The flatness of my misery; yet with eyes Re-enter Officers, with CLEOMENES and DION. Offi. You here shall swear upon this sword of justice, That you, Cleomenes and Dion, have Been both at Delphos; and from thence have brought This seal'd-up oracle, by the hand deliver'd Nor read the secrets in't. Cleo. Dion. All this we swear. Leon. Break up the seals, and read. Offi. [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! Her. Leon. Hast thou read truth? As it is here set down. Praised! Ay, my lord; even so Leon. There is no truth at all i'the oracle: The sessions shall proceed; this is mere falsehood. Enter a Servant, hastily. Serv. My lord the king, the king! Leon. What is the business? Serv. O sir, I shall be hated to report it: * The flatness of my misery;] That is, how low, how flat I am laid by my calamity. JOHNSON. Of the queen's speed,' is gone. Leon. Serv. How! gone? Is dead. Leon. Apollo's angry; and the heavens themselves Do strike at my injustice. [HERMIONE faints. How now there? Paul. This news is mortal to the queen: -Look down, And see what death is doing. Take her hence: [Exeunt PAULINA and Ladies, with HERM. My great profaneness 'gainst thine oracle!- New woo my queen; recall the good Camillo; with Reward, did threaten and encourage him, No richer than his honour:-How he glisters * Of the queen's speed,] Of the event of the queen's trial: so we still say, he sped well or ill. JOHNSON. 6 - commended,] i. e. committed. Thorough my rust! and how his piety Paul. Re-enter PAULINA. Woe the while! O, cut my lace; lest my heart, cracking it, 1 Lord. What fit is this, good lady? What wheels? racks? fires? What flaying? boiling, Thou would'st have poison'd good Camillo's ho nour, To have him kill a king; poor trespasses, Does my deeds make the blacker!] This vehement retraction of Leontes, accompanied with the confession of more crimes than he was suspected of, is agreeable to our daily experience of the vicissitudes of violent tempers, and the eruptions of minds oppressed with guilt. JOHNSON. * Thou wouldst have poison'd good Camillo's honour,] How should Paulina know this? No one had charged the King with this crime except himself, while Paulina was absent, attending on Hermione. The poet seems to have forgotten this. Would have shed water out of fire, ere don't : Of the young prince; whose honourable thoughts (Thoughts high for one so tender,) cleft the heart That could conceive, a gross and foolish sire When I have said, cry, woe!-the queen, the queen, The sweetest, dearest, creature's dead; and ven geance for't Not dropp'd down yet. 1 Lord. The higher powers forbid ! Paul. I say, she's dead: I'll swear't: if word, nor oath, Prevail not, go and see: if you can bring Leon. Go on, go on: Thou canst not speak too much; I have deserv'd All tongues to talk their bitterest. 1 Lord. Say no more; Howe'er the business goes, you have made fault I'the boldness of your speech. 8 though a devil Would have shed water out of fire, ere don't:] i. e. a devil would have shed tears of pity o'er the damned, ere he would have committed such an action. Paul. I am sorry for't;" All faults I make, when I shall come to know them, I do repent: Alas, I have show'd too much The rashness of a woman: he is touch'd To the noble heart. - What's gone, and what's past help, Should be past grief: Do not receive affliction At my petition, I beseech you; rather Let me be punish'd, that have minded you Of what you should forget. Now, good my liege, The love I bore your queen, -lo, fool again!- Leon. Nature will bear up with this exercise, [Exeunt. • I am sorry for't;) This is another instance of the sudden changes incident to vehement and ungovernable minds. |