Observe the easy style of chitchat between Camillo and Archidamus as
contrasted with the elevated diction on the introduction of the kings and
Hermione in the second scene: and how admirably Polixenes’ obstinate
refusal to Leontes to stay,—
“There is no tongue that moves; none, none i’ the world
So soon as yours, could win me;”—
prepares for the effect produced by his afterwards yielding to
Hermione;—which is, nevertheless, perfectly natural from mere courtesy of
sex, and the exhaustion of the will by former efforts of denial, and well
calculated to set in nascent action the jealousy of Leontes. This, when
once excited, is unconsciously increased by Hermione,—
... “Yet, good deed, Leontes,
I love thee not a jar o’ the clock behind
What lady she her lord;”—
accompanied, as a good actress ought to represent it, by an expression and
recoil of apprehension that she had gone too far.
“At my request, he would not:”—