To me can life be no commodity. Favour, But know not how it went. My fecond joy, Apollo be my judge.. SCENE III. Enter Dion and Cleomines. Lord. This your request Is altogether juft; therefore bring forth, Her. The Emperor of Ruffia was my father, ? I have got ftrength of limit.] I know not well how frength of limit can mean ftrength to pass the limits of the child bed chamber, which yet it muft mean in this place, unless we read in a more eafy phrafe, frength of limb. And now, &c. Oh, Oh, that he were alive, and here beholding Offi. You here fhall fwear upon the Sword of Justice, That you, Cleomines and Dion, have Been both at Delphos, and from thence have brought Of great Apollo's Prieft; and that fince then Cleo. Dion. All this we fwear. Leo. Break up the Seals, and read. Offi. Hermione is chafte, Polixenes blameless, Camillo a true Subject, Leontes a jealous Tyrant, his innocent babe truly begotten; and the King hall live without an heir, if that, which is loft, be not found. Lords. Now bleffed be the great Apollo! Her. Praised!. 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'th' Oracle; The Seffion fhall proceed; this is mere falfhood. Enter Servant. Ser. My Lord the King, the King, Leo. What is the bufinefs? Ser. O Sir, I fhall be hated to report it. The Prince your fon, with mere conceit and fear Leo. How gone? Ser. Is dead. Leo. Apollo's angry, and the heav'ns themselves The flatness of my mifery.] That is, how long, how flat I am laid by my calamity. 2 Of the Queen's Speed.] Of the event of the Queen's trial: fo we ill fay, he fed well or ill. Do ftrike at my injuftice.-How now? there! [Hermione faints. Paul. This news is mortal to the Queen: look down, And fee 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, SCENE IV. I have too much believ'd mine own fufpicion: New woo my Queen, recall the good Camillo; My friend Polixenes; which had been done, Not doing it, and being done; he (most humane, Unclaíp'd my practice, quit his fortunes here, Which you knew great, and to the certain hazard Of all incertainties himself commended, No richer than his honour: how he glisters 3 This vehement retractation 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. SCENE SCENE V. Enter Paulina. Paul. Woe the while! 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 That thou betray'dft Polixe- call him Idiot to his Face.THEOB. nes, 'twas nothing; fhew thee of a fool-] That did but shew thee, of a Fool, inconflant, And damnable ingrateful.] I have ventur'd at a flight Altera. tion here, against the Authority of all the Copies, and for fool read foul. It is certainly too grofs and blunt in Paulina, tho' The might impeach the King of Fooleries in fome of his past 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 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 fpared his fagacity if he had remembered, that the prefent reading, by a mode of fpeech anciently much ufed, means only, It show'd thee firft a fool, then inconftant and ungrateful. More More monstrous standing by; whereof I reckon Would have fhed water out of fire, ere don't: Of the young Prince, whofe honourable thoughts Not drop down yet. Lord. The higher powers forbid ! Paul. I fay, he's dead: I'll fwear't: if word, nor Prevail not, go and fee: if you can bring Leo. Go on, go on: Thou canst not fpeak too much; I have deferv'd Lord. Say no more; Howe'er the business goes, you have made fault Paul. I am forry for❜t *. All faults I make, when I fhall come to know them, * This is another inflance to vehement and ungovernable of the fudden changes incident minds. |