TPTT The Winter's Tale: ACT V
Introduction
ACT I
ACT II
ACT III
ACT IV
ACT V
SCENE I. A room in LEONTES' palace.
SCENE II. Before LEONTES' palace.
SCENE III. A chapel in PAULINA'S house.
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SCENE III. A chapel in PAULINA'S house.
Enter LEONTES, POLIXENES, FLORIZEL, PERDITA, CAMILLO, PAULINA, Lords, and Attendants
LEONTES
      O grave and good Paulina, the great comfort
      That I have had of thee!
PAULINA
      What, sovereign sir,
      I did not well I meant well. All my services
5     You have paid home: but that you have vouchsafed,
      With your crown'd brother and these your contracted
      Heirs of your kingdoms, my poor house to visit,
      It is a surplus of your grace, which never
      My life may last to answer.
LEONTES
10    O Paulina,
      We honour you with trouble: but we came
      To see the statue of our queen: your gallery
      Have we pass'd through, not without much content
      In many singularities; but we saw not
15    That which my daughter came to look upon,
      The statue of her mother.
PAULINA
      As she lived peerless,
      So her dead likeness, I do well believe,
      Excels whatever yet you look'd upon
20    Or hand of man hath done; therefore I keep it
      Lonely, apart. But here it is: prepare
      To see the life as lively mock'd as ever
      Still sleep mock'd death: behold, and say 'tis well.

PAULINA draws a curtain, and discovers HERMIONE standing like a statue

      I like your silence, it the more shows off
25    Your wonder: but yet speak; first, you, my liege,
      Comes it not something near?
LEONTES
      Her natural posture!
      Chide me, dear stone, that I may say indeed
      Thou art Hermione; or rather, thou art she
30    In thy not chiding, for she was as tender
      As infancy and grace. But yet, Paulina,
      Hermione was not so much wrinkled, nothing
      So aged as this seems.
POLIXENES
      O, not by much.
PAULINA
35    So much the more our carver's excellence;
      Which lets go by some sixteen years and makes her
      As she lived now.
LEONTES
      As now she might have done,
      So much to my good comfort, as it is
40    Now piercing to my soul. O, thus she stood,
      Even with such life of majesty, warm life,
      As now it coldly stands, when first I woo'd her!
      I am ashamed: does not the stone rebuke me
      For being more stone than it? O royal piece,
45    There's magic in thy majesty, which has
      My evils conjured to remembrance and
      From thy admiring daughter took the spirits,
      Standing like stone with thee.
PERDITA
      And give me leave,
50    And do not say 'tis superstition, that
      I kneel and then implore her blessing. Lady,
      Dear queen, that ended when I but began,
      Give me that hand of yours to kiss.
PAULINA
      O, patience!
55    The statue is but newly fix'd, the colour's Not dry.
CAMILLO
      My lord, your sorrow was too sore laid on,
      Which sixteen winters cannot blow away,
      So many summers dry; scarce any joy
      Did ever so long live; no sorrow
60    But kill'd itself much sooner.
POLIXENES
      Dear my brother,
      Let him that was the cause of this have power
      To take off so much grief from you as he
      Will piece up in himself.
PAULINA
65    Indeed, my lord,
      If I had thought the sight of my poor image
      Would thus have wrought you,--for the stone is mine--
      I'ld not have show'd it.
LEONTES
      Do not draw the curtain.
PAULINA
70    No longer shall you gaze on't, lest your fancy
      May think anon it moves.
LEONTES
      Let be, let be.
      Would I were dead, but that, methinks, already--
      What was he that did make it? See, my lord,
75    Would you not deem it breathed? and that those veins
      Did verily bear blood?
POLIXENES
      Masterly done:
      The very life seems warm upon her lip.
LEONTES
      The fixture of her eye has motion in't,
80    As we are mock'd with art.
PAULINA
      I'll draw the curtain:
      My lord's almost so far transported that
      He'll think anon it lives.
LEONTES
      O sweet Paulina,
85    Make me to think so twenty years together!
      No settled senses of the world can match
      The pleasure of that madness. Let 't alone.
PAULINA
      I am sorry, sir, I have thus far stirr'd you: but
      I could afflict you farther.
LEONTES
90    Do, Paulina;
      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,
95    For I will kiss her.
PAULINA
      Good my lord, forbear:
      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?
LEONTES
100   No, not these twenty years.
PERDITA
      So long could I
      Stand by, a looker on.
PAULINA
      Either forbear,
      Quit presently the chapel, or resolve you
105   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--
      Which I protest against--I am assisted
      By wicked powers.
LEONTES
110   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.
PAULINA
      It is required
115   You do awake your faith. Then all stand still;
      On: those that think it is unlawful business
      I am about, let them depart.
LEONTES
      Proceed:
      No foot shall stir.
PAULINA
120   Music, awake her; strike!

Music

      'Tis time; descend; be stone no more; approach;
      Strike all that look upon with marvel. Come,
      I'll fill your grave up: stir, nay, come away,
      Bequeath to death your numbness, for from him
125   Dear life redeems you. You perceive she stirs:

HERMIONE comes down

      Start not; her actions shall be holy as
      You hear my spell is lawful: do not shun her
      Until you see her die again; for then
      You kill her double. Nay, present your hand:
130   When she was young you woo'd her; now in age
      Is she become the suitor?
LEONTES
      O, she's warm!
      If this be magic, let it be an art
      Lawful as eating.
POLIXENES
135   She embraces him.
CAMILLO
      She hangs about his neck:
      If she pertain to life let her speak too.
POLIXENES
      Ay, and make't manifest where she has lived,
      Or how stolen from the dead.
PAULINA
140   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.
      Please you to interpose, fair madam: kneel
145   And pray your mother's blessing. Turn, good lady;
      Our Perdita is found.
HERMIONE
      You gods, look down
      And from your sacred vials pour your graces
      Upon my daughter's head! Tell me, mine own.
150   Where hast thou been preserved? where lived? how found
      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.
PAULINA
155   There's time enough for that;
      Lest they desire upon this push to trouble
      Your joys with like relation. Go together,
      You precious winners all; your exultation
      Partake to every one. I, an old turtle,
160   Will wing me to some wither'd bough and there
      My mate, that's never to be found again,
      Lament till I am lost.
LEONTES
      O, peace, Paulina!
      Thou shouldst a husband take by my consent,
165   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 question'd; for I saw her,
      As I thought, dead, and have in vain said many
      A prayer upon her grave. I'll not seek far--
170   For him, I partly know his mind--to find thee
      An honourable husband. Come, Camillo,
      And take her by the hand, whose worth and honesty
      Is richly noted and here justified
      By us, a pair of kings. Let's from this place.
175   What! look upon my brother: both your pardons,
      That e'er I put between your holy looks
      My ill suspicion. This is your son-in-law,
      And son unto the king, who, heavens directing,
      Is troth-plight to your daughter. Good Paulina,
180   Lead us from hence, where we may leisurely
      Each one demand an answer to his part
      Perform'd in this wide gap of time since first
      We were dissever'd: hastily lead away.
Exeunt
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