Her. he had not, But I'd say, And, I'll be sworn, you would believe my saying, Howe'er you lean to the nayward. Leon. You, my lords, Look on her, mark her well; be but about To say, she is a goodly lady, and The justice of your hearts will thereto add, The shrug, the hum, or ha; these petty brands, Her. Should a villain say so, The most replenish'd villain in the world, He were as much more villain: you, my lord, Do but mistake. Leon. You have mistook, my lady, Polixenes for Leontes: O thou thing, Which I'll not call a creature of thy place, Lest barbarism, making me the precedent, Should a like language use to all degrees, And mannerly distinguishment leave out Betwixt the prince and beggar!-I have said, She's an adultress; I have said with whom : More, she's a traitor; and Camillo is A federary with her; and one that knows What she should shame to know herself, But with her most vile principal, that she's A bed-swerver, even as bad as those That vulgars give bold titles; ay, and privy To this their late escape. Her. No, by my life, Privy to none of this: How will this grieve you, When you shall come to clearer knowledge, that You thus have publish'd me? Gentle my lord, You scarce can right me throughly then, to say You did mistake. No, no; if I mistake Leon. In those foundations which I build upon, A school-boy's top.-Away with her to prison: Her. There's some ill planet reigns: With thoughts so qualified as your charities Shall I be heard? (To the Guards.) Her. Who is't, that goes with me?-'Beseech your highness, My women may be with me; for, you see, My plight requires it. Do not weep, good fools; There is no cause; when you shall know, your mistress Has deserv'd a prison: then abound in tears, again. [justice Ant. Be certain what you do, sir; lest your Prove violence; in the which three great ones suffer, Yourself, your queen, your son. 1 Lord. For her, my lord,— I dare my life lay down, and will do't, sir, Please you to accept it, that the queen is spotless I' the eyes of heaven, and to you; I mean, In this which you accuse her. If it prove Ant. Hold your peaces. She's otherwise, I'll keep my stables where If it be so, We need no grave to bury honesty; There's not a grain of it, the face to sweeten Of the whole dungy earth. Leon. What! lack I credit? 1 Lord. I had rather you did lack, than I, my lord, Upon this ground: and more it would content me To have her honour true, than your suspicion; Be blam'd for't how you might. Leon. Why, what need we Commune with you of this? but rather follow Our forceful instigation? Our prerogative Calls not your counsels; but our natural goodness Imparts this which, if you, (or stupified, Or seeming so in skill,) cannot, or will not, Relish as truth, like us; inform yourselves, We need no more of your advice: the matter, The loss, the gain, the ordering on't, is all Properly ours. And I wish, my liege, You had only in your silent judgment tried it, Without more overture. How could that be? Either thou art most ignorant by age, Or thou wert born a fool. Camillo's flight, Added to their familiarity, Ant. Leon. (Which was as gross as ever touch'd conjecture, (For, in an act of this importance, 'twere Most piteous to be wild,) I have dispatch'd in post, Leon. Though I am satisfied, and need no more Come up to the truth: So have we thought it good, Ant. (Aside.) To laughter, as I take it, [Exeunt. Кеер. [Exeunt Attend. And, madam, [Exit Keeper. I must be present at your conference. Re-enter Keeper, with EMILIA. Dear gentlewoman, how fares our gracious lady? Emil. Paul. He must be told on't, and he shall: the office Her advocate to th' loudest: We do not know Emil. Most worthy madam, Your honour, and your goodness, is so evident, That your free undertaking cannot miss A thriving issue; there is no lady living, So meet for this great errand: Please your ladyship To visit the next room, I'll presently Acquaint the queen of your most noble offer; Who, but to-day, hammer'd of this design; But durst not tempt a minister of honour, Lest she should be denied. Paul. Tell her, Emilia, I'll use that tongue I have: if wit flow from it, As boldness from my bosom, let it not be doubted I shall do good. Emil. Now be you blest for it! I'll to the queen: Please you, come something [babe, nearer. Keep. Madam, if't please the queen to send the I know not what I shall incur, to pass it, Having no warrant. Paul. You need not fear it, sir: The child was prisoner to the womb; and is, [Exeunt. SCENE III. The same. A Room in the Palace. Enter LEONTES, ANTIGONUS, Lords, and other Attendants. Leon. Nor night nor day, no rest: It is but weakness To bear the matter thus; mere weakness, if 1 Atten. Leon. How does the boy? 1 Atten. He took good rest to-night; 'Tis hop'd, his sickness is discharg'd. Leon. His nobleness! To see Conceiving the dishonour of his mother, The very thought of my revenges that way Laugh at me; make their pastime at my sorrow: Enter PAULINA, with a Child. 1 Lord. You must not enter. Paul. Nay, rather, good my lords, be second to Fear you his tyrannous passion more, alas, [me: Than the queen's life? a gracious innocent soul; More free, than he is jealous. Ant. That's enough. 1 Attend. Madam, he hath not slept to-night; commanded None should come at him. Paul. Not so hot, good sir; I come to bring him sleep. "Tis such as you, Ant. I am none, by this good light. Paul. Nor I; nor any, But one, that's here; and that's himself: for he The sacred honour of himself, his queen's, His hopeful son's, his babe's, betrays to slander, Whose sting is sharper than the sword's; and will (For, as the case now stands, it is a curse He cannot be compell'd to't,) once remove The root of his opinion, which is rotten, As ever oak, or stone, was sound. Leon. [not A callat, Of boundless tongue; who late hath beat her husband, And now baits me!-This brat is none of mine; It is the issue of Polixenes: Paul. And, might we lay the old proverb to your charge, So like you, 'tis the worse.-Behold, my lords, Although the print be little, the whole matter And copy of the father; eye, nose, lip, The trick of his frown, his forehead; nay, the valley, The pretty dimples of his chin, and cheek; his smiles; The very mould and frame of hand, nail, finger :- The ordering of the mind too, 'mongst all colours Leon. A gross hag!-And, lozel, thou art worthy to be hang'd, That wilt not stay her tongue. Ant. Hang all the husbands, That cannot do that feat, you'll leave yourself Hardly one subject. Leon. Once more, take her hence. Paul. A most unworthy and unnatural lord Can do no more. Leon. Paul. I'll have thee burn'd. I care not: It is an heretic that makes the fire, Than your own weak-hing'd fancy,) something savours A better guiding spirit!-What need these hands?— [Exit. Leon. Thou, traitor, hast set on thy wife to this.My child? away with't!-even thou, that hast A heart so tender o'er it, take it hence, And see it instantly consum'd with fire; Even thou, and none but thou. Take it up straight: Within this hour bring me word 'tis done, (And by good testimony,) or I'll seize thy life, With what thou else call'st thine: If thou refuse, And wilt encounter with my wrath, say so; The bastard brains with these my proper hands Shall I dash out. Go, take it to the fire; For thou sett'st on thy wife. Ant. I did not, sir: These lords, my noble fellows, if they please, Can clear me in't. [credit : 1 Lord. We can; my royal liege, He is not guilty of her coming hither. Leon. You are liars all. 1 Lord. 'Beseech your highness, give us better We have always truly serv'd you; and beseech So to esteem of us: And on our knees we beg, (As recompense of our dear services, [pose; Past, and to come,) that you do change this purWhich, being so horrible, so bloody, must Lead on to some foul issue: We all kneel. Leon. I am a feather for each wind that blows:Shall I live on, to see this bastard kneel And call me father? Better burn it now, Than curse it then. But, be it; let it live: It shall not neither.-You, sir, come you hither; (To Antigonus.) You, that have been so tenderly officious With lady Margery, your midwife, there, Ant. Any thing, my lord, That my ability may undergo, And nobleness impose: at least, thus much; I'll pawn the little blood which I have left, To save the innocent: any thing possible. Leon. It shall be possible: Swear by this sword, Thou wilt perform my bidding. Ant. I will, my lord. Leon. Mark, and perform it; (see'st thou?) for Of any point in't shall not only be [the fail Death to thyself, but to thy lewd-tongu'd wife; Whom, for this time, we pardon. We enjoin thee, As thou art liegeman to us, that thou carry This female bastard hence; and that thou bear it To some remote and desert place, quite out Of our dominions; and that there thou leave it, Without more mercy, to its own protection, And favour of the climate. As by strange fortune It came to us, I do in justice charge thee,-On thy soul's peril, and thy body's torture,That thou commend it strangely to some place, Where chance may nurse, or end it: Take it up. Ant. I swear to do this, though a present death Had been more merciful.-Come on, poor babe: Some powerful spirit instruct the kites and ravens, To be thy nurses! Wolves, and bears, they say, Casting their savageness aside, have done Like offices of pity.-Sir, be prosperous In more than this deed doth require!-and blessing, Against this cruelty, fight on thy side, Poor thing, condemn'd to loss! Leon. Another's issue. 1 Atten. [Exit, with the Child. No, I'll not rear Please your highness, posts, From those you sent to the oracle, are come An hour since: Cleomenes and Dion, Being well arriv'd from Delphos, are both landed, Hasting to the court. 1 Lord. So please you, sir, their speed Hath been beyond account. Leon. Twenty-three days They have been absent: 'Tis good speed; foretels, The great Apollo suddenly will have The truth of this appear. Prepare you, lords; ACT III. [Exeunt. Even pushes 'gainst our heart: The party tried, queen Offi. It is his highness' pleasure, that the Appear in person here in court.-Silence! HERMIONE is brought in, guarded; PAULINA and Ladies, attending. Leon. Read the indictment. Offi. Hermione, queen to the worthy Leontes, king of Sicilia, thou art here accused and arraigned of high treason, in committing adultery with Polixenes, king of Bohemia; and conspiring with Camillo to take away the life of our sovereign lord the king, thy royal husband: the pretence whereof being by circumstances partly laid open, thou, Hermione, contrary to the faith and allegiance of a true subject, didst counsel and aid them, for their better safety, to fly away by night. Her. Since what am to say, must be but that · But what comes from myself; it shall scarce boot me A moiety of the throne, a great king's daughter, To your own conscience, sir, before Polixenes Leon. Her. That's true enough; Though 'tis a saying, sir, not due to me. Leon. You will not own it. Her. More than mistress af, Which comes to me in name of fault, I must not [spoke, To you, and toward your friend; whose love had I know not how it tastes; though it be dish'd And, why he left your court, the gods themselves, Leon. You knew of his departure, as you know What you have underta'en to do in's absence. Her. Sir, You speak a language, that I understand not: Leon. Your actions are my dreams; You had a bastard by Polixenes, And I but dream'd it:-As you were past all shame, (Those of your fact are so,) so past all truth: Which to deny, concerns more than avails: For as Thy brat hath been cast out, like to itself, Shalt feel our justice; in whose easiest passage, Her. But know not how it went: My second joy, Apollo be my judge. 1 Lord. This your request Is altogether just therefore, bring forth, And in Apollo's name, his oracle. [Exeunt certain Officers. Her. The emperor of Russia was my father: O, that he were alive, and here beholding His daughter's trial! that he did but see The flatness of my misery; yet with eyes Of pity, not revenge! Re-enter Officers, with CLEOMENES and DION. Off. You here shall swear upon this sword of justice, That you, Cleomenes and Dion, have [brought And see what death is doing. Leon. Take her hence; Her heart is but o'ercharg'd; she will recover,I have too much believ'd mine own suspicion:'Beseech you, tenderly apply to her Some remedies for life.-Apollo, pardon [Exeunt Paulina and Ladies, with Herm. My friend Polixenes: which had been done, O, cut my lace; lest my heart, cracking it, 1 Lord. What fit is this, good lady? |