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, In more than this deed does require! And Against this cruelty fight on thy side, 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 Being well arrived from Delphos, are both 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; Our most disloyal lady; for, as she hath Been publicly accused, so shall she have 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, ence Of the grave wearers. O, the sacrifice! Cleo. But of all, the burst 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 I little like. Dion. The violent carriage of it 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 Off. It is his highness' pleasure that the queen 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 Her. Since what I am to say must be but that 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, I doubt not then but innocence shall make 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. |