The Arden Shakespeare Complete Works

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The Arden Shakespeare Complete Works Page 566

by William Shakespeare


  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

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  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,

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  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

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  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

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  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

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  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,

 

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