Camillo.
Arc.
If you shall chance, Camillo, to visit Bohemia,
on the like occasion whereon my services are now on
foot, you shall see, as I have said, great difference betwixt
our Bohemia and your Sicilia.
Cam.
I think, this coming summer note, the king of Sicilia
means to pay Bohemia the visitation which he justly
owes him.
Arc.
Wherein our entertainment shall shame us, we
will be justify'd in our loves: for, indeed,—
Cam.
Beseech you,—
Arc.
Verily, I speak it in the freedom of my knowledge:
we cannot with such magnificence—in so rare—
I know not what to say. We will give you sleepy
drinks; that your senses, unintelligent of our insufficience,
may, though they cannot praise us, as little
accuse us.
-- 4 --
Cam.
You pay a great deal too dear, for what's given
freely.
Arc.
Believe me, I speak as my understanding
instructs me, and as mine honesty puts it to utterance.
Cam.
Sicilia cannot shew himself over-kind to Bohemia.
They were train'd together in their childhoods;
and there rooted betwixt them then such an
affection, which cannot choose but branch now: Since
their more mature dignities, and royal necessities, made
separation of their society, their encounters, though
not personal, have been note royally attorney'd, with enterchange
of gifts note, letters, loving embassies: that they
have seem'd to be together, though absent; shook hands,
as over a vast sea; note and embrac'd, as it were, from the
ends of opposed winds. The heavens continue their
loves!
Arc.
I think, there is not in the world either malice,
or matter, to alter it. You have an unspeakable comfort
of your young prince Mamillius; it is a gentleman
of the greatest promise, that ever came into my
note.
Cam.
I very well agree with you in the hopes of
him: It is a gallant child; one that, indeed, physicks
the subject, makes old hearts fresh: they, that went on
crutches ere he was born, desire yet their life, to see
him a man.
Arc.
Would they else be content to dye?
Cam.
Yes; if there were no other excuse, why they
should desire to live.
Arc.
If the king had no son, they would desire to
live on crutches 'till he had one.
[Exeunt.
-- 5 --
Edward Capell [1767], Mr William Shakespeare his comedies, histories, and tragedies, set out by himself in quarto, or by the Players his Fellows in folio, and now faithfully republish'd from those Editions in ten Volumes octavo; with an introduction: Whereunto will be added, in some other Volumes, notes, critical and explanatory, and a Body of Various Readings entire (Printed by Dryden Leach, for J. and R. Tonson [etc.], London) [word count] [S10601].
