| William Shakespeare (1564–1616). The Oxford Shakespeare. 1914. | | | |
| The Winter’s Tale | | | | Act III. Scene I. |
| | A Sea-port in Sicilia. | |
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Enter CLEOMENES and DION. | |
| Cleo. The climate’s delicate, the air most sweet, | |
| Fertile the isle, the temple much surpassing | |
| The common praise it bears. | 5 |
| Dion. I shall report, | |
| For most it caught me, the celestial habits,— | |
| Methinks I so should term them,—and the reverence | |
| Of the grave wearers. O, the sacrifice! | |
| How ceremonious, solemn, and unearthly | 10 |
| It was i’ the offering! | |
| Cleo. But of all, the burst | |
| And the ear-deafening voice o’ the oracle, | |
| Kin to Jove’s thunder, so surpris’d my sense, | |
| That I was nothing. | 15 |
| Dion. If the event o’ the journey | |
| Prove as successful to the queen,—O, be ’t so!— | |
| As it hath been to us rare, pleasant, speedy, | |
| The time is worth the use on ’t. | |
| Cleo. Great Apollo | 20 |
| Turn all to the best! These proclamations, | |
| So forcing faults upon Hermione, | |
| I little like. | |
| Dion. The violent carriage of it | |
| Will clear or end the business: when the oracle, | 25 |
| Thus by Apollo’s great divine seal’d up, | |
| Shall the contents discover, something rare | |
| Even then will rush to knowledge.—Go:—fresh horses! | |
| And gracious be the issue! [Exeunt. | | | |
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