To me can life be no commodity.
The crown and comfort of my life, your
I do give loft; for I do feel it gone,

Favour,

But know not how it went. My fecond joy,
The firft-fruits of my body, from his prefence
I'm barr'd like one infectious. My third comfort,
Starr'd moft unluckily, is from my breast,
The innocent milk in its most innocent mouth,
Hal'd out to murder; myfelf on every poft
Proclaim'd a ftrumpet; with immodest hatred,
The child-bed privilege deny'd, which 'longs
To women of all fashion. Lastly, hurried
Here to this place, i'th' open air, before
I have got strength of limit. Now, my Leige,
Tell me what bleffings I have here alive,
That I fhould fear to die? therefore proceed:
But yet hear this; miftake me not;--no life,
I prize it not a ftraw-but for mine honour,
Which I would free, if I fhall be condemn'd
Upon furmifes, (all proofs fleeping else,
But what your jealoufies awake) I tell you,
'Tis Rigour, and not Law. Your Honours all,
I do refer me to the Oracle ;

Apollo be my judge..

SCENE III.

Enter Dion and Cleomines.

Lord. This your request

Is altogether juft; therefore bring forth,
And in Apollo's name, his Oracle.

Her. The Emperor of Ruffia was my father,

? I have got ftrength of limit.] I know not well how frength of limit can mean ftrength to pass the limits of the child bed chamber,

which yet it muft mean in this place, unless we read in a more eafy phrafe, frength of limb. And now, &c.

Oh,

Oh, that he were alive, and here beholding
His daughter's trial; that he did but fee
The flatnefs of my mifery '; yet with eyes
Of Pity, not Revenge!

Offi. You here fhall fwear upon the Sword of Justice, That you, Cleomines and Dion, have

Been both at Delphos, and from thence have brought
This feal'd-up Oracle, by the hand deliver'd

Of great Apollo's Prieft; and that fince then
You have not dar'd to break the holy Seal,
Nor read the fecrets in't.

Cleo. Dion. All this we fwear.

Leo. Break up the Seals, and read.

Offi. Hermione is chafte, Polixenes blameless, Camillo a true Subject, Leontes a jealous Tyrant, his innocent babe truly begotten; and the King hall live without an heir, if that, which is loft, be not found. Lords. Now bleffed be the great Apollo!

Her. Praised!.

Leo. Haft thou read truth?

Offi. Ay, my Lord, even fo as it is here fet down. Leo. There is no truth at all i'th' Oracle; The Seffion fhall proceed; this is mere falfhood.

Enter Servant.

Ser. My Lord the King, the King,

Leo. What is the bufinefs?

Ser. O Sir, I fhall be hated to report it.

The Prince your fon, with mere conceit and fear
Of the Queen's Speed, is gone 2.

Leo. How gone?

Ser. Is dead.

Leo. Apollo's angry, and the heav'ns themselves

The flatness of my mifery.] That is, how long, how flat I am laid by my calamity.

2

Of the Queen's Speed.] Of the event of the Queen's trial: fo we ill fay, he fed well or ill.

Do ftrike at my injuftice.-How now? there!

[Hermione faints. Paul. This news is mortal to the Queen: look

down,

And fee what death is doing,

Leo. Take her hence;

Her heart is but o'er-charg'd; fhe will recover.

[Exeunt Paulina and ladies with Hermione,

SCENE IV.

I have too much believ'd mine own fufpicion:
'Befeech you, tenderly apply to her
Some remedies for life. Apollo, pardon'
My great Prophanenefs 'gainft 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 tranfported by my jealoufies
To bloody thoughts and to revenge, I chose
Camillo for the Minifter, to poifon

My friend Polixenes; which had been done,
But that the good mind of Camillo tardied
My fwift Command; tho' 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

Unclaíp'd my practice, quit his fortunes here,

Which you knew great, and to the certain hazard

Of all incertainties himself commended,

No richer than his honour: how he glisters
Through my dark Ruft! and how his Piety
Does my deeds make the blacker 3!

3 This vehement retractation of Leontes, accompanied with the confeffion of more crimes than he was fufpected of, is agreeable

to our daily experience of the viciffitudes of violent tempers, and the eruptions of minds oppreffed with guilt.

SCENE

SCENE V.

Enter Paulina.

Paul. Woe the while!

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

Break too.

Lord. What fit is this, good lady?

Paul. What ftudied torments, Tyrant, haft for me? What wheels? racks? fires? what flaying? boiling? burning

In leads, or oils? what old, or newer, torture
Muft I receive? whofe every word deferves
To tafte of thy moft worft. Thy Tyranny
Together working with thy Jealoufies,
Fancies too weak for boys, too green and idle
For girls of nine! O, think, what they have done,
And then run mad, indeed; ftark mad, for all
Thy by-gone fooleries were but fpices of it.
That thou betray'dft Polixenes, 'twas nothing;
That did but fhew thee, of a Fool, inconftant +,
And damnable ingrateful: nor was't much,
Thou would't have poifon'd good Camillo's honour,
To have him kill a King: poor trefpaffes,

That thou betray'dft Polixe- call him Idiot to his Face.THEOB. nes, 'twas nothing; fhew thee of a fool-] That did but shew thee, of a

Fool, inconflant, And damnable ingrateful.] I have ventur'd at a flight Altera. tion here, against the Authority of all the Copies, and for fool read foul. It is certainly too grofs and blunt in Paulina, tho' The might impeach the King of Fooleries in fome of his past Actions and Conduct, to call him downright a Fool. And it is much more pardonable in her to arraign his Morals, and the Qualities of his Mind, than rudely to

So all the copies. We fhould read,fhew thee off, a fool,i. e. reprefent thee in thy true colours; a fool, an inconftant, &c.

WARBURTON.

Poor Mr. Theobald's courtly remark cannot be thought to deferve much notice. Dr. Warburton too might have fpared his fagacity if he had remembered, that the prefent reading, by a mode of fpeech anciently much ufed, means only, It show'd thee firft a fool, then inconftant and ungrateful.

More

More monstrous standing by; whereof I reckon
The casting forth to crows thy baby-daughter,
To be, or none, or little; tho' a devil

Would have fhed water out of fire, ere don't:
Nor is't directly laid to thee, the death

Of the young Prince, whofe honourable thoughts
(Thoughts high for one fo tender) cleft the heart,
That could conceive a grofs and foolish Sire
Blemish'd his gracious Dam: this is not, no,
Laid to thy answer; but the laft-O Lords,
When I have faid, cry, Woe!—the Queen, the Queen,
The fweeteft, deareít, creature's dead; and vengeance
for't

Not drop down yet.

Lord. The higher powers forbid !

Paul. I fay, he's dead: I'll fwear't: if word, nor
oath,

Prevail not, go and fee: if you can bring
Tincture or luftre in her lip, her eye,
-Heat outwardly, or breath within, I'll ferve you
As I would do the Gods. But, O thou týrant!
Do not repent thefe things, for they are heavier
Than all thy woes can ftir: therefore betake thee
To nothing but Defpair. A thoufand knees,
Ten thousand years together, naked, fafting,
Upon a barren mountain, and ftill winter
In ftorm perpetual, could not move the Gods
To look that way thou wert.

Leo. Go on, go on:

Thou canst not fpeak too much; I have deferv'd
All tongues to talk their bitterest.

Lord. Say no more;

Howe'er the business goes, you have made fault
I'th' boldness of your speech.

Paul. I am forry for❜t *.

All faults I make, when I fhall come to know them,

* This is another inflance to vehement and ungovernable of the fudden changes incident minds.