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

1 Lady.
Come, my gracious lord.
Shall I be your play-fellow?

Mam.
No, I'll none of you.

1 Lady.
Why, my sweet lord?

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

2 Lady.
And why so, my lord?

Mam.
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.

2 Lady.
Who taught you this?

Mam.
I learn'd it out of women's faces.—Pray now
What colour are your eye-brows?

1 Lady.
Blue, my lord.

Mam.
Nay, that's a mock: I have seen a lady's nose
That has been blue, but not her eye-brows.

2 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'd wanton with us,
If we would have you.

2 Lady.
She is spread of late
Into a goodly bulk; Good time encounter her!

Her.
What wisdom stirs amongst you? Come, sir, now
I am for you again: Pray you, sit by us,
And tell us a tale.

Mam.
Merry, or sad, shall it be?

Her.
As merry as you will.

Mam.
A sad tale's best for winter^{4 note}:
I have one of sprights and goblins.

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

Mam.
There was a man,—

Her.
Nay, come, sit down; then on.

Mam.
Dwelt by a church-yard;—I will tell it softly;
Yon crickets shall not hear it.

Her.
Come on then,
And give't me in mine ear. Enter Leontes, Antigonus, Lords, and others.

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

Lord.
Behind the tuft of pines I met them; never
Saw I men scour so on their way: I ey'd them
Even to their ships.

Leo.
How blest am I
In my just censure^{5 note}
? in my true opinion?—

Alack, for lesser knowledge^{6 note}

For them to play at will:—How came the posterns
So easily open?

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

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

Her.
What is this? sport?

Leo.
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.

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

Leo.
You, my lords,
Look on her, mark her well; be but about

To say, she is a goodly lady, and
The justice of your hearts 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,
That calumny doth use:—Oh, I am out,
That mercy does; for calumny will fear
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 it known,
From him that has most cause to grieve it should be,
She's an adultress.

Her.
Should a villain say so,
The most replenish'd villain in the world,
He were as much more villain: you, my lord,
Do but mistake^{9 note}




.

Leo.
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,
Should a like language use to all degrees,
And mannerly distinguishment leave out
Betwixt the prince and beggar!—I have said,
She's an adultress; I have said, with whom:
More, she's a traitor; and Camillo is
A federary with her^{1 note}; and one that knows
What she should shame to know herself,

But with her most vile principal^{2 note}, that she's
A bed-swerver, even as bad as those
That vulgars give bold'st titles; ay, and privy
To this their late escape.

Her.
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,
You scarce can right me throughly then, to say
You did mistake.

Leo.
No; if I mistake^{3 note}

In those foundations which I build upon,
The center is not big enough to bear
A school-boy's top.—Away with her to prison:
He, who shall speak for her, is afar off guilty^{4 note}

Her.
There's some ill planet reigns:
I must be patient, till the heavens look
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 lodg'd here, which burns
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!—

Leo.
Shall I be heard? [To the guards.

Her.
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; [To her ladies.
There is no cause: when you shall know, your mistress
Has deserv'd prison, then abound in tears,
As I come out; this action^{5 note}, 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.

Leo.
Go, do our bidding; hence. [Exit Queen, and Ladies.

Lord.
'Beseech your highness, call the queen again.

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

Lord.
For her, my lord,—
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.

Ant.
If it prove
She's otherwise, I'll keep my stable where^{6 note}

I lodge my wife; I'll go in couples with her;
Than when I feel, and see her, no further trust her;
For every inch of woman in the world,
Ay, every dram of woman's flesh, is false,
If she be.

Leo.
Hold your peaces,

Lord.
Good my lord,—

Ant.
It is for you we speak, not for ourselves:
You are abus'd, and by some putter-on,
That will be damn'd for't; 'would I knew the villain,
I would land-damn^{7 note}

I have three daughters; the eldest is eleven;
The second, and the third, nine, and^{8 note} some five 9Q0462;
If this prove true, they'll pay for't: by mine honour,
I'll geld them all; fourteen they shall not see,
To bring false generations: they are co-heirs;
^{9 note}

Leo.
Cease; no more.
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. [Striking his brows^{1 note}

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

Leo.
What? lack I credit?

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

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

Ant.
And I wish, my liege,
You had only in your silent judgment try'd it,
Without more overture.

Leo.
How could that be?
Either thou art most ignorant by age,
Or thou wert born a fool. Camillo's flight,
Added to their familiarity,
(Which was as gross as ever touch'd conjecture,

That lack'd sight only, nought for approbation^{2 note}
,
But only seeing, all other circumstances
Made up to the deed) do push on this proceeding: 9Q0463
Yet, for a greater confirmation,
(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^{3 note}: Now, from the oracle
They will bring all; whose spiritual counsel had,
Shall stop, or spur me. Have I done well?

Lord.
Well done, my lord.

Leo.
Though I am satisfy'd, and need no more
Than what I know, yet shall the oracle
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 confin'd;
Lest that the treachery of the two^{4 note}, fled hence,
Be left her to perform. Come, follow us;
We are to speak in publick: for this business
Will raise us all.

Ant. [Aside.]
To laughter, as I take it,
If the good truth were known. [Exeunt.

Next section