The Winter’s Tale
ACT II SCENE III | A room in Leontes’ palace. | |
[Enter LEONTES, ANTIGONUS, Lords, and Servants] | ||
LEONTES | Nor night nor day no rest: it is but weakness | |
To bear the matter thus; mere weakness. If | ||
The cause were not in being,–part o’ the cause, | ||
She the adulteress; for the harlot king | ||
Is quite beyond mine arm, out of the blank | 5 | |
And level of my brain, plot-proof; but she | ||
I can hook to me: say that she were gone, | ||
Given to the fire, a moiety of my rest | ||
Might come to me again. Who’s there? | ||
First Servant | My lord? | 10 |
LEONTES | How does the boy? | |
First Servant | He took good rest to-night; | |
‘Tis hoped his sickness is discharged. | ||
LEONTES | To see his nobleness! | |
Conceiving the dishonour of his mother, | 15 | |
He straight declined, droop’d, took it deeply, | ||
Fasten’d and fix’d the shame on’t in himself, | ||
Threw off his spirit, his appetite, his sleep, | ||
And downright languish’d. Leave me solely: go, | ||
See how he fares. | 20 | |
[Exit Servant] | ||
Fie, fie! no thought of him: | ||
The thought of my revenges that way | ||
Recoil upon me: in himself too mighty, | ||
And in his parties, his alliance; let him be | ||
Until a time may serve: for present vengeance, | 25 | |
Take it on her. Camillo and Polixenes | ||
Laugh at me, make their pastime at my sorrow: | ||
They should not laugh if I could reach them, nor | ||
Shall she within my power. | ||
[Enter PAULINA, with a child] | ||
First Lord | You must not enter. | 30 |
PAULINA | Nay, rather, good my lords, be second to me: | |
Fear you his tyrannous passion more, alas, | ||
Than the queen’s life? a gracious innocent soul, | ||
More free than he is jealous. | ||
ANTIGONUS | That’s enough. | 35 |
Second Servant | Madam, he hath not slept tonight; commanded | |
None should come at him. | ||
PAULINA | Not so hot, good sir: | |
I come to bring him sleep. ‘Tis such as you, | ||
That creep like shadows by him and do sigh | 40 | |
At each his needless heavings, such as you | ||
Nourish the cause of his awaking: I | ||
Do come with words as medicinal as true, | ||
Honest as either, to purge him of that humour | ||
That presses him from sleep. | 45 | |
LEONTES | What noise there, ho? | |
PAULINA | No noise, my lord; but needful conference | |
About some gossips for your highness. | ||
LEONTES | How! | |
Away with that audacious lady! Antigonus, | 50 | |
I charged thee that she should not come about me: | ||
I knew she would. | ||
ANTIGONUS | I told her so, my lord, | |
On your displeasure’s peril and on mine, | ||
She should not visit you. | 55 | |
LEONTES | What, canst not rule her? | |
PAULINA | From all dishonesty he can: in this, | |
Unless he take the course that you have done, | ||
Commit me for committing honour, trust it, | ||
He shall not rule me. | 60 | |
ANTIGONUS | La you now, you hear: | |
When she will take the rein I let her run; | ||
But she’ll not stumble. | ||
PAULINA | Good my liege, I come; | |
And, I beseech you, hear me, who profess | 65 | |
Myself your loyal servant, your physician, | ||
Your most obedient counsellor, yet that dare![]() | ||
Less appear so in comforting your evils, | ||
Than such as most seem yours: I say, I come | ||
From your good queen. | 70 | |
LEONTES | Good queen! | |
PAULINA | Good queen, my lord, | |
Good queen; I say good queen; | ||
And would by combat make her good, so were I | ||
A man, the worst about you. | 75 | |
LEONTES | Force her hence. | |
PAULINA | Let him that makes but trifles of his eyes | |
First hand me: on mine own accord I’ll off; | ||
But first I’ll do my errand. The good queen, | ||
For she is good, hath brought you forth a daughter; | 80 | |
Here ’tis; commends it to your blessing. | ||
[Laying down the child] | ||
LEONTES | Out! | |
A mankind witch! Hence with her, out o’ door: | ||
A most intelligencing bawd! | ||
PAULINA | Not so: | 85 |
I am as ignorant in that as you | ||
In so entitling me, and no less honest | ||
Than you are mad; which is enough, I’ll warrant, | ||
As this world goes, to pass for honest. | ||
LEONTES | Traitors! | 90 |
Will you not push her out? Give her the bastard. | ||
Thou dotard! thou art woman-tired, unroosted | ||
By thy dame Partlet here. Take up the bastard; | ||
Take’t up, I say; give’t to thy crone. | ||
PAULINA | For ever | 95 |
Unvenerable be thy hands, if thou | ||
Takest up the princess by that forced baseness | ||
Which he has put upon’t! | ||
LEONTES | He dreads his wife. | |
PAULINA | So I would you did; then ’twere past all doubt | 100 |
You’ld call your children yours. | ||
LEONTES | A nest of traitors! | |
ANTIGONUS | I am none, by this good light. | |
PAULINA | Nor I, nor any | |
But one that’s here, and that’s himself, for he | 105 | |
The sacred honour of himself, his queen’s, | ||
His hopeful son’s, his babe’s, betrays to slander, | ||
Whose sting is sharper than the sword’s; | ||
and will not– | ||
For, as the case now stands, it is a curse | 110 | |
He cannot be compell’d to’t–once remove | ||
The root of his opinion, which is rotten | ||
As ever oak or stone was sound. | ||
LEONTES | A callat | |
Of boundless tongue, who late hath beat her husband | 115 | |
And now baits me! This brat is none of mine; | ||
It is the issue of Polixenes: | ||
Hence with it, and together with the dam | ||
Commit them to the fire! | ||
PAULINA | It is yours; | 120 |
And, might we lay the old proverb to your charge, | ||
So like you, ’tis the worse. Behold, my lords, | ||
Although the print be little, the whole matter | ||
And copy of the father, eye, nose, lip, | ||
The trick of’s frown, his forehead, nay, the valley, | 125 | |
The pretty dimples of his chin and cheek, | ||
His smiles, | ||
The very mould and frame of hand, nail, finger: | ||
And thou, good goddess Nature, which hast made it | ||
So like to him that got it, if thou hast | 130 | |
The ordering of the mind too, ‘mongst all colours | ||
No yellow in’t, lest she suspect, as he does, | ||
Her children not her husband’s! | ||
LEONTES | A gross hag | |
And, lozel, thou art worthy to be hang’d, | 135 | |
That wilt not stay her tongue. | ||
ANTIGONUS | Hang all the husbands | |
That cannot do that feat, you’ll leave yourself | ||
Hardly one subject. | ||
LEONTES | Once more, take her hence. | 140 |
PAULINA | A most unworthy and unnatural lord | |
Can do no more. | ||
LEONTES | I’ll ha’ thee burnt. | |
PAULINA | I care not: | |
It is an heretic that makes the fire, | 145 | |
Not she which burns in’t. I’ll not call you tyrant; | ||
But this most cruel usage of your queen, | ||
Not able to produce more accusation | ||
Than your own weak-hinged fancy, something savours | ||
Of tyranny and will ignoble make you, | 150 | |
Yea, scandalous to the world. | ||
LEONTES | On your allegiance, | |
Out of the chamber with her! Were I a tyrant, | ||
Where were her life? she durst not call me so, | ||
If she did know me one. Away with her! | 155 | |
PAULINA | I pray you, do not push me; I’ll be gone. | |
Look to your babe, my lord; ’tis yours: | ||
Jove send her | ||
A better guiding spirit! What needs these hands? | ||
You, that are thus so tender o’er his follies, | 160 | |
Will never do him good, not one of you. | ||
So, so: farewell; we are gone. | ||
[Exit] | ||
LEONTES | Thou, traitor, hast set on thy wife to this. | |
My child? away with’t! Even thou, that hast | ||
A heart so tender o’er it, take it hence | 165 | |
And see it instantly consumed with fire; | ||
Even thou and none but thou. Take it up straight: | ||
Within this hour bring me word ’tis done, | ||
And by good testimony, or I’ll seize thy life, | ||
With what thou else call’st thine. If thou refuse | 170 | |
And wilt encounter with my wrath, say so; | ||
The bastard brains with these my proper hands | ||
Shall I dash out. Go, take it to the fire; | ||
For thou set’st on thy wife. | ||
ANTIGONUS | I did not, sir: | 175 |
These lords, my noble fellows, if they please, | ||
Can clear me in’t. | ||
Lords | We can: my royal liege, | |
He is not guilty of her coming hither. | ||
LEONTES | You’re liars all. | 180 |
First Lord | Beseech your highness, give us better credit: | |
We have always truly served you, and beseech you | ||
So to esteem of us, and on our knees we beg, | ||
As recompense of our dear services | ||
Past and to come, that you do change this purpose, | 185 | |
Which being so horrible, so bloody, must | ||
Lead on to some foul issue: we all kneel. | ||
LEONTES | I am a feather for each wind that blows: | |
Shall I live on to see this bastard kneel | ||
And call me father? better burn it now | 190 | |
Than curse it then. But be it; let it live. | ||
It shall not neither. You, sir, come you hither; | ||
You that have been so tenderly officious | ||
With Lady Margery, your midwife there, | ||
To save this bastard’s life,–for ’tis a bastard, | 195 | |
So sure as this beard’s grey, | ||
–what will you adventure | ||
To save this brat’s life? | ||
ANTIGONUS | Any thing, my lord, | |
That my ability may undergo | 200 | |
And nobleness impose: at least thus much: | ||
I’ll pawn the little blood which I have left | ||
To save the innocent: any thing possible. | ||
LEONTES | It shall be possible. Swear by this sword | |
Thou wilt perform my bidding. | 205 | |
ANTIGONUS | I will, my lord. | |
LEONTES | Mark and perform it, see’st thou! for the fail | |
Of any point in’t shall not only be | ||
Death to thyself but to thy lewd-tongued wife, | ||
Whom for this time we pardon. We enjoin thee, | 210 | |
As thou art liege-man to us, that thou carry | ||
This female bastard hence and that thou bear it | ||
To some remote and desert place quite out | ||
Of our dominions, and that there thou leave it, | ||
Without more mercy, to its own protection | 215 | |
And favour of the climate. As by strange fortune | ||
It came to us, I do in justice charge thee, | ||
On thy soul’s peril and thy body’s torture, | ||
That thou commend it strangely to some place | ||
Where chance may nurse or end it. Take it up. | 220 | |
ANTIGONUS | I swear to do this, though 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 | ||
Casting their savageness aside have done | 225 | |
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! | ||
[Exit with the child] | ||
LEONTES | No, I’ll not rear | 230 |
Another’s issue. | ||
[Enter a Servant] | ||
Servant | Please your highness, posts | |
From those you sent to the oracle are come | ||
An hour since: Cleomenes and Dion, | ||
Being well arrived from Delphos, are both landed, | 235 | |
Hasting to the court. | ||
First Lord | So please you, sir, their speed | |
Hath been beyond account. | ||
LEONTES | Twenty-three days | |
They have been absent: ’tis good speed; foretells | 240 | |
The great Apollo suddenly will have | ||
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 | 245 | |
A just and open trial. While she lives | ||
My heart will be a burthen to me. Leave me, | ||
And think upon my bidding. | ||
[Exeunt] |
Next: The Winter’s Tale, Act 3, Scene 1