10

And I but dream'd it :-As you were past all shame
(Those of your fact9 are so), so past all truth:
Which to deny, concerns more than avails: for as
Thy brat hath been cast out, like to itself,
No father owning it (which is, indeed,
More criminal in thee, than it), so thou

Shalt feel our justice; in whose easiest passage,
Look for no less than death.

Her.

Sir, spare your threats; The bug 11, which you would fright me with, I seek. To me can life be no commodity:

The crown and comfort of my life, your favour,
I do give lost; for I do feel it gone,

But know not how it went: My second joy,
And first-fruits of my body, from his presence
I am barr'd, like one infectious: My third comfort,
Starr'd most unluckily 12, is from my breast,
The innocent milk in its most innocent mouth,
Haled out to murder: Myself on every post
Proclaim'd a strumpet; with immodest hatred,
The child-bed privilege denied, which 'longs
To women of all fashion:-Lastly, hurried
Here to this place, i'the open air, before
I have got strength of limit 13. Now, my liege,
Tell me what blessings I have here alive,
That I should fear to die? Therefore, proceed.

9 i. e. they who have done like you. Shakspeare had this from Dorastus and Fawnia, it was her part to deny such a monstrous crime, and to be impudent in forswearing the fact, since she had passed all shame in committing the fault."

10 It is your business to deny this charge; but the mere denial will be useless, will prove nothing.

11 Bugbear.

12 Starr'd most unluckily.' Ill starred; born under an inauspicious planet.

13 Strength of limit, i. e. the degree of strength which it is customary to acquire before women are suffered to go abroad after child-bearing.

But yet hear this; mistake me not;—No! life, 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 14 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
Of great Apollo's priest; and that, since then,
You have not dar'd to break the holy seal,
Nor read the secrets in't.

Cleo. Dion.

All this we swear.

Leon. Break up the seals, and read.

Offi. [Reads.] Hermione is chaste, Polixenes blameless, Camillo a true subject, Leontes a jealous

14 The flatness of my misery,' that is absoluteness, the completeness of my misery. So Milton, P. L. b. ii:

'Thus repuls'd, our final hope

Is flat despair.'

i. e. complete or downright despair.

tyrant, his innocent babe truly begotten; and the king shall live without an heir, if that, which is lost, be not found 15

Lords. Now blessed be the great Apollo!

Leon. There is no truth at all i'the oracle:

The sessions shall proceed; this is mere falsehood.

Enter a Servant, hastily.

Serv. My lord the king, the king!

What is the business?

it:

Leon.
Serv. O sir, I shall be hated to report
The prince your son, with mere conceit and fear
Of the queen's speed 16, is gone.

Leon.

Serv.

How! gone?

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;

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 great profaneness 'gainst thine oracle!— I'll reconcile me to Polixenes;

15 This is almost literally from Greene's novel.

16 i. e. of the event of the queen's trial. We still say, he sped well or ill.

New woo my queen; recall the good Camillo;
Whom I proclaim a man of truth, of mercy:
For, being transported by my jealousies
To bloody thoughts and to revenge, I chose
Camillo for the minister, to poison

My friend Polixenes: which had been done,
But that the good mind of Camillo tardied
My swift command, though I with death, and with
Reward, did threaten and encourage him,
Not doing it, and being done: he, most humane,
And fill'd with honour, to my kingly guest
Unclasp'd my practice; quit his fortunes here,
Which you knew great; and to the certain 17 hazard
Of all incertainties himself commended 18,

No richer than his honour:-How he glisters
Thorough my rust! and how his piety
Does my deeds make the blacker 19!

Paul.

Re-enter PAULINA.

Woe the while!

O, cut my lace; lest my heart, cracking it,
Break too!

1 Lord. What fit is this, good lady?

Paul. What studied torments, tyrant, hast for me? 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

17 Certain is not in the first folio, it was supplied by the editor of the second.

18 See p. 45, note 16.

19 This vehement retractation of Leontes, accompanied with the confession of more crimes than he was suspected of, is agreeable to our daily experience of the vicissitudes of violent tempers, and the eruptions of minds oppressed with guilt.

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 20,
And damnable 21 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 23, ere done't:
Nor is't directly laid to thee, the death

Of the young prince; whose honourable thoughts
(Thoughts high for one so tender) cleft the heart
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 ven-
geance 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,

20 The same construction occurs in the second book of Phaer's version of the Eneid:

'When this the young men heard me speak, of wild they waxed wood."'

21 Damnable is used here adverbially. So in All's Well that Ends Well:-'Tis not meant damnable in us.'

22 The poet forgot that Paulina was absent during the king's self-accusation.

23 i. e. a devil would have shed tears of pity, ere he would have perpetrated such an action.