Archidamus.
Arch.
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, the king of Sicilia
means to pay Bohemia the visitation which he justly
owes him.
Arch.
Wherein our entertainment shall shame us,
we will be justified in our loves: for, indeed,—
Cam.
Beseech you,—
Arch.
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 insufficience1 note
,
may, though they cannot praise us, as little
accuse us.
-- 430 --
Cam.
You pay a great deal too dear for what's given
freely.
Arch.
Believe me, I speak as my understanding
instructs me, and as mine honesty puts it to utterance.
Cam.
Sicilia cannot show himself over-kind to Bohemia.
They were trained 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 royally attorney'd, with interchange
of gifts, letters, loving embassies, that they have seemed
to be together, though absent, 11Q0471 shook hands, as over a
vast2 note
, and embraced, as it were, from the ends of opposed
winds. The heavens continue their loves!
Arch.
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, physics
the subject3 note, makes old hearts fresh: they, that went
on crutches ere he was born, desire yet their life to see
him a man.
Arch.
Would they else be content to die?
-- 431 --
Cam.
Yes; if there were no other excuse why they
should desire to live.
Arch.
If the king had no son they would desire to
live on crutches till he had one.
[Exeunt.
J. Payne Collier [1842–1844], The works of William Shakespeare. The text formed from an entirely new collation of the old editions: with the various readings, notes, a life of the poet, and a history of the Early English stage. By J. Payne Collier, Esq. F.S.A. In eight volumes (Whittaker & Co. [etc.], London) [word count] [S10101].
