My plight requires it. Do not weep, good fools;
There is no cause: when you shall know your
mistress

Has deserved prison, then abound in tears
As I come out: this action I now go on
Is for my better grace. Adieu, my lord :
I never wish'd to see you sorry; now
I trust I shall. My women, come; you have leave.
Leon. Go, do our bidding; hence!

[Exit Queen, guarded; with Ladies. First Lord. Beseech your highness, call the queen again.

Ant. 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 to accept it, that the queen is spotless
I' the eyes of heaven and to you; I mean,

In this which you accuse her.

Ant.

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.

Leon. Hold your peaces.
First Lord.

Good my lord,

120

130

Ant. It is for you we speak, not for ourselves : 140 You are abused 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.

Leon.

Cease; no more. 150

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.

Ant.

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.
Leon.

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 blamed for 't how you might.

Why, what need we

Leon.
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 ordering on 't, is all
Properly ours.

Ant.

And I wish, my liege,

You had only in your silent judgment tried it,

Without more overture.

Leon.

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 the deed, doth push on this pro

ceeding :

Yet, for a greater confirmation,

For in an act of this importance 'twere

Most piteous to be wild, I have dispatch'd in post

167. Relish, perceive.

172. overture, disclosure.

176. touch'd conjecture, roused

suspicion.

VOL. IV

160

170

180

177. That lack'd sight only, etc., (conjecture) that wanted nothing but ocular evidence to be proof.

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.

Leon. Though I am satisfied and need no more

Than what I know, yet shall the oracle

19

Give rest to the minds of others, such as he

Whose ignorant credulity will not

Come up to the truth. So have we thought it good

From our free person she should be confined,

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.

Ant. [Aside] To laughter, as I take it, If the good truth were known.

[Exeunt.

SCENE II A prison.

Enter PAULINA, a Gentleman, and Attendants.

Paul. The keeper of the prison, call to him ;

Let him have knowledge who I am.

[Exit Gent. Good lady,

No court in Europe is too good for thee;
What dost thou then in prison ?

Re-enter Gentleman, with the Gaoler.

You know me, do you not?

Now, good sir,

To lock up honesty and honour from

The access of gentle visitors! Is 't lawful, pray

you,

To see her women? any of them? Emilia ?

Gaol. So please you, madam,

To put apart these your attendants, I

Shall bring Emilia forth.

[Exit Gaoler.

I must be present at your conference.
Paul. Well, be 't so, prithee.

Here's such ado to make no stain a stain
As passes colouring.

Re-enter Gaoler, with EMILIA.

Dear gentlewoman,

How fares our gracious lady?

Emil. As well as one so great and so forlorn May hold together: on her frights and griefs, Which never tender lady hath borne greater, She is something before her time deliver'd.

Paul. A boy?

Emil.

A daughter, and a goodly babe,

Lusty and like to live: the queen receives
Much comfort in 't; says 'My poor prisoner,

20