The Winter's Tale: ACT II , SCENE I. A room in LEONTES' palace.

The Winter's Tale: ACT II


	Introduction

	ACT I

	ACT II

		SCENE I. A room in LEONTES' palace.

		SCENE II. A prison.

		SCENE III. A room in LEONTES' palace.

	ACT III

	ACT IV

	ACT V

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SCENE I. A room in LEONTES' palace.

Enter HERMIONE, MAMILLIUS, and Ladies

HERMIONE

Take the boy to you: he so troubles me,
'Tis past enduring.

First Lady

Come, my gracious lord,
Shall I be your playfellow?

MAMILLIUS

5 No, I'll none of you.

First Lady

Why, my sweet lord?

MAMILLIUS

You'll kiss me hard and speak to me as if
I were a baby still. I love you better.

Second Lady

And why so, my lord?

MAMILLIUS

10    Not for because
      Your brows are blacker; yet black brows, they say,
      Become some women best, so that there be not
      Too much hair there, but in a semicircle
      Or a half-moon made with a pen.

Second Lady

15 Who taught you this?

MAMILLIUS

I learnt it out of women's faces. Pray now
What colour are your eyebrows?

First Lady

Blue, my lord.

MAMILLIUS

Nay, that's a mock: I have seen a lady's nose
20 That has been blue, but not her eyebrows.

First Lady

      Hark ye;
      The queen your mother rounds apace: we shall
      Present our services to a fine new prince
      One of these days; and then you'ld wanton with us,
25    If we would have you.

Second Lady

She is spread of late
Into a goodly bulk: good time encounter her!

HERMIONE

      What wisdom stirs amongst you? Come, sir, now
      I am for you again: pray you, sit by us,
30    And tell 's a tale.

MAMILLIUS

Merry or sad shall't be?

HERMIONE

As merry as you will.

MAMILLIUS

A sad tale's best for winter: I have one
Of sprites and goblins.

HERMIONE

35    Let's have that, good sir.
      Come on, sit down: come on, and do your best
      To fright me with your sprites; you're powerful at it.

MAMILLIUS

There was a man--

HERMIONE

Nay, come, sit down; then on.

MAMILLIUS

40 Dwelt by a churchyard: I will tell it softly;
Yond crickets shall not hear it.

HERMIONE

Come on, then,
And give't me in mine ear.

Enter LEONTES, with ANTIGONUS, Lords and others

LEONTES

Was he met there? his train? Camillo with him?

First Lord

45    Behind the tuft of pines I met them; never
      Saw I men scour so on their way: I eyed them
      Even to their ships.

LEONTES

      How blest am I
      In my just censure, in my true opinion!
50    Alack, for lesser knowledge! how accursed
      In being so blest! There may be in the cup
      A spider steep'd, and one may drink, depart,
      And yet partake no venom, for his knowledge
      Is not infected: but if one present
55    The abhorr'd ingredient to his eye, make known
      How he hath drunk, he cracks his gorge, his sides,
      With violent hefts. I have drunk,
      and seen the spider.
      Camillo was his help in this, his pander:
60    There is a plot against my life, my crown;
      All's true that is mistrusted: that false villain
      Whom I employ'd was pre-employ'd by him:
      He has discover'd my design, and I
      Remain a pinch'd thing; yea, a very trick
65    For them to play at will. How came the posterns
      So easily open?

First Lord

      By his great authority;
      Which often hath no less prevail'd than so
      On your command.

LEONTES

70    I know't too well.
      Give me the boy: I am glad you did not nurse him:
      Though he does bear some signs of me, yet you
      Have too much blood in him.

HERMIONE

What is this? sport?

LEONTES

75    Bear the boy hence; he shall not come about her;
      Away with him! and let her sport herself
      With that she's big with; for 'tis Polixenes
      Has made thee swell thus.

HERMIONE

      But I'ld say he had not,
80    And I'll be sworn you would believe my saying,
      Howe'er you lean to the nayward.

LEONTES

      You, my lords,
      Look on her, mark her well; be but about
      To say 'she is a goodly lady,' and
85    The justice of your bearts will thereto add
      'Tis pity she's not honest, honourable:'
      Praise her but for this her without-door form,
      Which on my faith deserves high speech, and straight
      The shrug, the hum or ha, these petty brands
90    That calumny doth use--O, I am out--
      That mercy does, for calumny will sear
      Virtue itself: these shrugs, these hums and ha's,
      When you have said 'she's goodly,' come between
      Ere you can say 'she's honest:' but be 't known,
95    From him that has most cause to grieve it should be,
      She's an adulteress.

HERMIONE

      Should a villain say so,
      The most replenish'd villain in the world,
      He were as much more villain: you, my lord,
100   Do but mistake.

LEONTES

      You have mistook, my lady,
      Polixenes for Leontes: O thou thing!
      Which I'll not call a creature of thy place,
      Lest barbarism, making me the precedent,
105   Should a like language use to all degrees
      And mannerly distinguishment leave out
      Betwixt the prince and beggar: I have said
      She's an adulteress; I have said with whom:
      More, she's a traitor and Camillo is
110   A federary with her, and one that knows
      What she should shame to know herself
      But with her most vile principal, that she's
      A bed-swerver, even as bad as those
      That vulgars give bold'st titles, ay, and privy
115   To this their late escape.

HERMIONE

      No, by my life.
      Privy to none of this. How will this grieve you,
      When you shall come to clearer knowledge, that
      You thus have publish'd me! Gentle my lord,
120   You scarce can right me throughly then to say
      You did mistake.

LEONTES

      No; if I mistake
      In those foundations which I build upon,
      The centre is not big enough to bear
125   A school-boy's top. Away with her! to prison!
      He who shall speak for her is afar off guilty
      But that he speaks.

HERMIONE

      There's some ill planet reigns:
      I must be patient till the heavens look
130   With an aspect more favourable. Good my lords,
      I am not prone to weeping, as our sex
      Commonly are; the want of which vain dew
      Perchance shall dry your pities: but I have
      That honourable grief lodged here which burns
135   Worse than tears drown: beseech you all, my lords,
      With thoughts so qualified as your charities
      Shall best instruct you, measure me; and so
      The king's will be perform'd!

LEONTES

Shall I be heard?

HERMIONE

140   Who is't that goes with me? Beseech your highness,
      My women may be with me; for you see
      My plight requires it. Do not weep, good fools;
      There is no cause: when you shall know your mistress
      Has deserved prison, then abound in tears
145   As I come out: this action I now go on
      Is for my better grace. Adieu, my lord:
      I never wish'd to see you sorry; now
      I trust I shall. My women, come; you have leave.

LEONTES

Go, do our bidding; hence!

Exit HERMIONE, guarded; with Ladies

First Lord

150 Beseech your highness, call the queen again.

ANTIGONUS

      Be certain what you do, sir, lest your justice
      Prove violence; in the which three great ones suffer,
      Yourself, your queen, your son.

First Lord

      For her, my lord,
155   I dare my life lay down and will do't, sir,
      Please you to accept it, that the queen is spotless
      I' the eyes of heaven and to you; I mean,
      In this which you accuse her.

ANTIGONUS

      If it prove
160   She's otherwise, I'll keep my stables where
      I lodge my wife; I'll go in couples with her;
      Than when I feel and see her no farther trust her;
      For every inch of woman in the world,
      Ay, every dram of woman's flesh is false, If she be.

LEONTES

165 Hold your peaces.

First Lord

Good my lord,--

ANTIGONUS

      It is for you we speak, not for ourselves:
      You are abused and by some putter-on
      That will be damn'd for't; would I knew the villain,
170   I would land-damn him. Be she honour-flaw'd,
      I have three daughters; the eldest is eleven
      The second and the third, nine, and some five;
      If this prove true, they'll pay for't:
      by mine honour,
175   I'll geld 'em all; fourteen they shall not see,
      To bring false generations: they are co-heirs;
      And I had rather glib myself than they
      Should not produce fair issue.

LEONTES

      Cease; no more.
180   You smell this business with a sense as cold
      As is a dead man's nose: but I do see't and feel't
      As you feel doing thus; and see withal
      The instruments that feel.

ANTIGONUS

      If it be so,
185   We need no grave to bury honesty:
      There's not a grain of it the face to sweeten
      Of the whole dungy earth.

LEONTES

What! lack I credit?

First Lord

      I had rather you did lack than I, my lord,
190   Upon this ground; and more it would content me
      To have her honour true than your suspicion,
      Be blamed for't how you might.

LEONTES

      Why, what need we
      Commune with you of this, but rather follow
195   Our forceful instigation? Our prerogative
      Calls not your counsels, but our natural goodness
      Imparts this; which if you, or stupefied
      Or seeming so in skill, cannot or will not
      Relish a truth like us, inform yourselves
200   We need no more of your advice: the matter,
      The loss, the gain, the ordering on't, is all
      Properly ours.

ANTIGONUS

      And I wish, my liege,
      You had only in your silent judgment tried it,
205   Without more overture.

LEONTES

      How could that be?
      Either thou art most ignorant by age,
      Or thou wert born a fool. Camillo's flight,
      Added to their familiarity,
210   Which was as gross as ever touch'd conjecture,
      That lack'd sight only, nought for approbation
      But only seeing, all other circumstances
      Made up to the deed, doth push on this proceeding:
      Yet, for a greater confirmation,
215   For in an act of this importance 'twere
      Most piteous to be wild, I have dispatch'd in post
      To sacred Delphos, to Apollo's temple,
      Cleomenes and Dion, whom you know
      Of stuff'd sufficiency: now from the oracle
220   They will bring all; whose spiritual counsel had,
      Shall stop or spur me. Have I done well?

First Lord

Well done, my lord.

LEONTES

      Though I am satisfied and need no more
      Than what I know, yet shall the oracle
225   Give rest to the minds of others, such as he
      Whose ignorant credulity will not
      Come up to the truth. So have we thought it good
      From our free person she should be confined,
      Lest that the treachery of the two fled hence
230   Be left her to perform. Come, follow us;
      We are to speak in public; for this business
      Will raise us all.

ANTIGONUS

To laughter, as I take it,
235 If the good truth were known.

Exeunt

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