Hast thou read truth?

Leontes:

Officer:

Ay, my lord, even so

As it is here set down.

"The king shall live without an heir if that which is lost be not found," refers, of course, to the babe cast away by Antigonus. The king's son being dead the lost child was the only living heir and for sixteen years the king believed himself to be without an heir; but the babe so cruelly abandoned had been found, reared in a shepherd's family and finally, by a combination of circumstances, was returned to her father's court.

The Winter's Tale also contains a most interesting dream. Antigonus himself relates it in Scene III, Act III, when, with a mariner to manage the boat, he took Perdita to a desert coast to be cast away.

Antigonus:

Thou art perfect, then, our ship hath touch'd upon

The desarts of Bohemia?

Mariner:

Ay, my lord; and fear

We have landed in ill time; the skies look grimly
And threaten present blusters. In my conscience,
The heavens with what we have in hand are

Antigonus:

Their sacred wills be done!

Go, get aboard;

Look to thy bark: I'll not be long before
I call upon thee.

Mariner:

Make your best haste, and go not
Too far i' the land: 'tis like to be loud weather;
Besides, this place is famous for the creatures
Of prey that keep upon't.

I have heard, but not believ'd, the spirits o' the
dead

May walk again: if such thing be, thy mother
Appear'd to me last night, for ne'er was dream
So like a waking. To me comes a creature,
Sometimes her head on one side, some another;
I never saw a vessel of like sorrow,

So fill'd, and so becoming: in pure white robes,
Like very sanctity, she did approach
My cabin where I lay; thrice bow'd before me,
And, gasping to begin some speech, her eyes
Became two spouts: the fury spent, anon
Did this break from her: "Good Antigonus,
Since fate, against thy better disposition,
Hath made thy person for the thrower-out
Of my poor babe, according to thine oath,
Places remote enough are in Bohemia,

There weep and leave it crying; and, for the babe
Is counted lost forever, Perdita,

I prithee, call't: for this ungentle business,

Put on thee by my lord, thou ne'er shalt see
Thy wife Paulina more": and so, with shrieks,

She melted into air. Affrighted much

I did in time collect myself, and thought

This was so and no slumber. Dreams are toys;
Yet for this once, yea, superstitiously,
I will be squar'd by this. I do believe
Hermione hath suffer'd death; and that
Apollo would, this being indeed the issue
Of King Polixenes, it should here be laid,
Either for life or death, upon the earth
Of its right father. Blossom, speed thee well!
[Laying down Child.

There lie; and there thy character: there these;
[Laying down a bundle.

Which may, if fortune please, both breed thee,

pretty,
And still rest thine.

wretch !

The storm begins: poor

That for thy mother's fault art thus exposed
To loss and what may follow. Weep I cannot,
But my heart bleeds, and most accurs'd am I
To be by oath enjoin'd to this. Farewell!

This dream is interesting in two points; it induced Antigonus to leave the child where he placed it, and there it was immediately found and given a home. The dream makes an accurate forecast in the words "thou ne'er shalt see thy wife Paulina more." Antigonus met a violent death within a few minutes after leaving the abandoned babe. Many years later his wife married Camillo.

SOOTHSAYERS AND PROPHECIES

It is King Richard himself who, in Scene II, Act IV, King Richard III, discloses the prophecy made to him in Ireland. Buckingham is insisting upon the fulfillment of the promised reward for his part in the enthronement of Richard and the latter is avoiding the point.

Buckingham:

My lord, I claim the gift, my due by promise,
For which your honour and your faith is pawn'd;
The earldom of Hereford and the moveables
Which you have promised I shall possess.

King Richard:

Stanley, look to your wife: if she convey Letters to Richmond, you shall answer it. Buckingham:

What says your highness to my just request? King Richard:

I do remember me, Henry the Sixth

Did prophesy that Richmond should be king;
When Richmond was a little peevish boy.
A king! perhaps

Buckingham:

My lord, your promise for the earldom-
King Richard:

Richmond! When last I was at Exeter,
The mayor in courtesy showed me the castle,
And called it Rougemont: at which name I
started,