KING Wherefore hast thou accused him all this while?
DIANA Because he's guilty, and he is not guilty:
He knows I am no maid, and he'll swear to't;
I'll swear I am a maid, and he knows not.
Great king, I am no strumpet, by my life;
I am either maid, or else this old man's wife.
KING She does abuse our ears: to prison with her.
DIANA Good mother, fetch my bail. Stay, royal sir:
[Exit Widow]
The jeweller that owes the ring is sent for,
And he shall surety me. But for this lord,
Who hath abused me, as he knows himself,
Though yet he never harm'd me, here I quit him:
He knows himself my bed he hath defiled;
And at that time he got his wife with child:
Dead though she be, she feels her young one kick:
So there's my riddle: one that's dead is quick:
And now behold the meaning.
[Re-enter Widow, with HELENA]
KING Is there no exorcist
Beguiles the truer office of mine eyes?
Is't real that I see?
HELENA No, my good lord;
'Tis but the shadow of a wife you see,
The name and not the thing.
BERTRAM Both, both. O, pardon!
HELENA O my good lord, when I was like this maid,
I found you wondrous kind.
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