Kin to Jove's thunder, so surprised my sense,

That I was nothing.

Dion.

If the event o' the 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.

Turn all to the best!

Great Apollo

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. A court of Justice.

[Exeunt.

Enter LEONTES, Lords, and Officers.

Leon. This sessions, to our great grief we pro-
nounce,

Even pushes 'gainst our heart: the party tried
The daughter of a king, our wife, and one
Of us too much beloved. 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.

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

14. The time is worth the use on't, has been well spent. The idea implicit in the phrase appears more distinctly in a

ΤΟ

20

ΤΟ

'common saying' quoted by Singer from Florio's Montaigne : 'The time we live is worth the money we pay for it.'

Enter HERMIONE guarded; PAULINA and
Ladies attending.

Leon. Read the indictment.

Off. [Reads] 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.

Her. Since what I am to say must be but that Which contradicts my accusation and

The testimony on my part no other

But what comes from myself, it shall scarce boot me
To say 'not guilty:' mine integrity

Being counted falsehood, shall, as I express it,
Be so received. But thus if powers divine
Behold our human actions, as they do,

I doubt not then but innocence shall make
False accusation blush and tyranny

Tremble at patience. You, my lord, best know,
Who least will seem to do so, my past life
Hath been as continent, as chaste, as true,
As I am now unhappy; which is more
Than history can pattern, though devised

18. pretence, intention.
29 f.
Hermione's speech
borrows several turns from
Bellaria's in Greene. 'If the
devine powers bee privy to
humane actions (as no doubt
they are) I hope my patience

20

30

shall make fortune blushe, and my unspotted life shall staine spiteful discredit.... How I have led my life before Egistus coming, I appeale, Pandosto, to the gods and to thy conscience."

36. which, sc. unhappiness.

And play'd to take spectators. For behold me
A fellow of the royal bed, which owe

A moiety of the throne, a great king's daughter,
The mother to a hopeful prince, here standing
To prate and talk for life and honour 'fore
Who please to come and hear. For life, I prize it
As I weigh grief, which I would spare: for honour,
'Tis a derivative from me to mine,

And only that I stand for. I appeal

To your own conscience, sir, before Polixenes
Came to your court, how I was in your grace,
How merited to be so; since he came,
With what encounter so uncurrent I

Have strain'd to appear thus: if one jot beyond
The bound of honour, or in act or will
That way inclining, harden'd be the hearts
Of all that hear me, and my near'st of kin
Cry fie upon my grave!

Leon.
I ne'er heard yet
That any of these bolder vices wanted
Less impudence to gainsay what they did
Than to perform it first.

Her.

Though 'tis a saying, sir, not due to me.

40

50

That's true enough;

More than mistress of 60

Leon. You will not own it.

Her.

Which comes to me in name of fault, I must not
At all acknowledge. For Polixenes,

50. With what encounter so uncurrent I have strain'd, with what unwarranted behaviour I have offended, that I appear here. Strain'd probably means 'swerved from, done violence to, right.' Johnson conjectured Been strain'd, Collier stray'd.

57. Less, i.e. more; probably

this is a kind of attraction to the notion of 'want.'

60. More than mistress of, etc. The passage is probably corrupt; possibly a line has been omitted. But the meaning intended is clear: I must not in any degree acknowledge faults charged against me further than they are mine.'

་

With whom I am accused, I do confess
I loved him as in honour 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 dish'd
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 's absence.
Her. Sir,

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

Leon.

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

And I but dream'd 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.

70

80

90

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 it 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 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!

First 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

94. commodity, object of desire. IOI. it; see note ii. 3. 178. 103. immodest, passing all bounds.

107. strength of limit, probably the limited or prescribed strength

to be recovered after childbirth before going out.

120. In Greene's romance it is Egistus' (Polixenes') wife who is the daughter of the emperor of Russia.