Hermione (The Winter’s Tale)

S ir , spare your threat s :

The bug which you would fr i ght me with I s ee k .

To me can life be no commodity:

The crown and comfort of my life, your favour,(1)

I do give lost; for I do feel it gone,

But know not how it went. My second joy

And f irst- f ruits of my body, from his presence (2)

I am barr’d, like one infectious. My third comfort (3)

Starr’d most unluckily, is from my breast,

The i nnocent milk in its most i nnocent mouth,

Haled out to murder: myself on every post (4)

Proclaimed a strum p et : with immodest hatred

The child-bed privilege denied, which ‘longs (5)

To women of all fashion; lastly, hurried

Here to this place, i’ the open air, before

I have got strength of limit. Now, my l ie ge ,

Tell me what blessings I have here al i ve , (6)

That I should fear to d ie ? Therefore proceed. (7)

But yet hear this: mistake me not; no life,

I prize it not a straw, but for mine honour, (8)

Which I would free, if I shall be condemned

Upon surmises, all proofs slee p ing else

But what your jealousies awake, I tell you (9)

‘Tis rigor and not law. Your honors all

I do refer me to the oracle:

Apollo be my judge!

Green-Assonance/ Yellow-Consonance/ Onomatopoeia/Antithesis

Breakdown of changes of iambic pentameter:

1) Here, Hermione interjects with a list of things she has lost, which parallels her loss of the

uniformity of iambic pentameter.

2) Hermione laments the loss of her son and the brutal, unfair way he was taken from her, so she

reaches out to him by reaching into the next line with a feminine ending here.

3) The imaging of “infectious” here brings up such pain that Hermione’s pattern of speech is

interrupted by her horror.

4) To call attention to the atrocities committed against her and her children, Hermione emphasizes

this phrase with a change of rhythm.

5) Hermione was disrupted from her rest after giving birth, so she disrupts her speech pattern

when condemning this wrongdoing.

6) Here, Hermione’s argument reaches its heartbreaking conclusion, and a change in pentameter

calls attention it.

7) Here as well, as her approach moves from lamenting to blaming, Hermione changes iambic

pentameter to redirect her speech.

8) To emphasize what she wants to do with her honor, free it, Hermione pulls the verse to the next

line with a feminine ending.

9) Again, Hermione makes the reader ask “what? What do you tell us?” with a feminine ending

here, so that we’re anticipating the answer and conclusion to come on the next line.