HERMIONE.

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.

LEONTES.

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 adult'ress; I have said with whom:
More, she's a traitor and Camillo is

A federary with her; and one that knows,
What she should shame to know herself
But with her most vile principal, 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.
HERMIONE.

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.

LEONTES.

No; if I mistake

In those foundations which I build upon,
The centre 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
But that he speaks.

HERMIONE.

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!

LEONTES.

HERMIONE.

Shall I be heard?

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;
There is no cause: when you shall know your mistress
Has deserv'd prison, then abound in tears

As I come out; this action 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. LEONTES.

Go, do our bidding: hence.

FIRST LORD.

(Exit Queen, guarded; with Ladies.)

Beseech your highness, call the queen again. ANTIGONUS.

Be certain what you do, sir, lest your justice

Prove violence; in the which three great ones suffer,
Yourself, your queen, your son.

FIRST 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.

ANTIGONUS.

If it prove

She's otherwise, I'll keep my stables where

I lodge my wife; I'll go in couples with her;
Than when I feel and see her no farther trust her;
For every inch of woman in the world,

Ay, every dram of woman's flesh is false,
If she be.

LEONTES.

Hold your peaces.

FIRST LORD.

ANTIGONUS.

Good my lord...

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 him. Be she honour-flaw'd,
I have three daughters; the eldest is eleven;
The second and the third, nine, and some five;
If this prove true, they 'll pay for 't: by mine honour,
I'll geld'em all; fourteen they shall not see,
To bring false generations: they are co-heirs;
And I had rather glib myself than they
Should not produce fair issue.

LEONTES.

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.

ANTIGONUS.

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.

LEONTES.

FIRST LORD.

What! lack I credit?

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 blamed for 't how you might.

LEONTES.

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 a truth like us, inform yourselves
We need no more of your advice: the matter,
The loss, the gain, the ordering on 't, is all
Properly ours.

ANTIGONUS.

And I wish, my liege,

You had only in your silent judgment tried it,
Without more overture.

LEONTES.

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
But only seeing, all other circumstances

Made up to the deed,-doth push on this proceeding:
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: now from the oracle
They will bring all; whose spiritual counsel had,
Shall stop or spur me. Have I done well?
FIRST LORD.

Well done, my lord.

LEONTES.

Though I am satisfied 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 fled hence
Be left her to perform. Come, follow us;
We are to speak in public; for this business
Will raise us all.

ANTIGONUS.(Aside.)

To laughter, as I take it,

If the good truth were known.

(Exeunt.)

SCENE II. A prison. Enter Paulina, a Gentleman, and Attendants.

PAULINA.

The keeper of the prison, call to him;

Let him have knowledge who I am. (Exit Gentleman.)

Good lady,

No court in Europe is too good for thee;
What dost thou then in prison?

(Re-enter Gentleman, with the Gaoler.)

PAULINA.

Here's ado,

To lock up honesty

And honour from the access

Of gentle visitors! Is 't lawful, pray you, To see her women? any of them? Emilia? GAOLER.

So please you, madam,

To put apart these your attendants, I

Shall bring Emilia forth.

PAULINA.

(Re-enter Gaoler, with Emilia.)
Dear gentlewoman,

How fares our gracious lady?

EMILIA.

As well as one so great and so forlorn
May hold together: on her frights and griefs,
Which never tender lady hath borne greater,
She is something before her time deliver❜d.
PAULINA.

A boy? EMILIA.

A daughter; and a goodly babe,