I’ll do’t, my lord.

LEONTES

I will seem friendly, as thou hast advised me.

Exit

CAMILLO

O miserable lady. But for me,

What case stand I in? I must be the poisoner

Of good Polixenes, and my ground to do’t

Is the obedience to a master—one

Who in rebellion with himself, will have

All that are his so too. To do this deed,

Promotion follows. If I could find example

Of thousands that had struck anointed kings

And flourished after, I’d not do’t. But since

Nor brass, nor stone, nor parchment bears not one,

Let villainy itself forswear’t. I must

Forsake the court. To do’t, or no, is certain

To me a break-neck.

Enter Polixenes

Happy star reign now!

Here comes Bohemia.

POLIXENES (aside)

This is strange. Methinks My favour here begins to warp. Not speak?—

Good day, Camillo.

CAMILLO

Hail, most royal sir.

POLIXENES

What is the news i’th’ court?

CAMILLO None rare, my lord.

POLIXENES

The King hath on him such a countenance

As he had lost some province, and a region

Loved as he loves himself. Even now I met him

With customary compliment, when he,

Wafting his eyes to th’ contrary, and falling

A lip of much contempt, speeds from me, and

So leaves me to consider what is breeding

That changes thus his manners.

CAMILLO

I dare not know, my lord.

POLIXENES

How, ‘dare not’? Do not? Do you know, and dare not?

Be intelligent to me. ‘Tis thereabouts.

For to yourself what you do know you must,

And cannot say you ‘dare not’. Good Camillo,

Your changed complexions are to me a mirror

Which shows me mine changed, too; for I must be

A party in this alteration, finding

Myself thus altered with’t.

CAMILLO

There is a sickness

Which puts some of us in distemper, but

I cannot name th’ 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 looked on thousands who have sped the better

By my regard, but killed none so. Camillo,

As you are certainly a gentleman, thereto

Clerk-like experienced, 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

Thereof to be informed, imprison’t not

In ignorant concealment.

CAMILLO

I may not answer.

POLIXENES

A sickness caught of me, and yet I well?

I must be answered. Dost thou hear, Camillo,

I conjure thee, by all the parts of man

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;

If not, how best to bear it.

CAMILLO

Sir, I will tell you, Since I am charged in honour, and by him

That I think honourable. Therefore mark my counsel,

Which must be e’en as swiftly followed as

I mean to utter it; or both yourself and me

Cry lost, and so good night!

POLIXENES

On, good Camillo.

CAMILLO

I am appointed him to murder you.

POLIXENES

By whom, Camillo?

CAMILLO

By the King.

POLIXENES

For what?

CAMILLO

He thinks, nay, with all confidence he swears

As he had seen‘t, or been an instrument

To vice you to’t, that you have touched his queen

Forbiddenly.

POLIXENES

O, then my best blood turn

To an infected jelly, and my name

Be yoked with his that did betray the Best!

Turn then my freshest reputation to

A savour that may strike the dullest nostril

Where I arrive, and my approach be shunned,

Nay hated, too, worse than the great‘st infection

That e’er was heard or read.

CAMILLO

Swear his thought over By each particular star in heaven, and

By all their influences, you may as well

Forbid the sea for to obey the moon

As or by oath remove or counsel shake

The fabric of his folly, whose foundation

Is piled upon his faith, and will continue

The standing of his body.

POLIXENES

How should this grow?

CAMILLO

I know not, but I am sure ‘tis safer to

Avoid what’s grown than question how ’tis born.

If therefore you dare trust my honesty,

That lies enclosed in this trunk which you

Shall bear along impawned, away tonight!

Your followers I will whisper to the business,

And will by twos and threes at several posterns

Clear them o’th’ city. For myself, I’ll put

My fortunes to your service, which are here

By this discovery lost. Be not uncertain,

For by the honour of my parents, I

Have uttered truth; which if you seek to prove,

I dare not stand by; nor shall you be safer

Than one condemned by the King’s own mouth,

Thereon his execution sworn.

POLIXENES

I do believe thee, I saw his heart in’s face. Give me thy hand.