The Winter's Tale by William Shakespeare
Act 5 - Scene 3
A chapel in PAULINA’S house.
Leontes : O grave and good Paulina, the great comfort
[p]That I have had of
thee!
Paulina : What, sovereign sir,
[p]I did not well I meant well. All my
services
[p]You have paid home: but that you have vouchsafed,
[p]With
your crown'd brother and these your contracted
[p]Heirs of your
kingdoms, my poor house to visit,
[p]It is a surplus of your grace,
which never
[p]My life may last to answer.
Leontes : O Paulina,
[p]We honour you with trouble: but we came
[p]To see the
statue of our queen: your gallery
[p]Have we pass'd through, not
without much content
[p]In many singularities; but we saw not
[p]That
which my daughter came to look upon,
[p]The statue of her mother.
Paulina : As she lived peerless,
[p]So her dead likeness, I do well
believe,
[p]Excels whatever yet you look'd upon
[p]Or hand of man hath
done; therefore I keep it
[p]Lonely, apart. But here it is:
prepare
[p]To see the life as lively mock'd as ever
[p]Still sleep
mock'd death: behold, and say 'tis well.
[p][PAULINA draws a curtain,
and discovers HERMIONE]
[p]standing like a statue]
[p]I like your
silence, it the more shows off
[p]Your wonder: but yet speak; first,
you, my liege,
[p]Comes it not something near?
Leontes : Her natural posture!
[p]Chide me, dear stone, that I may say
indeed
[p]Thou art Hermione; or rather, thou art she
[p]In thy not
chiding, for she was as tender
[p]As infancy and grace. But yet,
Paulina,
[p]Hermione was not so much wrinkled, nothing
[p]So aged as
this seems.
Polixenes : O, not by much.
Paulina : So much the more our carver's excellence;
[p]Which lets go by some
sixteen years and makes her
[p]As she lived now.
Leontes : As now she might have done,
[p]So much to my good comfort, as it
is
[p]Now piercing to my soul. O, thus she stood,
[p]Even with such
life of majesty, warm life,
[p]As now it coldly stands, when first I
woo'd her!
[p]I am ashamed: does not the stone rebuke me
[p]For being
more stone than it? O royal piece,
[p]There's magic in thy majesty,
which has
[p]My evils conjured to remembrance and
[p]From thy admiring
daughter took the spirits,
[p]Standing like stone with thee.
Perdita : And give me leave,
[p]And do not say 'tis superstition, that
[p]I
kneel and then implore her blessing. Lady,
[p]Dear queen, that ended
when I but began,
[p]Give me that hand of yours to kiss.
Paulina : O, patience!
[p]The statue is but newly fix'd, the colour's Not dry.
Camillo : My lord, your sorrow was too sore laid on,
[p]Which sixteen winters
cannot blow away,
[p]So many summers dry; scarce any joy
[p]Did ever
so long live; no sorrow
[p]But kill'd itself much sooner.
Polixenes : Dear my brother,
[p]Let him that was the cause of this have
power
[p]To take off so much grief from you as he
[p]Will piece up in
himself.
Paulina : Indeed, my lord,
[p]If I had thought the sight of my poor
image
[p]Would thus have wrought you,--for the stone is mine--
[p]I'ld
not have show'd it.
Leontes : Do not draw the curtain.
Paulina : No longer shall you gaze on't, lest your fancy
[p]May think anon it
moves.
Leontes : Let be, let be.
[p]Would I were dead, but that, methinks,
already--
[p]What was he that did make it? See, my lord,
[p]Would you
not deem it breathed? and that those veins
[p]Did verily bear blood?
Polixenes : Masterly done:
[p]The very life seems warm upon her lip.
Leontes : The fixture of her eye has motion in't,
[p]As we are mock'd with art.
Paulina : I'll draw the curtain:
[p]My lord's almost so far transported
that
[p]He'll think anon it lives.
Leontes : O sweet Paulina,
[p]Make me to think so twenty years together!
[p]No
settled senses of the world can match
[p]The pleasure of that madness.
Let 't alone.
Paulina : I am sorry, sir, I have thus far stirr'd you: but
[p]I could afflict
you farther.
Leontes : Do, Paulina;
[p]For this affliction has a taste as sweet
[p]As any
cordial comfort. Still, methinks,
[p]There is an air comes from her:
what fine chisel
[p]Could ever yet cut breath? Let no man mock
me,
[p]For I will kiss her.
Paulina : Good my lord, forbear:
[p]The ruddiness upon her lip is wet;
[p]You'll
mar it if you kiss it, stain your own
[p]With oily painting. Shall I
draw the curtain?
Leontes : No, not these twenty years.
Perdita : So long could I
[p]Stand by, a looker on.
Paulina : Either forbear,
[p]Quit presently the chapel, or resolve you
[p]For
more amazement. If you can behold it,
[p]I'll make the statue move
indeed, descend
[p]And take you by the hand; but then you'll
think--
[p]Which I protest against--I am assisted
[p]By wicked
powers.
Leontes : What you can make her do,
[p]I am content to look on: what to
speak,
[p]I am content to hear; for 'tis as easy
[p]To make her speak
as move.
Paulina : It is required
[p]You do awake your faith. Then all stand
still;
[p]On: those that think it is unlawful business
[p]I am about,
let them depart.
Leontes : Proceed:
[p]No foot shall stir.
Paulina : Music, awake her; strike!
[p][Music]
[p]'Tis time; descend; be stone
no more; approach;
[p]Strike all that look upon with marvel.
Come,
[p]I'll fill your grave up: stir, nay, come away,
[p]Bequeath to
death your numbness, for from him
[p]Dear life redeems you. You
perceive she stirs:
[p][HERMIONE comes down]
[p]Start not; her actions
shall be holy as
[p]You hear my spell is lawful: do not shun
her
[p]Until you see her die again; for then
[p]You kill her double.
Nay, present your hand:
[p]When she was young you woo'd her; now in
age
[p]Is she become the suitor?
Leontes : O, she's warm!
[p]If this be magic, let it be an art
[p]Lawful as
eating.
Polixenes : She embraces him.
Camillo : She hangs about his neck:
[p]If she pertain to life let her speak
too.
Polixenes : Ay, and make't manifest where she has lived,
[p]Or how stolen from the
dead.
Paulina : That she is living,
[p]Were it but told you, should be hooted
at
[p]Like an old tale: but it appears she lives,
[p]Though yet she
speak not. Mark a little while.
[p]Please you to interpose, fair
madam: kneel
[p]And pray your mother's blessing. Turn, good
lady;
[p]Our Perdita is found.
Hermione : You gods, look down
[p]And from your sacred vials pour your
graces
[p]Upon my daughter's head! Tell me, mine own.
[p]Where hast
thou been preserved? where lived? how found
[p]Thy father's court? for
thou shalt hear that I,
[p]Knowing by Paulina that the oracle
[p]Gave
hope thou wast in being, have preserved
[p]Myself to see the issue.
Paulina : There's time enough for that;
[p]Lest they desire upon this push to
trouble
[p]Your joys with like relation. Go together,
[p]You precious
winners all; your exultation
[p]Partake to every one. I, an old
turtle,
[p]Will wing me to some wither'd bough and there
[p]My mate,
that's never to be found again,
[p]Lament till I am lost.
Leontes : O, peace, Paulina!
[p]Thou shouldst a husband take by my
consent,
[p]As I by thine a wife: this is a match,
[p]And made
between's by vows. Thou hast found mine;
[p]But how, is to be
question'd; for I saw her,
[p]As I thought, dead, and have in vain
said many
[p]A prayer upon her grave. I'll not seek far--
[p]For him,
I partly know his mind--to find thee
[p]An honourable husband. Come,
Camillo,
[p]And take her by the hand, whose worth and honesty
[p]Is
richly noted and here justified
[p]By us, a pair of kings. Let's from
this place.
[p]What! look upon my brother: both your pardons,
[p]That
e'er I put between your holy looks
[p]My ill suspicion. This is your
son-in-law,
[p]And son unto the king, who, heavens directing,
[p]Is
troth-plight to your daughter. Good Paulina,
[p]Lead us from hence,
where we may leisurely
[p]Each one demand an answer to his
part
[p]Perform'd in this wide gap of time since first
[p]We were
dissever'd: hastily lead away.
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Next: Act 5 - Scene 3
