SCENE III. A chapel in PAULINA'S house. Winter's Tale  Shakespeare homepage  |  Winter's Tale  | Act 5, Scene 3 

 Previous scene  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 

 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  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 

 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 

 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 

 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 

 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; 

 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 

 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, 

 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, 

 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! 

 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 

 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  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  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, 

 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, 

 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, 

 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  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, 

 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  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 

 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  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 

 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  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 

 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: 

 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  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  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 

 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. 

 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  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, 

 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, 

 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-- 

 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. 

 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, 

 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 