The Winter’s Tale

1 Enter Leontes, Polixenes, Florizel, Perdita, Camillo, Paulina, Lords
2 and Attendants.
3 LEONTES.
4 O grave and good Paulina, the great comfort
5 That I have had of thee!
6 PAULINA.
7 What, sovereign sir,
8 I did not well, I meant well. All my services
9 You have paid home: but that you have vouchsaf’d,
10 With your crown’d brother and these your contracted
11 Heirs of your kingdoms, my poor house to visit,
12 It is a surplus of your grace which never
13 My life may last to answer.
14 LEONTES.
15 O Paulina,
16 We honour you with trouble. But we came
17 To see the statue of our queen: your gallery
18 Have we pass’d through, not without much content
19 In many singularities; but we saw not
20 That which my daughter came to look upon,
21 The statue of her mother.
22 PAULINA.
23 As she liv’d peerless,
24 So her dead likeness, I do well believe,
25 Excels whatever yet you look’d upon
26 Or hand of man hath done; therefore I keep it
27 Lonely, apart. But here it is: prepare
28 To see the life as lively mock’d as ever
29 Still sleep mock’d death. Behold, and say ’tis well.
30 Paulina undraws a curtain, and discovers Hermione standing as a
31 statue.
32 I like your silence, it the more shows off
33 Your wonder: but yet speak. First you, my liege.
34 Comes it not something near?
35 LEONTES.
36 Her natural posture!
37 Chide me, dear stone, that I may say indeed
38 Thou art Hermione; or rather, thou art she
39 In thy not chiding; for she was as tender
40 As infancy and grace. But yet, Paulina,
41 Hermione was not so much wrinkled, nothing
42 So aged as this seems.
43 POLIXENES.
44 O, not by much!
45 PAULINA.
46 So much the more our carver’s excellence,
47 Which lets go by some sixteen years and makes her
48 As she liv’d now.
49 LEONTES.
50 As now she might have done,
51 So much to my good comfort as it is
52 Now piercing to my soul. O, thus she stood,
53 Even with such life of majesty, warm life,
54 As now it coldly stands, when first I woo’d her!
55 I am asham’d: does not the stone rebuke me
56 For being more stone than it? O royal piece,
57 There’s magic in thy majesty, which has
58 My evils conjur’d to remembrance and
59 From thy admiring daughter took the spirits,
60 Standing like stone with thee.
61 PERDITA.
62 And give me leave,
63 And do not say ’tis superstition, that
64 I kneel, and then implore her blessing. Lady,
65 Dear queen, that ended when I but began,
66 Give me that hand of yours to kiss.
67 PAULINA.
68 O, patience!
69 The statue is but newly fix’d, the colour’s
70 Not dry.
71 CAMILLO.
72 My lord, your sorrow was too sore laid on,
73 Which sixteen winters cannot blow away,
74 So many summers dry. Scarce any joy
75 Did ever so long live; no sorrow
76 But kill’d itself much sooner.
77 POLIXENES.
78 Dear my brother,
79 Let him that was the cause of this have power
80 To take off so much grief from you as he
81 Will piece up in himself.
82 PAULINA.
83 Indeed, my lord,
84 If I had thought the sight of my poor image
85 Would thus have wrought you—for the stone is mine—
86 I’d not have show’d it.
87 LEONTES.
88 Do not draw the curtain.
89 PAULINA.
90 No longer shall you gaze on’t, lest your fancy
91 May think anon it moves.
92 LEONTES.
93 Let be, let be.
94 Would I were dead, but that methinks already—
95 What was he that did make it? See, my lord,
96 Would you not deem it breath’d? And that those veins
97 Did verily bear blood?
98 POLIXENES.
99 Masterly done:
100 The very life seems warm upon her lip.
101 LEONTES.
102 The fixture of her eye has motion in ’t,
103 As we are mock’d with art.
104 PAULINA.
105 I’ll draw the curtain:
106 My lord’s almost so far transported that
107 He’ll think anon it lives.
108 LEONTES.
109 O sweet Paulina,
110 Make me to think so twenty years together!
111 No settled senses of the world can match
112 The pleasure of that madness. Let ’t alone.
113 PAULINA.
114 I am sorry, sir, I have thus far stirr’d you: but
115 I could afflict you further.
116 LEONTES.
117 Do, Paulina;
118 For this affliction has a taste as sweet
119 As any cordial comfort. Still methinks
120 There is an air comes from her. What fine chisel
121 Could ever yet cut breath? Let no man mock me,
122 For I will kiss her!
123 PAULINA.
124 Good my lord, forbear:
125 The ruddiness upon her lip is wet;
126 You’ll mar it if you kiss it, stain your own
127 With oily painting. Shall I draw the curtain?
128 LEONTES.
129 No, not these twenty years.
130 PERDITA.
131 So long could I
132 Stand by, a looker on.
133 PAULINA.
134 Either forbear,
135 Quit presently the chapel, or resolve you
136 For more amazement. If you can behold it,
137 I’ll make the statue move indeed, descend,
138 And take you by the hand. But then you’ll think
139 (Which I protest against) I am assisted
140 By wicked powers.
141 LEONTES.
142 What you can make her do
143 I am content to look on: what to speak,
144 I am content to hear; for ’tis as easy
145 To make her speak as move.
146 PAULINA.
147 It is requir’d
148 You do awake your faith. Then all stand still;
149 Or those that think it is unlawful business
150 I am about, let them depart.
151 LEONTES.
152 Proceed:
153 No foot shall stir.
154 PAULINA.
155 Music, awake her: strike! [_Music._]
156 ’Tis time; descend; be stone no more; approach;
157 Strike all that look upon with marvel. Come;
158 I’ll fill your grave up: stir; nay, come away.
159 Bequeath to death your numbness, for from him
160 Dear life redeems you. You perceive she stirs.
161 Hermione comes down from the pedestal.
162 Start not; her actions shall be holy as
163 You hear my spell is lawful. Do not shun her
164 Until you see her die again; for then
165 You kill her double. Nay, present your hand:
166 When she was young you woo’d her; now in age
167 Is she become the suitor?
168 LEONTES.
169 [_Embracing her._] O, she’s warm!
170 If this be magic, let it be an art
171 Lawful as eating.
172 POLIXENES.
173 She embraces him.
174 CAMILLO.
175 She hangs about his neck.
176 If she pertain to life, let her speak too.
177 POLIXENES.
178 Ay, and make it manifest where she has liv’d,
179 Or how stol’n from the dead.
180 PAULINA.
181 That she is living,
182 Were it but told you, should be hooted at
183 Like an old tale; but it appears she lives,
184 Though yet she speak not. Mark a little while.
185 Please you to interpose, fair madam. Kneel
186 And pray your mother’s blessing. Turn, good lady,
187 Our Perdita is found.
188 [_Presenting Perdita who kneels to Hermione._]
189 HERMIONE.
190 You gods, look down,
191 And from your sacred vials pour your graces
192 Upon my daughter’s head! Tell me, mine own,
193 Where hast thou been preserv’d? where liv’d? how found
194 Thy father’s court? for thou shalt hear that I,
195 Knowing by Paulina that the oracle
196 Gave hope thou wast in being, have preserv’d
197 Myself to see the issue.
198 PAULINA.
199 There’s time enough for that;
200 Lest they desire upon this push to trouble
201 Your joys with like relation. Go together,
202 You precious winners all; your exultation
203 Partake to everyone. I, an old turtle,
204 Will wing me to some wither’d bough, and there
205 My mate, that’s never to be found again,
206 Lament till I am lost.
207 LEONTES.
208 O peace, Paulina!
209 Thou shouldst a husband take by my consent,
210 As I by thine a wife: this is a match,
211 And made between ’s by vows. Thou hast found mine;
212 But how, is to be question’d; for I saw her,
213 As I thought, dead; and have in vain said many
214 A prayer upon her grave. I’ll not seek far—
215 For him, I partly know his mind—to find thee
216 An honourable husband. Come, Camillo,
217 And take her by the hand, whose worth and honesty
218 Is richly noted, and here justified
219 By us, a pair of kings. Let’s from this place.
220 What! look upon my brother: both your pardons,
221 That e’er I put between your holy looks
222 My ill suspicion. This your son-in-law,
223 And son unto the king, whom heavens directing,
224 Is troth-plight to your daughter. Good Paulina,
225 Lead us from hence; where we may leisurely
226 Each one demand, and answer to his part
227 Perform’d in this wide gap of time, since first
228 We were dissever’d. Hastily lead away!
229 [_Exeunt._]