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.

Herm. 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
And play'd to take spectators: for, behold me,-
A fellow of the royal bed, which owe 3

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

2 Shakespeare often uses pretence for design or intention. The usage

was common. See Macbeth, page 93, note 52.

3 Owe and own are but different forms of the same word,

As I weigh grief, which I would spare: 4 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,5 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."

Herm.

That's true enough;

4" I prize my life no more than I value grief, which I would willingly be rid of, or free from."

5 Encounter was formerly used for any sort of meeting or intercourse; and uncurrent must here be taken in the sense of unlawful or unallowable; that which has not the stamp of moral currency. — Strain'd, if it be the right word, is no doubt used here in the same sense as the substantive strain in The Merry Wives, ii. 1: "Unless he know some strain in me, that I know not myself, he would never have boarded me in this fury." Also in iii. 3: "I would all of the same strain were in the same distress." Here strain evidently means some native streak, vicious trait, or inborn aptness to evil. So that the meaning in the text apparently is, "I appeal to your own conscience to specify by what improper act of intimacy, since he came, I have so far evinced an innate streak of evil, as to seem guilty of the sin you charge me with."- For this explanation I am mainly indebted to Mr. Joseph Crosby. See Critical Notes.

6 The sense is somewhat entangled here; the construction being such as to leave it uncertain whether less is an adverb qualifying wanted or an adjective qualifying impudence. But less is doubtless to be taken in the latter

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

Leon. You will not own it.

Herm.

More than mistress of

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

At all acknowledge. For Polixenes,

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've underta'en to do in's absence.

Herm.

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:

way; so that the meaning comes thus: "I never heard that those who had impudence enough to be guilty of these bolder vices wanted the less impudence necessary for denying them."

7 Level, again, as a term in gunnery for range or line of aim. The phrase, "I levelled at him," is still in use for "I aimed at him." See page 75, note 1.

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, left to itself,

No father owning it,

which is, indeed,

so thou

More criminal in thee than it,

Shall feel our justice; in whose easiest passage
Look for no less than death.

Herm.

8

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'm barr'd, like one infectious: my third comfort,
Starr'd most unluckily, 10 is from my breast,
The innocent milk in its most innocent mouth,
Haled out to murder myself on every post
Proclaim'd a harlot; 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

8 ་ Whose easiest passage" is whose lightest sentence; whose referring to justice. "Death is the mildest sentence that justice can pass upon you."

9 The old meaning of bug survives in our bugbear. The word is Celtic, and properly signifies a ghost, goblin, or any thing that causes "terror by night." So, in Psalm xci. 5, Mathew's Bible, 1537, has "Thou shalt not be afraid for the bug by night." Here our authorized version reads "Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night."

10 Ill-starred; born under an inauspicious planet.

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: My 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!

I Lord.

This your request

Is altogether just : — therefore, bring forth,

And in Apollo's name, his oracle. [Exeunt certain Officers.
Herm. 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!

Re-enter Officers, with CLEOMENES and DION.

1 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 th' hand deliver'd

Of great Apollo's priest; and that, since then,

You have not dared to break the holy seal,

11 "Strength of limit" is explained by Mason "the limited degree of strength necessary for persons in my situation." I suspect, however, that of is merely equivalent here to by; as the prepositions by, of, and with were often used indiscriminately. This would make the sense to be," before I have got strength by seclusion."

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