I do refer me to the oracle;

Apollo be my Judge.

1. LORD.

This your request

Is altogether juft: therefore, bring forth,
And in Apollo's name, his oracle.

[Exeunt certain Officers.
HER. The emperor of Ruffia was my father:
O, that he were alive, and here beholding
His daughter's trial that he did but fee
The flatnefs of my mifery;5 yet with eyes
Of pity, not revenge!

Re-enter Officers, with CLEOMENES and DION.

OFFI. You here fhall fwear upon this fword of justice,

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 prieft; 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.

LEON. Break up the feals, and read.

6

OFFI. [reads.] Hermione is chaste, Polixenes

5 The flatnefs of my mifery ;] That is, how low, how flat I am laid by my calamity. JOHNSON.

So, Milton, Paradife Loft, B. II:

Thus repuls'd, our final hope

"Is flat defpair." MALONE.

Hermione is chafte, &c.] This is almoft literally from Lodge's Novel:

"The Oracle.

"Sufpicion is no proofe; jealoufie is an unequal judge; Bellaria is chafte; Egifthus blamelefs; Franion a true fubje&; Pandofto treacherous; his babe innocent; and the king fhall dye without aq heire, if that which is loft be not found." MALONE.

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blameless, Camillo a true fubject, Leontes a jealous tyrant, his innocent babe truly begotten; and the king fhall live without an heir, if that, which is loft, be not found.

LORDS. Now bleffed be the great Apollo!

LEON. There is no truth at all i'the oracle:

The feffions fhall proceed; this is mere falfehood.

Enter a Servant, haftily.

SER. My lord the king, the king!

LEON.

What is the business?

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.

LEON.

SER.

How! gone?

Is dead.

LEON. Apollo's angry; and the heavens them

felves

Do ftrike at my injuftice. [HERMIONE faints.] How now there';

PAUL. This news is mortal to the queen :-Look down,

And see what death is doing.

LEON.

Take her hence:

Her heart is but o'ercharg'd; fhe will recover.

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

I have too much believ'd mine own fufpicion: 'Befeech you, tenderly apply to her

Some remedies for life. - Apollo, pardon

[Exeunt PAULINA and ladies, with HERMIONE. My great profanenels 'gainft 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 tardied
My fwift command, though I with death, and with
Reward, did threaten and encourage him,

8

Not doing it, and being done: he, most 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, '

But that the good mind of Camillo tardied

9

My fwift command, } Here likewife our author has closely followed Greene: - promifing not only to fhew himself a loyal and a loving husband; but also to reconcile himfelfe to Egifthus and Franion; revealing then before them all the cause of their fecret flight, and how treacheroully he thought to have practifed his death, if that the good mind of his cup-bearer had not prevented his purpose." MALONE.

Of all incertainties himfelf commended, ] In the original copy fome word probably of two fyllables, was inadvertently omitted in the first of these lines. I believe the word omitted was either doubtful, or fearful. The editor of the second folio endeavoured to cure the defect by reading- the certain hazard; the most improper word that could have been chofen. How little attention the alterations, made in that copy are entitled to, has been shown in my preface. Commended is committed. See p. 76. MALONE.

I am of a contrary opinion, and therefore retain the emendation of the fecand folio.

No richer than his honour:-How he glifters
Thorough my ruft! and how his piety
Does my deeds make the blacker! 2

PAUL.

Re-enter PAULINA.

Wỏe the while!

O, cut my lace; left my heart, cracking it,"
Break too!

1. LORD. What fit is this, good lady?

PAUL. What fitudied torments, tyrant, haft for me?

What wheels? racks? fires? What flaying? boiling,
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 fhow thee, of a fool, inconftant,
And damnable ungrateful: nor was't much,

Certain hazard, &c., is quite in our author's manner. So in The Comedy of Errors, A& II. fc. ii :

"Until I know this fure uncertainty." STEEVENS.

2 Does my deeds make the blacker! 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 viciffi tudes of violent tempers, and the eruptions of minds oppreffed with guilt. JOHNSON.

3 That thou betray'dft Polixenes, 'twas nothing; That did but how thee, of a fool, inconftant,

And damnable ungrateful:] 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 the might impeach the king of fooleries in fome of his paft actions and conduc, to call him downright a fool. And it is much more par

1

Thouwould't have poifon'd good Camillo's honour,+
To have him kill a king; poor trefpaffes,
More monftrous standing by: whereof I reckon
The cafting forth to crows thy baby daughter,
To be or none, or little; though a devil
Would have fhed water out of fire, ere don't: 5
Nor is't directly laid to thee, the death

Of the young prince; whofe honourable thoughts
(Thoughts high for one fo tender,) cleft the heart
That could conceive, a grofs and foolifh fire
Blemifli'd his gracious dam: this is not, no,
Laid to thy answer: But the last, — O, lords,
When I have faid, cry, woe!-the queen, the queen,
The fweeteft, deareft, creature's dead; and ven-
geance for't

donable in her to arraign his morals, and the qualities of his mind,
than rudely to call him idiot to his face. THEOBALD.

Jhow thee of a fool,] So all the copies. We fhould read:
Show thee off, a fool.

i. e. represent thee in thy true colours; a fool, an inconftant, &c. WARBURTON.

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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 speech anciently much used, means only, It Jhow'd thee first a fool, then inconftant and ungrateful. JOHNSON. Damnable is here ufed adverbially. See Vol. IX. p. 138.

MALONE.

The fame conftruction occurs in The fecond Book of Phaer's Version of the Æneid:

"When this the yong men heard me speak, of wild they waxed wood. STEEVENS.

4 Thou would't have poifon'd good Camillo's honour,] How should Paulina know this? No one had charged the king with this crime except himself, while Paulina was abfent, attending on Hermione. The poet feems to have forgotten this circunftance. MALONE.

5

though a devil

Would have fhed water out of fire, ere don't!] i. c a devil would have shed tears of pity o'er the damn'd ere he would have committed fuch an a&ion. STEEVENS.