The Winter’s Tale

1 Enter Cleomenes and Dion.
2 CLEOMENES
3 The climate’s delicate; the air most sweet,
4 Fertile the isle, the temple much surpassing
5 The common praise it bears.
6 DION.
7 I shall report,
8 For most it caught me, the celestial habits
9 (Methinks I so should term them) and the reverence
10 Of the grave wearers. O, the sacrifice!
11 How ceremonious, solemn, and unearthly,
12 It was i’ th’ offering!
13 CLEOMENES
14 But of all, the burst
15 And the ear-deaf’ning voice o’ th’ oracle,
16 Kin to Jove’s thunder, so surprised my sense
17 That I was nothing.
18 DION.
19 If the event o’ th’ journey
20 Prove as successful to the queen,—O, be’t so!—
21 As it hath been to us rare, pleasant, speedy,
22 The time is worth the use on’t.
23 CLEOMENES
24 Great Apollo
25 Turn all to th’ best! These proclamations,
26 So forcing faults upon Hermione,
27 I little like.
28 DION.
29 The violent carriage of it
30 Will clear or end the business: when the oracle,
31 (Thus by Apollo’s great divine seal’d up)
32 Shall the contents discover, something rare
33 Even then will rush to knowledge. Go. Fresh horses!
34 And gracious be the issue!
35 [_Exeunt._]