• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

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 t' accept it- that the Queen is spotless

I' th' 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 abus'd, 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 blam'd 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 stupified

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 ord'ring 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 th' 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 th' minds of others such as he

Whose ignorant credulity will not

Come up to th' truth. So have we thought it good

From our free person she should be confin'd,

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

SCENE II. Sicilia. A prison

Enter PAULINA, a GENTLEMAN, and ATTENDANTS

PAULINA.

The keeper of the prison- call to him;

Let him have knowledge who I am. Exit GENTLEMAN

Good lady!

No court in Europe is too good for thee;

What dost thou then in prison?

Re-enter GENTLEMAN with the GAOLER

Now, good sir,

You know me, do you not?

GAOLER.

For a worthy lady,

And one who much I honour.

PAULINA.

Pray you, then,

Conduct me to the Queen.

GAOLER.

I may not, madam;

To the contrary I have express commandment.