Page 760 - Shakespeare - Vol. 4

I cannot name the disease, and it is caught
Of you, that yet are well.

POLIXENES
How caught of me?
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. Camillo, − [390]
As you are certainly a gentleman, thereto
Clerk-like experienc’d, which no less adorns

Our gentry than our parents’ noble names,
In whose success we are gentle, − I beseech you,
If you know aught which does behove my knowledge [395]
Thereof to be inform’d, imprison ’t not
In ignorant concealment.

CAMILLO
I may not answer.

POLIXENES
A sickness caught of me, and yet I well?
I must be answer’d. Dost thou hear, Camillo?
I conjure thee, by all the parts of man [400]

Which honour does acknowledge, whereof the least
Is not this suit of mine, that thou declare
What incidency thou dost guess of harm
Is creeping toward me; how far off, how near,
Which way to be prevented, if to be: [405]

If not, how best to bear it.

CAMILLO
Sir, I will tell you:
Since I am charg’d in honour, and by him
That I think honourable. Therefore mark my counsel,

Which must be ev’n as swiftly follow’d as
I mean to utter it, or both yourself and me [410]
Cry lost, and so good night!