Act 3, Scene 1

Sicilia. A Street in some Town.

[Enter CLEOMENES and DION.]
Cleomenes
1136 The climate's delicate; the air most sweet;
1137 Fertile the isle; the temple much surpassing
1138 The common praise it bears.
Dion
1139 I shall report,
1140 For most it caught me, the celestial habits,—
1141 Methinks I so should term them,—and the reverence
1142 Of the grave wearers. O, the sacrifice!
1143 How ceremonious, solemn, and unearthly,
1144 It was i' the offering!
Cleomenes
1145 But of all, the burst
1146 And the ear-deaf'ning voice o' the oracle,
1147 Kin to Jove's thunder, so surprised my sense
1148 That I was nothing.
Dion
1149 If the event o' the journey
1150 Prove as successful to the queen,—O, be't so!—
1151 As it hath been to us rare, pleasant, speedy,
1152 The time is worth the use on't.
Cleomenes
1153 Great Apollo
1154 Turn all to th' best! These proclamations,
1155 So forcing faults upon Hermione,
1156 I little like.
Dion
1157 The violent carriage of it
1158 Will clear or end the business: when the oracle,—
1159 Thus by Apollo's great divine seal'd up,—
1160 Shall the contents discover, something rare
1161 Even then will rush to knowledge.—Go,—fresh horses;—
1162 And gracious be the issue!
[Exeunt.]

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Notes

TLN 1140archaic vocab
“the celestial habits,— Methinks I so should term them,”
Dion calls the priests' vestments 'celestial habits' — garments so splendid they seemed to belong to heaven. 'Habit' in Elizabethan English means clothing or dress (it survives in the modern 'riding habit'). Dion's dash and self-correction ('Methinks I so should term them') signals that he is reaching for a word grand enough to match what he saw.
TLN 1145classical allusion
“the burst And the ear-deaf'ning voice o' the oracle, Kin to Jove's thunder”
Cleomenes compares Apollo's oracular voice to the thunder of Jove (Jupiter), king of the Roman gods, whose weapon and signature was the thunderbolt. The comparison places Apollo's word at the highest level of divine authority — the god of prophecy speaking with the power of the supreme god himself. This prepares the audience for the oracle's verdict, which Leontes will dismiss at his peril.
classical Apollo and the oracle at Delphos
TLN 1154archaic vocab
“These proclamations, So forcing faults upon Hermione, I little like.”
Cleomenes says he 'little likes' the 'proclamations' that are 'forcing faults upon Hermione' — that is, the formal royal indictments that impose or pin charges on her. 'Forcing faults' means attributing crimes by compulsion, making her guilty by decree rather than evidence. The word 'proclamations' here means the official legal charges read at court, and Cleomenes' quiet dissent signals to the audience that even the king's own envoy doubts the justice of the trial.