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The Winter's Tale

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ACT V  SCENE I A room in Leontes' palace. 
[Enter LEONTES, CLEOMENES, DION, PAULINA, and Servants]
CLEOMENESSir, you have done enough, and have perform'd
A saint-like sorrow: no fault could you make,
Which you have not redeem'd; indeed, paid down
More penitence than done trespass: at the last,
Do as the heavens have done, forget your evil;5
With them forgive yourself.
LEONTESWhilst I remember
Her and her virtues, I cannot forget
My blemishes in them, and so still think of
The wrong I did myself; which was so much,10
That heirless it hath made my kingdom and
Destroy'd the sweet'st companion that e'er man
Bred his hopes out of.
PAULINATrue, too true, my lord:
If, one by one, you wedded all the world,15
Or from the all that are took something good,
To make a perfect woman, she you kill'd
Would be unparallel'd.
LEONTESI think so. Kill'd!
She I kill'd! I did so: but thou strikest me20
Sorely, to say I did; it is as bitter
Upon thy tongue as in my thought: now, good now,
Say so but seldom.
CLEOMENESNot at all, good lady:
You might have spoken a thousand things that would25
Have done the time more benefit and graced
Your kindness better.
PAULINAYou are one of those
Would have him wed again.
DIONIf you would not so,30
You pity not the state, nor the remembrance
Of his most sovereign name; consider little
What dangers, by his highness' fail of issue,
May drop upon his kingdom and devour
Incertain lookers on. What were more holy35
Than to rejoice the former queen is well?
What holier than, for royalty's repair,
For present comfort and for future good,
To bless the bed of majesty again
With a sweet fellow to't?40
PAULINAThere is none worthy,
Respecting her that's gone. Besides, the gods
Will have fulfill'd their secret purposes;
For has not the divine Apollo said,
Is't not the tenor of his oracle,45
That King Leontes shall not have an heir
Till his lost child be found? which that it shall,
Is all as monstrous to our human reason
As my Antigonus to break his grave
And come again to me; who, on my life,50
Did perish with the infant. 'Tis your counsel
My lord should to the heavens be contrary,
Oppose against their wills.
[To LEONTES]
Care not for issue;
The crown will find an heir: great Alexander55
Left his to the worthiest; so his successor
Was like to be the best.
LEONTESGood Paulina,
Who hast the memory of Hermione,
I know, in honour, O, that ever I60
Had squared me to thy counsel! then, even now,
I might have look'd upon my queen's full eyes,
Have taken treasure from her lips--
PAULINAAnd left them
More rich for what they yielded.65
LEONTESThou speak'st truth.
No more such wives; therefore, no wife: one worse,
And better used, would make her sainted spirit
Again possess her corpse, and on this stage,
Where we're offenders now, appear soul-vex'd,70
And begin, 'Why to me?'
PAULINAHad she such power,
She had just cause.
LEONTESShe had; and would incense me
To murder her I married.75
PAULINAI should so.
Were I the ghost that walk'd, I'ld bid you mark
Her eye, and tell me for what dull part in't
You chose her; then I'ld shriek, that even your ears
Should rift to hear me; and the words that follow'd80
Should be 'Remember mine.'
LEONTESStars, stars,
And all eyes else dead coals! Fear thou no wife;
I'll have no wife, Paulina.
PAULINAWill you swear85
Never to marry but by my free leave?
LEONTESNever, Paulina; so be blest my spirit!
PAULINAThen, good my lords, bear witness to his oath.
CLEOMENESYou tempt him over-much.
PAULINAUnless another,90
As like Hermione as is her picture,
Affront his eye.
CLEOMENESGood madam,--
PAULINAI have done.
Yet, if my lord will marry,--if you will, sir,95
No remedy, but you will,--give me the office
To choose you a queen: she shall not be so young
As was your former; but she shall be such
As, walk'd your first queen's ghost,
it should take joy100
To see her in your arms.
LEONTESMy true Paulina,
We shall not marry till thou bid'st us.
PAULINAThat
Shall be when your first queen's again in breath;105
Never till then.
[Enter a Gentleman]
GentlemanOne that gives out himself Prince Florizel,
Son of Polixenes, with his princess, she
The fairest I have yet beheld, desires access
To your high presence.110
LEONTESWhat with him? he comes not
Like to his father's greatness: his approach,
So out of circumstance and sudden, tells us
'Tis not a visitation framed, but forced
By need and accident. What train?115
GentlemanBut few,
And those but mean.
LEONTESHis princess, say you, with him?
GentlemanAy, the most peerless piece of earth, I think,
That e'er the sun shone bright on.120
PAULINAO Hermione,
As every present time doth boast itself
Above a better gone, so must thy grave
Give way to what's seen now! Sir, you yourself
Have said and writ so, but your writing now125
Is colder than that theme, 'She had not been,
Nor was not to be equall'd;'--thus your verse
Flow'd with her beauty once: 'tis shrewdly ebb'd,
To say you have seen a better.
GentlemanPardon, madam:130
The one I have almost forgot,--your pardon,--
The other, when she has obtain'd your eye,
Will have your tongue too. This is a creature,
Would she begin a sect, might quench the zeal
Of all professors else, make proselytes135
Of who she but bid follow.
PAULINAHow! not women?
GentlemanWomen will love her, that she is a woman
More worth than any man; men, that she is
The rarest of all women.140
LEONTESGo, Cleomenes;
Yourself, assisted with your honour'd friends,
Bring them to our embracement. Still, 'tis strange
[Exeunt CLEOMENES and others]
He thus should steal upon us.
PAULINAHad our prince,145
Jewel of children, seen this hour, he had pair'd
Well with this lord: there was not full a month
Between their births.
LEONTESPrithee, no more; cease; thou know'st
He dies to me again when talk'd of: sure,150
When I shall see this gentleman, thy speeches
Will bring me to consider that which may
Unfurnish me of reason. They are come.
[Re-enter CLEOMENES and others, with FLORIZEL and PERDITA]
Your mother was most true to wedlock, prince;
For she did print your royal father off,155
Conceiving you: were I but twenty-one,
Your father's image is so hit in you,
His very air, that I should call you brother,
As I did him, and speak of something wildly
By us perform'd before. Most dearly welcome!160
And your fair princess,--goddess!--O, alas!
I lost a couple, that 'twixt heaven and earth
Might thus have stood begetting wonder as
You, gracious couple, do: and then I lost--
All mine own folly--the society,165
Amity too, of your brave father, whom,
Though bearing misery, I desire my life
Once more to look on him.
FLORIZELBy his command
Have I here touch'd Sicilia and from him170
Give you all greetings that a king, at friend,
Can send his brother: and, but infirmity
Which waits upon worn times hath something seized
His wish'd ability, he had himself
The lands and waters 'twixt your throne and his175
Measured to look upon you; whom he loves--
He bade me say so--more than all the sceptres
And those that bear them living.
LEONTESO my brother,
Good gentleman! the wrongs I have done thee stir180
Afresh within me, and these thy offices,
So rarely kind, are as interpreters
Of my behind-hand slackness. Welcome hither,
As is the spring to the earth. And hath he too
Exposed this paragon to the fearful usage,185
At least ungentle, of the dreadful Neptune,
To greet a man not worth her pains, much less
The adventure of her person?
FLORIZELGood my lord,
She came from Libya.190
LEONTESWhere the warlike Smalus,
That noble honour'd lord, is fear'd and loved?
FLORIZELMost royal sir, from thence; from him, whose daughter
His tears proclaim'd his, parting with her: thence,
A prosperous south-wind friendly, we have cross'd,195
To execute the charge my father gave me
For visiting your highness: my best train
I have from your Sicilian shores dismiss'd;
Who for Bohemia bend, to signify
Not only my success in Libya, sir,200
But my arrival and my wife's in safety
Here where we are.
LEONTESThe blessed gods
Purge all infection from our air whilst you
Do climate here! You have a holy father,205
A graceful gentleman; against whose person,
So sacred as it is, I have done sin:
For which the heavens, taking angry note,
Have left me issueless; and your father's blest,
As he from heaven merits it, with you210
Worthy his goodness. What might I have been,
Might I a son and daughter now have look'd on,
Such goodly things as you!
[Enter a Lord]
LordMost noble sir,
That which I shall report will bear no credit,215
Were not the proof so nigh. Please you, great sir,
Bohemia greets you from himself by me;
Desires you to attach his son, who has--
His dignity and duty both cast off--
Fled from his father, from his hopes, and with220
A shepherd's daughter.
LEONTESWhere's Bohemia? speak.
LordHere in your city; I now came from him:
I speak amazedly; and it becomes
My marvel and my message. To your court225
Whiles he was hastening, in the chase, it seems,
Of this fair couple, meets he on the way
The father of this seeming lady and
Her brother, having both their country quitted
With this young prince.230
FLORIZELCamillo has betray'd me;
Whose honour and whose honesty till now
Endured all weathers.
LordLay't so to his charge:
He's with the king your father.235
LEONTESWho? Camillo?
LordCamillo, sir; I spake with him; who now
Has these poor men in question. Never saw I
Wretches so quake: they kneel, they kiss the earth;
Forswear themselves as often as they speak:240
Bohemia stops his ears, and threatens them
With divers deaths in death.
PERDITAO my poor father!
The heaven sets spies upon us, will not have
Our contract celebrated.245
LEONTESYou are married?
FLORIZELWe are not, sir, nor are we like to be;
The stars, I see, will kiss the valleys first:
The odds for high and low's alike.
LEONTESMy lord,250
Is this the daughter of a king?
FLORIZELShe is,
When once she is my wife.
LEONTESThat 'once' I see by your good father's speed
Will come on very slowly. I am sorry,255
Most sorry, you have broken from his liking
Where you were tied in duty, and as sorry
Your choice is not so rich in worth as beauty,
That you might well enjoy her.
FLORIZELDear, look up:260
Though Fortune, visible an enemy,
Should chase us with my father, power no jot
Hath she to change our loves. Beseech you, sir,
Remember since you owed no more to time
Than I do now: with thought of such affections,265
Step forth mine advocate; at your request
My father will grant precious things as trifles.
LEONTESWould he do so, I'ld beg your precious mistress,
Which he counts but a trifle.
PAULINASir, my liege,270
Your eye hath too much youth in't: not a month
'Fore your queen died, she was more worth such gazes
Than what you look on now.
LEONTESI thought of her,
Even in these looks I made.275
[To FLORIZEL]
But your petition
Is yet unanswer'd. I will to your father:
Your honour not o'erthrown by your desires,
I am friend to them and you: upon which errand
I now go toward him; therefore follow me280
And mark what way I make: come, good my lord.
[Exeunt]

Next: The Winter's Tale, Act 5, Scene 2
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