Leon. You are liars all. 1 Lord. 'Beseech your highness, give us We have always truly serv'd you; and beseech Which, being so horrible, so bloody, must Leon. I am a feather for each wind that Shall I live on, to see this bastard kneel To save this brat's life? Ant. Any thing, my lord, And nobleness impose: at least, thus much; sword* Thou wilt perform my bidding. Ant. I will, my lord. 287 Of the grave wearers. O, the sacrifice! Cleo. But, of all, the burst And the ear-deafening voice o'the oracle, Prove as successful to the queen,--O, be't so!- Cleo. Great Apollo, Leon. Mark, and perform it; (seest thou?) Turn all to the best! These proclamations, for the fail Of any point in't shall not only be thee, As thou art liegeman to us, that thou carry it up. Ant. I swear to do this, though a present Had been more merciful.-Come on, poor babe: Another's issue. 1 Atten. 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 Hasting to the court. [landed 1 Lord. So please you, Sir, their speed Hath been beyond account. Leon. Twenty-three days [tels, They have been absent: "Tis good speed; fore It was anciently a practice to swear by the cross at the hilt of a sword. +I. e. Commit it to some place as a stranger. So forcing faults upon Hermione, [oracle, Will clear, or end, the business: When the fresh horses; And gracious be the issue! [Exeunt. Even pushes 'gainst our heart: The party tried, 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. * L. e. Our journey has recompensed us the time we spent in it. + Equal + Scheme laid. Her. Since what I am to say, must be but | For as Which contradicts my accusation; and [that The testimony on my part, no other But what comes from myself; it shall scarce boot me ter, To say, Not guilty: mine integrity, [it, it Leon. I ne'er heard yet, That any of these bolder vices wanted Less impudence to gainsay what they did, Than to perform it first. Her. That's true enough; Though 'tis a saying, Sir, not due to me. Leon. You will not own it. Her. More than mistress of, [not Which comes to me in name of fault, I must Leon. You knew of his departure, as you know What you have underta'en to do in his absence. Her. Sir, You speak a language that I understand not: My life stands in the level of your dreams, Which I'll lay down. Leon. Your actions are my dreams; You had a bastard by Polixenes, [shame, And I but dream'd it:-As you were past all (Those of your facts are so,) so past all truth: Which to deny, concerns more than avails: + Own, possess. Treachery. Is within the reach. Thy brat hath been cast out, like to itself, Her. Sir, spare your threats; Starr'd most unluckily, is from my breast The child-bed privilege denied, which 'longs life, -No! I prize it not a straw :-but for mine honour, (Which I would free,) if I shall be condemn'd Upon surmises; all proofs sleeping else, But what your jealousies awake; I tell you, 'Tis rigour and not law.-Your honours all, I do refer me to the oracle; 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. Offi. You here shall swear upon this sword of justice, That you, Cleomenes and Dion, have Been both at Delphos; and from thence have brought This seal'd-up oracle, by the hand deliver'd Cleo. Dion. All this we swear. Offi. [Reads.] Herinione is chaste, Polixenes blameless, Camillo a true subject, Leontes ajealous tyrant, his innocent babe truly begotten; and the king shall live without an heir, if that, which is lost, be not found. Lords. Now blessed be the great Apollo! Her. Praised! Leon. Hast thou read truth? Offi. Ay, my lord; even so As it is here set down. Leon. There is no truth at all i'the oracle: The sessions shail proceed; this is mere falsehood. Enter a SERVANT, hastily. Serv. My lord the king, the king! Ill-starred; born under an inauspicious planet. + I. e. The degree of strength which it is customary to acquire before women are suffered to go abroad after child-bearing. Leon. What is the business? Serv. O Sir, I shall be hated to report it: The prince your son, with mere conceit and Of the queen's speed,* is gone. [fear Leon. How! gone? Serv. Is dead. Leon. Apollo's angry; and the heavens themselves Do strike at my injustice. [HERMIONE faints.] How now there? Paul. This news is mortal to the queen :Look down And see what death is doing. Leon. Take her hence: ver. Her heart is but o'ercharg'd; she will reco- [Exeunt PAULINA and LADIES, with HERM. My great profaneness 'gainst thine oracle!—— I'll reconcile me to Polixenes; New woo my queen; recall the good Camillo; My friend Polixenes: which had been done, Reward, did threaten and encourage him, mane, And fill'd with honour, to my kingly guest Of all incertainties himself commended,t Re-enter PAULINA. Paul. Woe the while! O, cut my lace; lest my heart, cracking it, Break too! for me? 1 Lord. What fit is this, good lady? Paul. What studied torments, tyrant, hast What wheels? racks? fires? What flaying? [boiling, In leads, or oils? what old, or newer torture Must I receive; whose every word deserves To taste of thy most worst? Thy tyranny Together working with thy jealousies,Fancies too weak for boys, too green and idle, For girls of nine!-O, think, what they have done, And then run mad, indeed; stark mad! for all Thy by-gone fooleries were but spices of it. That thou betray'dst Polixenes, 'twas nothing; That did but show thee, of a fool, inconstant, And damnable ungrateful: nor was't much, Thou would'st have poison'd good Camillo's honour, To have him kill a king; poor trespasses, More monstrous standing by: whereof I reckon The casting forth to crows thy baby daughter, To be or none, or little; though a devil Would have shed water out of fire,+ ere don't: Nor is't directly laid to thee, the death Of the young prince; whose honourable thoughts [heart (Thoughts high for one so tender,) cleft the Of the event of the Queen's trial. + Committed. I. A devil would have shed tears of pity, ere he would have perpetrated such an action. That could conceive, a gross and foolish sire Blemish'd his gracious dam: this is not, no, Laid to thy answer: But the last,-O, lords, When I have said, cry, woe!-the queen, the queen, The sweetest, dearest, creature's dead; and vengeance for't Not dropp'd down yet. 1 Lord. The higher powers forbid! Paul. I say, she's dead; I'll swear't: if word, nor oath, Prevail not, go and see: if you can bring Tincture, or lustre, in her lip, her eye, [you Heat outwardly, or breath within, I'll serve As I would do the gods.-But, O thou tyrant! Do not repent these things; for they are hea[thee vier Than all thy woes can stir: therefore betake Leon. Go on, go on: Thou canst not speak too much; I have deserv'd All tongues to talk their bitterest. 1 Lord. Say no more; Howe'er the business goes, you have made fault I'the boldness of your speech. Puul. I am sorry for't; [them, All faults I make, when I shall come to know I do repent: Alas, I have show'd too much The rashness of a woman: he is touch'd To the noble heart.-What's gone, and what's past help, Should be past grief: Do not receive affliction Sir, royal Sir, forgive a foolish woman: [better Leon. Thou didst speak but well, The causes of their death appear, unto [Exeunt. May walk again: if such thing be, thy mother I pr'ythee, call't; for this ungentle business, That, for thy mother's fault, art thus expos'd not, But my heart bleeds: and most accurs'd am I, to have A lullaby too rough: I never saw [mour?- Enter an old SHEPHERD. Shep. I would, there were no age between ten and three-and-twenty; or that youth would sleep out the rest: for there is nothing in the between but getting wenches with child, Wronging the ancientry, stealing, fighting.Hark you now!-Would any but these boiled brains of nineteen, and two-and-twenty, hunt this weather? They have scared away two of my best sheep; which, I fear, the wolf will sooner find, than the master: if any where I have them, 'tis by the sea side, browzing on The writing afterward discovered with Perdita. ivy. Good luck, an't be thy will! what have we here? [Taking up the Child.] Mercy on's, a barne; a very pretty barne! A boy, or a child,t I wonder? A pretty one; a very pretty one: Sure, some scape: though I am not bookish, yet I can read waiting-gentlewoman in the scape. This has been some stair-work, some trunk-work, some behind-door-work: they were warmer that got this, than the poor thing is here. I'll take it up for pity: yet I'll tarry till my son come; he hallaed but even now. Whoa, ho hoa! Enter CLOWN. Clo. Hilloa, loa! thing to talk on when thou art dead and rotten, Shep. What, art so near? If thou'lt see a come hither. What ailest thou, man? Clo. I have seen two such sights, by sea, and it is now the sky; betwixt the firmament and by land;-but I am not to say, it is a sea, for it, you cannot thrust a bodkin's point. Shep. Why, boy, how is it? Clo. I would, you did but see how it chases, how it rages, how it takes up the shore! but that's not to the point: O, the most piteous cry of the poor souls! sometimes to see 'em, and not to see 'em: now the ship boring the moon with her main-mast; and anon swallowed with yest and froth, as you'd thrust a cork into a hogshead. And then for the land service,-To how he cried to me for help, and said, his name see how the bear tore out his shoulder-bone; was Antigonus, a nobleman:-But to make an dragoned; it:-but, first, how the poor souls end of the ship:-to see how the sea flaproared, and the sea mocked them; and how the poor gentleman roared, and the bear mocked him, both roaring louder than the sea, or weather. Shep. 'Name of mercy, when was this, boy? the old man! to have helped her; there your charity would look thee here, boy. Now bless thyself; thou Clo. You're a made old man; if the sins of your youth are forgiven you, you're well to live. Gold! all gold! Shep. This is fairy gold, boy, and 'twill prove so: up with it, keep it close; home, home, the next way. We are lucky, boy; and to be so still, requires nothing but secrecy.-Let my sheep go:-Come, good boy, the next way home. I'll go see if the bear be gone from the gentleClo. Go you the next way with your findings; man, and how much he hath eaten: they are * Child. + Female infant. + Swallowed. The mantle in which a child was carried to be baptized. Some child left behind by the fairies, in the room of one which they had stolen. ¶ Nearest. make stale and The glistering of this present, as my tale As you had slept between. Leontes leaving And what to her adheres, which follows after, [Exit. Enter POLIXENES and CAMILLO. Pol. I pray thee, good Camillo, be no more importunate: 'tis a sickness, denying thee any thing; a death, to grant this. Cam. It is fifteen years, since I saw my country: though I have, for the most part, been aired abroad, I desire to lay my bones there. Besides, the penitent king, my master, hath sent for me: to whose feeling sorrows I might be some allay, or I o'erween¶ to think so; which is another spur to my departure. Pol. As thou lovest me, Camillo, wipe not out the rest of thy services, by leaving me now: the need I have of thee, thine own goodness hath made; better not to have had thee, than thus to want thee; thou, having made me businesses, which none, without thee, can sufficiently manage, must either stay to execute them thyself, or take away with thee the very services thou hast done: which, if I have not enough considered, (as too much I cannot,) to be more thankful to thee, shall be my study; and my profit therein, the heaping friendships." Of that fatal country Sicilia, pr'ythee speak no more: whose very naming punishes me with the remembrance of that penitent, as thou call'st him, and reconciled king, my brother; whose loss of his most precious queen, and children, are even now to be afresh lamented. Say to me, when saw'st thou the prince Florizel my son? Kings are no less unhappy, their issue pot being gracious, than they are in losing them, when they have approved their virtues. Cam. Sir, it is three days, since I saw the prince: What his happier affairs may be, are to me unknown: but I have, missingly, noted,+ he is of late much retired from court; and is less frequent to his princely exercises, than formerly he hath appeared. Pol. I have considered so much, Camillo; and with some care; so far, that I have eyes under my service, which look upon his removedness: from whom I have this intelligence; That he is seldom from the house of a most homely shepherd; a man, they say, that from very nothing, and beyond the imagination of his neighbours, is grown into an unspeak able estate. Cam. I have heard, Sir, of such a man, who hath a daughter of most rare note: the report of her is extended more, than can be thought to begin from such a cottage. Pol. That's likewise part of my intelligence. But, I fear the angle that plucks our son thither. Thou shalt accompany us to the place: where we will, not appearing what we are, have some question with the shepherd; from whose simplicity, I think it not uneasy, to get the cause of my son's resort thither. Pr'ythee, be my present partner in this business, and lay aside the thoughts of Sicilia. Cam. I willingly obey your command. ourselves. SCENE II.-The same.-A Road near the Enter AUTOLYCUS, singing. peer, For the red blood reigns in the winter's pule.§ For a quart of ale is a dish for a king. I With, hey! with, hey! the thrush and the jay : have served prince Florizel, and, in my time, wore three-pile ;** but now I am out of service: But shall I go mourn for that, my dear? If tinkers may have leave to live, Friendly offices. + Observed at intervals. 1 Talk || Thievish. Doxics. ** Rich velvet. |