Being well arriv'd from Delphos, are both landed, Hasting to the court.

1 Lord.

So please you, sir, their speed

Twenty-three days

Hath been beyond account.

Leon.

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
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.
And think upon my bidding.

Leave me;

[Exeunt.

ACT III.

SCENE I. The same. A Street in some Town.

Enter CLEOMENES and DION.

Cleo. The climate's delicate, the air most sweet, Fertile the isle,' the temple much surpassing The common praise it bears.

Dion. I shall report, For most it caught me, the celestial habits (Methinks, I so should term them) and the reverence

The critics have remarked upon what they are pleased to call Shakespeare's blunder in speaking of Delphos as an island. In this, however, he followed Greene, who, being Master of Arts in both the Universities, would hardly be suspected of blundering in his geography.

H

Of the grave wearers. O, the sacrifice!
How ceremonious, solemn, and unearthly
It was i'the offering!

Cleo.

But, of all, the burst

And the ear-deafening voice o’the oracle,
Kin to Jove's thunder, so surpris'd my sense,

That I was nothing.

If the event o'the journey

Dion.
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.2

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

SCENE II. The same. A Court of Justice.

Enter LEONTES, Lords, and Officers.

Leon. 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

2 That is, the event of our journey will recompense us for the Thus in Florio's Translation of Montaigue saying is, the time we live is worth the

time we spent in it. 1603: The common money we pay for it."

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.1 Enter HERMIONE guarded; PAULINA and Ladies attending.

Leon. 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 pretence3 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 receiv'd.

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

1 Even in the sense of equally or indifferently

In the original silence is printed as a stage-direction: in modern editions it is given as a part of the text. We agree with Mr. Collier that the word was probably meant to mark the impressive stillness wijch ought to be kept on the stage at the entrance of the Queen.

3

H.

So

Shakespeare often uses pretence for design or intention. in Macbeth Against the undivulg'd pretence I fight of treasonous malice."

66

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 devis'd,

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

5

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

6

Have strain'd, t' 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."

Own, possess.

I prize my life no more than I value grief, which I would willingly spare.

• Encounter so uncurrent is unallowed or unlawful meeting. Strain'd means swerv'd or gone astray from the line of duty. So in Romeo and Juliet: "Nor aught so good, but strain'd from that fair use, revolts." To appear thus is to seem guilty.

7 It is to be observed that originally in our language, two neg atives did not affirm, but only strengthen the negation. Examples of s milar phraseology occur in several of our author's plays, and

Her.

That's true enough;

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

Leon. You will not own it.

Her.

More than mistress of,

Which comes to me in name of fault, I must not

At all acknowledge. For Polixenes,

(With wh. m I am accus'd,) I do confess
I lov'd him, as in honour he requir'd ;
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,

8

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,

even in the first act of this very drama: in this passage, according to the present use of words, less should be more, or wanted should be had.

To stand within the level of a gun is to stand in a direct line with its mouth.