Like offices of pity.-Sir, be prosperous In more than this deed doth require ! and blessing, -Poor thing, condemn'd to loss! [Exit with the child. Another's issue. 1 Atten. Please your highness, posts, From those you sent to the oracle, are come An hour since: Cleomenes and Dion, Being well arriv'd from Delphos, are both landed, 1 Lord. So please you, sir, their speed Hath been beyond account. Leo. Twenty-three days They have been absent: 'Tis good speed; foretels, The truth of this appear. Prepare you, lords; ACT III. Leave me ; [Exeunt. SCENE I-The same. A Street in some Town. Enter CLE OMENES and DION. Cleomenes. THE climate's delicate; the air most sweet; Dion. I shall report, For most it caught me, the celestial habits, (Methinks, I so should term them,) and the reverence Of the grave wearers. O, the sacrifice! How ceremonious, solemn, and unearthly It was i' the offering! Cleo. But, of all, the burst And the ear-deafening voice o' the oracle, Kin to Jove's 'thunder, so surpris'd my sense, That I was nothing. Dio. If the event o' the journey Prove as successful to the queen,-O, be't so !-- The time is worth the use on't. Cleo. Great Apollo, Turn all to the best! These proclamations, 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. [Exeunt. The same. A Court of Justice. LEONTES, Lords, and Officers, appear, properly seated. Leo. 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 Proceed in justice; which shall have due course, Offi. It is his highness' pleasure, that the queen HERMIONE is brought in, guarded; attending. Leo. Read the indictment. PAULINA and Ladies, Offi. 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 pretences 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. [8] Pretence-is, in this place, taken for a scheme laid, a plot formed. JOH. Her. 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 Being counted falsehood, shall, as I express it, I doubt not then, but innocence shall make Tremble at patience.-You, my lord, best know, A moiety of the throne, a great king's daughter, 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, 2 And only that I stand for. I appeal To your own conscience, sir, before Polixenes Have strain'd, to appear thus :3 if one jot beyond Leo. I ne'er heard yet, That any of these bolder vices wanted [9] That is, my virtue being accounted wickedness, my assertion of it will pass but for a lie. Falsehood means both treachery and lie. JOHNS. [1] Life is to me now only grief, and as such only is considered by me: I would therefore willingly dismiss it. JOHNS. [2] This sentiment, which is probably borrowed from Eccl. iii. 11, connot be too often impressed on the female mind: "The glory of a man is from the honour of his father; and a mother in dishonour, is a reproach unto her children." STEEV. [3] The sense seems to be this :-"what sudden slip have I made, that I should catch a wrench in my character."-Mrs Ford talks of-some strain in her character. STEEV. Less impudence to gainsay what they did, Her. That's true enough; Though 'tis a saying, sir, not due to me. Leo. You will not own it. Her. More than mistress of, Which comes to me in name of fault, I must not To you, and toward your friend; whose love had spoke, Even since it could speak, from an infant, freely, That it was yours. Now, for conspiracy, I know not how it tastes; though it be dish'd For me to try how all I know of it Is, that Camillo was an honest man; And, why he left your court, the gods themselves, Leo. You knew of his departure, as you know You speak a language that I understand not : Leo. Your actions are my dreams; You had a bastard by Polixenes, And I but dream'd it :-As you were past all shame, (Those of your facts are so), so past all truth: Which to deny, concerns more than avails : For as [3] It is apparent that according to the proper, at least according to the present, use of words, less should be more, or wanted should be had. But Shakspeare is very uncertain in his use of negatives. It may be necessary once to observe, that in our language, two negatives did not originally affirm, but strengthen the negation. This mode of speech was in time changed, but, as the change was made in opposition to long custom, it proceeded gradually, and unformity was not obtained but through an intermediate confusion. JOHNS. [4] This metaphor, (as Mr. Douce has already observed,) is from gunnery. See. p. 30, n. 6. STEEV. [5] I do not remember that fact is used any where absolutely for guilt, which must be its sense in this place. JOHNS. Thy brat hath been cast out, like to itself, Shalt feel our justice; in whose easiest passage, Her. Sir, spare your threats; The bug, which you would fright me with, I seek. The crown and comfort of my life, your favour, But know not how it went: My second joy, Apollo be my judge. 1 Lord. This your request Is altogether just therefore, bring forth, [Exeunt certain Officers. Her. The emperor of Russia was my father: [6] i. e. born under an inauspicious planet. STEEV. [7] Mr. M. Mason judiciously conceives strength of limit to mean, "the limited degree of strength which it is customary for women to acquire, be. fore they are suffered to go abroad after child-bearing. STEEV. [8] That is, how low, how flat I am laid by my calamity. JOHNS. |