TPTT 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
About the Play
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SCENE III. A room in LEONTES' palace.
Enter LEONTES, ANTIGONUS, Lords, and Servants
LEONTES
      Nor night nor day no rest: it is but weakness
      To bear the matter thus; mere weakness. If
      The cause were not in being,--part o' the cause,
      She the adulteress; for the harlot king
5     Is quite beyond mine arm, out of the blank
      And level of my brain, plot-proof; but she
      I can hook to me: say that she were gone,
      Given to the fire, a moiety of my rest
      Might come to me again. Who's there?
First Servant
10    My lord?
LEONTES
      How does the boy?
First Servant
      He took good rest to-night;
      'Tis hoped his sickness is discharged.
LEONTES
      To see his nobleness!
15    Conceiving the dishonour of his mother,
      He straight declined, droop'd, took it deeply,
      Fasten'd and fix'd the shame on't in himself,
      Threw off his spirit, his appetite, his sleep,
      And downright languish'd. Leave me solely: go,
20    See how he fares.

Exit Servant

      Fie, fie! no thought of him:
      The thought of my revenges that way
      Recoil upon me: in himself too mighty,
      And in his parties, his alliance; let him be
25    Until a time may serve: for present vengeance,
      Take it on her. Camillo and Polixenes
      Laugh at me, make their pastime at my sorrow:
      They should not laugh if I could reach them, nor
      Shall she within my power.
Enter PAULINA, with a child
First Lord
30    You must not enter.
PAULINA
      Nay, rather, good my lords, be second to me:
      Fear you his tyrannous passion more, alas,
      Than the queen's life? a gracious innocent soul,
      More free than he is jealous.
ANTIGONUS
35    That's enough.
Second Servant
      Madam, he hath not slept tonight; commanded
      None should come at him.
PAULINA
      Not so hot, good sir:
      I come to bring him sleep. 'Tis such as you,
40    That creep like shadows by him and do sigh
      At each his needless heavings, such as you
      Nourish the cause of his awaking: I
      Do come with words as medicinal as true,
      Honest as either, to purge him of that humour
45    That presses him from sleep.
LEONTES
      What noise there, ho?
PAULINA
      No noise, my lord; but needful conference
      About some gossips for your highness.
LEONTES
      How!
50    Away with that audacious lady! Antigonus,
      I charged thee that she should not come about me:
      I knew she would.
ANTIGONUS
      I told her so, my lord,
      On your displeasure's peril and on mine,
55    She should not visit you.
LEONTES
      What, canst not rule her?
PAULINA
      From all dishonesty he can: in this,
      Unless he take the course that you have done,
      Commit me for committing honour, trust it,
60    He shall not rule me.
ANTIGONUS
      La you now, you hear:
      When she will take the rein I let her run;
      But she'll not stumble.
PAULINA
      Good my liege, I come;
65    And, I beseech you, hear me, who profess
      Myself your loyal servant, your physician,
      Your most obedient counsellor, yet that dare
      Less appear so in comforting your evils,
      Than such as most seem yours: I say, I come
70    From your good queen.
LEONTES
      Good queen!
PAULINA
      Good queen, my lord,
      Good queen; I say good queen;
      And would by combat make her good, so were I
75    A man, the worst about you.
LEONTES
      Force her hence.
PAULINA
      Let him that makes but trifles of his eyes
      First hand me: on mine own accord I'll off;
      But first I'll do my errand. The good queen,
80    For she is good, hath brought you forth a daughter;
      Here 'tis; commends it to your blessing.
Laying down the child
LEONTES
      Out!
      A mankind witch! Hence with her, out o' door:
      A most intelligencing bawd!
PAULINA
85    Not so:
      I am as ignorant in that as you
      In so entitling me, and no less honest
      Than you are mad; which is enough, I'll warrant,
      As this world goes, to pass for honest.
LEONTES
90    Traitors!
      Will you not push her out? Give her the bastard.
      Thou dotard! thou art woman-tired, unroosted
      By thy dame Partlet here. Take up the bastard;
      Take't up, I say; give't to thy crone.
PAULINA
95    For ever
      Unvenerable be thy hands, if thou
      Takest up the princess by that forced baseness
      Which he has put upon't!
LEONTES
      He dreads his wife.
PAULINA
100   So I would you did; then 'twere past all doubt
      You'ld call your children yours.
LEONTES
      A nest of traitors!
ANTIGONUS
      I am none, by this good light.
PAULINA
      Nor I, nor any
105   But one that's here, and that's himself, for he
      The sacred honour of himself, his queen's,
      His hopeful son's, his babe's, betrays to slander,
      Whose sting is sharper than the sword's;
      and will not--
110   For, as the case now stands, it is a curse
      He cannot be compell'd to't--once remove
      The root of his opinion, which is rotten
      As ever oak or stone was sound.
LEONTES
      A callat
115   Of boundless tongue, who late hath beat her husband
      And now baits me! This brat is none of mine;
      It is the issue of Polixenes:
      Hence with it, and together with the dam
      Commit them to the fire!
PAULINA
120   It is yours;
      And, might we lay the old proverb to your charge,
      So like you, 'tis the worse. Behold, my lords,
      Although the print be little, the whole matter
      And copy of the father, eye, nose, lip,
125   The trick of's frown, his forehead, nay, the valley,
      The pretty dimples of his chin and cheek,
      His smiles,
      The very mould and frame of hand, nail, finger:
      And thou, good goddess Nature, which hast made it
130   So like to him that got it, if thou hast
      The ordering of the mind too, 'mongst all colours
      No yellow in't, lest she suspect, as he does,
      Her children not her husband's!
LEONTES
      A gross hag
135   And, lozel, thou art worthy to be hang'd,
      That wilt not stay her tongue.
ANTIGONUS
      Hang all the husbands
      That cannot do that feat, you'll leave yourself
      Hardly one subject.
LEONTES
140   Once more, take her hence.
PAULINA
      A most unworthy and unnatural lord
      Can do no more.
LEONTES
      I'll ha' thee burnt.
PAULINA
      I care not:
145   It is an heretic that makes the fire,
      Not she which burns in't. I'll not call you tyrant;
      But this most cruel usage of your queen,
      Not able to produce more accusation
      Than your own weak-hinged fancy, something savours
150   Of tyranny and will ignoble make you,
      Yea, scandalous to the world.
LEONTES
      On your allegiance,
      Out of the chamber with her! Were I a tyrant,
      Where were her life? she durst not call me so,
155   If she did know me one. Away with her!
PAULINA
      I pray you, do not push me; I'll be gone.
      Look to your babe, my lord; 'tis yours:
      Jove send her
      A better guiding spirit! What needs these hands?
160   You, that are thus so tender o'er his follies,
      Will never do him good, not one of you.
      So, so: farewell; we are gone.
Exit
LEONTES
      Thou, traitor, hast set on thy wife to this.
      My child? away with't! Even thou, that hast
165   A heart so tender o'er it, take it hence
      And see it instantly consumed with fire;
      Even thou and none but thou. Take it up straight:
      Within this hour bring me word 'tis done,
      And by good testimony, or I'll seize thy life,
170   With what thou else call'st thine. If thou refuse
      And wilt encounter with my wrath, say so;
      The bastard brains with these my proper hands
      Shall I dash out. Go, take it to the fire;
      For thou set'st on thy wife.
ANTIGONUS
175   I did not, sir:
      These lords, my noble fellows, if they please,
      Can clear me in't.
Lords
      We can: my royal liege,
      He is not guilty of her coming hither.
LEONTES
180   You're liars all.
First Lord
      Beseech your highness, give us better credit:
      We have always truly served you, and beseech you
      So to esteem of us, and on our knees we beg,
      As recompense of our dear services
185   Past and to come, that you do change this purpose,
      Which being so horrible, so bloody, must
      Lead on to some foul issue: we all kneel.
LEONTES
      I am a feather for each wind that blows:
      Shall I live on to see this bastard kneel
190   And call me father? better burn it now
      Than curse it then. But be it; let it live.
      It shall not neither. You, sir, come you hither;
      You that have been so tenderly officious
      With Lady Margery, your midwife there,
195   To save this bastard's life,--for 'tis a bastard,
      So sure as this beard's grey,
      --what will you adventure
      To save this brat's life?
ANTIGONUS
      Any thing, my lord,
200   That my ability may undergo
      And nobleness impose: at least thus much:
      I'll pawn the little blood which I have left
      To save the innocent: any thing possible.
LEONTES
      It shall be possible. Swear by this sword
205   Thou wilt perform my bidding.
ANTIGONUS
      I will, my lord.
LEONTES
      Mark and perform it, see'st thou! for the fail
      Of any point in't shall not only be
      Death to thyself but to thy lewd-tongued wife,
210   Whom for this time we pardon. We enjoin thee,
      As thou art liege-man to us, that thou carry
      This female bastard hence and that thou bear it
      To some remote and desert place quite out
      Of our dominions, and that there thou leave it,
215   Without more mercy, to its own protection
      And favour of the climate. As by strange fortune
      It came to us, I do in justice charge thee,
      On thy soul's peril and thy body's torture,
      That thou commend it strangely to some place
220   Where chance may nurse or end it. Take it up.
ANTIGONUS
      I swear to do this, though a present death
      Had been more merciful. Come on, poor babe:
      Some powerful spirit instruct the kites and ravens
      To be thy nurses! Wolves and bears, they say
225   Casting their savageness aside have done
      Like offices of pity. Sir, be prosperous
      In more than this deed does require! And blessing
      Against this cruelty fight on thy side,
      Poor thing, condemn'd to loss!
Exit with the child
LEONTES
230   No, I'll not rear
      Another's issue.
Enter a Servant
Servant
      Please your highness, posts
      From those you sent to the oracle are come
      An hour since: Cleomenes and Dion,
235   Being well arrived from Delphos, are both landed,
      Hasting to the court.
First Lord
      So please you, sir, their speed
      Hath been beyond account.
LEONTES
      Twenty-three days
240   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
245   Been publicly accused, so shall she have
      A just and open trial. While she lives
      My heart will be a burthen to me. Leave me,
      And think upon my bidding.
Exeunt
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