| |
The Same. A Room in the Palace. | |
| |
Enter LEONTES, ANTIGONUS, Lords, and other Attendants. | |
| Leon. Nor night, nor day, no rest; it is but weakness | |
| To bear the matter thus; mere weakness. If | |
| The cause were not in being,—part o’ the cause, | 5 |
| She the adultress; for the harlot king | |
| Is quite beyond mine arm, out of the blank | |
| And level of my brain, plot-proof; but she | |
| I can hook to me: say, that she were gone, | |
| Given to the fire, a moiety of my rest | 10 |
| Might come to me again. Who’s there? | |
| First Atten. [Advancing.] My lord? | |
| Leon. How does the boy? | |
| First Atten. He took good rest to-night; | |
| ’Tis hop’d his sickness is discharg’d. | 15 |
| Leon. To see his nobleness! | |
| Conceiving the dishonour of his mother, | |
| He straight declin’d, droop’d, took it deeply, | |
| Fasten’d and fix’d the shame on ’t in himself, | |
| Threw off his spirit, his appetite, his sleep, | 20 |
| And downright languish’d. Leave me solely: go, | |
| See how he fares. [Exit Attendant.]—Fie, fie! no thought of him; | |
| The very thought of my revenges that way | |
| Recoil upon me: in himself too mighty, | |
| And in his parties, his alliance; let him be | 25 |
| Until a time may serve: for present vengeance, | |
| Take it on her. Camillo and Polixenes | |
| Laugh at me; make their pastime at my sorrow: | |
| They should not laugh, if I could reach them, nor | |
| Shall she within my power. | 30 |
| |
Enter PAULINA, with a Child. | |
| First Lord. You must not enter. | |
| Paul. Nay, rather, good my lords, be second to me: | |
| Fear you his tyrannous passion more, alas, | |
| Than the queen’s life? a gracious innocent soul, | 35 |
| More free than he is jealous. | |
| Ant. That’s enough. | |
| Sec. Atten. Madam, he hath not slept to-night; commanded | |
| None should come at him. | |
| Paul. Not so hot, good sir; | 40 |
| I come to bring him sleep. ’Tis such as you, | |
| That creep like shadows by him and do sigh | |
| At each his needless heavings, such as you | |
| Nourish the cause of his awaking: I | |
| Do come with words as med’cinal as true, | 45 |
| Honest as either, to purge him of that humour | |
| That presses him from sleep. | |
| Leon What noise there, ho? | |
| Paul. No noise, my lord; but needful conference | |
| About some gossips for your highness. | 50 |
| Leon. How! | |
| Away with that audacious lady! Antigonus, | |
| I charg’d thee that she should not come about me: | |
| I knew she would. | |
| Ant. I told her so, my lord, | 55 |
| On your displeasure’s peril, and on mine, | |
| She should not visit you. | |
| Leon. What! canst not rule her? | |
| Paul. From all dishonesty he can: in this, | |
| Unless he take the course that you have done, | 60 |
| Commit me for committing honour, trust it, | |
| He shall not rule me. | |
| Ant. La you now! you hear; | |
| When she will take the rein I let her run; | |
| But she’ll not stumble. | 65 |
| Paul. Good my liege, I come, | |
| And I beseech you, hear me, who professes | |
| Myself your loyal servant, your physician, | |
| Your most obedient counsellor, yet that dares | |
| Less appear so in comforting your evils | 70 |
| Than such as most seem yours: I say, I come | |
| From your good queen. | |
| Leon. Good queen! | |
| Paul. Good queen, my lord, good queen; I say, good queen; | |
| And would by combat make her good, so were I | 75 |
| A man, the worst about you. | |
| Leon. Force her hence. | |
| Paul. Let him that makes but trifles of his eyes | |
| First hand me: on mine own accord I’ll off; | |
| But first I’ll do my errand. The good queen, | 80 |
| For she is good, hath brought you forth a daughter: | |
| Here ’tis; commends it to your blessing. [Laying down the Child. | |
| Leon. Out! | |
| A mankind witch! Hence with her, out o’ door: | |
| A most intelligencing bawd! | 85 |
| Paul. Not so; | |
| I am as ignorant in that as you | |
| In so entitling me, and no less honest | |
| Than you are mad; which is enough, I’ll warrant, | |
| As this world goes, to pass for honest. | 90 |
| Leon. Traitors! | |
| Will you not push her out? Give her the bastard. | |
| [To ANTIGONUS.] Thou dotard! thou art woman-tir’d, unroosted | |
| By thy dame Partlet here. Take up the bastard; | |
| Take ’t up, I say; give ’t to thy crone. | 95 |
| Paul. For ever | |
| Unvenerable be thy hands, if thou | |
| Tak’st up the princess by that forced baseness | |
| Which he has put upon ’t! | |
| Leon. He dreads his wife. | 100 |
| Paul. So I would you did; then, ’twere past all doubt, | |
| You’d call your children yours. | |
| Leon. A nest of traitors! | |
| Ant. I am none, by this good light. | |
| Paul. Nor I; nor any | 105 |
| But one that’s here, and that’s himself; for he | |
| The sacred honour of himself, his queen’s, | |
| His hopeful son’s, his babe’s, betrays to slander, | |
| Whose sting is sharper than the sword’s; and will not,— | |
| For, as the case now stands, it is a curse | 110 |
| He cannot be compell’d to ’t,—once remove | |
| The root of his opinion, which is rotten | |
| As ever oak or stone was sound. | |
| Leon. A callat | |
| Of boundless tongue, who late hath beat her husband | 115 |
| And now baits me! This brat is none of mine; | |
| It is the issue of Polixenes: | |
| Hence with it; and, together with the dam | |
| Commit them to the fire! | |
| Paul. It is yours; | 120 |
| And, might we lay the old proverb to your charge, | |
| ‘So like you, ’tis the worse.’ Behold, my lords, | |
| Although the print be little, the whole matter | |
| And copy of the father; eye, nose, lip, | |
| The trick of’s frown, his forehead, nay, the valley, | 125 |
| The pretty dimples of his chin and cheek, his smiles, | |
| The very mould and frame of hand, nail, finger: | |
| And thou, good goddess Nature, which hast made it | |
| So like to him that got it, if thou hast | |
| The ordering of the mind too, ’mongst all colours | 130 |
| No yellow in ’t; lest she suspect, as he does, | |
| Her children not her husband’s. | |
| Leon. A gross hag! | |
| And, lozel, thou art worthy to be hang’d, | |
| That wilt not stay her tongue. | 135 |
| Ant. Hang all the husbands | |
| That cannot do that feat, you’ll leave yourself | |
| Hardly one subject. | |
| Leon. Once more, take her hence. | |
| Paul. A most unworthy and unnatural lord | 140 |
| Can do no more. | |
| Leon. I’ll ha’ thee burn’d. | |
| Paul. I care not: | |
| It is a heretic that makes the fire, | |
| Not she which burns in ’t. I’ll not call you tyrant; | 145 |
| But this most cruel usage of your queen,— | |
| Not able to produce more accusation | |
| Than your own weak-hing’d fancy,—something savours | |
| Of tyranny, and will ignoble make you, | |
| Yea, scandalous to the world. | 150 |
| Leon. On your allegiance, | |
| Out of the chamber with her! Were I a tyrant, | |
| Where were her life? she durst not call me so | |
| If she did know me one. Away with her! | |
| Paul. I pray you do not push me; I’ll be gone. | 155 |
| Look to your babe, my lord; ’tis yours: Jove send her | |
| A better guiding spirit! What need these hands? | |
| You, that are thus so tender o’er his follies, | |
| Will never do him good, not one of you. [Exit. | |
| Leon. Thou, traitor, hast set on thy wife to this. | 160 |
| My child! away with ’t!—even thou, that hast | |
| A heart so tender o’er it, take it hence | |
| And see it instantly consum’d with fire: | |
| Even thou and none but thou. Take it up straight: | |
| Within this hour bring me word ’tis done,— | 165 |
| And by good testimony,—or I’ll seize thy life, | |
| With what thou else call’st thine. If thou refuse | |
| And wilt encounter with my wrath, say so; | |
| The bastard brains with these my proper hands | |
| Shall I dash out. Go, take it to the fire; | 170 |
| For thou sett’st on thy wife. | |
| Ant. I did not, sir: | |
| These lords, my noble fellows, if they please, | |
| Can clear me in ’t. | |
| First Lord. We can, my royal liege, | 175 |
| He is not guilty of her coming hither. | |
| Leon. You are liars all. | |
| First Lord. Beseech your highness, give us better credit: | |
| We have always truly serv’d you, and beseech you | |
| So to esteem of us; and on our knees we beg, | 180 |
| As recompense of our dear services | |
| Past and to come, that you do change this purpose, | |
| Which being so horrible, so bloody, must | |
| Lead on to some foul issue. We all kneel. | |
| Leon. I am a feather for each wind that blows. | 185 |
| Shall I live on to see this bastard kneel | |
| And call me father? Better burn it now | |
| Than curse it then. But, be it; let it live: | |
| It shall not neither.—[To ANTIGONUS.] You, sir, come you hither; | |
| You that have been so tenderly officious | 190 |
| With Lady Margery, your midwife there, | |
| To save this bastard’s life,—for ’tis a bastard, | |
| So sure as thy beard’s grey,—what will you adventure | |
| To save this brat’s life? | |
| Ant. Any thing, my lord, | 195 |
| That my ability may undergo, | |
| And nobleness impose: at least, thus much: | |
| I’ll pawn the little blood which I have left, | |
| To save the innocent: any thing possible. | |
| Leon. It shall be possible. Swear by this sword | 200 |
| Thou wilt perform my bidding. | |
| Ant. I will, my lord. | |
| Leon. Mark and perform it,—seest thou!—for the fail | |
| Of any point in ’t shall not only be | |
| Death to thyself, but to thy lewd-tongu’d wife, | 205 |
| Whom for this time we pardon. We enjoin thee, | |
| As thou art liegeman to us, that thou carry | |
| This female bastard hence; and that thou bear it | |
| To some remote and desart place quite out | |
| Of our dominions; and that there thou leave it, | 210 |
| Without more mercy, to its own protection, | |
| And favour of the climate. As by strange fortune | |
| It came to us, I do in justice charge thee, | |
| On thy soul’s peril and thy body’s torture, | |
| That thou commend it strangely to some place, | 215 |
| Where chance may nurse or end it. Take it up. | |
| Ant. I swear to do this, though a present death | |
| Had been more merciful. Come on, poor babe: | |
| Some powerful spirit instruct the kites and ravens | |
| To be thy nurses! Wolves and bears, they say, | 220 |
| Casting their savageness aside have done | |
| Like offices of pity. Sir, be prosperous | |
| In more than this deed doth require! And blessing | |
| Against this cruelty fight on thy side, | |
| Poor thing, condemn’d to loss! [Exit with the Child. | 225 |
| Leon. No; I’ll not rear | |
| Another’s issue. | |
| |
Enter a Servant. | |
| Serv. Please your highness, posts | |
| From those you sent to the oracle are come | 230 |
| An hour since: Cleomenes and Dion, | |
| Being well arriv’d from Delphos, are both landed, | |
| Hasting to the court. | |
| First Lord. So please you, sir, their speed | |
| Hath been beyond account. | 235 |
| Leon. Twenty-three days | |
| They have been absent: ’tis good speed; foretells | |
| The great Apollo suddenly will have | |
| The truth of this appear. Prepare you, lords; | |
| Summon a session, that we may arraign | 240 |
| Our most disloyal lady; for, as she hath | |
| Been publicly accus’d, so shall she have | |
| A just and open trial. While she lives | |
| My heart will be a burden to me. Leave me, | |
| And think upon my bidding. [Exeunt. | 245 |
| |
