WINTER'S TALE.

The outer Room of a The child was prisoner to the womb; and is,
By law and process of great nature, thence
Freed and enfranchis'd: not a party to
The anger of the king; nor guilty of,
If any be, the trespass of the queen.
Keep. I do believe it.
Paul.

These dangerous unsafe lunes1 o'the king! beshrew them!

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.

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.

A Room in the Palace.
SCENE III.
Enter LEONTES, ANTIGONUS, Lords, and other
Attendants.

Leon. Nor night, nor day, no rest: It is but weak

To bear the matter thus; mere weakness, if
The cause were not in being ;-part o' the cause,
She, the adultress ;-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?
I Attend.

I'll to the queen: Please you, come something nearer.
Keep. Madam, if't please the queen to send the
babe,

I know not what I shall incur, to pass it,
Having no warrant.
Paul.

You need not fear it, sir:

1 Lunes. This word has not been found in any other English writer; but it is used in old French for frenzy, lunacy, folly. A similar expression occurs in The Revenger's Tragedy, 1609.

He took good rest to-night; "Tis hop'd his sickness is discharg'd.

Leon.
His nobleness!

Leon.
A mankind witch? Hence with her, out o' door:
A most intelligencing bawd!

Paul.

Not so:

I am as ignorant in that, as you

In so entitling me: and no less honest

Of tyranny, and will ignoble make you,
Yea, scandalous to the world.
Leon.

On your allegiance,
Out of the chamber with her. Were I a tyrant,
Where were her life? she durst not call me so,

Than you are mad; which is enough, I'll warrant, If she did know me one. Away with her.

As this world goes, to pass for honest.
Leon.

Traitors!

Paul. I pray you, do not push me; I'll be gone. Look to your babe, my lord; 'tis yours: Jove send her Will you not push her out? Give her the bastard: A better guiding spirit!-What need these hands?— Thou dotard [TO ANTIGONUS,] thou art woman-You, that are thus so tender o'er his follies,

tir'd, unroosted

By thy dame Partlet here:-take up the bastard;
Take't up, I say; give't to thy crone."

Paul.

Will never do him good, not one of
So, so:-Farewell; we are gone.

[Exit.

For ever

you.
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,

He dreads his wife.

Unvenerable be thy hands, if thou

Takest up the princess, by that forced" baseness

Which he has put upon't!

Leon.

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

Paul. So, I would, you did; then, 'twere past (And by good testimony,) or I'll seize thy life,

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 his frown, his forehead; nay, the valley,
The pretty dimples of his chin, and cheek; his smiles;

1 The old copy has professes.

2 In comforting your evils. To comfort, in old language, is to aid, to encourage. Erils here mean wicked courses.

3 i. e. the weakest, or least warlike. 4A mankind witch. In Junius's Nomenclator, by Abraham Fleming, 1585, Virago is interpreted A manly woman, or a mankind woman.' Johnson asserts that the phrase is still used in the midland counties for a woman violent, ferocious, and mischievous.

5 i. e. hen-pecked. To tire in Falconry is to tear with the beak. Partlet is the name of the hen in the old story of Reynard the Fox.

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.

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
credit:

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,

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.

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,

GA crone was originally a toothless old ewe; and
thence became a term of contempt for an old woman.
7 Forced is false; uttered with violence to truth.
Baseness for bastardy; we still say base born.
8 Whose sting is sharper than the sword's.'
Cymbeline:

So in

'Slander, Whose edge is sharper than the sword, whose tongue Outvenoms all the worms of Nile.' 9 A callat is a trull.

10 No yellow,' the colour of jealousy.

11 Lozel, a worthless fellow; one lost to all goodness. From the Saxon Losian, to perish, to be lost. Lorel, |losel, losliche, are all of the same family.

To save this bastard's life :-for 'tis a bastard,
So sure as this beard's gray,'-what will you ad-

venture

To save this brat's life?

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.

Turn all to the best! These proclamations,
So forcing faults upon Hermione,
I little like.
Dion.

The violent carriage of it

Leon. Mark, and perform it; (seest thou?) for Will clear, or end, the business: When the oracle, the fail

Of any point in't shall not only be
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,3
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,4
Against this cruelty, fight on thy side,
Poor thing, condemn'd to loss !3

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 arrived 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; 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 accus'd, so shall she have
A just and open trial. While she lives,
My heart will be a burden to me.
And think upon my bidding.

ACT III.

Leave me;
[Exeunt.

SCENE I. The same. A Street in some Town.

Enter CLEOMENES and DION.

Cleo. 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!

Cleo.

But, of all, the burst

1 Leontes must mean the beard of Antigonus, which he may be supposed to touch. He himself tells us that twenty-three years ago he was unbreech'd, of course his age must be under thirty, and his own beard would hardly be gray.

2 It was anciently a practice to swear by the cross at the hilt of a sword.

3 i. e. commit it to some place as a stranger. To commend is to commit, according to the old dictionaries. 4 i. e. the favour of heaven.

5 i. e. to exposure, or to be lost or dropped.

6 Warburton has remarked that the temple of Apollo was at Delphi, which was not an island. But Shak

Even pushes 'gainst our heart: The party tried,
The daughter of a king; our wife; and one
Of us too much belov'd.-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.

Offi. It is his highness' pleasure, that the queen
Appear in person here in court.-Silence!
HERMIONE is brought in, guarded; PAULINA and
Ladies, attending.

Leon. Read the indictment.

Off. 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 and king, thy
royal husband; the pretences whereof being by cir-
cumstances partly laid open, thou, Hermione, cen-
trary to the faith and allegiance of a true subject,
fly away by night.
didst counsel and aid them, for their better safety, to

Her. Since what I am to say, must be but that
The testimony on my part, no other
Which contradicts my accusation; and

divine

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 receiv'd. But thus,-If powers
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,
As I am now unhappy; which is more
And play'd to take spectators: For behold me,—
Than history can pattern, though devis'd,
A fellow of the royal bed, which owell
A moiety of the throne, a great king's daughter,
The mother to a hopeful prince-here standing
Who please to come and hear. For life, I prize it
prate and talk for life, and honour, 'fore
As I weigh grief, which I would spare: 12 for honour,

7 The time is worth the use on't ; that is, the event of our journey will recompense us for the time we spent in it.

8 i. e. the design. Shakspeare often uses the word for design or intention.

9 i. e. my virtue being accounted wickedness, my assertion of it will pass but for a lie. Falsehood means both treachery and lie.

10 Which, that is, which unhappiness.
11 Own, posse:88.

12 I prize my life no more than I value grief, which I would willingly spare. This sentiment, which is pro

"Tis a derivative from me to mine, And only that I stand for. I appeal

To your own conscience, sir, before Polixenes
Came to your court, how I was in your grace,
How merited to be so; since he came,
With what encounter so uncurrent I

Have strain'd, to appear thus: if one jot beyond
The bound of honour; or, in act, or will,
That way inclining; harden'd be the hearts
Of all that hear me, and my near'st of kin
Cry, Fye upon my grave!

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.2
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,
Which comes to me in name of fault, I must not
At all acknowledge. For Polixenes,
(With whom I am accus'd) I do confess,
I lov'd him, as in honour he requir'd;
With such a kind of love, as might become
A lady like me; with a love, even such,
So, and no other, as yourself commanded:
Which not to have done, I think, had been in me
Both disobedience and ingratitude,

To you, and toward your friend; whose love had
spoke,

Even since it could speak, from an infant freely,
That it was yours. Now, for conspiracy,

I know not how it tastes; though it be dish'd

For me to try how: all I know of it,

Is, that Camillo was an honest man;

And, why he left your court, the gods themselves,
Wotting no more than I, are ignorant.

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,
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,
No father owning it (which is, indeed,
More criminal in thee, than it,) so thou
Stalt feel our justice; in whose easiest passage,
Look for no less than death.

Her.

Sir, spare your threats;
The bug, 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," 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

boly derived from Ecclesiasticus, iii. 11, cannot be too
ften impressed on the female mind: The glory of a
Ian is from the honour of his father; and a mother in
dhonour is a reproach to her children.'

1 Encounter so uncurrent is unallowed or unlawful reting. Strain'd means swerv'd or gone astray from a line of duty.

2 It is to be observed that originally in our language, negatives did not affirm, but only strengthen the zation. Examples of similar phraseology occur in eral of our author's plays, and even in the first act of svery drama: in this passage, Johnson observes that, according to the present use of words, less should be here, or wanted should be had.

3 See note 2, p. 316. To stand within the level of a is to stand in a direct line with its mouth, and in anger of being hurt by its discharge. This expression wien occurs in Shakspeare.

To women of all fashion :-Lastly, hurried
Here to this place, i'the open air, before
I have got strength of limit. Now, my liege,
Tell me what blessings I have here alive,
That I should fear to die? Therefore, proceed.
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 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
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.
Leon. Break up the seals and read.

All this we swear.

Offi. [Reads.] Hermione is chaste, Polixenes blameless, Camillo a true subject, Leontes a jealous tyrant, his innocent babe truly begotten; and the king shall live without an heir, if that, which is lost, be not. found.10

Lords. Now blessed be the great Apollo!
Her.

Leon. Hast thou read truth?

Offi.

As it is here set down.

Praised!

Ay, my Lord; even so

How! gone?
Is dead.

Leon. Apollo's angry; and the heavens them-
selves

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 believed mine own suspicion :-
'Beseech you, tenderly apply to her

4 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.'

5 It is your business to deny this charge; but the mere denial will be useless, will prove nothing. 6 Bugbear.

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

S 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.

9 The flatness of my misery,' that is absoluteness, the completeness of my misery."

We still say.

10 This is almost literally from Greene's novel.
11 i. e. of the event of the queen's trial.
he sped well or ill.

Some remedies for life.-Apollo, pardon

[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;
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' hazard
Of all incertainties himself commended,2
No richer than his honour :-How he glisters
Thorough my rust! and how his piety
Does my deeds make the blacker !3

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
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,4
And damnable ungrateful: nor was't much,
Thou would'st have poison'd good Camillo's hon-
our,6

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 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.

Thou canst not speak too much; I have deserv'é
All tongues to talk their bitterest.
1 Lord.
Say no more,

The higher powers forbid ! Paul. 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,
Heat outwardly, or breath within, I'll serve you
As I would do the gods.--But, O thou tyrant!
Do not repent these things; for they are heavier
Than all thy woes can stir; therefore betake thee
To nothing but despair. A thousand knees
Ten thousand years together, naked, fasting,
Upon a barren mountain, and still winter
In storm perpetual, could not move the gods
To look that way thou wert.

Leon.

Go on, go on:

Paul.

Howe'er the business goes, you have made fault
I'the boldness of your speech.
I am sorry for't;
All faults I make, when I shall come to know them,
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
At my petition, I beseech you; rather
Let me be punish'd, that have minded you
Of what you should forget. Now, good my liege,
Sir, royal sir, forgive a foolish woman:
The love I bore your queen,-lo, fool again!-
I'll speak of her no more, nor of your children;
I'll not remember you of my own lord,
Who is lost too: Take your patience to you,
And I'll say nothing.

Leon.
Thou didst speak but well,
When most the truth; which I receive much better
Than to be pitied of thee. Pr'ythee, bring me
To the dead bodies of my queen, and son;
One grave shall be for both; upon them shall
The causes of their death appear, unto
Our shame perpetual: Once a day I'll visit
The chapel where they lie and tears, shed there,
Shall be my recreation: So long as
Nature will bear up with this exercise,
So long I daily vow to use it. Come,
And lead me to these sorrows.

[Exeunt

The deserts of Bohemia?

Mar.

Ay, my lord; and fear
We have landed in ill time: the skies look grimly,
And threaten present blusters. In my conscience,
The heavens with that we have in hand are angry 1
And frown upon us.

Ant. Their sacred wills be done!—Go, get aboard,
Look to thy bark; I'll not be long, before
I call upon thee.

Mar. Make your best haste; and go not
Too far i'the land; 'tis like to be loud weather,
Besides, this place is famous for the creatures
Of prey, that keep upon't.

Ant.

Go thou away:

I am glad at heart
To be so rid o'the business.

Ant.

[Erit. Come, poor babe :

I have heard, (but not believ'd,) the spirits of the
dead

May walk again: if such thing be, thy mother
Appear'd to me last night; for ne'er was dream
So like a waking. To me comes a creature,
Sometimes her head on one side, some another;
I never saw a vessel of like sorrow,

So fill'd, and so becoming: in pure white robes,
Like very sanctity, she did approach
My cabin where I lay: thrice bow'd before me;
And, gasping to begin some speech, her eyes
Became two spouts: the fury spent, anon
Did this break from her: Good Antigonus,
Since fate, against thy better disposition,
Hath made thy person for the thrower-out
Of my poor babe, according to thine oath,-
Places remote enough are in Bohemia,

1 Certain is not in the first folio, it was supplied by There weep, and leave it crying; and, for the babe

the editor of the second.

2 See p. 318, note 3.

3 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.

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

When this the young men heard me speak, of tid they waxed wood.

5 Damnable is used here adverbially.

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

7 i. e. a devil would have shed tears of pity, ere he would have perpetrated such an action. 8 i. e. well assured.