Tak’st 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
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You’d 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,
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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
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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.
Hence with it, and together with the dam
Commit them to the fire!
PAULINA It is yours;
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And, might we lay th’ 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,
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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
So like to him that got it, if thou hast
The ordering of the mind too, ’mongst all colours
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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
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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;
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But this most cruel usage of your queen –
Not able to produce more accusation
Than your own weak-hing’d fancy – something savours
Of tyranny, and will ignoble make you,
Yea, scandalous to the world.
LEONTES On your allegiance,
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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
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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.
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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,
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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;
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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.
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A 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,
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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
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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,
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So sure as this beard’s grey – what will you adventure
To save this brat’s life?
ANTIGONUS Anything, my lord,
That my ability may undergo,
And nobleness impose: at least thus much –
I’ll pawn the little blood which I have left
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To save the innocent: anything 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: seest thou? for the fail
Of any point in’t shall not only be
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Death to thyself, but to thy lewd-tongu’d 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
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Of our dominions; and that there thou leave it
(Without more mercy) to it 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,
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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
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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,
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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 th’Oracle, are come
An hour since: Cleomenes and Dion,
Being well arriv’d from Delphos, are both landed,
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Hasting to th’court.
A 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
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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. Leave me.
And think upon my bidding. Exeunt.
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3.1 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
5
Of the grave wearers. O, the sacrifice!
How ceremonious, solemn and unearthly
It was i’th’ offering!
CLEOMENES But of all, the burst
And the ear-deaf ’ning voice o’th’ Oracle,
Kin to Jove’s thunder, so surpris’d my sense,
10
That I was nothing.
DION If th’event o’th’ 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 th’ best! These proclamations,
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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
20
Even then will rush to knowledge. Go: fresh horses!
And gracious be the issue. Exeunt.
3.2 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 belov’d. Let us be clear’d
Of being tyrannous, since we so openly
5
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!
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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
15
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.
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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,
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Being counted falsehood, shall, as I express it,
Be so receiv’d. 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
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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
Than history can pattern, though devis’d
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And play’d to take spectators. For behold me,
A fellow of the royal bed, which owe
A moiety of the throne, a great king’s daughter,
The mother to a hopeful prince, here standing
To prate and talk for life and honour ’fore
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Who please to come and hear. For life, I prize it
As I weigh grief (which I would spare): for honour,
’Tis a derivative from me to mine,
The Arden Shakespeare Complete Works Page 566