The Chautauquan, Vol. 03, January 1883: A Monthly Magazine Devoted to the Promotion of True Culture.; Organ of the Chautauqua Literary and Scientific CircleChautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle
History
The Chautauquan, Vol. 03, January 1883: A Monthly Magazine Devoted to the Promotion of True Culture.; Organ of the Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle
Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle
Chautauqua Institution -- Periodicals; Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle -- Periodicals
So strongly was the king prejudiced against Hermione, that he would not
wait for the return of Cleomenes and Dion, whom he had sent to consult
the oracle of Apollo at Delphos; but before the queen was recovered,
and while she still grieved for the loss of her precious baby, he had
her brought to a public trial before all the lords and nobles of his
court. And when all the great lords, the judges, and all the nobility
of the land were assembled together to try Hermione, and that unhappy
queen was standing as a prisoner before her subjects to receive their
judgment, Cleomenes and Dion entered the assembly, and presented to the
king the answer of the oracle sealed up; and Leontes commanded the seal
to be broken, and the words of the oracle to be read aloud, and these
were the words: “Hermione is innocent, Polixenes blameless, Camillo
a true subject, Leontes a jealous tyrant, and the king shall live
without an heir if that which is lost be not found.” The king would
give no credit to the words of the oracle; he said it was a falsehood
invented by the queen’s friends, and he desired the judge to proceed in
the trial of the queen. But while Leontes was speaking, a man entered
and told him that the prince Mamillus, hearing that his mother was to
be tried for her life, struck with grief and shame, had suddenly died.
Hermione, upon hearing of the death of this dear affectionate child,
who had lost his life in sorrowing for her misfortune, fainted; and
Leontes, pierced to the heart by the news, began to feel pity for his
unhappy queen, and he ordered Paulina, and the ladies who were her
attendants, to take her away, and use means for her recovery. Paulina
soon returned, and told the king that Hermione was dead.
When Leontes heard that the queen was dead, he repented of his cruelty
to her; and now that he thought his ill usage had broken Hermione’s
heart he believed her innocent; and he now thought the words of the
oracle were true, as he knew “if that which was lost was not found”
which he concluded was his young daughter, he should be without an
heir, the young prince Mamillus being dead, and he would give his
kingdom now to recover his lost daughter; and Leontes gave himself up
to remorse, and passed many years in mournful thoughts and repentant
grief.
The ship in which Antigonus carried the infant princess out to sea was
driven by a storm upon the coast of Bohemia, the very kingdom of the
good king Polixenes. Here Antigonus landed, and here he left the little
baby.
Antigonus never returned to Sicily to tell Leontes where he had left
his daughter, for, as he was going back to the ship, a bear came out of
the woods and tore him to pieces; a just punishment on him for obeying
the wicked order of Leontes.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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