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 his abfence.
Her. Sir,

You speak a language that I understand not:
My life ftands in the level of your dreams 9,
Which I'll lay down.

Leo. Your actions are my dreams;

You had a battard by Polixenes,

And I but dream'd it.--As you were past all shame', (Thofe of your fact are fo) fo paft all truth;

Which to deny, concerns more than avails: for as
Thy brat hath been 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 whofe eafieft paffage
Look for no less than death.

Her. Sir, fpare your threats;

The bug, which you would fright me with, I feek.
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,

9 My life flands in the level of your dreams,]

favour,

To be in the level is by a metaphor from archery to be within the reach. JOHNSON.

As you were paft all shame,

(Those of your fact are so) so past all truth.]

I do not remember that fat is ufed any where abfolutely for guilt, which must be its fenfe in this place. Perhaps we may read, Those of your pack are jo.

Pack is a low coarfe word well fuited to the reft of this royal inveive. JOHNSON,

But

But know not how it went. My fecond joy,
The first-fruits of my body, from his prefence
I am barr'd, like one infectious. My third comfort,
* Starr'd most unluckily, is from my breast
The innocent milk in its moft innocent mouth,
Hal'd out to murder: Myfelf on every post
Proclaim'd a ftrumpet; with immodeft hatred
The childbed privilege deny'd, which 'longs
To women of all fafhion ;-Laftly, hurried
Here to this place, i'the open air, before
I have got strength of limit. Now, my liege,
Tell me what bleffings I have here alive,
That I should fear to die? Therefore proceed:
But yet hear this; mistake me not ;-No life;
I prize it not a straw :-but for mine honour,
(Which I would free) if I fhall be condemn'd
Upon furmifes; (all proofs fleeping elfe,
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.

Enter Dion and Cleomenes.

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:
Oh, that he were alive, and here beholding
His daughter's trial! that he did but fee

2 Starr'd muft unluckily,]

i. e. born under an inaufpicious planet. STEEVENS.

3 I have got ftrength of limit.-]

I know not well how ftrength of limit can mean frength to pass the limits of the childbed chamber, which yet it must mean in this place, unless we read in a more eafy phrafe, frength of limb. And now, &c. JOHNSON.

The flatness of my mifery +; yet with eyes

Of pity, not revenge!

Off. You here fhall fwear upon the fword of juftice, That you, Cleomenes 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 priest; and that fince then
You have not dar'd to break the holy feal,
Nor read the fecrets in't.

Cleo. Dion. All this we fwear.

Leo. Break up the feals, and read.

Offi. Hermione is chafte, Polixenes blameless, Camillo a true fubject, Leontes a jealous tyrant, his innocent babe truly begotten; and the king shall live without an beir, if that, which is loft, be not found.

Lords. Now bleffed be the great Apollo !

Her. Praifed!

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'the oracle: The feffion fhall proceed; this is mere falfehood.

Enter Servant.

Ser. My lord the king, the king!

Leo. What is the bufinefs?

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

The prince your fon, with mere conceit and fear
Of the queen's fpeed, is gone.

Leo. How! gone?

Ser. Is dead.

Leo. Apollo's angry; and the heavens themfelves

+ The flatness of my mifery ;—]

That is, how low, how fat I am laid by my calamity. JOHNSON.

5 Of the queen's Speed,

Of the event of the queen's trial: fo we ftill fay, he fped well or ill. JOHNSON.

Do strike at my injuftice.How now there?

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

down,

And see 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. I have too much believ'd mine own fufpicion :'Beseech you, tenderly apply to her

Some remedies for life.-Apollo, pardon
My great prophaneness '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 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 tardy'd
My swift command; tho' I with death, and with
Reward, did threaten, and encourage him,
Not doing it, and being done: he, (moft humane,
And fill'd with honour) to my kingly guest
Unclafp'd my practice; quit his fortunes here,
Which you knew great; and to the certain hazard
Of all incertainties himfelf commended,

No richer than his honour: How he glifters
Through my dark ruft! and how his
Does my deeds make the blacker!

Enter Paulina.

Paul. Woe the while!

6 Does my deeds make the blacker !]

piety

This vehement retraction 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. JOHNSON.

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 ungrateful: nor was't much,
Thou would'st have poifon'd good Camillo's honour,
To have him kill a king:
king: poor trefpaffes,

7 That thou betray'dft Polixenes, 'twas nothing;
That did but fhew thee, of a fool, inconftant,
And damnable ingrateful:]

I have ventured at a flight alteration here, against the authority of all the copies, and for fool read foul. It is certainly too grofs and blunt in Paulina, though fhe might impeach the king of fooleries in fome of his paft 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 call him idiot to his face. THEOBALD.

- fhew thee of a fool,

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 spared his fagacity if he had remembered, that the prefent reading, by a mode of fpeech anciently much ufed, means only, It fhew'd thee first a fool, then inconflant and ungrateful. JOHNSON.