網頁圖片
PDF
ePub 版

Dion. I fhall report";

For most it caught me, the celeftial habits,

(Methinks, I fo fhould term them,) and the reverence

Of the grave wearers.

O, the facrifice

How ceremonious, folemn, and unearthly

It was i'th'offering!

Cleo. But of all, the burft

And the ear-deafning voice o'th' oracle,

Kin to Jove's thunder, fo furpriz'd my fenfe,
That I was nothing.

Dion. If th' event o'th' journey

Prove as fuccessful to the Queen, (O be't fo!)
As it hath been to us, rare, pleafant, fpeedy,
The time is worth the use on't '.

Cleo. Great Apollo,

Turn all to th' beft! thefe proclamations,

Speare wrote, Fertile the foil, which is more elegant too, than the prefent reading.

WARBURTON.

Shakespeare is little careful of geography. There is no need of this emendation in a play of which the whole plot depends upon a geographical errour, by which Bohemia is fuppofed to be a maritime country.

9 I SHALL report,

FOR MOST it caught me, &c.] What will he report? And what means this reafon of his report, that the celestial habits molt ftruck his obfervation? We should read,

IT SHAMES report, FOREMOST it caught me, Cleomines had just before faid, that the Temple much furpaffed the common praise it bore. The other, very naturally, replies it foames report, as far furpaffing report faid of it. He then

what

VOL. II.

[blocks in formation]

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 feal'd up,)
Shall the contents difcover, fomething rare
Even then will rush to knowledge.

horfes

And gracious be the iffue.

SCENE II.

Reprefents a Court of Justice.

Go

Go-frefh

[Exeunt.

Leontes, Lords and Officers, appear properly feated. HIS feffion, (to our great grief, we pronounce,)

Leo.

THIS

Ev'n pushes 'gainst our heart. The party try'd,
The daughter of a King, our wife, and one,
Of us too much belov'd;--let us be clear'd
Of being tyrannous, fince we fo openly
Proceed in juftice, which fhall have due course,
Even to the guilt, or the purgation.

-Produce the prifoner.

Offi. It is his Highnefs' pleasure, that the Queen Appear in perfon here in court.-Silence!

Hermione is brought in, guarded; Paulina, and
Ladies, attending.

Leo. Read the Indictment.

Offi. Hermione, Queen to the worthy Leontes, King of Sicilia, thou art here accufed and arraigned of high treafont, in committing adultery with Polixenes, King of Bohemia, and confpiring with Camillo to take away the life of our fovereign Lord the King, thy royal husband;

the

the pretence whereof being by circumftances partly laid open, thou, Hermione, contrary to the faith and allegiance of a true fubject, didst counsel and aid them, for their better fafety, to fly away by night.

Her. Since what I am to fay, must be but that Which contradicts my accufation; and

The teftimony on my part, no other

But what comes from myfelf; it fhall fcarce boot me
To fay, Not guilty: mine integrity 3,
Being counted falfhood, fhall, as I exprefs it,
Be fo receiv'd. But thus-If powers divine
Behold our human actions, as they do,

I doubt not then, but innocence shall make
Falfe accufation blush, and tyranny
Tremble at patience.

You, my Lord, beft know,
Who leaft will feem to do fo, my paft life
Hath been as continent, as chafte, as true,
As I am now unhappy; which is more
Than hiftory can pattern, tho' devis'd,

And play'd, to take fpectators. 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 ftanding
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 fpare: for honour,
'Tis a derivative from me to mine,

And only that I ftand for. I appeal

To your own confcience, Sir, before Polixenes
Came to your court, how I was in your grace,

pretence - Is, in this place, taken for a scheme laid, a defign formed; to pretend means to defign, in the Gent. of Verona.

Mine integrity, &c.] That is, my virtue being accounted wickedness, my affertion of it

will pafs but for a lie. Falfhood means both treachery and lie.

4 For life I prize it, &c.] Life is to me now only grief, and as fuch only is confidered by me, I would therefore willingly difmifs it.

T 2

How

How merited to be fo; fince he came,

With what encounter fo uncurrent I'

Have ftrain'd to appear thus; if one jot beyond
The bounds of honour, or in act, or will
That way inclining, hardned be the hearts
Of all that hear me, and my near'ft of kin
Cry, Fy, upon my grave!

Leo. I ne'er heard yet,

That any of thofe bolder vices wanted'

6

Lefs impudence to gain-fay what they did,
Than to perform it first.

Her. That's true enough;

Tho' 'tis a faying, Sir, not due to me.

Leo. You will not own it.

Her. More than miftrefs of,

What comes to me in name of fault, I muft not
At all acknowledge. For Polixenes,
With whom I am accus'd, I do confefs,
I lov'd him, as in honour he requir'd;
With fuch a kind of love, as might become
A lady like me; with a love, even fuch,
So and no other, as yourself

[ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small]

commanded :

they did,

Thanto perform it firft.] Itisapparent that according to the proper, at least according to the prefent, ufe of words, lefs fhould be more, or wanted fhould be bad. But Shakespeare is very uncertain in his use of negatives. It may be neceflary once to obferve, that in our language two negatives did not originally affirm, but ftrengthen the negation. This mode of fpeech was in time changed; but as the change was made in oppofition to long custom, it proceeded gradually, and uniformity was not obtained but through an intermediate confufion.

Which

Which not to have done, I think, had been in me
Both difobedience and ingratitude

To you, and towards your friend; whofe love had fpoke,

Even fince it could fpeak, from an infant, freely,
That it was yours. Now for Confpiracy,
I know not how it taftes, tho' it be difh'd
For me to try how; all I know of it,

Is, that Camillo was an honeft man;

And why he left your Court, the Gods themselves (Wotting no more than I) are ignorant.

Leo. You knew of his departure, as you know
What you have underta'en to do in's abfence.
Her. Sir,

You fpeak a language that I understand not;
My life ftands in the level of your dreams',
Which I'll lay down.

Leo. Your Actions are my dreams;
You had a Baftard by Polixenes,

And I but dream'd it.-As you were paft all fhame', (Thofe of your Fact are fo) fo paft all truth;

Which to deny, concerns more than avails: for as
Thy brat hath been caft out, like to itself,

No father owning it, (which is, indeed,

More criminal in thee than it) fo thou

Shalt feel our juftice; in whofe eafieft paffage
Look for no lefs than death.

Her. Sir, fpare your threats;

The bug, which you would fright me with, I feek:

My life ftands in the level of your dreams.] To be in the level is by a metaphor from archery to be within the reach.

[blocks in formation]

where abfolutely for guilt, which
must be its fenfe in this place.
Perhaps we may read,

Thofe of your Pack are fo.
Pack is a low coarfe word well

fuited to the reft of this royal
invective.

[blocks in formation]
« 上一頁繼續 »