| ACT II SCENE III | A room in Leontes' palace. | |
| [Enter LEONTES, ANTIGONUS, Lords, and Servants] |
| LEONTES | 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, |
| She the adulteress; for the harlot king |
| Is quite beyond mine arm, out of the blank | 5 |
| And level of my brain, plot-proof; but she |
| I can hook to me: say that she were gone, |
| Given to the fire, a moiety of my rest |
| Might come to me again. Who's there? |
| First Servant | My lord? | 10 |
| LEONTES | How does the boy? |
| First Servant | He took good rest to-night; |
| 'Tis hoped his sickness is discharged. |
| LEONTES | To see his nobleness! |
| Conceiving the dishonour of his mother, | 15 |
| He straight declined, droop'd, took it deeply, |
| Fasten'd and fix'd the shame on't in himself, |
| Threw off his spirit, his appetite, his sleep, |
| And downright languish'd. Leave me solely: go, |
| See how he fares. | 20 |
[Exit Servant] |
| Fie, fie! no thought of him: |
| The thought of my revenges that way |
| Recoil upon me: in himself too mighty, |
| And in his parties, his alliance; let him be |
| Until a time may serve: for present vengeance, | 25 |
| Take it on her. Camillo and Polixenes |
| Laugh at me, make their pastime at my sorrow: |
| They should not laugh if I could reach them, nor |
| Shall she within my power. |
| [Enter PAULINA, with a child] |
| First Lord | You must not enter. | 30 |
| PAULINA | 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, |
| More free than he is jealous. |
| ANTIGONUS | That's enough. | 35 |
| Second Servant | Madam, he hath not slept tonight; commanded |
| None should come at him. |
| PAULINA | Not so hot, good sir: |
| I come to bring him sleep. 'Tis such as you, |
| That creep like shadows by him and do sigh | 40 |
| At each his needless heavings, such as you |
| Nourish the cause of his awaking: I |
| Do come with words as medicinal as true, |
| Honest as either, to purge him of that humour |
| That presses him from sleep. | 45 |
| LEONTES | What noise there, ho? |
| PAULINA | No noise, my lord; but needful conference |
| About some gossips for your highness. |
| LEONTES | How! |
| Away with that audacious lady! Antigonus, | 50 |
| I charged thee that she should not come about me: |
| I knew she would. |
| ANTIGONUS | I told her so, my lord, |
| On your displeasure's peril and on mine, |
| She should not visit you. | 55 |
| LEONTES | What, canst not rule her? |
| PAULINA | From all dishonesty he can: in this, |
| Unless he take the course that you have done, |
| Commit me for committing honour, trust it, |
| He shall not rule me. | 60 |
| ANTIGONUS | La you now, you hear: |
| When she will take the rein I let her run; |
| But she'll not stumble. |
| PAULINA | Good my liege, I come; |
| And, I beseech you, hear me, who profess | 65 |
| Myself your loyal servant, your physician, |
| Your most obedient counsellor, yet that dare
|
| Less appear so in comforting your evils, |
| Than such as most seem yours: I say, I come |
| From your good queen. | 70 |
| LEONTES | Good queen! |
| PAULINA | 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. | 75 |
| LEONTES | Force her hence. |
| PAULINA | Let him that makes but trifles of his eyes |
| First hand me: on mine own accord I'll off; |
| But first I'll do my errand. The good queen, |
| For she is good, hath brought you forth a daughter; | 80 |
| Here 'tis; commends it to your blessing. |
| [Laying down the child] |
| LEONTES | Out! |
| A mankind witch! Hence with her, out o' door: |
| A most intelligencing bawd! |
| PAULINA | Not so: | 85 |
| 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, |
| As this world goes, to pass for honest. |
| LEONTES | Traitors! | 90 |
| Will you not push her out? Give her the bastard. |
| Thou dotard! thou art woman-tired, unroosted |
| By thy dame Partlet here. Take up the bastard; |
| Take't up, I say; give't to thy crone. |
| PAULINA | For ever | 95 |
| Unvenerable be thy hands, if thou |
| Takest up the princess by that forced baseness |
| Which he has put upon't! |
| LEONTES | He dreads his wife. |
| PAULINA | So I would you did; then 'twere past all doubt | 100 |
| You'ld call your children yours. |
| LEONTES | A nest of traitors! |
| ANTIGONUS | I am none, by this good light. |
| PAULINA | Nor I, nor any |
| But one that's here, and that's himself, for he | 105 |
| 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-- |
| For, as the case now stands, it is a curse | 110 |
| He cannot be compell'd to't--once remove |
| The root of his opinion, which is rotten |
| As ever oak or stone was sound. |
| LEONTES | A callat |
| Of boundless tongue, who late hath beat her husband | 115 |
| And now baits me! This brat is none of mine; |
| It is the issue of Polixenes: |
| Hence with it, and together with the dam |
| Commit them to the fire! |
| PAULINA | It is yours; | 120 |
| And, might we lay the old proverb to your charge, |
| So like you, 'tis the worse. Behold, my lords, |
| Although the print be little, the whole matter |
| And copy of the father, eye, nose, lip, |
| The trick of's frown, his forehead, nay, the valley, | 125 |
| The pretty dimples of his chin and cheek, |
| His smiles, |
| The very mould and frame of hand, nail, finger: |
| And thou, good goddess Nature, which hast made it |
| So like to him that got it, if thou hast | 130 |
| The ordering of the mind too, 'mongst all colours |
| No yellow in't, lest she suspect, as he does, |
| Her children not her husband's! |
| LEONTES | A gross hag |
| And, lozel, thou art worthy to be hang'd, | 135 |
| That wilt not stay her tongue. |
| ANTIGONUS | Hang all the husbands |
| That cannot do that feat, you'll leave yourself |
| Hardly one subject. |
| LEONTES | Once more, take her hence. | 140 |
| PAULINA | A most unworthy and unnatural lord |
| Can do no more. |
| LEONTES | I'll ha' thee burnt. |
| PAULINA | I care not: |
| It is an heretic that makes the fire, | 145 |
| Not she which burns in't. I'll not call you tyrant; |
| But this most cruel usage of your queen, |
| Not able to produce more accusation |
| Than your own weak-hinged fancy, something savours |
| Of tyranny and will ignoble make you, | 150 |
| Yea, scandalous to the world. |
| LEONTES | On your allegiance, |
| Out of the chamber with her! Were I a tyrant, |
| Where were her life? she durst not call me so, |
| If she did know me one. Away with her! | 155 |
| PAULINA | I pray you, do not push me; I'll be gone. |
| Look to your babe, my lord; 'tis yours: |
| Jove send her |
| A better guiding spirit! What needs these hands? |
| You, that are thus so tender o'er his follies, | 160 |
| Will never do him good, not one of you. |
| So, so: farewell; we are gone. |
| [Exit] |
| LEONTES | Thou, traitor, hast set on thy wife to this. |
| My child? away with't! Even thou, that hast |
| A heart so tender o'er it, take it hence | 165 |
| And see it instantly consumed with fire; |
| Even thou and none but thou. Take it up straight: |
| Within this hour bring me word 'tis done, |
| And by good testimony, or I'll seize thy life, |
| With what thou else call'st thine. If thou refuse | 170 |
| And wilt encounter with my wrath, say so; |
| The bastard brains with these my proper hands |
| Shall I dash out. Go, take it to the fire; |
| For thou set'st on thy wife. |
| ANTIGONUS | I did not, sir: | 175 |
| These lords, my noble fellows, if they please, |
| Can clear me in't. |
| Lords | We can: my royal liege, |
| He is not guilty of her coming hither. |
| LEONTES | You're liars all. | 180 |
| First Lord | Beseech your highness, give us better credit: |
| We have always truly served you, and beseech you |
| So to esteem of us, and on our knees we beg, |
| As recompense of our dear services |
| Past and to come, that you do change this purpose, | 185 |
| Which being so horrible, so bloody, must |
| Lead on to some foul issue: we all kneel. |
| LEONTES | I am a feather for each wind that blows: |
| Shall I live on to see this bastard kneel |
| And call me father? better burn it now | 190 |
| Than curse it then. But be it; let it live. |
| It shall not neither. You, sir, come you hither; |
| You that have been so tenderly officious |
| With Lady Margery, your midwife there, |
| To save this bastard's life,--for 'tis a bastard, | 195 |
| So sure as this beard's grey, |
| --what will you adventure |
| To save this brat's life? |
| ANTIGONUS | Any thing, my lord, |
| That my ability may undergo | 200 |
| And nobleness impose: at least thus much: |
| I'll pawn the little blood which I have left |
| To save the innocent: any thing possible. |
| LEONTES | It shall be possible. Swear by this sword |
| Thou wilt perform my bidding. | 205 |
| ANTIGONUS | I will, my lord. |
| LEONTES | Mark and perform it, see'st thou! for the fail |
| Of any point in't shall not only be |
| Death to thyself but to thy lewd-tongued wife, |
| Whom for this time we pardon. We enjoin thee, | 210 |
| As thou art liege-man to us, that thou carry |
| This female bastard hence and that thou bear it |
| To some remote and desert place quite out |
| Of our dominions, and that there thou leave it, |
| Without more mercy, to its own protection | 215 |
| And favour of the climate. As by strange fortune |
| It came to us, I do in justice charge thee, |
| On thy soul's peril and thy body's torture, |
| That thou commend it strangely to some place |
| Where chance may nurse or end it. Take it up. | 220 |
| ANTIGONUS | I swear to do this, though a present death |
| Had been more merciful. Come on, poor babe: |
| Some powerful spirit instruct the kites and ravens |
| To be thy nurses! Wolves and bears, they say |
| Casting their savageness aside have done | 225 |
| Like offices of pity. Sir, be prosperous |
| In more than this deed does require! And blessing |
| Against this cruelty fight on thy side, |
| Poor thing, condemn'd to loss! |
| [Exit with the child] |
| LEONTES | No, I'll not rear | 230 |
| Another's issue. |
| [Enter a Servant] |
| Servant | Please your highness, posts |
| From those you sent to the oracle are come |
| An hour since: Cleomenes and Dion, |
| Being well arrived from Delphos, are both landed, | 235 |
| Hasting to the court. |
| First Lord | So please you, sir, their speed |
| Hath been beyond account. |
| LEONTES | Twenty-three days |
| They have been absent: 'tis good speed; foretells | 240 |
| The great Apollo suddenly will have |
| The truth of this appear. Prepare you, lords; |
| Summon a session, that we may arraign |
| Our most disloyal lady, for, as she hath |
| Been publicly accused, so shall she have | 245 |
| A just and open trial. While she lives |
| My heart will be a burthen to me. Leave me, |
| And think upon my bidding. |
| [Exeunt] |
The Winter's Tale: Plot Summary