The Winter's Tale by William Shakespeare
Act 3 - Scene 2
A court of Justice.
Leontes : This sessions, to our great grief we pronounce,
[p]Even pushes 'gainst
our heart: the party tried
[p]The daughter of a king, our wife, and
one
[p]Of us too much beloved. Let us be clear'd
[p]Of being
tyrannous, since we so openly
[p]Proceed in justice, which shall have
due course,
[p]Even to the guilt or the purgation.
[p]Produce the
prisoner.
Officer : It is his highness' pleasure that the queen
[p]Appear in person here
in court. Silence!
[p][Enter HERMIONE guarded;]
[p]PAULINA and Ladies
attending]
Leontes : Read the indictment.
Officer : [Reads] Hermione, queen to the worthy
[p]Leontes, king of Sicilia,
thou art here accused and
[p]arraigned of high treason, in committing
adultery
[p]with Polixenes, king of Bohemia, and conspiring
[p]with
Camillo to take away the life of our sovereign
[p]lord the king, thy
royal husband: the pretence
[p]whereof being by circumstances partly
laid open,
[p]thou, Hermione, contrary to the faith and
allegiance
[p]of a true subject, didst counsel and aid them,
for
[p]their better safety, to fly away by night.
Hermione : Since what I am to say must be but that
[p]Which contradicts my
accusation and
[p]The testimony on my part no other
[p]But what comes
from myself, it shall scarce boot me
[p]To say 'not guilty:' mine
integrity
[p]Being counted falsehood, shall, as I express it,
[p]Be so
received. But thus: if powers divine
[p]Behold our human actions, as
they do,
[p]I doubt not then but innocence shall make
[p]False
accusation blush and tyranny
[p]Tremble at patience. You, my lord,
best know,
[p]Who least will seem to do so, my past life
[p]Hath been
as continent, as chaste, as true,
[p]As I am now unhappy; which is
more
[p]Than history can pattern, though devised
[p]And play'd to take
spectators. For behold me
[p]A fellow of the royal bed, which owe
[p]A
moiety of the throne a great king's daughter,
[p]The mother to a
hopeful prince, here standing
[p]To prate and talk for life and honour
'fore
[p]Who please to come and hear. For life, I prize it
[p]As I
weigh grief, which I would spare: for honour,
[p]'Tis a derivative
from me to mine,
[p]And only that I stand for. I appeal
[p]To your own
conscience, sir, before Polixenes
[p]Came to your court, how I was in
your grace,
[p]How merited to be so; since he came,
[p]With what
encounter so uncurrent I
[p]Have strain'd to appear thus: if one jot
beyond
[p]The bound of honour, or in act or will
[p]That way
inclining, harden'd be the hearts
[p]Of all that hear me, and my
near'st of kin
[p]Cry fie upon my grave!
Leontes : I ne'er heard yet
[p]That any of these bolder vices wanted
[p]Less
impudence to gainsay what they did
[p]Than to perform it first.
Hermione : That's true enough;
[p]Through 'tis a saying, sir, not due to me.
Leontes : You will not own it.
Hermione : More than mistress of
[p]Which comes to me in name of fault, I must
not
[p]At all acknowledge. For Polixenes,
[p]With whom I am accused, I
do confess
[p]I loved him as in honour he required,
[p]With such a
kind of love as might become
[p]A lady like me, with a love even
such,
[p]So and no other, as yourself commanded:
[p]Which not to have
done I think had been in me
[p]Both disobedience and ingratitude
[p]To
you and toward your friend, whose love had spoke,
[p]Even since it
could speak, from an infant, freely
[p]That it was yours. Now, for
conspiracy,
[p]I know not how it tastes; though it be dish'd
[p]For me
to try how: all I know of it
[p]Is that Camillo was an honest
man;
[p]And why he left your court, the gods themselves,
[p]Wotting no
more than I, are ignorant.
Leontes : You knew of his departure, as you know
[p]What you have underta'en to
do in's absence.
Hermione : Sir,
[p]You speak a language that I understand not:
[p]My life stands
in the level of your dreams,
[p]Which I'll lay down.
Leontes : Your actions are my dreams;
[p]You had a bastard by Polixenes,
[p]And
I but dream'd it. As you were past all shame,--
[p]Those of your fact
are so--so past all truth:
[p]Which to deny concerns more than avails;
for as
[p]Thy brat hath been cast out, like to itself,
[p]No father
owning it,--which is, indeed,
[p]More criminal in thee than it,--so
thou
[p]Shalt feel our justice, in whose easiest passage
[p]Look for
no less than death.
Hermione : Sir, spare your threats:
[p]The bug which you would fright me with I
seek.
[p]To me can life be no commodity:
[p]The crown and comfort of
my life, your favour,
[p]I do give lost; for I do feel it gone,
[p]But
know not how it went. My second joy
[p]And first-fruits of my body,
from his presence
[p]I am barr'd, like one infectious. My third
comfort
[p]Starr'd most unluckily, is from my breast,
[p]The innocent
milk in its most innocent mouth,
[p]Haled out to murder: myself on
every post
[p]Proclaimed a strumpet: with immodest hatred
[p]The
child-bed privilege denied, which 'longs
[p]To women of all fashion;
lastly, hurried
[p]Here to this place, i' the open air, before
[p]I
have got strength of limit. Now, my liege,
[p]Tell me what blessings I
have here alive,
[p]That I should fear to die? Therefore
proceed.
[p]But yet hear this: mistake me not; no life,
[p]I prize it
not a straw, but for mine honour,
[p]Which I would free, if I shall be
condemn'd
[p]Upon surmises, all proofs sleeping else
[p]But what your
jealousies awake, I tell you
[p]'Tis rigor and not law. Your honours
all,
[p]I do refer me to the oracle:
[p]Apollo be my judge!
First Lord : This your request
[p]Is altogether just: therefore bring forth,
[p]And
in Apollos name, his oracle.
Hermione : The Emperor of Russia was my father:
[p]O that he were alive, and here
beholding
[p]His daughter's trial! that he did but see
[p]The flatness
of my misery, yet with eyes
[p]Of pity, not revenge!
Officer : You here shall swear upon this sword of justice,
[p]That you,
Cleomenes and Dion, have
[p]Been both at Delphos, and from thence have
brought
[p]The seal'd-up oracle, by the hand deliver'd
[p]Of great
Apollo's priest; and that, since then,
[p]You have not dared to break
the holy seal
[p]Nor read the secrets in't.
Cleomenes : [with Dion] All this we swear.
Leontes : Break up the seals and read.
Officer : [Reads]. Hermione is chaste;
[p]Polixenes blameless; Camillo a true
subject; Leontes
[p]a jealous tyrant; his innocent babe truly
begotten;
[p]and the king shall live without an heir, if that
[p]which
is lost be not found.
Lords : Now blessed be the great Apollo!
Hermione : Praised!
Leontes : Hast thou read truth?
Officer : Ay, my lord; even so
[p]As it is here set down.
Leontes : There is no truth at all i' the oracle:
[p]The sessions shall proceed:
this is mere falsehood.
Servant : My lord the king, the king!
Leontes : What is the business?
Servant : O sir, I shall be hated to report it!
[p]The prince your son, with
mere conceit and fear
[p]Of the queen's speed, is gone.
Leontes : How! gone!
Servant : Is dead.
Leontes : Apollo's angry; and the heavens themselves
[p]Do strike at my
injustice.
[p][HERMIONE swoons]
[p]How now there!
Paulina : This news is mortal to the queen: look down
[p]And see what death is
doing.
Leontes : Take her hence:
[p]Her heart is but o'ercharged; she will
recover:
[p]I have too much believed mine own suspicion:
[p]Beseech
you, tenderly apply to her
[p]Some remedies for life.
[p][Exeunt
PAULINA and Ladies, with HERMIONE]
[p]Apollo, pardon
[p]My great
profaneness 'gainst thine oracle!
[p]I'll reconcile me to
Polixenes,
[p]New woo my queen, recall the good Camillo,
[p]Whom I
proclaim a man of truth, of mercy;
[p]For, being transported by my
jealousies
[p]To bloody thoughts and to revenge, I chose
[p]Camillo
for the minister to poison
[p]My friend Polixenes: which had been
done,
[p]But that the good mind of Camillo tardied
[p]My swift
command, though I with death and with
[p]Reward did threaten and
encourage him,
[p]Not doing 't and being done: he, most humane
[p]And
fill'd with honour, to my kingly guest
[p]Unclasp'd my practise, quit
his fortunes here,
[p]Which you knew great, and to the hazard
[p]Of
all encertainties himself commended,
[p]No richer than his honour: how
he glisters
[p]Thorough my rust! and how his pity
[p]Does my deeds
make the blacker!
Paulina : Woe the while!
[p]O, cut my lace, lest my heart, cracking it,
[p]Break
too.
First Lord : What fit is this, good lady?
Paulina : What studied torments, tyrant, hast for me?
[p]What wheels? racks?
fires? what flaying? boiling?
[p]In leads or oils? what old or newer
torture
[p]Must I receive, whose every word deserves
[p]To taste of
thy most worst? Thy tyranny
[p]Together working with thy
jealousies,
[p]Fancies too weak for boys, too green and idle
[p]For
girls of nine, O, think what they have done
[p]And then run mad
indeed, stark mad! for all
[p]Thy by-gone fooleries were but spices of
it.
[p]That thou betray'dst Polixenes,'twas nothing;
[p]That did but
show thee, of a fool, inconstant
[p]And damnable ingrateful: nor was't
much,
[p]Thou wouldst have poison'd good Camillo's honour,
[p]To have
him kill a king: poor trespasses,
[p]More monstrous standing by:
whereof I reckon
[p]The casting forth to crows thy baby-daughter
[p]To
be or none or little; though a devil
[p]Would have shed water out of
fire ere done't:
[p]Nor is't directly laid to thee, the death
[p]Of
the young prince, whose honourable thoughts,
[p]Thoughts high for one
so tender, cleft the heart
[p]That could conceive a gross and foolish
sire
[p]Blemish'd his gracious dam: this is not, no,
[p]Laid to thy
answer: but the last,--O lords,
[p]When I have said, cry 'woe!' the
queen, the queen,
[p]The sweet'st, dear'st creature's dead,
[p]and
vengeance for't
[p]Not dropp'd down yet.
First Lord : The higher powers forbid!
Paulina : I say she's dead; I'll swear't. If word nor oath
[p]Prevail not, go
and see: if you can bring
[p]Tincture or lustre in her lip, her
eye,
[p]Heat outwardly or breath within, I'll serve you
[p]As I would
do the gods. But, O thou tyrant!
[p]Do not repent these things, for
they are heavier
[p]Than all thy woes can stir; therefore betake
thee
[p]To nothing but despair. A thousand knees
[p]Ten thousand years
together, naked, fasting,
[p]Upon a barren mountain and still
winter
[p]In storm perpetual, could not move the gods
[p]To look that
way thou wert.
Leontes : Go on, go on
[p]Thou canst not speak too much; I have deserved
[p]All
tongues to talk their bitterest.
First Lord : Say no more:
[p]Howe'er the business goes, you have made fault
[p]I'
the boldness of your speech.
Paulina : I am sorry for't:
[p]All faults I make, when I shall come to know
them,
[p]I do repent. Alas! I have show'd too much
[p]The rashness of
a woman: he is touch'd
[p]To the noble heart. What's gone and what's
past help
[p]Should be past grief: do not receive affliction
[p]At my
petition; I beseech you, rather
[p]Let me be punish'd, that have
minded you
[p]Of what you should forget. Now, good my liege
[p]Sir,
royal sir, forgive a foolish woman:
[p]The love I bore your queen--lo,
fool again!--
[p]I'll speak of her no more, nor of your
children;
[p]I'll not remember you of my own lord,
[p]Who is lost too:
take your patience to you,
[p]And I'll say nothing.
Leontes : Thou didst speak but well
[p]When most the truth; which I receive much
better
[p]Than to be pitied of thee. Prithee, bring me
[p]To the dead
bodies of my queen and son:
[p]One grave shall be for both: upon them
shall
[p]The causes of their death appear, unto
[p]Our shame
perpetual. Once a day I'll visit
[p]The chapel where they lie, and
tears shed there
[p]Shall be my recreation: so long as nature
[p]Will
bear up with this exercise, so long
[p]I daily vow to use it. Come and
lead me
[p]Unto these sorrows.
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Next: Act 3 - Scene 3
