The Winter’s Tale

1 Enter Leontes, Lords and Officers appear, properly seated.
2 LEONTES.
3 This sessions (to our great grief we pronounce)
4 Even pushes ’gainst our heart: the party tried
5 The daughter of a king, our wife, and one
6 Of us too much belov’d. Let us be clear’d
7 Of being tyrannous, since we so openly
8 Proceed in justice, which shall have due course,
9 Even to the guilt or the purgation.
10 Produce the prisoner.
11 OFFICER.
12 It is his highness’ pleasure that the queen
13 Appear in person here in court. Silence!
14 Hermione is brought in guarded; Paulina and Ladies attending.
15 LEONTES.
16 Read the indictment.
17 OFFICER.
18 [_Reads._] “Hermione, queen to the worthy Leontes, king of Sicilia,
19 thou art here accused and arraigned of high treason, in committing
20 adultery with Polixenes, king of Bohemia; and conspiring with Camillo
21 to take away the life of our sovereign lord the king, thy royal
22 husband: the pretence whereof being by circumstances partly laid open,
23 thou, Hermione, contrary to the faith and allegiance of a true subject,
24 didst counsel and aid them, for their better safety, to fly away by
25 night.”
26 HERMIONE.
27 Since what I am to say must be but that
28 Which contradicts my accusation, and
29 The testimony on my part no other
30 But what comes from myself, it shall scarce boot me
31 To say “Not guilty”. Mine integrity,
32 Being counted falsehood, shall, as I express it,
33 Be so receiv’d. But thus, if powers divine
34 Behold our human actions, as they do,
35 I doubt not, then, but innocence shall make
36 False accusation blush, and tyranny
37 Tremble at patience. You, my lord, best know,
38 Who least will seem to do so, my past life
39 Hath been as continent, as chaste, as true,
40 As I am now unhappy; which is more
41 Than history can pattern, though devis’d
42 And play’d to take spectators. For behold me,
43 A fellow of the royal bed, which owe
44 A moiety of the throne, a great king’s daughter,
45 The mother to a hopeful prince, here standing
46 To prate and talk for life and honour ’fore
47 Who please to come and hear. For life, I prize it
48 As I weigh grief, which I would spare. For honour,
49 ’Tis a derivative from me to mine,
50 And only that I stand for. I appeal
51 To your own conscience, sir, before Polixenes
52 Came to your court, how I was in your grace,
53 How merited to be so; since he came,
54 With what encounter so uncurrent I
55 Have strain’d t’ appear thus: if one jot beyond
56 The bound of honour, or in act or will
57 That way inclining, harden’d be the hearts
58 Of all that hear me, and my near’st of kin
59 Cry fie upon my grave!
60 LEONTES.
61 I ne’er heard yet
62 That any of these bolder vices wanted
63 Less impudence to gainsay what they did
64 Than to perform it first.
65 HERMIONE.
66 That’s true enough;
67 Though ’tis a saying, sir, not due to me.
68 LEONTES.
69 You will not own it.
70 HERMIONE.
71 More than mistress of
72 Which comes to me in name of fault, I must not
73 At all acknowledge. For Polixenes,
74 With whom I am accus’d, I do confess
75 I lov’d him as in honour he requir’d,
76 With such a kind of love as might become
77 A lady like me; with a love even such,
78 So and no other, as yourself commanded:
79 Which not to have done, I think had been in me
80 Both disobedience and ingratitude
81 To you and toward your friend, whose love had spoke,
82 Ever since it could speak, from an infant, freely,
83 That it was yours. Now, for conspiracy,
84 I know not how it tastes, though it be dish’d
85 For me to try how: all I know of it
86 Is that Camillo was an honest man;
87 And why he left your court, the gods themselves,
88 Wotting no more than I, are ignorant.
89 LEONTES.
90 You knew of his departure, as you know
91 What you have underta’en to do in ’s absence.
92 HERMIONE.
93 Sir,
94 You speak a language that I understand not:
95 My life stands in the level of your dreams,
96 Which I’ll lay down.
97 LEONTES.
98 Your actions are my dreams.
99 You had a bastard by Polixenes,
100 And I but dream’d it. As you were past all shame
101 (Those of your fact are so) so past all truth,
102 Which to deny concerns more than avails; for as
103 Thy brat hath been cast out, like to itself,
104 No father owning it (which is, indeed,
105 More criminal in thee than it), so thou
106 Shalt feel our justice; in whose easiest passage
107 Look for no less than death.
108 HERMIONE.
109 Sir, spare your threats:
110 The bug which you would fright me with, I seek.
111 To me can life be no commodity.
112 The crown and comfort of my life, your favour,
113 I do give lost, for I do feel it gone,
114 But know not how it went. My second joy,
115 And first-fruits of my body, from his presence
116 I am barr’d, like one infectious. My third comfort,
117 Starr’d most unluckily, is from my breast,
118 (The innocent milk in its most innocent mouth)
119 Hal’d out to murder; myself on every post
120 Proclaim’d a strumpet; with immodest hatred
121 The child-bed privilege denied, which ’longs
122 To women of all fashion; lastly, hurried
123 Here to this place, i’ th’ open air, before
124 I have got strength of limit. Now, my liege,
125 Tell me what blessings I have here alive,
126 That I should fear to die. Therefore proceed.
127 But yet hear this: mistake me not: no life,
128 I prize it not a straw, but for mine honour,
129 Which I would free, if I shall be condemn’d
130 Upon surmises, all proofs sleeping else
131 But what your jealousies awake, I tell you
132 ’Tis rigour, and not law. Your honours all,
133 I do refer me to the oracle:
134 Apollo be my judge!
135 FIRST LORD.
136 This your request
137 Is altogether just: therefore bring forth,
138 And in Apollo’s name, his oracle:
139 [_Exeunt certain Officers._]
140 HERMIONE.
141 The Emperor of Russia was my father.
142 O that he were alive, and here beholding
143 His daughter’s trial! that he did but see
144 The flatness of my misery; yet with eyes
145 Of pity, not revenge!
146 Enter Officers with Cleomenes and Dion.
147 OFFICER.
148 You here shall swear upon this sword of justice,
149 That you, Cleomenes and Dion, have
150 Been both at Delphos, and from thence have brought
151 This seal’d-up oracle, by the hand deliver’d
152 Of great Apollo’s priest; and that since then
153 You have not dared to break the holy seal,
154 Nor read the secrets in’t.
155 CLEOMENES, DION.
156 All this we swear.
157 LEONTES.
158 Break up the seals and read.
159 OFFICER.
160 [_Reads._] “Hermione is chaste; Polixenes blameless; Camillo a true
161 subject; Leontes a jealous tyrant; his innocent babe truly begotten;
162 and the king shall live without an heir, if that which is lost be not
163 found.”
164 LORDS
165 Now blessed be the great Apollo!
166 HERMIONE.
167 Praised!
168 LEONTES.
169 Hast thou read truth?
170 OFFICER.
171 Ay, my lord, even so
172 As it is here set down.
173 LEONTES.
174 There is no truth at all i’ th’ oracle:
175 The sessions shall proceed: this is mere falsehood.
176 Enter a Servant hastily.
177 SERVANT.
178 My lord the king, the king!
179 LEONTES.
180 What is the business?
181 SERVANT.
182 O sir, I shall be hated to report it.
183 The prince your son, with mere conceit and fear
184 Of the queen’s speed, is gone.
185 LEONTES.
186 How! gone?
187 SERVANT.
188 Is dead.
189 LEONTES.
190 Apollo’s angry, and the heavens themselves
191 Do strike at my injustice.
192 [_Hermione faints._]
193 How now there?
194 PAULINA.
195 This news is mortal to the queen. Look down
196 And see what death is doing.
197 LEONTES.
198 Take her hence:
199 Her heart is but o’ercharg’d; she will recover.
200 I have too much believ’d mine own suspicion.
201 Beseech you tenderly apply to her
202 Some remedies for life.
203 [_Exeunt Paulina and Ladies with Hermione._]
204 Apollo, pardon
205 My great profaneness ’gainst thine oracle!
206 I’ll reconcile me to Polixenes,
207 New woo my queen, recall the good Camillo,
208 Whom I proclaim a man of truth, of mercy;
209 For, being transported by my jealousies
210 To bloody thoughts and to revenge, I chose
211 Camillo for the minister to poison
212 My friend Polixenes: which had been done,
213 But that the good mind of Camillo tardied
214 My swift command, though I with death and with
215 Reward did threaten and encourage him,
216 Not doing it and being done. He, most humane
217 And fill’d with honour, to my kingly guest
218 Unclasp’d my practice, quit his fortunes here,
219 Which you knew great, and to the certain hazard
220 Of all incertainties himself commended,
221 No richer than his honour. How he glisters
222 Thorough my rust! And how his piety
223 Does my deeds make the blacker!
224 Enter Paulina.
225 PAULINA.
226 Woe the while!
227 O, cut my lace, lest my heart, cracking it,
228 Break too!
229 FIRST LORD.
230 What fit is this, good lady?
231 PAULINA.
232 What studied torments, tyrant, hast for me?
233 What wheels? racks? fires? what flaying? boiling
234 In leads or oils? What old or newer torture
235 Must I receive, whose every word deserves
236 To taste of thy most worst? Thy tyranny,
237 Together working with thy jealousies,
238 Fancies too weak for boys, too green and idle
239 For girls of nine. O, think what they have done,
240 And then run mad indeed, stark mad! for all
241 Thy by-gone fooleries were but spices of it.
242 That thou betray’dst Polixenes, ’twas nothing;
243 That did but show thee, of a fool, inconstant
244 And damnable ingrateful; nor was’t much
245 Thou wouldst have poison’d good Camillo’s honour,
246 To have him kill a king; poor trespasses,
247 More monstrous standing by: whereof I reckon
248 The casting forth to crows thy baby daughter,
249 To be or none or little, though a devil
250 Would have shed water out of fire ere done’t,
251 Nor is’t directly laid to thee the death
252 Of the young prince, whose honourable thoughts,
253 Thoughts high for one so tender, cleft the heart
254 That could conceive a gross and foolish sire
255 Blemish’d his gracious dam: this is not, no,
256 Laid to thy answer: but the last—O lords,
257 When I have said, cry Woe!—the queen, the queen,
258 The sweet’st, dear’st creature’s dead, and vengeance for’t
259 Not dropp’d down yet.
260 FIRST LORD.
261 The higher powers forbid!
262 PAULINA.
263 I say she’s dead: I’ll swear’t. If word nor oath
264 Prevail not, go and see: if you can bring
265 Tincture, or lustre, in her lip, her eye,
266 Heat outwardly or breath within, I’ll serve you
267 As I would do the gods. But, O thou tyrant!
268 Do not repent these things, for they are heavier
269 Than all thy woes can stir. Therefore betake thee
270 To nothing but despair. A thousand knees
271 Ten thousand years together, naked, fasting,
272 Upon a barren mountain, and still winter
273 In storm perpetual, could not move the gods
274 To look that way thou wert.
275 LEONTES.
276 Go on, go on:
277 Thou canst not speak too much; I have deserv’d
278 All tongues to talk their bitterest.
279 FIRST LORD.
280 Say no more:
281 Howe’er the business goes, you have made fault
282 I’ th’ boldness of your speech.
283 PAULINA.
284 I am sorry for ’t:
285 All faults I make, when I shall come to know them,
286 I do repent. Alas, I have show’d too much
287 The rashness of a woman: he is touch’d
288 To th’ noble heart. What’s gone and what’s past help,
289 Should be past grief. Do not receive affliction
290 At my petition; I beseech you, rather
291 Let me be punish’d, that have minded you
292 Of what you should forget. Now, good my liege,
293 Sir, royal sir, forgive a foolish woman:
294 The love I bore your queen—lo, fool again!
295 I’ll speak of her no more, nor of your children.
296 I’ll not remember you of my own lord,
297 Who is lost too. Take your patience to you,
298 And I’ll say nothing.
299 LEONTES.
300 Thou didst speak but well
301 When most the truth, which I receive much better
302 Than to be pitied of thee. Prithee, bring me
303 To the dead bodies of my queen and son:
304 One grave shall be for both. Upon them shall
305 The causes of their death appear, unto
306 Our shame perpetual. Once a day I’ll visit
307 The chapel where they lie, and tears shed there
308 Shall be my recreation. So long as nature
309 Will bear up with this exercise, so long
310 I daily vow to use it. Come, and lead me
311 To these sorrows.
312 [_Exeunt._]