Enter an Attendant hastily.

Atten. My lord the King, the King!

Leon.

What is the business?

Atten. O sir, I shall be hated to report it!

The Prince your son, with mere conceit and fear
Of the Queen's speed,12 is gone.

Leon.

Atten.

How! gone?

Is dead.

Leon. Apollo's angry; and the Heavens themselves

Do strike at my injustice. [HERMIONE faints.] How now

there!

Paul. This news is mortal to the Queen: look down, And see what death is doing.

Take her hence:

Leon.
Her heart is but o'ercharged; she will recover.
I have too much believed mine own suspicion :
Beseech you, tenderly apply to her

Some remedies for life.

[Exeunt PAUL. and Ladies, with HERM.
Apollo, pardon

My great profaneness 'gainst thine oracle! -
I'll reconcile me to Polixenes;

New woo my Queen; recall the good Camillo,
Whom I proclaim a man of truth, of mercy;
For, being transported by my jealousies
To bloody thoughts and to revenge, I chose
Camillo for the minister, to poison
My friend Polixenes: which had been done,
But that the good mind of Camillo tardied

12 Conceit is used by Shakespeare for nearly all the forms of mental action. Here it seems to have the sense of apprehension. So that the meaning is, "with fearful apprehension of how the Queen's fortune would turn at the trial."

My swift command, though I with death and with
Reward did threaten and encourage him,
Not doing it and being done: he, most humane,
And fill'd with honour, to my kingly guest
Unclasp'd my practice; quit his fortunes here,
Which you knew great; and to the certain hazard
Of all incertainties 13 himself commended,
No richer than his honour. 14 How he glisters
Thorough 15 my rust! and how his piety
Does my deeds make the blacker!

Paul.

Re-enter PAULINA.

Woe the while!

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

Break too!

I Lord. What fit is this, good lady?

Paul. What studied torments, tyrant, hast for me?
What wheels, racks, fires? what flaying, or what boiling
In lead or oil? 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 by-gone fooleries were but spices of it.

13 So in Sidney's Arcadia: "To know the certainty of things to come, wherein there is nothing so certain as our continual uncertainty." Lettsom quotes divers other passages, showing that such phraseology was common in the Poet's time.

14 Meaning, apparently, enriched with nothing, or carrying no riches with him, but his honour.

15 Throughly for thoroughly has occurred in this play. Here we have thorough for through. So in A Midsummer-Night's Dream, ii. 1: "Over park, over pale, thorough flood, thorough fire."

That thou betray'dst Polixenes, 'twas nothing;
That did but show thee, of a fool, inconstant,16
And damnable ingrateful: nor was't much,
Thou wouldst have poison'd 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 17

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
Blemish'd 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 dropp'd down yet.

I Lord.

The higher powers forbid !

If word nor oath

Paul. I say she's dead; I'll swear't.

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.

Do not repent these things;
Than all thy woes can stir

But, O thou tyrant !

for they are heavier therefore betake thee

To nothing but despair. A thousand knees
Ten thousand years together, naked, fasting,

16 "Show thee, being a fool naturally, to have improved thy folly by inconstancy." A similar expression occurs in Phaer's Virgil: When this the young men heard me speak, of wild they waxèd wood." Also in Bacon's Advancement of Learning, i.: He doubted the philosopher of a Stoic would turn to be a Cynic."

17 Though a devil would have shed tears of pity from amidst the flames sooner than done such an act.

Upon a barren mountain, and still Winter

In storm perpetual, could not move the gods
To look that way thou wert.

Leon.

Go on, go on :

Thou canst not speak too much; I have deserved

All tongues to talk their bitterest.

I Lord.

Say no more:

Howe'er the business goes, you have made fault

I' the boldness of your speech.

Paul.

I'm sorry for't:

All faults I make, when I shall come to know them,
I do repent. Alas, I've show'd too much

The rashness of a woman! he is touch'd

To th' noble heart. 'What's

gone,

and what's past help,

Should be past grief; do not revive affliction :

At my petition, I beseech you, rather

Let me be punish'd, 18 that have minded you

of

Of what you should forget. Now, good my liege,
Sir, royal sir, forgive a foolish woman :

thing o

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 you your patience to you,
And I'll say nothing.

Leon.

Thou didst speak but well,
When most the truth; which I receive much better

Than to be pitied of thee. Pr'ythee, 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

18 Meaning, apparently, "I beseech you, rather let me be punished as at my own request"; that is, at her request, and not as by the sentence of the King. In her struggle of feelings, Paulina, noble soul! is not altogether correct and classical in her language.

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

I daily vow to use it.

exercise, so long
Come, and lead me

Unto these sorrows.

[Exeunt.

SCENE III. Bohemia. A desert Country near the Sea.

Enter ANTIGONUS with the Child, and a Mariner.

Ant. Thou'rt perfect,1 then, our ship hath touch'd upon The deserts of Bohemia?

Mar.
Ay, my lord; and fear
We've 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.

Ant. Their sacred wills be done! Go, get aboard;
Look to thy bark: I'll not be long before

I call upon thee.

Mar.

Make your best haste; and go not Too far i' the land: 'tis like to be loud weather;

Besides, this place is famous for the creatures

Of prey that keep upon't.

I've heard, but not believed, the spirits o' the dead

1 Shakespeare has perfect repeatedly in the sense of certain or well assured. So in Cymbeline, iii. 1: "I am perfect that the Pannonians and Dalmatians for their liberties are now in arms."