The Lords, my noble fellows, if they please,

Can clear me in't.

Lord. We can, my royal Liege,

He is not guilty of her coming hither.
Leo. You're liars all.

Lord. 'Beseech your Highness, give us better credit.
We've always truly ferv'd you, and befeech you
So to esteem of us and on our knees

We beg (as recompence of our dear fervice

Paft, and to come) that you do change this purpose.
Which being fo horrible, fó bloody, muft

Lead on to fome foul iffue.

We all kneel

Leo. I am a feather for each wind that blows:

Shall I live on to fee this baftard kneel

And call me father? better burn it now,

Than curfe it then. But be it; let it live:

It shall not neither. You, Sir, come you hither; [To Ant.
You that have been fo tenderly officious

With Lady Margery, your midwife there,

To fave this baftard's life; (for 'tis a baftard,

So fure as this beard's grey) what will you adventure
To fave this brat's life?

Ant. Any thing, my Lord,

That my ability may undergo

And nobleness impofe: at leaft thus much;

I'll pawn the little blood which I have left,

To fave the innocent; what's poffible.

Leo. It fhall be poffible; fwear by this sword
Thou wilt perform my bidding.

Ant. I will, my Lord.

Leo. Mark and perform it; fee'ft thou; for the fail
Of any point in't fhall not only be

Death to thy felf, but to thy lewd-tongu'd wife,
Whom for this time we pardon. We enjoyn thee,
As thou art liege-man to us, that thou carry
This female baftard hence, and that thou bear it
To fome remote and defart place, quite out
Of our dominions; and that there thou leave it,
Without more mercy, to its own protection
And favour of the climate. As by ftrange fortune
D 3

Is

It came to us, I do in juft ce charge thee,
On thy foul's peril and thy body's torture,
That thou commend it to some stranger place,
Where chance may nurse or end it. Take it up.
Ant. I fwear to do this; tho' a prefent death
Had been more merciful. Come on, poor babe,
Some powerful fpirit inftruct the kites and ravens
To be thy nurses! Wolves and bears, they fay,
(Cafting their favagenefs afide) have done
Like offices of pity. Sir, be profperous

In more than this deed does require! and bleffing
Against this cruelty fight on thy fide,
Poor thing condemn'd to lofs !

Leo. No; I'll not rear

Another's iffue.

Enter a Meffenger.

Mef. Pleafe your Highness, pofts

[Exit with the Child.

From those you fent to th' Oracle, are come
An hour fince. Cleomines and Dion,

Being well arriv'd from Delphos, are both landed,
Hafting to th' Court.

Lord. So please you, Sir, their speed

Hath been beyond account.

Leo. Twenty three days

They have been abfent: this good speed foretels
The great Apollo fuddenly will have

The truth of this appear. Prepare you, Lords,
Summon a feffion, that we may arraign
Our moft difloyal Lady; for as the hath
Been publickly accus'd, fo fhall she have
A juft and open tryal. While the lives,
My heart will be a burden to me. Leave me,
And think upon my bidding.

T

[Exeunt feverally,

SCENE

A Part of Sicily.

Enter Cleomines and Dion,

I.

HE climate's delicate, the air most sweet, Fertile the foil, the temple much furpaffing The common praise it bears,

Dien

Dion. I fhall report,

For moft they caught me, the celestial 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 burst

And the ear-deafning voice o'th' Oracle,
Kin to Jove's thunder, fo furpriz'd my sense
That I was nothing.

Dion. If th' event o'th' journey

Prove as fuccefsful to the Queen (O be't fo!)
As it hath been to us rare, pleasant, speedy;
The ufe is worth the time on't.

Cleo. Great Apollo,

Turn all to th' beft! thefe proclamations,
So forcing faults upon Hermione,

I little like.

Dion. The violent carriage of it

Will clear or end the bufinefs, when the Oracle
Thus by Apollo's great Divine feal'd up,

Shall the contents difcover: fomething rare
Even then will rush to knowledge. Go; fresh horfes.
And gracious be the iffue!

[Exeunt.

SCENE II. A Court of Justice.
Leontes, Lords, and Officers, appear properly feated.
Leo. This feffion, to our great grief, we pronounce,
Even pushes 'gainft 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 Highness' pleafure, that the Queen Appear in perfon here in Court. Silence!

Hermione is brought in guarded; Paulina and Ladies. Leo. Read the indictment.

Offi. Hermione, Queen to the worthy Leontes, King of Sicilia, thou art bere accufed and arraigned of high treason,

in

in committing adultery with Polixenes King of Bithynia,and confpiring with Camillo to take away the life of our fovereign Lord the King tby royal bufband; the pretence whereof being by circumstances partly laid open, thou, Hermione, contrary to the faith and allegiance of a true subject, didst counfel and aid them, for their better safety, 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 my self, it shall scarce boot me
To fay, not guilty: mine integrity

Being counted falfhood, fhall, as I express 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 accufations blush, and tyranny

Tremble at patience. You, my Lord, best know,
Who leaft will feem to do fo, my paft life
Hath been as continent, as chaft, as true,
As I am now unhappy; which is more
Than history can pattern, tho' 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 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,
How merited to be fo: fince he came,
With what encounter fo uncurrant have
I ftrain'd t'appear thus? if one jot beyond
The bounds of honour, or in act or will
That way enclining, hardned be the hearts
Of all that hear me, and my near'ft of kin
Cry fie upon my grave!

Leo. Ine'er heard yet

That

That any of thofe bolder vices wanted

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 I'm mistress of,

Which 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 your felf commanded:
Which not to have done, I think had been in me
Both disobedience and ingratitude

To you, and towards your friend; whose love had spoke, 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 bastard by Polixenes,

And I but dream'd it: as you are paft all fhame,

(Thofe of your fact are) fo you're paft all truth;
Which to deny concerns more than avails;
For as thy brat's 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 whose easiest paffage
Look for no less than death,

Her,