SCENE I. A Seaport in Sicilia.

Enter CLEOMENES and DION.

Cleomenes. 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

Of the grave wearers. O, the sacrifice!

How ceremonious, solemn, and unearthly

It was i' the offering!

Cleomenes.

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.

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.

Cleomenes.

Great Apollo

Turn all to the best! 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.

Enter LEONTES, Lords, and Officers.

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[Exeunt.

Leontes. 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

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.

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

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Enter HERMIONE guarded; PAULINA and Ladies attending. Leontes. Read the indictment.

Officer. [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.'

Hermione. 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

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,

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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,

what encounter so o uncurrent I

With wha

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!

Leontes.

I ne'er heard yet

That any of these bolder vices wanted

Less impudence to gainsay what they did

Than to perform it first.

Hermione.

That's true enough;

Though 't is a saying, sir, not due to me.

Leontes. You will not own it.

Hermione.

More than mistress of

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

At all acknowledge. For Polixenes,

With whom 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.

Leontes. You knew of his departure, as you know What you have underta'en to do in 's absence.

Hermione. Sir,

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

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Leontes.
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:

Your actions are my dreams;

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
Look for no less than death.

Hermione.

passage

Sir, spare your threats; 90

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 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,
Hal'd out to murther; myself on every post
Proclaim'd 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: for life,

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