Page 748 - Shakespeare - Vol. 4

Ere I could make thee open thy white hand,
And clap thyself my love; then didst thou utter
‘I am yours for ever’.

HERMIONE
’Tis Grace indeed. [105]
Why lo you now; I have spoke to th’ purpose twice:

The one, for ever earn’d a royal husband;
Th’ other, for some while a friend.
(Giving her hand to Polixenes.)

LEONTES
(aside)

Too hot, too hot!
To mingle friendship far, is mingling bloods.
I have tremor cordis on me: my heart dances, [110]
But not for joy − not joy. This entertainment

May a free face put on, derive a liberty
From heartiness, from bounty, fertile bosom,
And well become the agent: ’t may, I grant:
But to be paddling palms, and pinching fingers, [115]

As now they are, and making practis’d smiles
As in a looking-glass; and then to sigh, as ’twere
The mort o’ th’ deer − O, that is entertainment
My bosom likes not, nor my brows. Mamillius,

Art thou my boy?

MAMILLIUS
Ay, my good lord.

LEONTES
I’ fecks: [120]
Why that’s my bawcock. What! hast smutch’d thy nose?
They say it is a copy out of mine. Come, captain,

We must be neat; not neat, but cleanly, captain:
And yet the steer, the heifer and the calf
Are all call’d neat. − Still virginalling [125]
Upon his palm! − How now, you wanton calf!