trong mind, conscious of its own innocence. Nothing can be more
affecting than her calm reply to Leontes, who, in his jealous rage,
heaps insult upon insult, and accuses her before her own attendants, as
no better "than one of those to whom the vulgar give bold titles."

How will this grieve you,
When you shall come to clearer knowledge, that
You have thus published me! Gentle my lord,
You scarce can right me thoroughly then, to say
You _did_ mistake.

Her mild dignity and saint-like patience, combined as they are with the
strongest sense of the cruel injustice of her husband, thrill us with
admiration as well as pity; and we cannot but see and feel, that for
Hermione to give way to tears and feminine complaints under such a blow,
would be quite incompatible with the character. Thus she says of
herself, as she is led to prison:--

There's some ill planet reigns:
I must be patient till the heavens look
With an aspect more favorable. Good my lords,
I am not prone to weeping, as our sex
Commonly are; the want of which vain dew
Perchance shall dry your pities; but I have
That honorable grief lodged here, that burns
Worse than tears drown. Beseech you all, my lords
With thought so qualified as your charities
Shall best instruct you, measure me; and so
The king's will be performed.

When she is brought to trial for supposed crimes, called on to defend
herself, "standing to prate and talk for life and honor, before who
please to come and hear," the sense of her ignominious situation--all
its shame and all its horror press upon her, and would apparently crush
even _her_ magnanimous spirit, but for the consciousness of her own
worth and innocence, and the necessity that exists for asserting and
defending both.

If powers divine
Behold our human actions, (as they do),
I doubt not, then, but innocence shall make
False accusation blush, and tyranny
Tremble at patience.

* * * *

For life, I prize it
As I weigh grief, which I would spare. For honor--
'Tis a derivative from me to mine,
And only that I stand for.

Her earnest, eloquent justification of herself, and her lofty sense of
female honor, are rendered more affecting and impressive by that
chilling despair that contempt for a life which has been made bitter to
her through unkindness, which