At all acknowledge. For Polixenes,
(With whom I am accused,) I do confess
loved him, as in honor he required;
With such a kind of love, as might become
A lady like me; with a love, even such,
So, and no other, as yourself commanded;

Which not to have done, I think, had been in me
Both disobedience and ingratitude

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 dished
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,
Wotting no more than I, are ignorant.

Leon. You knew of his departure, as you know
What you have underta'en to do in his absence.
Her. Sir,

You speak a language that I understand not.
My life stands in the level1 of your dreams,
Which I'll lay down.

Leon.

Your actions are my dreams; You had a bastard by Polixenes,

And I but dreamed it.-As you were past all shame, (Those of your fact are so,) so past all truth;

Which to deny, concerns more than avails; for as
Thy brat hath been cast out, like to itself,
No father owning it, (which is, indeed,
More criminal in thee, than it,) so thou

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.
To me can life be no commodity.

1 See note 1, p. 35. To stand within the level of a gun is to stand in a direct line with its mouth, and in danger of being hurt by its discharge. This expression often occurs in Shakspeare.

2 i. e. they who have done like you.

3 Bugbear.

The crown and comfort of my life, your favor,
I do give lost; for I do feel it gone,

But know not how it went. My second joy,
And first-fruits of my body, from his presence
I am barred, like one infectious. My third comfort,
Starred most unluckily,' is from my breast,
The innocent milk in its most innocent mouth,
Haled out to murder; myself on every post
Proclaimed a strumpet; with immodest hatred,
The child-bed privilege denied, which 'longs
To women of all fashion.-Lastly, hurried
Here to this place, i'the open air, before
I have got strength of limit.

Now, my liege,

Tell me what blessings I have here alive,
That I should fear to die? Therefore, proceed.
But yet hear this; mistake me not.No! life,
I prize it not a straw;-but for mine honor,
Which I would free,) if I shall be condemned
Upon surmises; all proofs sleeping else,
But what your jealousies awake; I tell you,
'Tis rigor, and not law. Your honors all,
I do refer me to the oracle;

Apollo be my judge.

1 Lord.
This your request
Is altogether just therefore, bring forth,
And in Apollo's name, his oracle.

[Exeunt certain Officers.
Her. The emperor of Russia was my father.
O that he were alive, and here, beholding
His daughter's trial! that he did but see
The flatness of my misery; yet with eyes
Of pity, not revenge!

1 "Starred most unluckily;" ill-starred, born under an inauspicious planet.

2 Strength of limit, i. e. the degree of strength which it is customary to acquire before women are suffered to go abroad after child-bearing. 3 The completeness of my misery.

Re-enter Officers, with CLEOMENES and DION.

Offi. You here shall swear upon this sword of justice,

That you, Cleomenes and Dion, have

Been both at Delphos; and from thence have brought
This sealed-up oracle, by the hand delivered
Of great Apollo's priest; and that, since then,
You have not dared to break the holy seal,
Nor read the secrets in't.

Cleo. Dion.

All this we swear. Leon. Break up the seals, and read.

Offi. [Reads.] Hermione is chaste, Polixenes blameless, Camillo a true subject, Leontes a jealous tyrant, his innocent babe truly begotten; and the king shall live without an heir, if that, which is lost, be not found.1 Lords. Now blessed be the great Apollo!

Her.

Praised!

Ay, my lord; even so

Leon. There is no truth at all i'the oracle.

The sessions shall proceed; this is mere falsehood.

Enter a Servant, hastily.

Serv. My lord the king, the king!

Leon.

What is the business?

Serv. O, sir, I shall be hated to report it;
The prince your son, with mere conceit and fear
Of the queen's speed, is gone.

Leon.

Serv.

How! gone?

Is dead.

[HERMIONE faints.

Leon. Apollo's angry; and the Heavens themselves

Do strike at my injustice.

How now there?

Paul. This news is mortal to the queen.-Look down, And see what death is doing.

1 This is almost literally from Greene's novel.

2 i. e. of the event of the queen's trial. We still say, he sped well or ill.

Leon.

Take her hence;

Her heart is but o'ercharged; she will recover.-
I have too much believed mine own suspicion.-
'Beseech you, tenderly apply to her
Some remedies for life.-Apollo, pardon

[Exeunt PAULINA and Ladies, with HERM. My great profaneness 'gainst thine oracle!I'll reconcile me to Polixenes;

New woo my queen; recall the good Camillo
Whom I proclaim a man of truth, of mercy;
For, being transported by my jealousies
To bloody thoughts and to revenge, I chose
Camillo for the minister, to poison

;

My friend Polixenes; which had been done,
But that the good mind of Camillo tardied
My swift command, though I with death, and with
Reward, did threaten and encourage him,

Not doing it, and being done: he, most humane,
And filled with honor, to my kingly guest
Unclasped my practice; quit his fortunes here,
Which you knew great; and to the certain1 hazard
Of all incertainties himself commended,

No richer than his honor.-How he glisters
Thorough my rust! and how his piety

Does my deeds make the blacker!

Paul.

Re-enter PAULINA.

Woe the while!

O cut my lace; lest my heart, cracking it,
Break too!

1 Lord. What fit is this, good lady?

Paul. What studied torments, tyrant, hast for me? What wheels? racks? fires? What flaying? boiling In leads or oils? What old, or newer torture Must I receive; whose every word deserves To taste of thy most worst? Thy tyranny

1 Certain is not in the first folio; it was supplied by the editor of the second.

Together working with thy jealousies,—
Fancies too weak for boys, too green and idle
For girls of nine! O, think what they have done,
And then run mad, indeed; stark mad! for all
Thy by-gone fooleries were but spices of it.
That thou betray'dst Polixenes, 'twas nothing;
That did but show thee, of a fool, inconstant,
And damnable ungrateful: nor was't much,
Thou wouldst have poisoned good Camillo's honor,
To have him kill a king; poor trespasses,
More monstrous standing by: whereof I reckon
The casting forth to crows thy baby daughter,
To be or none, or little; though a devil
Would have shed water out of fire,' ere done't:
Nor is't directly laid to thee, the death

Of the young prince; whose honorable thoughts
(Thoughts high for one so tender) cleft the heart
That could conceive a gross and foolish sire
Blemished his gracious dam: this is not, no,
Laid to thy answer. But the last, O lords,

When I have said, cry, woe!-The queen, the queen, The sweetest, dearest creature's dead; and vengeance for't

Not dropped down yet.

1 Lord.

The higher powers forbid ! Paul. I say, she's dead; I'll swear't. If word nor

oath

Prevail not, go and see; if you can bring
Tincture, or lustre, in her lip, her eye,
Heat outwardly, or breath within, I'll serve you
As I would do the gods.-But, O thou tyrant!
Do not repent these things; for they are heavier
Than all thy woes can stir; therefore betake thee
To nothing but despair. A thousand knees
Ten thousand years together, naked, fasting,
Upon a barren mountain, and still winter
In storm perpetual, could not move the gods
To look that way thou wert.

1 i. e. a devil would have shed tears of pity, ere he would have perpetrated such an action.