Page 866 - Shakespeare - Vol. 4

LEONTES

Her natural posture!
Chide me, dear stone, that I may say indeed
Thou art Hermione; or rather, thou art she [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 aged as this seems.

POLIXENES
O, not by much.

PAULINA
So much the more our carver’s excellence, [30]

Which lets go by some sixteen years and makes her
As she liv’d now.

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, warm life, [35]
As now it coldly stands, when first I woo’d her!
I am asham’d: 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 conjur’d to remembrance, and [40]
From thy admiring daughter took the spirits,

Standing like stone with thee.

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, [45]

Give me that hand of yours to kiss.

PAULINA