LEONTES
Ay, but why? CAMILLO
To satisfy your highness and the entreaties Of our most gracious mistress. LEONTES
Satisfy! The entreaties of your mistress! satisfy! Let that suffice. I have trusted thee, Camillo, With all the
nearest things to my heart, as well My chamber-councils, wherein, priest-like, thou Hast cleansed my
bosom, I from thee departed Thy penitent reform'd: but we have been Deceived in thy integrity, deceived In
that which seems so. CAMILLO
Be it forbid, my lord! LEONTES
To bide upon't, thou art not honest, or, If thou inclinest that way, thou art a coward, Which hoxes honesty
behind, restraining From course required; or else thou must be counted A servant grafted in my serious
trust And therein negligent; or else a fool That seest a game play'd home, the rich stake drawn, And takest
it all for jest. CAMILLO
My gracious lord, I may be negligent, foolish and fearful; In every one of these no man is free, But that his
negligence, his folly, fear, Among the infinite doings of the world, Sometime puts forth. In your affairs, my
lord, If ever I were wilful-negligent, It was my folly; if industriously I play'd the fool, it was my negligence, Not
weighing well the end; if ever fearful To do a thing, where I the issue doubted, Where of the execution did
cry out Against the non-performance, 'twas a fear Which oft infects the wisest: these, my lord, Are such
allow'd infirmities that honesty Is never free of. But, beseech your grace, Be plainer with me; let me know
my trespass By its own visage: if I then deny it, 'Tis none of mine. LEONTES
Ha' not you seen, Camillo, But that's past doubt, you have, or your eye-glass Is thicker than a cuckold's
horn, or heard, For to a vision so apparent rumour Cannot be mute, or thought, for cogitation Resides not
in that man that does not think, My wife is slippery? If thou wilt confess, Or else be impudently negative, To
have nor eyes nor ears nor thought, then say My wife's a hobby-horse, deserves a name As rank as any
flax-wench that puts to Before her troth-plight: say't and justify't. CAMILLO
I would not be a stander-by to hear My sovereign mistress clouded so, without My present vengeance
taken: 'shrew my heart, You never spoke what did become you less Than this; which to reiterate were sin As
deep as that, though true. LEONTES
Is whispering nothing? Is leaning cheek to cheek? is meeting noses? Kissing with inside lip? stopping
the career Of laughing with a sigh?a note infallible Of breaking honestyhorsing foot on foot? Skulking in
corners? wishing clocks more swift? Hours, minutes? noon, midnight? and all eyes Blind with the pin
and web but theirs, theirs only, That would unseen be wicked? is this nothing? Why, then the world and
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