Kin to Jove's thunder, so surprised my sense, That I was nothing. If the event o' the 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. Cleo. Great Apollo Turn all to the best! These proclamations, 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 Even then will rush to knowledge. Go: fresh horses! And gracious be the issue ! SCENE II. A court of Justice. [Exeunt. Enter LEONTES, Lords, and Officers. Leon. This sessions, to our great grief we pro- Even pushes 'gainst our heart: the party tried Produce the prisoner. Off. It is his highness' pleasure that the queen Appear in person here in court. Silence! IO 20 10 14. The time is worth the use on't, has been well spent. The idea implicit in the phrase appears more distinctly in a 'common saying' quoted by Singer from Florio's Montaigne: 'The time we live is worth the money we pay for it.' Enter HERMIONE guarded; Paulina and Leon. Read the indictment. Off. [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 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 20 fly away by night. Her. Since what I am to say must be but that Being counted falsehood, shall, as I express it, 30 18. pretence, intention. 29 f. Hermione's speech borrows several turns from Bellaria's in Greene. 'If the devine powers bee privy to humane actions (as no doubt they are) I hope my patience shall make sortune blushe, and my unspotted life shall staine spiteful discredit.... How I have led my life before Egistus coming, I appeale, Pandosto, to the gods and to thy conscience.' 36. which, sc. unhappiness. And play'd to take spectators. For behold me 'Tis a derivative from me to mine, And only that I stand for. I appeal To your own conscience, sir, before Polixenes With what encounter so uncurrent I Have strain'd to appear thus: if one jot beyond The bound of honour, or in act or will Cry fie upon my grave! Leon. I ne'er heard yet That any of these bolder vices wanted Than to perform it first. That's true enough; Though 'tis a saying, sir, not due to me. Leon. You will not own it. 40 50 More than mistress of 60 Which comes to me in name of fault, I must not 50. With what encounter so uncurrent I have strain'd, with what unwarranted behaviour I have offended, that I appear here. Strain'd probably means 'swerved from, done violence to, right.' Johnson conjectured Been strain'd, Collier stray'd. this is a kind of attraction to the notion of 'want.' 60. More than mistress of, etc. The passage is probably corrupt; possibly a line has been omitted. But the meaning intended is clear: 'I must not in any degree acknowledge faults charged against me further than they are 57. Less, i.e. more; probably mine.' With whom I am accused, I do confess To you and toward your friend, whose love had Even since it could speak, from an infant, freely Is that Camillo was an honest man; And why he left your court, the gods themselves, Leon. You knew of his departure, as you know What you have underta'en to do in's absence. You speak a language that I understand not: Which I'll lay down. Leon. Your actions are my dreams; You had a bastard by Polixenes, Shalt feel our justice, in whose easiest passage Look for no less than death. Her. Sir, spare your threats: The bug which you would fright me with I seek. 70 80 90 To me can life be no commodity : Apollo be my judge ! First Lord. [Exeunt certain Officers. Her. The Emperor of Russia was my father : 100 110 120 94. commodity, object of desire. 101. it; see note ii. 3. 178. 103. immodest, passing all bounds. 107. strength of limit, probably the limited or prescribed strength to be recovered after childbirth before going out. 120. In Greene's romance it is Egistus' (Polixenes') wife who is the daughter of the emperor of Russia. |