Page 796 - Shakespeare - Vol. 4

Blemish’d his gracious dam: this is not, no,
Laid to thy answer: but the last − O lords,
When I have said, cry ‘woe!’ − the queen, the queen,
The sweet’st, dear’st creature’s dead: and vengeance for’t [200]

Not dropp’d down yet.

A LORD
The higher powers forbid!

PAULINA
I say she’s dead: I’ll swear ’t. If word nor oath
Prevail not, go and see: if you can bring
Tincture, or lustre in her lip, her eye,

Heat outwardly or breath within, I’ll serve you [205]
As I would do the gods. But, O thou tyrant!
Do not repent these things, for they are heavier
Than all thy woes can stir: therefore betake thee

To nothing but despair. A thousand knees
Ten thousand years together, naked, fasting, [210]
Upon a barren mountain, and still winter
In storm perpetual, could not move the gods

To look that way thou wert.

LEONTES
Go on, go on:
Thou canst not speak too much; I have deserv’d
All tongues to talk their bitt’rest.

A LORD
Say no more: [215]

Howe’er the business goes, you have made fault
I’ th’ boldness of your speech.

PAULINA
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