It came to us, I do in justice charge thee,
On thy foul's peril and thy body's torture,
That thou commend it to some stranger place,
Where chance may nurse or end it. Take it up.

Ant. I swear to do this; tho' 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,
(Cafting their savageness afide) have done
Like offices of pity. Sir, be profperous
In more than this deed does require! and blessing

Against this cruelty fight on thy fide,

Poor thing condemn'd to loss!

Leo. No; I'll not rear

[Exit with the Child.

Another's ifssue.

Enter a Meffenger.

Mef. Please your Highness, posts

From those you sent to th' Oracle, are come
An hour since. Cleomines and Dion,
Being well arriv'd from Delphos, are both landed,
Hafting to th' Court.

Lord. So please you, Sir, their speed

Hath been beyond account.

Leo. Twenty three days

They have been absent: this good speed foretels
The great Apollo fuddenly will have

The truth of this appear. Prepare you, Lords,
Summon a feffion, that we may arraign
Our most disloyal Lady; for as the hath
Been publickly accus'd, so shall she have
A just and open tryal. While she lives,
My heart will be a burthen to me. Leave me,
And think upon my bidding.

[Exeunt Severally.

ACT III. SCENE I.

A Part of Sicily.

Enter Cleomines and Dion.

'HE climate's delicate, the air most sweet,
Fertile the foil, the temple much surpaffing

Cle.

T

The common praise it bears.

!

Dion. I shall report,

For most they caught me, the celestial habits,
Methinks I so should term them, and the reverence
Of the grave wearers. O, the sacrifice;

How ceremonious, folemn, and unearthly

It was i'th' offering!

Cleo. But of all, the burst
And the ear-deafning voice o'th' Oracle,
Kin to Jove's thunder, so surpris'd my sense
That I was nothing.

Dion. If th' event o'th' journey
Prove as successful to the Queen (O be't so!)
As it hath been to us rare, pleasant, speedy;
The use is worth the time on't.

Cle. Great Apollo,

Turn all to th' 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: fomething rare

i

Even then will rush to knowledge. Go; fresh horses.

And gracious be the issue!

[Excunt.

SCENE II. A Court of Justice.
Leontes, Lords, and Officers, appear properly feated.
Leo. This session, to our great grief, we pronounce,
Even pushes 'gainst our heart. The party try'd,
The daughter of a King, our wife, and one
Of us too much belov'd'; let us be clear'd
Of being tyrannous, fince we so openly
Proceed in justice, which shall have due course,
Even to the guilt, or the purgation.
Produce the prifoner.

Offi. It is his Highness' pleasure, that the Queen
Appear in person here in Court. Silence!

Hermione is brought in guarded; Paulina and Ladies.
Leo. Read the indictment.

Offi. Hermione, Queen to the worthy Leontes, King of Sicilia, thou art bere accused and arraigned of bigb treason,

in

in committing adultery with Polixenes King of Bithynia, and confpiring with Camillo to take away the life of our fowe reign Lord the King, thy royal husband; the pretence awbereof being by circumstances partly laid open, thou, Hermione, com trary to the faith and allegiance of a true subject, didft coun fel 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 accufation, and
The teftimony on my part no other
But what comes from my self, it shall scarce boot me
To fay, not guilty: mine integrity
Being counted falfhood, shall, as I express it,
Be so receiv'd. But thus: if powers divinė
Behold our human actions, as they do,
I doubt not then but innocence shall make
False accusations blush, and tyranny
Tremble at patience. You, my Lord, best know,
Who least will feem to do so, my paft life
Hath been as continent, as chafte, as true,
As I am now unhappy; which is more
Than history can pattern, tho' devis'd
And play'd to take spectators. For behold me
A fellow of the royal bed, which owe.
A moiety of the throne, a great King's daughter,
The mother to a hopeful Prince, here standing
To prate and talk for life and honour, 'fore
Who please to come and hear. For life, I prize it
As I weigh grief which I would fpare: for honour,
*Tis a derivative from me to mine,
And only that I stand for. I appeal
To your own confcience, Sir, before Polixenes
Came to your Court, how I was in your grace,
How merited to be so since he came,
With what encounter so uncurrant have
I ftrain'd t'appear thus? if one jot beyond
The bounds of honour, or in act or will
That way enclining, hardned be the hearts
Of all that hear me, and my near'st of kin
Cry fie upon my grave!

:

F

Leo. I ne'er heard yet

That any of those bolder vices wanted
Less impudence to gain-say what they did

Than to perform it firft.

Her. That's true enough,

Tho' 'tis a saying, Sir, not due to me.
Leo. You will not own it.

६

Her. More than I'm mistress of,
Which comes to me in name of fault, I must not

At all acknowledge. For Prolixenes,
With whom I am accus'd, I do confess
I lov'd him, as in honour he requir'd;
With such a kind of love, as might become
A Lady like me; with a love, even such,
So and no other, as your self commanded
Which not to have done, I think had been in me
Both disobedience and ingratitude

To you, and towards your friend; whose love had spoke,
Even fince it could speak, from an infant, freely,
That it was yours. Now for conspiracy,
I know not how it tastes, tho' it be dish'd
For me to try how; all I know of it,
Is, that Camillo was an honest man;
And why he left your Court, the Gods themselves,
Wotting no more than I, are ignorant.

Leo. You knew of his departure, as you know
What you have underta'en to do in's absence.
Her. Sir,

You speak a language that I understand not;
My life stands in the level of your dreams,
Which I'll lay down.

Leo. Your actions are my dreams.
You had a bastard by Polixenes,

And I but dream'd it: as you are past all shame,
(Those of your fact are) so you're past all truth;
Which to deny concerns more than avails:
For as thy brat's cast out, like to it felf,
No father owning it, (which is indeed
More criminal in thee than it) so thou
Shalt feel our justice, in whose easiest passage
Look for no less than death,

1

:

Her.

Her. Sir, spare your threats;

The bug which you would fright me with I feeks
To me can life be no commodity;

The crown and comfort of my life, your favour,
I do give lost, for I do feel it gone,
But know not how it went. My second joy,
The first-fruits of my body, from his presence
I'm barr'd like one infectious. My third comfort,
Starr'd most unluckily, is from my breaft
(The innocent milk in its most innocent mouth)
Hal'd out to murder; my self on every poft
Proclaim'd a strumpet with immodest hatred;
The child-bed privilege deny'd which 'longs
To women of all fashion: lastly, hurried
Here to this place, i'th' open air, before
I have got strength of limbs. And now, my Liege,
Tell me what bleifings I have here alive,
That I should fear to die? therefore proceed :
But yet hear this; mistake me not; no! life,
I prize it not a straw, but for mine honour
Which I would free; if I shall be condemn'd
Upon furmises, all proofs fleeping elfe

But what your jealoufies awake, I tell you
'Tis rigour and not law. Your honours all,

I do refer me to the Oracle:

Apollo be

my judge.

SCENE

III. Enter Dion and Cleomines.

Lord. This your request

Is altogether just; therefore bring forth,

And in Apollo's name, his Oracle.

Her. The Emperor of Rufia was my father,

Oh that he were alive, and here beholding
His daughter's tryal; that he did but fee
The flatness of my mifery; yet with eyes
Of pity, not revenge!

:

Offi. You here shall swear upon the fword of justice,
That you, Cleomines and Dion, have
Been both at Delphos, and from thence have brought

This seal'd-up Oracle, by the hand deliver'd

Of great Apollo's Prieft; and that fince then

You

V