Dio. If the event o' th' 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 th' 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.

[Exeunt

The same. A Court of Justice. LEONTES, Lords, and Of ficers, 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,
Even to the guilt, or the purgation.

-Produce the prisoner.

Offi. It is his highness' pleasure, that the queen Appear in person here in court.-Silence!

HERMIONE is brought in, guarded; PAULINA and Ladies,

attending.

Leo. Read the indictment.

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 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 fly away by night,

[8] Pretence-is, in this place, taken for a scheme laid, a pivt formed. JOHN

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 :

The crown and comfort of my life, your favour,
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 barr'd, like one infectious: My third comfort,
Starr'd most unluckily, is from my breast,
The innocent milk in its most innocent mouth,
Haled out to murder: Myself on every post
Proclaim'd a strumpet; With immodest hatred,
The child-bed privilege denied, which 'longs
To women of all fashion :-Lastly, hurried
Here to this place, i' th' 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 honour,
(Which I would free,) if I shall be condemn'd
Upon surmises; all proofs sleeping else,
But what your jealousies awake; I tell you,
'Tis rigour, and not law. Your honours 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!

[6] i. e. born under an inauspicious planet. STEEVENS.

171 Mr. M. Mason judiciously conceives strength of limit to mean, "the limited degree of strength which it is customary for women to acquire, before they are suffered to go abroad after child-bearing. STEEVENS.

[8] That is, how low, how flat I am laid by my calamity. JOHNSON.

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 seal'd-up oracle, by the hand deliver'd

Of great Apollo's priest; and that, since then,
You have not dar'd to break the holy seal,
Nor read the secrets in't.

Cle. Dion. All this we swear.

Leo. 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.

Lords. Now blessed be the great Apollo !

Her. Praised!

Lev. Hast thou read truth?

Offi. Ay, my lord; even so

As it is here set down.

Leo. There is no truth at all i' th' oracle:
The sessions shall proceed; this is mere falsehood.
Enter a Servant, hastily.

Ser. My lord the king, the king!

Leo. What is the business?

Ser. 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.

Leo. How! gone?

Ser. Is dead.

Leo. Apollo's angry; and the heavens themselves Do strike at my injustice. [HERMIONE faints.] How now there?

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

Leo. Take her hence :

Her heart is but o'ercharg'd; she will recover.

I have too much believ'd mine own suspicion

'Beseech you, tenderly apply to her

Some remedies for life.-Apollo, pardon

[Exeunt PAULINA and Ladies, with HERMIONE.

My great profaneness 'gainst thine oracle !—

[9] of the event of the queen's trial: so we still say, he sped well or ill.

JOHNSON.

I'll reconcile me to Polixenes:

New woo my queen; recal 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 fill'd with honour, to my kingly guest
Unclasp'd my practice; quit his fortunes here,
Which you knew great; and to the certain hazard
Of all incertainties himself commended,
No richer than his honour :-How he glisters
Thorough my rust! and how his piety

Does my deeds make the blacker!'

Re-enter PAULINA.

Paul. 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
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 poison'd good Camillo's honour,
To have him kill a king; poor trespasses,
More monstrous standing by: whereof I reckon
The casting forth to crows thy baby daughter,

[1] This vehement retraction of Leontes, accompanied with the confession of more crimes than he was suspected of, is agreeable to our daily experience of the vicissitudes of violent tempers, and the eruptions of minds oppressed with guilt. JOHNSON

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 honourable thoughts
(Thoughts high for one so tender) cleft the heart
That could conceive, a gross and foolish sire
Blemish'd 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 dropp'd 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.

Leo. Go on, go on:

Thou canst not speak too much; I have deserv’d
All tongues to talk their bitterest.

1 Lord. Say no more ;

Howe'er the business goes, you have made fault
I' th' boldness of your speech.

.3

Paul. I am sorry for❜t ;3

All faults I make, when I shall come to know them,
I do repent: Alas, I have show'd too much

The rashness of a woman: he is touch'd

To th' noble heart.-What's gone, and what's past help, Should be past grief: Do not receive affliction

At my petition, I beseech you; rather

Let me be punish'd, that have minded you

Of what you should forget. Now, good my liege,

[2] i. e. a devil would have shed tears of pity o'er the damned, ere he would have committed such an action. STEEVENS.

[3] This is another instance of the sudden changes incident to vehement and ungovernable minds. JOHNSON.