No richer than his honour. How he glisters

Through my rust! And how his piety

Does my deeds make the blacker!

Enter Paulina

PAULINA Woe the while!

O cut my lace, lest my heart, cracking it,

Break too.

A LORD What fit is this, good lady?

PAULINA (to Leontes)

What studied torments, tyrant, hast for me?

What wheels, racks, fires? What flaying, boiling

In leads or oils? What old or newer torture

Must I receive, whose every word deserves

To taste of thy most worst? Thy tyranny,

Together working with thy jealousies-

Fancies too weak for boys, too green and idle

For girls of nine—O think what they have done,

And then run mad indeed, stark mad, for all

Thy bygone fooleries were but spices of it.

That thou betrayed‘st Polixenes, ’twas nothing.

That did but show thee, of a fool, inconstant,

And damnable ingrateful. Nor was’t much

Thou wouldst have poisoned good Camillo’s honour

To have him kill a king—poor trespasses,

More monstrous standing by, whereof I reckon

The casting forth to crows thy baby daughter

To be or none or little, though a devil

Would have shed water out of fire ere done’t.

Nor is’t directly laid to thee the death

Of the young prince, whose honourable thoughts—

Thoughts high for one so tender—cleft the heart

That could conceive a gross and foolish sire

Blemished his gracious dam. This is not, no,

Laid to thy answer. But the last—O lords,

When I have said, cry woe! The Queen, the Queen,

The sweet‘st, dear’st creature’s dead, and vengeance

for’t

Not dropped down yet.

A LORD

The higher powers forbid!

PAULINA

I say she’s dead. I’ll swear’t. If word nor oath

Prevail not, go and see. If you can bring

Tincture or lustre in her lip, her eye,

Heat outwardly or breath within, I’ll serve you

As I would do the gods. But O thou tyrant,

Do not repent these things, for they are heavier

Than all thy woes can stir. Therefore betake thee

To nothing but despair. A thousand knees,

Ten thousand years together, naked, fasting,

Upon a barren mountain, and still winter

In storm perpetual, could not move the gods

To look that way thou wert.

LEONTES

Go on, go on.

Thou canst not speak too much. I have deserved

All tongues to talk their bitt’rest.

A LORD (to Paulina)

Say no more.

Howe‘er the business goes, you have made fault

I’th’ boldness of your speech.

PAULINA

I am sorry for’t.

All faults I make, when I shall come to know them

I do repent. Alas, I have showed too much

The rashness of a woman. He is touched

To th’ noble heart. What’s gone and what’s past help

Should be past grief.

(To Leontes) Do not receive affliction

At my petition. I beseech you, rather

Let me be punished, that have minded you

Of what you should forget. Now, good my liege,

Sir, royal sir, forgive a foolish woman.

The love I bore your queen—lo, fool again!

I’ll speak of her no more, nor of your children.

I’ll not remember you of my own lord,

Who is lost too. Take your patience to you,

And I’ll say nothing.

LEONTES

Thou didst speak but well

When most the truth, which I receive much better

Than to be pitied of thee. Prithee bring me

To the dead bodies of my queen and son.

One grave shall be for both. Upon them shall

The causes of their death appear, unto

Our shame perpetual. Once a day I’ll visit

The chapel where they lie, and tears shed there

Shall be my recreation. So long as nature

Will bear up with this exercise, so long

I daily vow to use it. Come, and lead me

To these sorrows.

Exeunt

3.3 Enter Antigonus, carrying the babe, with a Mariner ANTIGONUS

Thou art perfect then our ship hath touched upon

The deserts of Bohemia?

MARINER

Ay, my lord, and fear

We have landed in ill time. The skies look grimly

And threaten present blusters. In my conscience,

The heavens with that we have in hand are angry,

And frown upon’s.

ANTIGONUS

Their sacred wills be done. Go get aboard.

Look to thy barque. I’ll not be long before

I call upon thee.

MARINER

Make your best haste, and go not

Too far i‘th’ land. ’Tis like to be loud weather.

Besides, this place is famous for the creatures

Of prey that keep upon’t.

ANTIGONUS

Go thou away.

I’ll follow instantly.

MARINER

I am glad at heart

To be so rid o’th’ business. Exit

ANTIGONUS

Come, poor babe.

I have heard, but not believed, the spirits o‘th’ dead

May walk again. If such thing be, thy mother

Appeared to me last night, for ne’er was dream

So like a waking. To me comes a creature,

Sometimes her head on one side, some another.

I never saw a vessel of like sorrow,