Original Text |
Translated Text |
Source: Folger Shakespeare Library |
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Enter Hermione, Mamillius, and Ladies. HERMIONE Take the boy to you. He so troubles me ’Tis past enduring. FIRST LADY Come, my gracious lord, Shall I be your playfellow? MAMILLIUS No, I’ll none of you. 5 FIRST LADY Why, my sweet lord? MAMILLIUS You’ll kiss me hard and speak to me as if I were a baby still.—I love you better. SECOND LADY And why so, my lord? | Meanwhile, Hermione hangs out with her Ladies in waiting and her young son, Mamillius. Hermione asks her Ladies to entertain her precocious boy (he’s really cute but also a little out of control, so mommy needs a break). Mamillius says he doesn’t want to play with the First Lady because she’s always kissing him and treating him like a baby. Mamillius replies that he loves the Second Lady better. |
MAMILLIUS Not for because 10 Your brows are blacker—yet black brows, they say, Become some women best, so that there be not Too much hair there, but in a semicircle, Or a half-moon made with a pen. SECOND LADY Who taught this? 15 MAMILLIUS I learned it out of women’s faces.—Pray now, What color are your eyebrows? FIRST LADY Blue, my lord. MAMILLIUS Nay, that’s a mock. I have seen a lady’s nose That has been blue, but not her eyebrows. 20 FIRST LADY Hark ye, The Queen your mother rounds apace. We shall Present our services to a fine new prince One of these days, and then you’d wanton with us If we would have you. 25 SECOND LADY She is spread of late Into a goodly bulk. Good time encounter her! HERMIONE What wisdom stirs amongst you?—Come, sir, now I am for you again. Pray you sit by us, And tell ’s a tale. 30 MAMILLIUS Merry or sad shall ’t be? HERMIONE As merry as you will. MAMILLIUS A sad tale’s best for winter. I have one Of sprites and goblins. | After the Ladies banter and play with Mamillius for a bit, Hermione asks
her son to tell a nice story. Mamillius obliges and says he knows “sad”
story about goblins that’s just perfect for “winter” time. (Yep, that’s
a reference to the play’s title all right.) |
HERMIONE Let’s have that, good sir. 35 Come on, sit down. Come on, and do your best To fright me with your sprites. You’re powerful at it. MAMILLIUS There was a man— HERMIONE Nay, come sit down, then on. MAMILLIUS Dwelt by a churchyard. I will tell it softly, 40 Yond crickets shall not hear it. HERMIONE Come on then, and give ’t me in mine ear. They talk privately. | Mamillius whispers the story into his mother’s ear. |
Enter Leontes, Antigonus, and Lords. LEONTES Was he met there? His train? Camillo with him? LORD Behind the tuft of pines I met them. Never Saw I men scour so on their way. I eyed them 45 Even to their ships. LEONTES How blest am I In my just censure, in my true opinion! Alack, for lesser knowledge! How accursed In being so blest! There may be in the cup 50 A spider steeped, and one may drink, depart, And yet partake no venom, for his knowledge Is not infected; but if one present Th’ abhorred ingredient to his eye, make known How he hath drunk, he cracks his gorge, his sides, 55 With violent hefts. I have drunk, and seen the spider. Camillo was his help in this, his pander. There is a plot against my life, my crown. All’s true that is mistrusted. That false villain Whom I employed was pre-employed by him. 60 He has discovered my design, and I Remain a pinched thing, yea, a very trick For them to play at will. How came the posterns So easily open? LORD By his great authority, 65 Which often hath no less prevailed than so On your command. | Meanwhile, Leontes walks on stage with Antigonus and some other Sicilian
Lords. Leontes is all riled up because Polixenes has escaped Sicily
with Camillo in tow. Leontes is convinced that Polixenes and Camillo are
plotting against his life and have been in cahoots for quite some time. |
LEONTES I know ’t too well. To Hermione. Give me the boy. I am glad you did not nurse him. 70 Though he does bear some signs of me, yet you Have too much blood in him. HERMIONE What is this? Sport? LEONTES, to the Ladies Bear the boy hence. He shall not come about her. Away with him, and let her sport herself 75 With that she’s big with, (to Hermione) for ’tis Polixenes Has made thee swell thus. A Lady exits with Mamillius. | Leontes turns to Hermione and says he’s glad Hermione never breast fed their son (apparently, Mamillius had a wet-nurse) because Mamillius is already way too much like his mother. (History Snack: In Shakespeare’s time, women who breastfed infants were thought to have transmitted their personal traits and characteristics to children through breast milk. Apparently, Mamillius, had a wet-nurse, which was pretty common among royalty and nobility in Shakespeare’s day.) Hermione says something like “You’ve got to be joking” and Leontes orders Mamillius to be taken away from his mother and accuses the pregnant Hermione of carrying Polixenes’ baby. |
HERMIONE But I’d say he had not, And I’ll be sworn you would believe my saying, 80 Howe’er you lean to th’ nayward. LEONTES You, my lords, Look on her, mark her well. Be but about To say “She is a goodly lady,” and The justice of your hearts will thereto add 85 “’Tis pity she’s not honest, honorable.” Praise her but for this her without-door form, Which on my faith deserves high speech, and straight The shrug, the “hum,” or “ha,” these petty brands 90 That calumny doth use—O, I am out, That mercy does, for calumny will sear Virtue itself—these shrugs, these “hum”s and “ha”s, When you have said she’s goodly, come between Ere you can say she’s honest. But be ’t known, 95 From him that has most cause to grieve it should be, She’s an adult’ress. HERMIONE Should a villain say so, The most replenished villain in the world, He were as much more villain. You, my lord, 100 Do but mistake. | Hermione denies Leontes's charges of adultery, says only a total jerk
would accuse her of such a thing, and tells her husband that he’s making
a huge mistake. |
LEONTES You have mistook, my lady, Polixenes for Leontes. O thou thing, Which I’ll not call a creature of thy place Lest barbarism, making me the precedent, 105 Should a like language use to all degrees, And mannerly distinguishment leave out Betwixt the prince and beggar.—I have said She’s an adult’ress; I have said with whom. More, she’s a traitor, and Camillo is 110 A federary with her, and one that knows What she should shame to know herself But with her most vile principal: that she’s A bed-swerver, even as bad as those That vulgars give bold’st titles; ay, and privy 115 To this their late escape. HERMIONE No, by my life, Privy to none of this. How will this grieve you, When you shall come to clearer knowledge, that You thus have published me! Gentle my lord, 120 You scarce can right me throughly then to say You did mistake. | Leontes repeats his accusation of adultery and says Hermione is a traitor, along with Polixenes and Camillo. Hermione says Leontes will be sorry when he realizes his mistake and says he owes her an apology. |
LEONTES No. If I mistake In those foundations which I build upon, The center is not big enough to bear 125 A schoolboy’s top.—Away with her to prison. He who shall speak for her is afar off guilty But that he speaks. HERMIONE There’s some ill planet reigns. I must be patient till the heavens look 130 With an aspect more favorable. Good my lords, I am not prone to weeping, as our sex Commonly are, the want of which vain dew Perchance shall dry your pities. But I have That honorable grief lodged here which burns 135 Worse than tears drown. Beseech you all, my lords, With thoughts so qualified as your charities Shall best instruct you, measure me; and so The King’s will be performed. LEONTES Shall I be heard? 140 HERMIONE Who is ’t that goes with me? Beseech your Highness My women may be with me, for you see My plight requires it.—Do not weep, good fools; There is no cause. When you shall know your mistress 145 Has deserved prison, then abound in tears As I come out. This action I now go on Is for my better grace.—Adieu, my lord. I never wished to see you sorry; now I trust I shall.—My women, come; you have leave. 150 LEONTES Go, do our bidding. Hence! Hermione exits, under guard, with her Ladies. | Leontes orders Hermione away to prison. Then Hermione blames her husband’s behavior on the alignment of the planets. Hermione declares her heart is heavy with grief and begs to be allowed to have her Ladies with her while she’s in jail. |
LORD Beseech your Highness, call the Queen again. ANTIGONUS Be certain what you do, sir, lest your justice Prove violence, in the which three great ones suffer: Yourself, your queen, your son. 155 LORD For her, my lord, I dare my life lay down—and will do ’t, sir, Please you t’ accept it—that the Queen is spotless I’ th’ eyes of heaven, and to you—I mean In this which you accuse her. 160 ANTIGONUS If it prove She’s otherwise, I’ll keep my stables where I lodge my wife. I’ll go in couples with her; Than when I feel and see her, no farther trust her. For every inch of woman in the world, 165 Ay, every dram of woman’s flesh, is false, If she be. LEONTES Hold your peaces. LORD Good my lord— ANTIGONUS It is for you we speak, not for ourselves. 170 You are abused, and by some putter-on That will be damned for ’t. Would I knew the villain! I would land-damn him. Be she honor-flawed, I have three daughters—the eldest is eleven; 175 The second and the third, nine and some five; If this prove true, they’ll pay for ’t. By mine honor, I’ll geld ’em all; fourteen they shall not see To bring false generations. They are co-heirs, And I had rather glib myself than they 180 Should not produce fair issue. | After Hermione is carted off to the slammer, Antigonus and a Lord try to convince Leontes that he’s making a big mistake. Antigonus says he’s so sure Hermione is innocent that he’d cut out his own daughters’ wombs if it turned out that Hermione was having an affair. Antigonus, who is kind of off on a weird tangent, says he’d castrate himself if it turned out that one of his own daughters turned out to be sexually promiscuous. (Yikes! Antigonus is suggesting that, if Hermione is a floozy, then all women, including his own daughters, are promiscuous too. Check out “Gender” if you want to know more.) |
LEONTES Cease. No more. You smell this business with a sense as cold As is a dead man’s nose. But I do see ’t and feel ’t, As you feel doing thus, and see withal 185 The instruments that feel. ANTIGONUS If it be so, We need no grave to bury honesty. There’s not a grain of it the face to sweeten Of the whole dungy Earth. 190 LEONTES What? Lack I credit? LORD I had rather you did lack than I, my lord, Upon this ground. And more it would content me To have her honor true than your suspicion, Be blamed for ’t how you might. 195 LEONTES Why, what need we Commune with you of this, but rather follow Our forceful instigation? Our prerogative Calls not your counsels, but our natural goodness Imparts this, which if you—or stupefied 200 Or seeming so in skill—cannot or will not Relish a truth like us, inform yourselves We need no more of your advice. The matter, The loss, the gain, the ord’ring on ’t is all Properly ours. 205 | Leontes tells his men to pipe down – if they’re too stupid to realize
that Hermione is an adulteress, he no longer needs their services. |
ANTIGONUS And I wish, my liege, You had only in your silent judgment tried it, Without more overture. LEONTES How could that be? Either thou art most ignorant by age, 210 Or thou wert born a fool. Camillo’s flight, Added to their familiarity— Which was as gross as ever touched conjecture, That lacked sight only, naught for approbation But only seeing, all other circumstances 215 Made up to th’ deed—doth push on this proceeding. Yet, for a greater confirmation— For in an act of this importance ’twere Most piteous to be wild—I have dispatched in post 220 To sacred Delphos, to Apollo’s temple, Cleomenes and Dion, whom you know Of stuffed sufficiency. Now from the oracle They will bring all, whose spiritual counsel had Shall stop or spur me. Have I done well? 225 LORD Well done, my lord. LEONTES Though I am satisfied and need no more Than what I know, yet shall the oracle Give rest to th’ minds of others, such as he 230 Whose ignorant credulity will not Come up to th’ truth. So have we thought it good From our free person she should be confined, Lest that the treachery of the two fled hence Be left her to perform. Come, follow us. 235 We are to speak in public, for this business Will raise us all. ANTIGONUS, aside To laughter, as I take it, If the good truth were known. They exit. | Leontes informs his men that he has sent some guys to Apollo’s temple on the island of “Delphos,” to consult the Oracle to confirm Hermione’s guilt. In the meantime, Hermione is going to rot in jail so she can’t flee Sicily like Camillo and Polixenes. FYI: In the play, the sacred island of “Delphos” (a.k.a. Delos) is linked with Delphi, a real Greek town where people often travelled to consult with Apollo’s Oracle. An oracle, by the way, is a wise person who can predict and interpret the future. In Greek mythology, Apollo appointed an Oracle to speak on his behalf since he was always being pestered by folks who wanted him to tell them what the future had in store for them. |