• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

Please your Highness, posts

From those you sent to th' oracle are come

An hour since. Cleomenes and Dion,

Being well arriv'd from Delphos, are both landed,

Hasting to th' 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

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 accus'd, so shall she have

A just and open trial. While she lives,

My heart will be a burden to me. Leave me;

And think upon my bidding. Exeunt

ACT III. SCENE I. Sicilia. On the road to the Capital

Enter CLEOMENES and DION

CLEOMENES.

The climate's delicate, the air most sweet,

Fertile the isle, the temple much surpassing

The common praise it bears.

DION.

I shall report,

For most it caught me, the celestial habits-

Methinks I so should term them- and the reverence

Of the grave wearers. O, the sacrifice!

How ceremonious, solemn, and unearthly,

It was i' th' off'ring!

CLEOMENES.

But of all, the burst

And the ear-deaf'ning voice o' th' oracle,

Kin to Jove's thunder, so surpris'd my sense

That I was nothing.

DION.

If th' event o' th' journey

Prove as successful to the Queen- O, be't so!-

As it hath been to us rare, pleasant, speedy,

The time is worth the use on't.

CLEOMENES.

Great Apollo

Turn all to th' best! These proclamations,

So forcing faults upon Hermione,

I little like.

DION.

The violent carriage of it

Will clear or end the business. When the oracle-

Thus by Apollo's great divine seal'd up-

Shall the contents discover, something rare

Even then will rush to knowledge. Go; fresh horses.

And gracious be the issue! Exeunt

SCENE II. Sicilia. A court of justice

Enter LEONTES, LORDS, and OFFICERS

LEONTES.

This sessions, to our great grief we pronounce,

Even pushes 'gainst our heart- the party tried,

The daughter of a king, our wife, and one

Of us too much belov'd. Let us be clear'd

Of being tyrannous, since we so openly

Proceed in justice, which shall have due course,

Even to the guilt or the purgation.

Produce the prisoner.

OFFICER.

It is his Highness' pleasure that the Queen

Appear in person here in court.

Enter HERMIONE, as to her trial, PAULINA, and LADIES

Silence!

LEONTES.

Read the indictment.

OFFICER.

[Reads] 'Hermione, Queen to the worthy Leontes, King of

Sicilia, thou art here accused and arraigned of high treason, in

committing adultery with Polixenes, King of Bohemia; and

conspiring with Camillo to take away the life of our sovereign

lord the King, thy royal husband: the pretence whereof being by

circumstances partly laid open, thou, Hermione, contrary to the

faith and allegiance of true subject, didst counsel and aid them,

for their better safety, to fly away by night.'

HERMIONE.

Since what I am to say must be but that

Which contradicts my accusation, and

The testimony on my part no other

But what comes from myself, it shall scarce boot me

To say 'Not guilty.' Mine integrity

Being counted falsehood shall, as I express it,

Be so receiv'd. But thus- if pow'rs divine

Behold our human actions, as they do,

I doubt not then but innocence shall make

False accusation blush, and tyranny

Tremble at patience. You, my lord, best know-

Who least will seem to do so- my past life

Hath been as continent, as chaste, as true,

As I am now unhappy; which is more

Than history can pattern, though devis'd

And play'd to take spectators; for behold me-

A fellow of the royal bed, which owe

A moiety of the throne, a great king's daughter,

The mother to a hopeful prince- here standing

To prate and talk for life and honour fore

Who please to come and hear. For life, I prize it

As I weigh grief, which I would spare; for honour,

'Tis a derivative from me to mine,

And only that I stand for. I appeal

To your own conscience, sir, before Polixenes

Came to your court, how I was in your grace,

How merited to be so;