THE WINTER'S TALE. 65 No, I'll not rear Leon. Another's issue. 1 Atten. Please your highness, posts From those you sent to the oracle are come An hour since: Cleomenes and Dion, Being well arrived from Delphos, are both landed, Hasting to the court. 1 Lord. So please you, sir, their speed Twenty-three days They have been absent: 't is good speed, foretells, The great Apollo suddenly will have Prepare you, lords : The truth of this appear. me, [Exeunt. 1 69 66 THE WINTER'S TALE. ACT III. SCENE I.-Sicily. A Street in some Town. Enter CLEOMENES and DION. Cleo. The climate's delicate, the air most sweet, Fertile the isle, the temple much surpassing The common praise it bears. Dion. I shall report, For most it caught me, the celestial habits Methinks, I so should term them-and the reverence Of the grave wearers. O, the sacrifice, How ceremonious, solemn, and unearthly It was i' the offering! Cleo. But, of all, the burst And the ear-deafening voice o' the oracle, Kin to Jove's thunder, so surprised my sense, That I was nothing. Dion. If the event o' the journey Prove as successful to the queen-O, be 't so !— The time is worth the use on 't. Great Apollo, THE WINTER'S TALE. 67 Dion. The violent carriage of it Will clear or end the business, when the oracle-Thus by Apollo's great divine sealed up— Shall the contents discover, something rare Even then will rush to knowledge.-Go, fresh horses; And gracious be the issue! [Exeunt. SCENE II.-The Same. A Court of Justice. Enter LEONTES, Lords, and Officers. Leon. This sessions to our great grief we pro nounce Even pushes 'gainst our heart: the party tried, Proceed in justice, which shall have due course, Produce the prisoner. Off. It is his highness' pleasure that the queen Appear in person here in comes Enter HERMIONE, guarded; PAULINA and Leon. Read the indictment. Of Hermione, queen to the worthy Leontes, King of Sicilia, thou art here accused and arraigned of high treason, in committing adultery with Polixenes, King of Bohemia, and conspiring with Camillo to take away the life of our sovereign lord the king, thy royal husband: the pretence whereof. being by circumstances partly laid open, thou, Hermione, contrary to the faith and allegiance of a true subject, didst counsel and aid them, for their better safety, to fly away by night.' Her. Since what I am to say must be but that Which contradicts my accusation, and The testimony on my part no other But what comes from myself, it shall scarce boot me To say, Not guilty: mine integrity, Being counted falsehood, shall, as I express it, Be so received. But thus :-if powers divine Behold our humu, a tions - --as they do I doubt not then but innocence shall make False accusation blush and tyranny Hath been as continent, as chaste, as true, A moiety of the throne, a great king's daughter Who please to come and hear. For life, I prize it As I weigh grief which I would spare for honour, "T is a derivative from me to mine; And only that I stand for. I appeal To your own conscience, sir, before Polixenes With what encounter so uncurrent I Have strained, to appear thus: if one jot beyond Leon. I ne'er heard yet That any of these bolder vices wanted Less impudence to gainsay what they did |