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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