Imagens das páginas
PDF
ePub

Where chance may nurse or end it. Take it up. Ant. I swear to do this, though a present death Had been more merciful. Come on, poor babe: Some powerful spirit instruct the kites and ra

vens

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!

190

[Exit with the child.

No, I'll not rear

Another's issue.

Enter a Servant.

Please your highness, posts

Serv.

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.

Hath been beyond account.

Leon,

So please you, sir, their speed

Twenty three days

They have been absent: 'tis good speed; foretells

The great Apollo suddenly will have

200

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.
And think upon my bidding.

Leave me,

[Exeunt.

ACT THIRD

SCENE I

A seaport in Sicilia.

Enter Cleomenes and Dion.

Cleo. The climate 's delicate, the air most sweet, Fertile the isle, the temple much surpassing The common praise it bears.

Dion.

I shall report,

For most it caught me, the celestial habits,
Methinks I so should term them, and the rever-

ence

Of the grave wearers. O, the sacrifice!
How ceremonious, solemn and unearthly
It was i' the offering!

Cleo.

But of all, the burst
And the ear-deafening voice o' the oracle,
Kin to Jove's thunder, so surprised my sense,
That I was nothing.

Dion.

If the event o' the journey Prove as successful to the queen,-O be 't so!— As it hath been to us rare, pleasant, speedy,

2. "the isle"; the critics have remarked upon what they are pleased to call Shakespeare's blunder in speaking of Delphos as an island. In this, however, he followed Greene, who, being Master of Arts in both the Universities, would hardly be suspected of blundering in his geography.-H. N. H.

The time is worth the use on 't.

Cleo.

Great Apollo

Turn all to the best! These proclamations
So forcing faults upon Hermione,

I little like.

Dion.

The violent carriage of it
Will clear or end the business: when the oracle,
Thus by Apollo's great divine seal'd up,
Shall the contents discover, something rare 20
Even then will rush to knowledge. Go: fresh
horses!

And gracious be the issue.

[Exeunt.

SCENE II

A court of Justice.

Enter Leontes, Lords, and Officers.

Leon. This sessions, to our great grief we pro

nounce,

Even pushes 'gainst our heart: the party tried
The daughter of a king, our wife, and one
Of us too much beloved. Let us be clear'd
Of being tyrannous, since we so openly
Proceed in justice, which shall have due course,
Even to the guilt or the purgation.
Produce the prisoner.

Off. It is his highness' pleasure that the queen
Appear in person here in court. Silence!

7. "Even" in the sense of equally or indifferently.-H. N. H.

10

Enter Hermione guarded; Paulina and Ladies at-· tending.

Leon. Read the indictment.

Off. [reads] Hermione, queen to the worthy
Leontes, king of Sicilia, thou art here ac-
cused and arraigned of high treason, in com-
mitting adultery with Polixenes, king of
Bohemia, and conspiring with Camillo to
take away the life of our sovereign lord
the king, thy royal husband: the pretense
whereof being by circumstances partly laid
open, thou, Hermione, contrary to the faith 20
and allegiance of a true subject, didst coun-
sel and aid them, for their better safety, to
fly away by night.

Her. Since what I am to say must be but that
Which contradicts my accusation, and

The testimony on my part no other

But what comes from myself, it shall scarce boot me

To say 'not guilty:' mine integrity,

30

Being counted falsehood, shall, as I express it,
Be so received. But thus, if powers divine
Behold our human actions, as they do,

I doubt not then but innocence shall make
False accusation blush, and tyranny

Tremble at patience. You, my lord, best know,

29. Hermione's speech borrows several turns from Bellaria's in Greene. "If the devine powers bee privy to humane actions (as no doubt they are) I hope my patience shall make fortune blushe, and my unspotted life shall staine spiteful discredit. How I have led my life before Egistus coming, I appeale, Pandosto, to the gods and to thy conscience."-C. H. H.

« AnteriorContinuar »