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- {\rtf0\ansi{\fonttbl{\f0\froman Times Roman;}{\f1\fmodern Courier;}}
- {\pard\f0\fs28{\fs48 The Winter's Tale
- }\
- \
- {\b\fs36 5.3}
- \
- {\i Enter Leontes, Polixenes, Florizel, Perdita, Camillo,\
- Paulina, Lords, and attendants\
- }{\b \fs24 LEONTES\
- } O grave and good Paulina, the great comfort\
- That I have had of thee!\
- {\b \fs24 PAULINA} What, sovereign sir,\
- I did not well, I meant well. All my services\
- You have paid home, but that you have vouchsafed\
- With your crowned brother and these young\
- contracted {\fs20 5}\
- Heirs of your kingdoms my poor house to visit,\
- It is a surplus of your grace which never\
- My life may last to answer.\
- {\b \fs24 LEONTES} O Paulina,\
- We honour you with trouble. But we came\
- To see the statue of our queen. Your gallery {\fs20 10}\
- Have we passed through, not without much content\
- In many singularities; but we saw not\
- That which my daughter came to look upon,\
- The statue of her mother.\
- {\b \fs24 PAULINA} As she lived peerless,\
- So her dead likeness I do well believe {\fs20 15}\
- Excels what ever yet you looked upon,\
- Or hand of man hath done. Therefore I keep it\
- Lonely, apart. But here it is. Prepare\
- To see the life as lively mocked as ever\
- Still sleep mocked death. Behold, and say 'tis well. {\fs20 20}\
- {\i She draws a curtain and reveals the figure of\
- Hermione, standing like a statue\
- } I like your silence; it the more shows off\
- Your wonder. But yet speak; first you, my liege.\
- Comes it not something near?\
- {\b \fs24 LEONTES} Her natural posture.\
- Chide me, dear stone, that I may say indeed\
- Thou art Hermione; or rather, thou art she {\fs20 25}\
- In thy not chiding, for she was as tender\
- As infancy and grace. But yet, Paulina,\
- Hermione was not so much wrinkled, nothing\
- So age\'c1d as this seems.\
- {\b \fs24 POLIXENES} O, not by much.\
- {\b \fs24 PAULINA\
- } So much the more our carver's excellence, {\fs20 30}\
- Which lets go by some sixteen years, and makes her\
- As she lived now.\
- {\b \fs24 LEONTES} As now she might have done,\
- So much to my good comfort as it is\
- Now piercing to my soul. O, thus she stood,\
- Even with such life of majesty\'b1\'b1warm life, {\fs20 35}\
- As now it coldly stands\'b1\'b1when first I wooed her.\
- I am ashamed. Does not the stone rebuke me\
- For being more stone than it? O royal piece!\
- There's magic in thy majesty, which has\
- My evils conjured to remembrance, and {\fs20 40}\
- From thy admiring daughter took the spirits,\
- Standing like stone with thee.\
- {\b \fs24 PERDITA} And give me leave,\
- And do not say 'tis superstition, that\
- I kneel and then implore her blessing. Lady,\
- Dear Queen, that ended when I but began, {\fs20 45}\
- Give me that hand of yours to kiss.\
- {\b \fs24 PAULINA} O, patience!\
- The statue is but newly fixed; the colour's\
- Not dry.\
- {\b \fs24 CAMILLO}{\i (to Leontes)\
- } My lord, your sorrow was too sore laid on,\
- Which sixteen winters cannot blow away, {\fs20 50}\
- So many summers dry. Scarce any joy\
- Did ever so long live; no sorrow\
- But killed itself much sooner.\
- {\b \fs24 POLIXENES}{\i (to Leontes)} Dear my brother,\
- Let him that was the cause of this have power\
- To take off so much grief from you as he {\fs20 55}\
- Will piece up in himself.\
- {\b \fs24 PAULINA}{\i (to Leontes)} Indeed, my lord,\
- If I had thought the sight of my poor image\
- Would thus have wrought you\'b1\'b1for the stone is mine\'b1\'b1\
- I'd not have showed it.\
- {\i She makes to draw the curtain\
- }{\b \fs24 LEONTES} Do not draw the curtain.\
- {\b \fs24 PAULINA\
- } No longer shall you gaze on't, lest your fancy {\fs20 60}\
- May think anon it moves.\
- {\b \fs24 LEONTES} Let be, let be!\
- Would I were dead but that methinks already.\
- What was he that did make it? See, my lord,\
- Would you not deem it breathed, and that those veins\
- Did verily bear blood?\
- {\b \fs24 POLIXENES} Masterly done. {\fs20 65}\
- The very life seems warm upon her lip.\
- {\b \fs24 LEONTES\
- } The fixture of her eye has motion in't,\
- As we are mocked with art.\
- {\b \fs24 PAULINA} I'll draw the curtain.\
- My lord's almost so far transported that\
- He'll think anon it lives.\
- {\b \fs24 LEONTES} O sweet Paulina, {\fs20 70}\
- Make me to think so twenty years together.\
- No settled senses of the world can match\
- The pleasure of that madness. Let't alone.\
- {\b \fs24 PAULINA\
- } I am sorry, sir, I have thus far stirred you; but\
- I could afflict you farther.\
- {\b \fs24 LEONTES} Do, Paulina, {\fs20 75}\
- For this affliction has a taste as sweet\
- As any cordial comfort. Still methinks\
- There is an air comes from her. What fine chisel\
- Could ever yet cut breath? Let no man mock me,\
- For I will kiss her.\
- {\b \fs24 PAULINA} Good my lord, forbear. {\fs20 80}\
- The ruddiness upon her lip is wet.\
- You'll mar it if you kiss it, stain your own\
- With oily painting. Shall I draw the curtain?\
- {\b \fs24 LEONTES\
- } No, not these twenty years.\
- {\b \fs24 PERDITA} So long could I\
- Stand by, a looker-on.\
- {\b \fs24 PAULINA} Either forbear, {\fs20 85}\
- Quit presently the chapel, or resolve you\
- For more amazement. If you can behold it,\
- I'll make the statue move indeed, descend,\
- And take you by the hand. But then you'll think\'b1\'b1\
- Which I protest against\'b1\'b1I am assisted {\fs20 90}\
- By wicked powers.\
- {\b \fs24 LEONTES} What you can make her do\
- I am content to look on; what to speak,\
- I am content to hear; for 'tis as easy\
- To make her speak as move.\
- {\b \fs24 PAULINA} It is required\
- You do awake your faith. Then, all stand still. {\fs20 95}\
- Or those that think it is unlawful business\
- I am about, let them depart.\
- {\b \fs24 LEONTES} Proceed.\
- No foot shall stir.\
- {\b \fs24 PAULINA} Music; awake her; strike!\
- {\i Music\
- (To Hermione)} 'Tis time. Descend. Be stone no more.\
- Approach.\
- Strike all that look upon with marvel. Come, {\fs20 100}\
- I'll fill your grave up. Stir. Nay, come away.\
- Bequeath to death your numbness, for from him\
- Dear life redeems you.\
- {\i (To Leontes)} You perceive she stirs.\
- {\i Hermione slowly descends\
- } Start not. Her actions shall be holy as\
- You hear my spell is lawful. Do not shun her {\fs20 105}\
- Until you see her die again, for then\
- You kill her double. Nay, present your hand.\
- When she was young, you wooed her. Now, in age,\
- Is she become the suitor?\
- {\b \fs24 LEONTES} O, she's warm!\
- If this be magic, let it be an art {\fs20 110}\
- Lawful as eating.\
- {\b \fs24 POLIXENES} She embraces him.\
- {\b \fs24 CAMILLO} She hangs about his neck.\
- If she pertain to life, let her speak too.\
- {\b \fs24 POLIXENES\
- } Ay, and make it manifest where she has lived, {\fs20 115}\
- Or how stol'n from the dead.\
- {\b \fs24 PAULINA} That she is living,\
- Were it but told you, should be hooted at\
- Like an old tale. But it appears she lives,\
- Though yet she speak not. Mark a little while.\
- {\i (To Perdita)} Please you to interpose, fair madam.\
- Kneel, {\fs20 120}\
- And pray your mother's blessing.\'b1\'b1Turn, good lady,\
- Our Perdita is found.\
- {\b \fs24 HERMIONE} You gods, look down,\
- And from your sacred vials pour your graces\
- Upon my daughter's head.\'b1\'b1Tell me, mine own,\
- Where hast thou been preserved? Where lived? How\
- found {\fs20 125}\
- Thy father's court? For thou shalt hear that I,\
- Knowing by Paulina that the oracle\
- Gave hope thou wast in being, have preserved\
- Myself to see the issue.\
- {\b \fs24 PAULINA} There's time enough for that,\
- Lest they desire upon this push to trouble {\fs20 130}\
- Your joys with like relation. Go together,\
- You precious winners all; your exultation\
- Partake to everyone. I, an old turtle,\
- Will wing me to some withered bough, and there\
- My mate, that's never to be found again, {\fs20 135}\
- Lament till I am lost.\
- {\b \fs24 LEONTES} O peace, Paulina!\
- Thou shouldst a husband take by my consent,\
- As I by thine a wife. This is a match,\
- And made between's by vows. Thou hast found mine,\
- But how is to be questioned, for I saw her, {\fs20 140}\
- As I thought, dead, and have in vain said many\
- A prayer upon her grave. I'll not seek far\'b1\'b1\
- For him, I partly know his mind\'b1\'b1to find thee\
- An honourable husband. Come, Camillo,\
- And take her by the hand, whose worth and honesty {\fs20 145}\
- Is richly noted, and here justified\
- By us, a pair of kings. Let's from this place.\
- {\i (To Hermione)} What, look upon my brother. Both your\
- pardons,\
- That e'er I put between your holy looks\
- My ill suspicion. This' your son-in-law {\fs20 150}\
- And son unto the King, whom heavens directing\
- Is troth-plight to your daughter. Good Paulina,\
- Lead us from hence, where we may leisurely\
- Each one demand and answer to his part\
- Performed in this wide gap of time since first {\fs20 155}\
- We were dissevered. Hastily lead away.\
- {\i Exeunt\
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