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.
Paulina
Tell her, Emilia.
I’ll use that tongue I have: if wit flow from’t
As boldness from my bosom, let ’t not be doubted
I shall do good.
Emilia
Now be you blest for it! I’ll to the queen: please you, come something nearer.
Gaoler
Madam, if’t please the queen to send the babe,
I know not what I shall incur to pass it,
Having no warrant.
Paulina
You need not fear it, sir:
This child was prisoner to the womb and is
By law and process of great nature thence
Freed and enfranchised, not a party to
The anger of the king nor guilty of,
If any be, the trespass of the queen.
Gaoler
I do believe it.
Paulina
Do not you fear: upon mine honour,
I will stand betwixt you and danger.
Exeunt
SCENE III. A ROOM IN LEONTES’ PALACE.
Enter Leontes, Antigonus, Lords, and Servants
Leontes
Nor night nor day no rest: it is but weakness
To bear the matter thus; mere weakness. If
The cause were not in being,— part o’ the cause,
She the adulteress; for the harlot king
Is quite beyond mine arm, out of the blank
And level of my brain, plot-proof; but she
I can hook to me: say that she were gone,
Given to the fire, a moiety of my rest
Might come to me again. Who’s there?
First Servant
My lord?
Leontes
How does the boy?
First Servant
He took good rest to-night;
’Tis hoped his sickness is discharged.
Leontes
To see his nobleness!
Conceiving the dishonour of his mother,
He straight declined, droop’d, took it deeply,
Fasten’d and fix’d the shame on’t in himself,
Threw off his spirit, his appetite, his sleep,
And downright languish’d. Leave me solely: go,
See how he fares.
Exit Servant
Fie, fie! no thought of him:
The thought of my revenges that way
Recoil upon me: in himself too mighty,
And in his parties, his alliance; let him be
Until a time may serve: for present vengeance,
Take it on her. Camillo and Polixenes
Laugh at me, make their pastime at my sorrow:
They should not laugh if I could reach them, nor
Shall she within my power.
Enter Paulina, with a child
First Lord
You must not enter.
Paulina
Nay, rather, good my lords, be second to me:
Fear you his tyrannous passion more, alas,
Than the queen’s life? a gracious innocent soul,
More free than he is jealous.
Antigonus
That’s enough.
Second Servant
Madam, he hath not slept tonight; commanded
None should come at him.
Paulina
Not so hot, good sir:
I come to bring him sleep. ’Tis such as you,
That creep like shadows by him and do sigh
At each his needless heavings, such as you
Nourish the cause of his awaking: I
Do come with words as medicinal as true,
Honest as either, to purge him of that humour
That presses him from sleep.
Leontes
What noise there, ho?
Paulina
No noise, my lord; but needful conference
About some gossips for your highness.
Leontes
How!
Away with that audacious lady! Antigonus,
I charged thee that she should not come about me:
I knew she would.
Antigonus
I told her so, my lord,
On your displeasure’s peril and on mine,
Leontes
What, canst not rule her?
Paulina
From all dishonesty he can: in this,
Unless he take the course that you have done,
Commit me for committing honour, trust it,
He shall not rule me.
Antigonus
La you now, you hear:
When she will take the rein I let her run;
But she’ll not stumble.
Paulina
Good my liege, I come;
And, I beseech you, hear me, who profess
Myself your loyal servant, your physician,
Your most obedient counsellor, yet that dare
Less appear so in comforting your evils,
Than such as most seem yours: I say, I come
From your good queen.
Leontes
Good queen!
Paulina
Good queen, my lord,
Good queen; I say good queen;
And would by combat make her good, so were I
A man, the worst about you.
Leontes
Force her hence.
Paulina
Let him that makes but trifles of his eyes
First hand me: on mine own accord I’ll off;
But first I’ll do my errand. The good queen,
For she is good, hath brought you forth a daughter;
Here ’tis; commends it to your blessing.
Laying down the child
Leontes
Out!
A mankind witch! Hence with her, out o’ door:
A most intelligencing bawd!
Paulina
Not so:
I am as ignorant in that as you
In so entitling me, and no less honest
Than you are mad; which is enough, I’ll warrant,
As this world goes, to pass for honest.
Leontes
Traitors!
Will you not push her out? Give her the bastard.
Thou dotard! thou art woman-tired, unroosted
By thy dame Partlet here. Take up the bastard;
Take’t up, I say; give’t to thy crone.
Paulina
For ever
Unvenerable be thy hands, if thou
Takest up the princess by that forced baseness
Which he has put upon’t!
Leontes
He dreads his wife.
Paulina
So I would you did; then ’twere past all doubt
You’ld call your children yours.
Leontes
A nest of traitors!
Antigonus
I am none, by this good light.
Paulina
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 not —
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.
Leontes
A callat
Of boundless tongue, who la
te hath beat her husband
And now baits me! This brat is none of mine;
It is the issue of Polixenes:
Hence with it, and together with the dam
Commit them to the fire!
Paulina
It is yours;
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’s 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:
And thou, good goddess Nature, which hast made it
So like to him that got it, if thou hast
The ordering of the mind too, ’mongst all colours
No yellow in’t, lest she suspect, as he does,
Her children not her husband’s!
Leontes
A gross hag
And, lozel, thou art worthy to be hang’d,
That wilt not stay her tongue.
Antigonus
Hang all the husbands
That cannot do that feat, you’ll leave yourself
Hardly one subject.
Leontes
Once more, take her hence.
Paulina
A most unworthy and unnatural lord
Can do no more.
Leontes
I’ll ha’ thee burnt.
Paulina
I care not:
It is an heretic that makes the fire,
Not she which burns in’t. I’ll not call you tyrant;
But this most cruel usage of your queen,
Not able to produce more accusation
Than your own weak-hinged fancy, something savours
Of tyranny and will ignoble make you,
Yea, scandalous to the world.
Leontes
On your allegiance,
Out of the chamber with her! Were I a tyrant,
Where were her life? she durst not call me so,
If she did know me one. Away with her!
Paulina
I pray you, do not push me; I’ll be gone.
Look to your babe, my lord; ’tis yours:
Jove send her
A better guiding spirit! What needs these hands?
You, that are thus so tender o’er his follies,
Will never do him good, not one of you.
So, so: farewell; we are gone.
Exit
Leontes
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 consumed 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 set’st on thy wife.
Antigonus
I did not, sir:
These lords, my noble fellows, if they please,
Can clear me in’t.
Lords
We can: my royal liege,
He is not guilty of her coming hither.
Leontes
You’re liars all.
First Lord
Beseech your highness, give us better credit:
We have always truly served you, and beseech you
So to esteem of us, and on our knees we beg,
As recompense of our dear services
Past and to come, that you do change this purpose,
Which being so horrible, so bloody, must
Lead on to some foul issue: we all kneel.
Leontes
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;
You that have been so tenderly officious
With Lady Margery, your midwife there,
To save this bastard’s life,— for ’tis a bastard,
So sure as this beard’s grey,
— what will you adventure
To save this brat’s life?
Antigonus
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.
Leontes
It shall be possible. Swear by this sword
Thou wilt perform my bidding.
Antigonus
I will, my lord.
Leontes
Mark and perform it, see’st thou! for the fail
Of any point in’t shall not only be
Death to thyself but to thy lewd-tongued wife,
Whom for this time we pardon. We enjoin thee,
As thou art liege-man 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.
Antigonus
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 does require! And blessing
Against this cruelty fight on thy side,
Poor thing, condemn’d to loss!
Exit with the child
Leontes
No, I’ll not rear
Another’s issue.
Enter a Servant
Servant
Please your highness, posts
From those you sent to the oracle are come
An hour since: Cleomenes and Dion,
Being well arrived from Delphos, are both landed,
Hasting to the court.
First Lord
So please you, sir, their speed
Hath been beyond account.
Leontes
Twenty-three days
They have been absent: ’tis good speed; foretells
The great Apollo suddenly will have
The truth of this appear. Prepare you, lords;
Summon a session, that we may arraign
Our most disloyal lady, for, as she hath
Been publicly accused, so shall she have
A just and open trial. While she lives
My heart will be a burthen to me. Leave me,
And think upon my bidding.
Exeunt
ACT III
SCENE I. A SEA-PORT IN SICILIA.
Enter Cleomenes and Dion
Cleomenes
The climate’s delicate, the air most sweet,
Fertile the isle, the temple much surpassing
The common praise it bears.
Dion
I shall report,
For most it caught me, the celestial habits,
Methinks I so should term them, and the reverence
Of the grave wearers. O, the sacrifice!
How ceremonious, solemn and unearthly
It was i’ the offering!
Cleomenes
But of all, the burst
And the ear-deafening voice o’ the oracle,
Kin to Jove’s thunder, so surprised my sense.
That I was nothing.
Dion
If the event o’ the journey
Prove as successful to the queen,— O be’t so!—
As it hath been to us rare, pleasant, speedy,
The time is worth the use on’t.
Cleomenes
Great Apollo
Turn all to the best! These proclamations,
So forcing faults upon Hermione,
I little like.
Dion
The violent carriage of it
Will clear or end the business: when the oracle,
Thus by Apollo’s great divine seal’d up,
Shall the contents discover, something rare
Even then will rush to knowledge. Go: fresh horses!
And gracious be the issue!
Exeunt
SCENE II. A COURT OF JUSTICE.
Enter Leontes, Lords, and Officers
Leontes
This sessions, to our great grief we pronounce,
Even pushes ’gainst our heart: the party tried
The daughter of a king, our wife, and one
Of us too much beloved. Let us be clear’d
Of being tyrannous, since we so openly
Proceed in justice, which shall have due course,
Even to the guilt or the purgation.
Produce the prisoner.
Officer
It is his highness’ pleasure that the queen
Appear in person here in court. Silence!
Enter Hermione guarded; Paulina and Ladies attending
Leontes
Read the indictment.
Officer
[Reads] 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.
Hermione
Since what I am to say must be but that
Which contradicts my accusation and
The testimony on my part no other
But what comes from myself, it shall scarce boot me
To say ‘not guilty:’ mine integrity
Being counted falsehood, shall, as I express it,
Be so received. But thus: if powers divine
Behold our human actions, as they do,
I doubt not then but innocence shall make
False accusation blush and tyranny
Tremble at patience. You, my lord, best know,
Who least will seem to do so, my past life
Hath been as continent, as chaste, as true,