's Odysey, Book XIX. STEEVENS. 9 When daffodils begin to peer, And Jog on, jog on, the foot-path way,] "Two nonfenfical The white fheet bleaching on the hedge,— For a quart of ale is a dish for a king. fongs, by the rogue Autolycus," fays Dr. Burney.-But could not the many compliments paid by Shakspeare to mufical science, intercede for a better epithet than nonfenfical? The Dr. fubfequently obferves, that "This Autolycus is the true ancient Minftrel, as defcribed in the old Fabliaux.” I believe, that many of our readers will pufh the comparison a little further, and concur with me in thinking that our modern minstrels of the opera, like their predeceffor Autolycus, are pickpockets as well as fingers of nonfenfical ballads. STEEVENS. For the red blood reigns in the winter's pale.] This line has fuffered a great variety of alterations, but I am perfuaded the old reading is the true one. The firft folio has "the winter's pale;" and the meaning is, the red, the Spring blood now reigns o'er the parts lately under the dominion of winter. The English pale, the Irish pale, were frequent expreffions in Shakspeare's time; and the words red and pale were chofen for the fake of the antithefis. FARMER. Dr. Farmer is certainly right. I had offered this explanation to Dr. Johnson, who rejected it. In King Henry V. our author fays: the English beach "Pales in the flood," &c. Again, in Antony and Cleopatra: "Whate'er the ocean pales, or fky inclips." Holinfhed, p. 528, calls Sir Richard Afton: "Lieutenant of the English pale, for the earle of Summerset." Again, in King Henry VI. P. I: 2 "How are we park'd, and bounded in a pale." STEEVENS. The white sheet bleaching &c.] So, in the fong at the end of Love's Labour's Loft, SPRING mentions as defcriptive of that season, that then " maidens bleach their fummer Smocks." MALONE. 3-pugging tooth-] Sir T. Hanmer, and after him Dr. Warburton, read-progging tooth. It is certain that pugging is not now understood. But Dr. Thirlby obferves, that it is the cant of gypfies. JOHNSON. The word pugging is used by Greene in one of his pieces; |