The Winter's Tale

The Winter's Tale

ACT II 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?	5
MAMILLIUS	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?	10
MAMILLIUS	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.	15
Second Lady	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.	35
HERMIONE	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.	40
MAMILLIUS	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?	45
First Lord	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.	70
LEONTES	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?	75
LEONTES	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?	140
HERMIONE	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!	150
	Exit HERMIONE, guarded; with Ladies
First Lord	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.	165
LEONTES	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	Aside
	To laughter, as I take it,
	If the good truth were known.	235
	Exeunt