CLEOMENES |
| All this we swear.
DION |
LEONTES Break up the seals and read.
Officer [Reads] Hermione is chaste;
Polixenes blameless; Camillo a true subject; Leontes
a jealous tyrant; his innocent babe truly begotten;
and the king shall live without an heir, if that
which is lost be not found.
Lords Now blessed be the great Apollo!
HERMIONE Praised!
LEONTES Hast thou read truth?
Officer Ay, my lord; even so
As it is here set down.
LEONTES There is no truth at all i' the oracle:
The sessions shall proceed: this is mere falsehood.
[Enter Servant]
Servant My lord the king, the king!
LEONTES What is the business?
Servant O sir, I shall be hated to report it!
The prince your son, with mere conceit and fear
Of the queen's speed, is gone.
LEONTES How! gone!
Servant Is dead.
LEONTES Apollo's angry; and the heavens themselves
Do strike at my injustice.
[HERMIONE swoons]
How now there!
PAULINA This news is mortal to the queen: look down
And see what death is doing.
LEONTES Take her hence:
Her heart is but o'ercharged; she will recover:
I have too much believed mine own suspicion:
Beseech you, tenderly apply to her
Some remedies for life.
[Exeunt PAULINA and Ladies, with HERMIONE]
Apollo, pardon
My great profaneness 'gainst 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 transported by my jealousies
To bloody thoughts and to revenge, I chose
Camillo for the minister to poison
My friend Polixenes: which had been done,
But that the good mind of Camillo tardied
My swift command, though I with death and with
Reward did threaten and encourage him,
Not doing 't and being done: he, most humane
And fill'd with honour, to my kingly guest
Unclasp'd my practise, quit his fortunes here,
Which you knew great, and to the hazard
Of all encertainties himself commended,
No richer than his honour: how he glisters
Thorough my rust! and how his pity
Does my deeds make the blacker!
[Re-enter PAULINA]
PAULINA Woe the while!
O, cut my lace, lest my heart, cracking it,
Break too.
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