Act 2, Scene 1: A room in LEONTES' palace

SCENE I. A room in LEONTES' palace.

    Enter HERMIONE, MAMILLIUS, and Ladies

HERMIONE

    Take the boy to you: he so troubles me,
    'Tis past enduring.

First Lady

    Come, my gracious lord,
    Shall I be your playfellow?

MAMILLIUS

    No, I'll none of you.

First Lady

    Why, my sweet lord?

MAMILLIUS

    You'll kiss me hard and speak to me as if
    I were a baby still. I love you better.

Second Lady

    And why so, my lord?

MAMILLIUS

    Not for because
    Your brows are blacker; yet black brows, they say,
    Become some women best, so that there be not
    Too much hair there, but in a semicircle
    Or a half-moon made with a pen.

Second Lady

    Who taught you this?

MAMILLIUS

    I learnt it out of women's faces. Pray now
    What colour are your eyebrows?

First Lady

    Blue, my lord.

MAMILLIUS

    Nay, that's a mock: I have seen a lady's nose
    That has been blue, but not her eyebrows.

First Lady

    Hark ye;
    The queen your mother rounds apace: we shall
    Present our services to a fine new prince
    One of these days; and then you'ld wanton with us,
    If we would have you.

Second Lady

    She is spread of late
    Into a goodly bulk: good time encounter her!

HERMIONE

    What wisdom stirs amongst you? Come, sir, now
    I am for you again: pray you, sit by us,
    And tell 's a tale.

MAMILLIUS

    Merry or sad shall't be?

HERMIONE

    As merry as you will.

MAMILLIUS

    A sad tale's best for winter: I have one
    Of sprites and goblins.

HERMIONE

    Let's have that, good sir.
    Come on, sit down: come on, and do your best
    To fright me with your sprites; you're powerful at it.

MAMILLIUS

    There was a man--

HERMIONE

    Nay, come, sit down; then on.

MAMILLIUS

    Dwelt by a churchyard: I will tell it softly;
    Yond crickets shall not hear it.

HERMIONE

    Come on, then,
    And give't me in mine ear.

    Enter LEONTES, with ANTIGONUS, Lords and others

LEONTES

    Was he met there? his train? Camillo with him?

First Lord

    Behind the tuft of pines I met them; never
    Saw I men scour so on their way: I eyed them
    Even to their ships.

LEONTES

    How blest am I
    In my just censure, in my true opinion!
    Alack, for lesser knowledge! how accursed
    In being so blest! There may be in the cup
    A spider steep'd, and one may drink, depart,
    And yet partake no venom, for his knowledge
    Is not infected: but if one present
    The abhorr'd ingredient to his eye, make known
    How he hath drunk, he cracks his gorge, his sides,
    With violent hefts. I have drunk,
    and seen the spider.
    Camillo was his help in this, his pander:
    There is a plot against my life, my crown;
    All's true that is mistrusted: that false villain
    Whom I employ'd was pre-employ'd by him:
    He has discover'd my design, and I
    Remain a pinch'd thing; yea, a very trick
    For them to play at will. How came the posterns
    So easily open?

First Lord

    By his great authority;
    Which often hath no less prevail'd than so
    On your command.

LEONTES

    I know't too well.
    Give me the boy: I am glad you did not nurse him:
    Though he does bear some signs of me, yet you
    Have too much blood in him.

HERMIONE

    What is this? sport?

LEONTES

    Bear the boy hence; he shall not come about her;
    Away with him! and let her sport herself
    With that she's big with; for 'tis Polixenes
    Has made thee swell thus.

HERMIONE

    But I'ld say he had not,
    And I'll be sworn you would believe my saying,
    Howe'er you lean to the nayward.

LEONTES

    You, my lords,
    Look on her, mark her well; be but about
    To say 'she is a goodly lady,' and
    The justice of your bearts will thereto add
    'Tis pity she's not honest, honourable:'
    Praise her but for this her without-door form,
    Which on my faith deserves high speech, and straight
    The shrug, the hum or ha, these petty brands
    That calumny doth use--O, I am out--
    That mercy does, for calumny will sear
    Virtue itself: these shrugs, these hums and ha's,
    When you have said 'she's goodly,' come between
    Ere you can say 'she's honest:' but be 't known,
    From him that has most cause to grieve it should be,
    She's an adulteress.

HERMIONE

    Should a villain say so,
    The most replenish'd villain in the world,
    He were as much more villain: you, my lord,
    Do but mistake.

LEONTES

    You have mistook, my lady,
    Polixenes for Leontes: O thou thing!
    Which I'll not call a creature of thy place,
    Lest barbarism, making me the precedent,
    Should a like language use to all degrees
    And mannerly distinguishment leave out
    Betwixt the prince and beggar: I have said
    She's an adulteress; I have said with whom:
    More, she's a traitor and Camillo is
    A federary with her, and one that knows
    What she should shame to know herself
    But with her most vile principal, that she's
    A bed-swerver, even as bad as those
    That vulgars give bold'st titles, ay, and privy
    To this their late escape.

HERMIONE

    No, by my life.
    Privy to none of this. How will this grieve you,
    When you shall come to clearer knowledge, that
    You thus have publish'd me! Gentle my lord,
    You scarce can right me throughly then to say
    You did mistake.

LEONTES

    No; if I mistake
    In those foundations which I build upon,
    The centre is not big enough to bear
    A school-boy's top. Away with her! to prison!
    He who shall speak for her is afar off guilty
    But that he speaks.

HERMIONE

    There's some ill planet reigns:
    I must be patient till the heavens look
    With an aspect more favourable. Good my lords,
    I am not prone to weeping, as our sex
    Commonly are; the want of which vain dew
    Perchance shall dry your pities: but I have
    That honourable grief lodged here which burns
    Worse than tears drown: beseech you all, my lords,
    With thoughts so qualified as your charities
    Shall best instruct you, measure me; and so
    The king's will be perform'd!

LEONTES

    Shall I be heard?

HERMIONE

    Who is't that goes with me? Beseech your highness,
    My women may be with me; for you see
    My plight requires it. Do not weep, good fools;
    There is no cause: when you shall know your mistress
    Has deserved prison, then abound in tears
    As I come out: this action I now go on
    Is for my better grace. Adieu, my lord:
    I never wish'd to see you sorry; now
    I trust I shall. My women, come; you have leave.

LEONTES

    Go, do our bidding; hence!

    Exit HERMIONE, guarded; with Ladies

First Lord

    Beseech your highness, call the queen again.

ANTIGONUS

    Be certain what you do, sir, lest your justice
    Prove violence; in the which three great ones suffer,
    Yourself, your queen, your son.

First Lord

    For her, my lord,
    I dare my life lay down and will do't, sir,
    Please you to accept it, that the queen is spotless
    I' the eyes of heaven and to you; I mean,
    In this which you accuse her.

ANTIGONUS

    If it prove
    She's otherwise, I'll keep my stables where
    I lodge my wife; I'll go in couples with her;
    Than when I feel and see her no farther trust her;
    For every inch of woman in the world,
    Ay, every dram of woman's flesh is false, If she be.

LEONTES

    Hold your peaces.

First Lord

    Good my lord,--

ANTIGONUS

    It is for you we speak, not for ourselves:
    You are abused and by some putter-on
    That will be damn'd for't; would I knew the villain,
    I would land-damn him. Be she honour-flaw'd,
    I have three daughters; the eldest is eleven
    The second and the third, nine, and some five;
    If this prove true, they'll pay for't:
    by mine honour,
    I'll geld 'em all; fourteen they shall not see,
    To bring false generations: they are co-heirs;
    And I had rather glib myself than they
    Should not produce fair issue.

LEONTES

    Cease; no more.
    You smell this business with a sense as cold
    As is a dead man's nose: but I do see't and feel't
    As you feel doing thus; and see withal
    The instruments that feel.

ANTIGONUS

    If it be so,
    We need no grave to bury honesty:
    There's not a grain of it the face to sweeten
    Of the whole dungy earth.

LEONTES

    What! lack I credit?

First Lord

    I had rather you did lack than I, my lord,
    Upon this ground; and more it would content me
    To have her honour true than your suspicion,
    Be blamed for't how you might.

LEONTES

    Why, what need we
    Commune with you of this, but rather follow
    Our forceful instigation? Our prerogative
    Calls not your counsels, but our natural goodness
    Imparts this; which if you, or stupefied
    Or seeming so in skill, cannot or will not
    Relish a truth like us, inform yourselves
    We need no more of your advice: the matter,
    The loss, the gain, the ordering on't, is all
    Properly ours.

ANTIGONUS

    And I wish, my liege,
    You had only in your silent judgment tried it,
    Without more overture.

LEONTES

    How could that be?
    Either thou art most ignorant by age,
    Or thou wert born a fool. Camillo's flight,
    Added to their familiarity,
    Which was as gross as ever touch'd conjecture,
    That lack'd sight only, nought for approbation
    But only seeing, all other circumstances
    Made up to the deed, doth push on this proceeding:
    Yet, for a greater confirmation,
    For in an act of this importance 'twere
    Most piteous to be wild, I have dispatch'd in post
    To sacred Delphos, to Apollo's temple,
    Cleomenes and Dion, whom you know
    Of stuff'd sufficiency: now from the oracle
    They will bring all; whose spiritual counsel had,
    Shall stop or spur me. Have I done well?

First Lord

    Well done, my lord.

LEONTES

    Though I am satisfied and need no more
    Than what I know, yet shall the oracle
    Give rest to the minds of others, such as he
    Whose ignorant credulity will not
    Come up to the truth. So have we thought it good
    From our free person she should be confined,
    Lest that the treachery of the two fled hence
    Be left her to perform. Come, follow us;
    We are to speak in public; for this business
    Will raise us all.

ANTIGONUS

    [Aside]
    To laughter, as I take it,
    If the good truth were known.

    Exeunt