Leon. I am a feather for each wind that blows:Shall I live on, to see this bastard kneel But, be it; let it live : And call me father? Better burn it now, You, that have been so tenderly officious ture To save this brat's life? Ant. adven Any thing, my lord, That my ability may undergo, And nobleness impose: at least, thus much ; Leon. It shall be possible: Swear by this sword 17, Thou wilt perform my bidding. Ant. I will, my lord. Leon. Mark, and perform it, seest thou; for the fail Of any point in't shall not only be Death to thyself, but to thy lewd-tongu'd wife; 16 Leontes must mean the beard of Antigonus, who had been ordered to approach. He himself tells us that twenty-three years ago he was unbreech'd, of course his age must be under thirty, and his own beard would hardly be gray. Antigonus is afterwards spoken of by the Shepherd as an old gentleman. 17 It was anciently a practice to swear by the cross at the hilt of a sword. On thy soul's peril, and thy body's torture,— In more than this deed does require! and blessing, Poor thing, condemn'd to loss 18 ! Leon. Another's issue. 1 Atten. [Exit, with the Child. No, I'll not rear Please your highness, posts From those you sent to the oracle, are come An hour since: Cleomenes and Dion, Being well arriv'd from Delphos, are both landed, Hasting to the court. 1 Lord. So please you, sir, their speed Twenty-three days Hath been beyond account. Leon. They have been absent: 'Tis good speed; foretells, The truth of this appear. Prepare you, lords; Our most disloyal lady: for, as she hath While she lives, My heart will be a burden to me. And think upon my bidding. Leave me ; [Exeunt. 18 Condemn'd to loss, i. e. to exposure, or to be lost or dropped. Antigonus repeats the word in the third Act: "Poor wretch, That for thy mother's fault art thus expos'd ACT III. SCENE I. Sicilia. A Street in some Town. Dion. Enter CLEOMENES and DION. Cleomenes. HE climate's delicate; the air most sweet; I shall report, For most it caught me, the celestial habits (Methinks, I so should term them), and the reverence 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, That I was nothing. Dion. If the event o'the journey Prove as successful to the queen,-O, be't so !— Cleo. Great Apollo, I little like. 1 Warburton has remarked that the temple of Apollo was at Delphi, which was not an island. But Shakespeare little regarded geographical accuracy. He followed Greene's Dorastus and Faunia, in which it is called the isle of Delphos. There was a temple of Apollo in the isle of Delos. 2 The time is worth the use on't; that is, the event of our journey will recompense us for the time we spent in it. Thus in Florio's Translation of Montaigne, 1603: "The common saying is, the time we live is worth the money we pay for it." 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, Even then will rush to knowledge.—Go,-fresh horses ; And gracious be the issue! [Exeunt. SCENE II. The same. A Court of Justice. LEONTES, Lords, and Officers, appear properly Leon. This sessions (to our great grief, we pro- Even pushes 'gainst our heart: The party tried, Produce the prisoner. Offi. It is his highness' pleasure, that the queen Appear in person here in court.-Silence !a HERMIONE is brought in, guarded; PAULINA and Ladies, attending. Leon. Read the indictment. Offi. Hermione, queen to the worthy Leontes, king of Sicilia, thou art here accused and arraigned of high treason, in committing 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 a The word Silence is printed as a stage-direction in the first pretence1 whereof being by circumstances partly laid open, thou, Hermione, contrary to the faith and allegiance of a true subject, didst counsel 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 Being counted falsehood, shall, as I express it, I doubt not then, but innocence shall make Tremble at patience.-You, my lord, best know A moiety of the throne, a great king's daughter, 1 The pretence, i. e. the design. Shakespeare often used the word for design or intention. So in The Two Gentlemen of Verona: "publisher of this pretence." And in Macbeth : will "Against the undivulg'd pretence I fight Of treason's malice." 2 i. e. my virtue being accounted wickedness, my assertion of it I prize my life no more than I value grief, which I would willingly spare. The succeeding sentiment, which is probably derived from Ecclesiasticus iii. 11, cannot be too often impressed on the female mind: "The glory of a man is from the honour of his father; and a mother in dishonour is a reproach to her children." |