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By Root 19308 0

us good. Exeunt SHEPHERD and CLOWN AUTOLYCUS. If I had a mind to be honest, I see Fortune would not suffer me: she drops booties in my mouth. I am courted now with a double occasion- gold, and a means to do the Prince my master good; which who knows how that may turn back to my advancement? I will bring these two moles, these blind ones, aboard him. If he think it fit to shore them again, and that the complaint they have to the King concerns him nothing, let him call me rogue for being so far officious; for I am proof against that title, and what shame else belongs to't. To him will I present them. There may be matter in it. Exit

ACT V. SCENE I. Sicilia. The palace of LEONTES

Enter LEONTES, CLEOMENES, DION, PAULINA, and OTHERS

CLEOMENES.

Sir, you have done enough, and have perform'd

A saint-like sorrow. No fault could you make

Which you have not redeem'd; indeed, paid down

More penitence than done trespass. At the last,

Do as the heavens have done: forget your evil;

With them forgive yourself.

LEONTES.

Whilst I remember

Her and her virtues, I cannot forget

My blemishes in them, and so still think of

The wrong I did myself; which was so much

That heirless it hath made my kingdom, and

Destroy'd the sweet'st companion that e'er man

Bred his hopes out of.

PAULINA.

True, too true, my lord.

If, one by one, you wedded all the world,

Or from the all that are took something good

To make a perfect woman, she you kill'd

Would be unparallel'd.

LEONTES.

I think so. Kill'd!

She I kill'd! I did so; but thou strik'st me

Sorely, to say I did. It is as bitter

Upon thy tongue as in my thought. Now, good now,

Say so but seldom.

CLEOMENES.

Not at all, good lady.

You might have spoken a thousand things that would

Have done the time more benefit, and grac'd

Your kindness better.

PAULINA.

You are one of those

Would have him wed again.

DION.

If you would not so,

You pity not the state, nor the remembrance

Of his most sovereign name; consider little

What dangers, by his Highness' fail of issue,

May drop upon his kingdom and devour

Incertain lookers-on. What were more holy

Than to rejoice the former queen is well?

What holier than, for royalty's repair,

For present comfort, and for future good,

To bless the bed of majesty again

With a sweet fellow to't?

PAULINA.

There is none worthy,

Respecting her that's gone. Besides, the gods

Will have fulfill'd their secret purposes;

For has not the divine Apollo said,

Is't not the tenour of his oracle,

That King Leontes shall not have an heir

Till his lost child be found? Which that it shall,

Is all as monstrous to our human reason

As my Antigonus to break his grave

And come again to me; who, on my life,

Did perish with the infant. 'Tis your counsel

My lord should to the heavens be contrary,

Oppose against their wills. [To LEONTES] Care not for issue;

The crown will find an heir. Great Alexander

Left his to th' worthiest; so his successor

Was like to be the best.

LEONTES.

Good Paulina,

Who hast the memory of Hermione,

I know, in honour, O that ever I

Had squar'd me to thy counsel! Then, even now,

I might have look'd upon my queen's full eyes,

Have taken treasure from her lips-

PAULINA.

And left them

More rich for what they yielded.

LEONTES.

Thou speak'st truth.

No more such wives; therefore, no wife. One worse,

And better us'd, would make her sainted spirit

Again possess her corpse, and on this stage,

Where we offend her now, appear soul-vex'd,

And begin 'Why to me'-

PAULINA.

Had she such power,

She had just cause.

LEONTES.

She had; and would incense me

To murder her I married.

PAULINA.

I should so.

Were I the ghost that walk'd, I'd bid you mark

Her eye, and tell me for what dull part in't

You chose her; then I'd shriek, that even your ears

Should rift to hear me; and the words that follow'd

Should be 'Remember mine.'

LEONTES.

Stars, stars,

And all eyes else dead coals! Fear thou no wife;

I'll have no wife, Paulina.

PAULINA.

Will you swear

Never to marry but by my free leave?