A thriving issue. Please your ladyship To visit the next room, I'll presently Acquaint the queen of your most noble offer; Kee. Madam, if't please the queen to send the babe, I know not what I shall incur, to pass it, Having no warrant. Pau. You need not fear it, sir; This child was prisoner to the womb; and is, [Exeunt, L. SCENE III.-A Square before the Palace. Enter CLEOMENES and DION, bearing the oracle.-Guards stand across the back ground. Dio. (L. C.) The climate's delicate; the air most sweet; Fertile the soil; the temple much surpassing The common praise it bears. Cle. (R. c.) 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! Dion. But, of all, the burst And the ear-deafening voice o'the oracle, Kin to Jove's thunder, so surprised my sense, That I was nothing. Cle. If the event o'the journey Prove as successful to the queen, O, be't so! As it hath been to us rare, pleasant, speedy, Dio. Great Apollo, Turn all to the best! These proclamations, I little like. Cle. The violent carriage of it Will clear, or end, the business: When the oracle, Thus by Apollo's great Divine seal'd up, And gracious be the issue. SCENE IV.-The King's Closet. [Exeunt, R. LEONTES alone, discovered reclining on a couch. Leo. 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, Ant. My lord? Leo. [Rising.] How does the boy? His nobleness! Conceiving the dishonour of his mother, He straight declin'd, droop'd, took it deeply; [Advances. Polixenes-thou-Fie! no more of him ;- Laugh at me; make their pastime at my sorrow : [Retires to the couch. PHOCION, THASIUS, and PAULINA without, L Tha. You must not enter. Pau. 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; Ant. That's enough. Enter PHOCION, THASIUS, and PAULINA, with the child, L. wrapped in white satin. Pho. Madam, he hath not slept to-night; commanded None should come at him. Pau. (L.) Not so hot, good sir; I come to bring him sleep. 'Tis such as you, Do come, with words as med'cinal as true, That presses him from sleep. Pau. No noise, my lord; but needful conference, Leo. How? Away with that audacious lady.-Antigonus, On your displeasure's peril, and on mine, Pau. Good my liege, I come, And I beseech you, hear me, who profess Leo. Good queen! Pau. 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. Leo. Force her hence. Pau. Let him, that makes but trifles of his eyes, But, first, I'll do my errand.-The good queen, [Kneels, and lays the Child at his feet. Leo. [Rising and coming forward.] Out! A mankind witch! Hence with her, out o'door: A most intelligencing bawd! Pau. [Near the Child.] Not so: 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, Leo. (c.) Traitors! Will you not push her out?-Give her the bastard : Thou dotard, [To Antigonus.] thou art woman-tir'd, unroosted Unvenerable be thy hands, if thou Tak'st up the princess, by that forced baseness Which he has put upon't! Leo. He dreads his wife! Pau. So I would, you did; then, 'twere past all doubt, You'd call your children yours. Leo. A nest of traitors! Ant. I am none, by this good light. Pau. Nor I; nor any But one, that's here; and that's himself: for he 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 Once remove The root of his opinion, which is rotten, As ever oak or stone was sound. Leo. (R. C.) This brat is none of mine. Pau. [Comes a little forward.] 'Tis yours; And, might we lay the old proverb to your charge. So like you, 'tis the worse. [Goes back to the Child, and takes it up.] Behold, my lords, Although the print be little, the whole matter And copy of the father: eye, nose, lip, The trick of his frown, his forehead; nay, the valley, The pretty dimples of his chin, and cheek, [Brings it forward. And thou, good goddess Nature, which has made it So like to him that got it, if thou hast The ordering of the mind too, 'mongst all colours Her children not her husband's! Leo. A gross hag!— And, lozel, thou art worthy to be hang'd, That wilt not stay her tongue. Ant. (R. C.) Hang all the husbands That cannot do that feat, you'll leave yourself Leo. Once more, take her hence. Pau. A most unworthy and unnatural lord Can do no more. I will not call you tyrants: But this most cruel usage of your queen Savours of tyranny, and will ignoble make you, Leo. On your allegiance, Out of the chamber with her. Away with her. Were I a tyrant, [Returning to his seat. Pau. I pray you, do not push me; I'll be gone. You, that are thus so tender o'er his follies, [Exit Paulina, L. Leo. Thou, traitor, hast set on thy wife to this. Even thou, and none but thou. Take it up straight; And by good testimony, or I'll seize thy life, For thou sett'st on thy wife. Ant. (R.) I did not, sir; Go-do it-hence These lords, my noble fellows, if they please, Can clear me in't. Pho. We can: My royal liege, He is not guilty of her coming hither. Leo. You are traitors, all. Ant. 'Beseech your highness give us better credit : (As recompense of my dear services, Past, and to come,) that you do change this purpose; Lead on to some foul issue; We beseech Leo. [Rises.] Shall I live on to see this creature kneel And call me father? Better end it now, |