ACT V SCENE III

The Winter’s Tale

ACT V SCENE III	A chapel in Paulina’s house.
[ Enter LEONTES, POLIXENES, FLORIZEL, PERDITA, CAMILLO, PAULINA, Lords, and Attendants ]
LEONTES	O grave and good Paulina, the great comfort
	That I have had of thee!
PAULINA	What, sovereign sir,
	I did not well I meant well. All my services
	You have paid home: but that you have vouchsafed,	5
	With your crown’d brother and these your contracted
	Heirs of your kingdoms, my poor house to visit,
	It is a surplus of your grace, which never
	My life may last to answer.
LEONTES	O Paulina,	10
	We honour you with trouble: but we came
	To see the statue of our queen: your gallery
	Have we pass’d through, not without much content
	In many singularities; but we saw not
	That which my daughter came to look upon,	15
	The statue of her mother.
PAULINA	As she lived peerless,
	So her dead likeness, I do well believe,
	Excels whatever yet you look’d upon
	Or hand of man hath done; therefore I keep it	20
	Lonely, apart. But here it is: prepare
	To see the life as lively mock’d as ever
	Still sleep mock’d death: behold, and say ’tis well.
[ PAULINA draws a curtain, and discovers HERMIONE standing like a statue ]
	I like your silence, it the more shows off
	Your wonder: but yet speak; first, you, my liege,	25
	Comes it not something near?
LEONTES	Her natural posture!
	Chide me, dear stone, that I may say indeed
	Thou art Hermione; or rather, thou art she
	In thy not chiding, for she was as tender	30
	As infancy and grace. But yet, Paulina,
	Hermione was not so much wrinkled, nothing
	So aged as this seems.
POLIXENES	O, not by much.
PAULINA	So much the more our carver’s excellence;	35
	Which lets go by some sixteen years and makes her
	As she lived now.
LEONTES	As now she might have done,
	So much to my good comfort, as it is
	Now piercing to my soul. O, thus she stood,	40
	Even with such life of majesty, warm life,
	As now it coldly stands, when first I woo’d her!
	I am ashamed: does not the stone rebuke me
	For being more stone than it? O royal piece,
	There’s magic in thy majesty, which has	45
	My evils conjured to remembrance and
	From thy admiring daughter took the spirits,
	Standing like stone with thee.
PERDITA	And give me leave,
	And do not say ’tis superstition, that	50
	I kneel and then implore her blessing. Lady,
	Dear queen, that ended when I but began,
	Give me that hand of yours to kiss.
PAULINA	O, patience!
	The statue is but newly fix’d, the colour’s Not dry.	55
CAMILLO	My lord, your sorrow was too sore laid on,
	Which sixteen winters cannot blow away,
	So many summers dry; scarce any joy
	Did ever so long live; no sorrow
	But kill’d itself much sooner.	60
POLIXENES	Dear my brother,
	Let him that was the cause of this have power
	To take off so much grief from you as he
	Will piece up in himself.
PAULINA	Indeed, my lord,	65
	If I had thought the sight of my poor image
	Would thus have wrought you,–for the stone is mine–
	I’ld not have show’d it.
LEONTES	Do not draw the curtain.
PAULINA	No longer shall you gaze on’t, lest your fancy	70
	May think anon it moves.
LEONTES	Let be, let be.
	Would I were dead, but that, methinks, already–
	What was he that did make it? See, my lord,
	Would you not deem it breathed? and that those veins	75
	Did verily bear blood?
POLIXENES	Masterly done:
	The very life seems warm upon her lip.
LEONTES	The fixture of her eye has motion in’t,
	As we are mock’d with art.	80
PAULINA	I’ll draw the curtain:
	My lord’s almost so far transported that
	He’ll think anon it lives.
LEONTES	O sweet Paulina,
	Make me to think so twenty years together!	85
	No settled senses of the world can match
	The pleasure of that madness. Let ‘t alone.
PAULINA	I am sorry, sir, I have thus far stirr’d you: but
	I could afflict you farther.
LEONTES	Do, Paulina;	90
	For this affliction has a taste as sweet
	As any cordial comfort. Still, methinks,
	There is an air comes from her: what fine chisel
	Could ever yet cut breath? Let no man mock me,
	For I will kiss her.	95
PAULINA	Good my lord, forbear:
	The ruddiness upon her lip is wet;
	You’ll mar it if you kiss it, stain your own
	With oily painting. Shall I draw the curtain?
LEONTES	No, not these twenty years.	100
PERDITA	So long could I
	Stand by, a looker on.
PAULINA	Either forbear,
	Quit presently the chapel, or resolve you
	For more amazement. If you can behold it,	105
	I’ll make the statue move indeed, descend
	And take you by the hand; but then you’ll think–
	Which I protest against–I am assisted
	By wicked powers.
LEONTES	What you can make her do,	110
	I am content to look on: what to speak,
	I am content to hear; for ’tis as easy
	To make her speak as move.
PAULINA	It is required
	You do awake your faith. Then all stand still;	115
	On: those that think it is unlawful business
	I am about, let them depart.
LEONTES	Proceed:
	No foot shall stir.
PAULINA	Music, awake her; strike!	120
[Music]
	‘Tis time; descend; be stone no more; approach;
	Strike all that look upon with marvel. Come,
	I’ll fill your grave up: stir, nay, come away,
	Bequeath to death your numbness, for from him
	Dear life redeems you. You perceive she stirs:	125
[HERMIONE comes down]
	Start not; her actions shall be holy as
	You hear my spell is lawful: do not shun her
	Until you see her die again; for then
	You kill her double. Nay, present your hand:
	When she was young you woo’d her; now in age	130
	Is she become the suitor?
LEONTES	O, she’s warm!
	If this be magic, let it be an art
	Lawful as eating.
POLIXENES	She embraces him.	135
CAMILLO	She hangs about his neck:
	If she pertain to life let her speak too.
POLIXENES	Ay, and make’t manifest where she has lived,
	Or how stolen from the dead.
PAULINA	That she is living,	140
	Were it but told you, should be hooted at
	Like an old tale: but it appears she lives,
	Though yet she speak not. Mark a little while.
	Please you to interpose, fair madam: kneel
	And pray your mother’s blessing. Turn, good lady;	145
	Our Perdita is found.
HERMIONE	You gods, look down
	And from your sacred vials pour your graces
	Upon my daughter’s head! Tell me, mine own.
	Where hast thou been preserved? where lived? how found	150
	Thy father’s court? for thou shalt hear that I,
	Knowing by Paulina that the oracle
	Gave hope thou wast in being, have preserved
	Myself to see the issue.
PAULINA	There’s time enough for that;	155
	Lest they desire upon this push to trouble
	Your joys with like relation. Go together,
	You precious winners all; your exultation
	Partake to every one. I, an old turtle,
	Will wing me to some wither’d bough and there	160
	My mate, that’s never to be found again,
	Lament till I am lost.
LEONTES	O, peace, Paulina!
	Thou shouldst a husband take by my consent,
	As I by thine a wife: this is a match,	165
	And made between’s by vows. Thou hast found mine;
	But how, is to be question’d; for I saw her,
	As I thought, dead, and have in vain said many
	A prayer upon her grave. I’ll not seek far–
	For him, I partly know his mind–to find thee	170
	An honourable husband. Come, Camillo,
	And take her by the hand, whose worth and honesty
	Is richly noted and here justified
	By us, a pair of kings. Let’s from this place.
	What! look upon my brother: both your pardons,	175
	That e’er I put between your holy looks
	My ill suspicion. This is your son-in-law,
	And son unto the king, who, heavens directing,
	Is troth-plight to your daughter. Good Paulina,
	Lead us from hence, where we may leisurely	180
	Each one demand an answer to his part
	Perform’d in this wide gap of time since first
	We were dissever’d: hastily lead away.
[Exeunt]

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