ACT II
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
 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 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!
 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,
 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
 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 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 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,
 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
 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!
 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,
 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,
 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;
 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
 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
 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,
 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 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 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 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 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
 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--
 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
 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 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,
 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
 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
 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 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:
 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
 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,
 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?
 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
 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,
 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 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 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
 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
 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,
 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,
 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
 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,
 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,
 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
 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
 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 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,
 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
 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
 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]




 THE WINTER'S TALE


ACT III