The Winter’s Tale

I can’t rest night or day. It is a kind of weakness to be so affected by this issue. If only the cause of it were no longer alive—part of the cause, at least, the adulteress. The lecherous king is away from here, which puts him beyond my aim and anything I could do to him. But she, the adulteress, I can keep close. If she were burned at the stake, perhaps I would have some small bit of rest. Who’s there?

My lord?

How is the boy doing?

He slept well tonight, and we hope that he’s gotten over his illness.

I’m amazed at his nobility! Recognizing the dishonorable behavior of his mother, he immediately began to decline, to feel the shame himself. He became sad, stopped eating, stopped sleeping, and grew weak. Leave me alone, and go see how he’s doing.

No! I won’t think about Polixenes. I fear taking revenge on him. He himself is too powerful, and he has powerful allies. Let him be until an opportunity comes. I’ll have revenge now on her. Camillo and Polixenes laugh at me, and find amusement in my sorrow. They wouldn’t laugh if I could reach them, and neither will the woman who is within my power to punish.

You must not go in.

No, my good lords, back me. Do you fear his tyrannical anger more than the queen’s life? She’s a gracious, innocent soul, more innocent than he is jealous.

That’s enough.

Madam, he hasn’t slept tonight and has ordered that he be left alone.

Not so hasty, good sir. I’m here to bring him sleep. It’s people like you who creep softly around him like shadows and sigh at his unnecessary agitation that feed the cause of his wakefulness. I have something to say to him that’s as soothing as it is true, and honest as well, that will rid him of the sickness keeping him from rest.

What is that noise?

It’s not noise, my lord, but necessary talk about godparents for your highness.

What! Take this bold woman away! Antigonus, I told you to keep her away from me, because I knew she would come.

My lord, I told her that she shouldn’t visit you, or she’d risk making us both angry.

What, you can’t control her?

He can keep me from dishonesty. Unless he does as you’ve done and locks me up for being honorable, he won’t control me in this matter.

You see, when she wants to take control I give her room, but she’ll do what’s right.

My good lord, I beg you to listen to me. I’m your loyal servant, your doctor, your most obedient advisor, though perhaps I don’t seem like it because I won’t condone your evil actions, as do those servants who only seem most loyal. I come from your good queen.

Good queen!

She is a good queen, my lord. I say she is a good queen, a very good queen. If I were a man I would fight a duel to prove her innocence, even against the most lowly man.

Force her out of here.

The first man who tries to manhandle me better not value his eyes. I’ll go by my own accord, but first I’ll carry out my errand. The good queen, for she is good, has given birth to a daughter. Here she is. She commends her to you so that you may bless her.

Get out! This furious witch! Take her out of here! She’s a spying pimp!

Not at all. I know nothing about that, while you show your knowledge of it by calling me that name. I’m as honest as you are mad, which, I assure you, is as honest as you can expect in this world.

Traitors! Won’t you shove her out? Hand her the bastard child! You dolt! You are hen-pecked and kicked out of your place of authority by your hen here. Pick up that bastard. Pick it up, I say, and give it to your hag.

(to Antigonus) Your hands will forever be unworthy of respect if you take up the princess under that terrible name he called her!

He fears his wife.

I wish you did, too, and then you would undoubtedly call your children your own.

A nest of traitors!

I’m not one.

Nor am I, nor is anyone else here other than himself, since he has betrayed his own honor, the honor of his wife, of his son, and of his baby with slander, which is sharper than any sword. It’s a curse that he can’t be forced to revise his opinion, which is as rotten as oak or stone is solid.

A constantly chattering harlot, who has recently beat her husband and now provokes me. This brat isn’t mine—it’s Polixenes’ child. Take it away, and send it and its mother to the fire!

It is yours. It looks so much like you, and for the worse, as the proverb puts it. See, my lords, how the baby has all the features of her father in miniature: the eyes, nose, lips, her father’s frown and forehead, the dimples on his chin and cheeks, his smile. They have the same hands, nails, fingers. And so good goddess Nature has made the baby just like the man who conceived her. If Nature has control over temperament, too, don’t let her have any jealousy, or she’ll suspect, as her father does, that her children are not her husband’s!

(to Antigonus) A horrible woman. Scoundrel, you ought to be hanged for not stopping her from speaking.

If you hang all the husbands who can’t keep their wives from talking, you’ll have hardly any subjects left.

Once again, get her out of here.

A most unworthy and unnatural lord can do only that.

I’ll have you burnt.

I don’t care. It would be a heretic building the fire, not the woman burning in it. I won’t call you a tyrant, but your cruel mistreatment of your queen seems something like tyranny, since you can’t produce any evidence beyond your own weak imaginings. It will make you dishonorable, even scandalous, to all the world.

Be loyal to me and take her out of the room! If I were a tyrant, would she still be alive? If she knew I was a tyrant, truly, she wouldn’t dare call me one. Take her away!

Please don’t push me. I’ll go. Look at your baby, my lord. She’s yours. May Jove send her a better protector! (to attendants) Why do you put your hands on me? All of you who are so accepting of his misbehavior won’t do him any good, not one of you. So, goodbye, I’m going.

(to Antigonus) You traitor! You put your wife up to this. My child? Get rid of it! You, who have such a tender heart for it, take it away and see that it’s burned immediately. You, and no one but you. Do it now. Within the hour I want to hear that it is done, and with witnesses, or I’ll have your life, and all else that you call your own. If you refuse and will face my anger, say so. I’ll dash the bastard’s brains out with my own hands. Go, take it to the fire, since you put your wife up to this.

I didn’t, sir. These lords, my noble fellows, will clear my name.

We can, my royal lord. He isn’t responsible for her appearance here.

You are all liars.

Please, your highness, we are more honorable than that. We have always served you faithfully and beg you to think of us that way. We beg you on our knees, as repayment for all our services of the past and future, that you’ll change your mind. This plan is so horrible and bloody that it can only lead to something terrible.

I am asked to follow every opinion I hear. Should I allow this bastard to grow up and call me father? I’d rather burn it now than curse it then. But, fine, let it live. (to Anitogonus) You, sir, come here. You have interfered so kindly along with your wench in order to save this bastard’s life—and I’m as certain it’s a bastard as I am that your beard is gray—so what will you risk to save the brat’s life?

Anything that my ability will allow and that nobility would demand. I’d give what little blood I might have left to save this innocent child. I’ll do whatever is possible.

It will be possible. Swear by this sword that you will do what I demand.

I will, my lord.

Make note of what I tell you, and perform it, because if you fail to do any part of it not only will you die, but so will your crudely outspoken wife, whom I’ll pardon for now. I command you, as my loyal servant, to take this female bastard away to some deserted place far from my kingdom, and to leave it there without mercy, left to its own abilities and the whims of the weather. Since it came to me because of a foreigner, it is only just that I order you, on pain of death and torture, to take it to a foreign place where luck might nurture or kill it. Pick it up.

I swear to carry out your orders, though killing her right now would have been more merciful. Come on, poor baby. May some powerful angel call on the vultures and ravens to take care of you. They say that wolves and bears have given up their savageness to perform similar acts of pity. Sir, be prosperous in more ways than this act deserves! (to the baby) And may a prayer against this cruel act help you, poor thing, condemned to die!

No, I won’t raise another man’s child.

Your highness, messages from the men you sent to the oracle arrived an hour ago. Cleomenes and Dion have both arrived safely from Delphos and are hurrying here to the court.

Their speed is astonishing.

They’ve been gone twenty-three days. Their speedy return predicts that great Apollo wants the truth of this matter revealed. Prepare yourselves, lords. Convene an open trial for this disloyal lady. Since she was publicly accused, she’ll have an open and just trial. While she lives my heart is heavy. Leave me, and consider my orders.