Another Sicilian Lord.
ROGERO, a Sicilian Gentleman.
An Attendant on the young Prince Mamillius.
Officers of a court of Judicature.
POLIXENES, King of Bohemia.
FLORIZEL, his Son.
ARCHIDAMUS, a Bohemian Lord.
A Mariner.
An old Shepherd, reputed Father of Perdita.
Clown, his Son."
Servant to the old Shepherd.
AUTOLYCUS, a Rogue.
Time, as Chorus.
HERMIONE, Queen to Leontes.
PERDITA, Daughter to Leontes and Hermione.
PAULINA, Wife to Antigonus.
EMILIA, a Lady, attending the Queen.
Two other Ladies,
Lords, Ladies, and Attendants; Satyrs for a dance; Shepherds, Shepherdesses, Guards, &c.
SCENE-sometimes in Sicilia, sometimes in Bohemia.
Sicilia. An Antechamber in Leontes' Palace.
Enter Camillo and Archidamus. Arch. If you shall chance, Camillo, to visit Bohemia, on the like occasion whereon my services are now on foot, you shall see, as I have said, great difference betwixt our Bohemia, and your Sicilia.
Cam. I think, this coming summer, the King of Sicilia means to pay Bohemia the visitation which he justly owes him.
Arch. Wherein our entertainment shall shame us, we will be justified in our loves; for, indeed,Cam. Beseech you,
The same. A Room of State in the Palace. Enter Leontes, Polixenes, Hermione, Mamillius, Camillo, and Attendants.
Pol. Nine changes of the wat'iy star have
been
The shepherd's note, since we have left our throne
Without a burden: time as long again
Would be fill'd up, my brother, with our thanks:
And yet we should, for perpetuity,
Go hence in debt: And therefore, like a cipher,
Yet standing in rich place, I multiply,
With one we-thank-you, many thousands more
That go before it.
Leon.
Stay your thanks awhile;
And pay them when you part.
Pol.
Sir, that's to-morrow.
am question'd by my fears, of what may chance,
Or breed upon our absence: That may blow
No sneaping winds at home, to make us say,
This is put forth too truly! Besides, I have
stayed
To tire your royalty.
Leon.
Arch. Verily, I speak it in the freedom of my knowledge: we cannot with such magnificence -in so rare-I know not what to say.We I will give you sleepy drinks: that your senses, unintelligent of our insufficience, may, though they cannot praise us, as little accuse us.
Cam. You pay a great deal too dear for what's given freely.
Arch. Believe me, I speak as my understanding Instructs me, and as mine honesty puts it to ut
Cam. Sicilia cannot show himself over-kind to Bohemia. They were trained together in their childhoods; and there rooted betwixt them then such an affection, which cannot choose but branch now. Since their more mature diguities, and royal necessities, made separation of their society, their encounters, though not personal, have been royally attornied, with interchange of gifts, letters, loving embassies; that they have seemed to be together, though absent; shook hands, as over a vast; and embraced, as it were, from the ends of opposed winds. The heavens continue their loves Arch. I think, there is not in the world either malice, or matter, to alter it. You have an unspeakable comfort of your young prince Mamillius; it is a gentleman of the greatest promise, that ever came into my note.
Cam. I very well agree with you in the hopes of him: it is a gallant child; one that, indeed, physics the subject, makes old hearts fresh: they, that went on crutches ere he was born, desire yet their life, to see him a man.
Arch. Would they else be content to die? Cam. Yes; if there were no other excuse why they should desire to live.
Arch. If the king had no son, they would desire to live on erutches till he had one.-[Exeunt. }
Than you can put us to't.
Pol
No longer stay.
Leon. One seven-night longer.
Pol.
Very sooth, to-morrow.
Leon. We'll part the time between's then: and
I'll no gainsaying.
Pol.
Press me not, 'beseech you, so;
There is no tongue that moves, none, none i' the
world,
So soon as yours, could win me: so it should now,
Were there necessity in your request, although
"Twere needful I denied it. My affairs
(Do even drag me homeward: which to hinder
Were, in your love, a whip to me; my stay,
To you a charge and trouble: to save both,
Farewell, our brother.
Leon. Tongue-tied, our queen? speak you.
Her. I had thought, sir, to have held my peace,
until
You had drawn oaths from him, not to stay.
You, sir,
Charge him too coldly: Tell him, you are sure,
All in Bohemia's well: this satisfaction
The by-gone day proclaim'd; say this to him,
He's beat from his best ward."
Well said, Hermione. Her. To tell, he longs to see his son, were strong:
But let him say so then, and let him go;
But let him swear so, and he shall not stay,
We'll thwack him hence with distaffs.-
Yet of your royal presence [To Polixenes] I'll
adventure
The borrow of a week. When at Bohemia
You take my lord, I'll give him my commission,
To let him there a month, behind the gest
Prefix'd for his parting: yet good deed, Leontes,
I love thee not a jar of the clock behind
What lady she her Lord.-You'll stay?
Pol.
Her. Nay, but you will?
You put me off with limber vows: But I,
Though you would seek to unsphere the stars
with oaths,
Should yet say, Sir, no going. Verily,
You shall not go; a lady's verily is
As potent as a lord's. Will you go yet?
Force me to keep you as a prisoner,
Not like a guest; so you shall pay your fees, When you depart, and save your thanks. How say you?
My prisoner ? or my guest? by your dread verily,
One of them you shall be.
Pol.
Your guest then, madam:
To be your prisoner, should import offending;
Which is for me less easy to commit,
Than you to punish.
Her.
But your kind hostess. Come, I'll puestion you Of my lord's tricks, and yours, when you were boys;
You were pretty lordlings then.
Pol.
We were, fair queen,
Two lads that thought there was no more behind,
But such a day to-morrow as to-day,
And to be boy eternal.
Her. Was not my lord the verier wag o' the two?
Pol. We were as twinn'd lambs, that did frisk
And bleat the one at the other : what we chang'd,
Was innocence for innocence: we knew not
The doctrine of ill doing, no, nor dream'a
That any did Had we pursued that life,
And our weak spirits ne'er been higher rear'd
With stronger blood, we should have answer'd
heaven
Boldly, Not Guilty; the imposition cleared,
Hereditary ours.
Her.
By this we gather,
You have tripp'd since.
Pol
O my most sacred lady,
Temptations have since then been born to us:
for
In those unfledg'd days was my wife a girl;
Your precious self had then not cross'd the eyes
Of my young play-fellow.
Grace to boot!
Slaughters a thousand, waiting upon that,
Our praises are our wages: You may ride us,
With one soft kiss, a thousand furlongs, ere
With spur we heat an acre. But to the goal;
My last good was, to entreat his stay;
What was my first; it has an elder sister,
Or I mistake you: 0, 'would, her name were
Grace!
But once before I spoke to the purpose: When 7
Nay, let me hav't; I long.
Leon.
Why, that was when
Three crabbed months had sour'd themselves to
death,
Ere I could make thee open thy white hand,
And clap thyself my love: then didst thou utter,
I am yours for ever.
It is grace, indeed.-
Why, lo you now, I have spoke to the purpose
The one for ever earn'd a royal husband;
The other, for some while a friend.
[ Giving her hand to Polixenes.
Leon.
Too hot, too hot: [Aside.
To mingle friendship far, is mingling bloods.
I have tremor cordis on me :-my heart dances;
But not for joy,-not joy-This entertainment
May a free face put on; derive a liberty
From heartiness, from bounty, fertile bosom,
And well become the agent: it may, I grant:
But to be paddling palms, and pinching fingers,
As now they are: and making practis'd smiles,
As in a looking-glass;-and then to sigh, as 'twere
The mort o' the deer; 0, that is entertainment
My bosom likes not, nor my brows-Mamilius,
Art thou my boy?
Mam.
Leon.
I'fecks?
Why, that's my bawcock. What, hast smutch'd
thy nose 7-
They say, it's a copy out of mine. Come captain,
We must be neat; not neat, but cleanly, captain:
And yet the steer, the heifer, and the calf,
Are all call'd, neat.-Still virginalling
[Observing Polixenes and Hermione. Upon his palm? How now, you wanton calf? Art thou my calf? Mam. Yes, if you will, my lord Leon. Thou want'st a rough pash, and the shoots that I have,
To be full like me: yet, they say, we are
Almost as like as eggs; women say so,
That will say any thing: But were they false
As o'er-dyed blacks, as wind, as waters; false
As dice are to be wish'd, by one that fixes
No bourn 'twixt his and mine; yet were it true
To say this boy were like me.-Come, sir page,
Look on me with your welkin eye: Sweet vil-
lain!
Most dear'st! my collop!-Can thy dam?may't be?
Affection! thy intention stabs the centre:
Thou dost make possible, things not so held;
Communicat'st with dreams;-(How can this
be!)-
With what's unreal thou coactive art,
And fellow'st nothing: Then, 'tis very credent, Thou may'st conjoin with something; and thou
(And that beyond commission, and I find it ;)
And that to the infection of my brains,
And hardening of my brows.
Pol.
What means Sicilia?
Her. He something seems unsettled.
Pol.
How, my lord? What cheer? how is't with you, best brother? Her. You look, As if you held a brow of much distraction: Are you mov'd, my lord? Leon. No, in good earnest.How sometimes nature will betray its folly, Its tenderness, and make itself a pastime To harder bosoms! Looking on the lines
Of my boy's face, methought I did recoil
Twenty-three years; and saw myself unbreech'd,
In my green velvet coat; my dagger muzzled,
Lest it should bite its master, and so prove,
As ornaments oft do, too dangerous.
How like, methought, I then was to this kernel,
This squash, this gentleman-Mine honest
friend,
Will you take eggs for money!
Mam. No, my lord, I'll fight.
Leon. You will? why, happy man be his dole!-My brother,
Are you so fond of your young prince, as we
Do seem to be of ours?
Pol.
If at home, sir,
He's all my exercise, my mirth, my matter:
Now my sworn friend, and then mine enemy;
My parasite, my soldier, statesman, all:
He makes a July's day short as December;
And, with his varying childness, cures in me
Thoughts that would thick my blood.
Leon.
So stands this squire
Offic'd with me: We two will walk, my lord,
And leave you to your graver steps.-Hermione,
How thou lov'st us, show in our brother's wel-
come;
Let what is dear in Sicily be cheap:
Next to thyself, and my young rover, he's
Apparent to my heart."
If you would seek us, We are yours i' the garden; Shall's attend you there?
Leon. To your own bents dispose you: you'll be found,
Be you beneath the sky :-1 am angling now,
Though you perceive me not how I give line.
Go to, go to! [Aside. Observing Pol. and Her.
How she holds up the neb, the bill to him!
And arms her with the boldness of a wife
To her allowing husband! Gone already!
Inch-thick, knee-deep, o'er head and ears a
fork'd one-
[Exeunt Pol. Her. and Attendants. Go, play, boy, play-thy mother, plays, and I Play too; but so disgrac'd a part, whose issue Will hiss me to my grave; contempt and clamour Will be my knell.-Go, play, boy, play-There have been,
Or I am much deceiv'd, cuckolds ere now;
And many a man there is, even at this present,
Now, while I speak this, holds his wife by the
That little thinks, she has been sluic'd in his ab
And his pond fish'd by his next neighbour, by Sir Smile, his neighbour: nay, there's comfort in't, Whiles other men have gates; and those gates open'd,
As mine, against their will: Should all despair, That have revolted wives, the tenth of mankind Would hang themselves. Physick for't there is none;
It is a bawdy planet, that will strike Where is predominant; and 'tis powerful, think it,
From east, west, north, and south: Be it concluded,
No barricado for a belly; know it;
It will let in and out the enemy,
With bag and baggage: many a thousand of us
Have the disease, and feel't not-How now, boy?
Mam. I am like you, they say.
Leon.
What! Camillo there?
Cam. Ay, my good lord.
Leon. Go play, Mamillius; thou'rt an honest
[Erit Mamillius.
Camillo, this great sir will yet stay longer.
Cam. You had much ado to make his anchor
hold:
When you cast ont, it still came home.
Why, that's some comfort
His business more material.
Leon.
Didst perceive it ?-
They're here with me already: whispering
rounding,
Sicilia is a so-forth: "Tis far gone,
When I shall gust it last.-How came't, Camillo
That he did stay?
Cam
At the good queen's entreaty.
Leon. At the queen's, be't: good, should be
pertinent;
But so it is, it is not. Was this taken
By any understanding pate but thine?
For thy conceit is soaking, will draw in
More than the common blocks:-Not noted, ist,
But of the finer natures? by some severals,
Of head-piece extraordinary 7 lower messes,
Perchance, are to this business purblind: say.
Cam. Business, my lord! I think, most under-
stand
Bohemia stays here longer.
Leon.
Cam,
Leon. Ay, but why?
Cam. To satisfy your highness, and the en
Of our most gracious mistress.
Leon.
Satisfy
The entreaties of your mistress ? Satisfy?—
Let that suffice. I have trusted thee, Camillo,
With all the nearest things to my heart, as well
My chamber-councils: wherein, priestlike, thou
Hast cleans'd my bosom; I from thee departed
Thy penitent reform'd: but we have been
Deceiv'd in thy integrity, deceiv'd
In that which seems so.
Cam.
Be it forbid, my lord!
Leon. To bide upon't:-Thou art not honest:
If thou inclin'st that way, thou art a coward;
Which hoxes honesty behind, restraining
From course requir'd: or else thou must be
counted
A servant, grafted in my serious trust,
And therein negligent; or else a fool,
That seest a game play'd home, the rich stake
drawn,
And tak'st it all for jest.
My gracious lord,
I may be negligent, foolish, and fearful;
In every one of these no man is free,
But that his negligence, his folly, fear,
Amongst the infinite doings of the world,
Sometimes puts forth: In your affairs, my lord,
If ever I were wilful-negligent,
It was my folly; if industriously
I play'd the fool, it was my negligence,
Not weighing well the end; if ever fearful
To do a thing, where I the issue doubted,
Whereof the execution did cry out
Against the non-performance, 'twas a fear
Which oft affects the wisest: these, my lord,
Are such allow'd infirmities, that honesty
Is never free of. But, 'beseech your grace,
Be plainer with me; let me know my trespass
By its own visage: If I then deny it,
"Tis none of mine.
Leon.
Have not you seen, Camillo, (But that's past doubt: you have, or your eye glass
Is thicker than a cuckold's horn;) or heard, (For, to a vision so apparent, rumour
Cannot be mute,) or thought,-(for cogitation Resides not in that man, that does not think it)
My wife is slippery? If thou wilt confess, (Or else be impudently negative,
To have nor eyes, nor ears, nor thought,) then
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As rank as any flax-wench, that puts to
Before her troth-plight: say it, and justify it.
Cam. I would not be a stander-by, to hear
My sovereign mistress clouded so, without
My present vengeance taken: 'Shrew my heart,
You never spoke what did become you less
Than this, which to reiterate, were sin
As deep as that, though true.
Leon.
Is whispering nothing?
Is leaning cheek to cheek? is meeting noses?
Kissing with inside lip? stopping the career
Of laughter with a sigh? (a note infallible
Of breaking honesty :) horsing foot on foot?
Skulking in corners? wishing clocks more swift'
Hours, minutes? noon, midnight? and all eyes
blind
With pin and web, but theirs, theirs only,
That would unseen be wicked? is this nothing?
Why then, the world, and all that's in't, is no-
thing;
The covering sky is nothing; Bohemia nothing;
My wife is nothing; nor nothing have these no-
things,
Good my lord, be cur'd
Of this diseas'd opinion, and betimes;
For 'tis most dangerous.
Cam. No, no, my lord
Leon.
It is: you lie, you lie;
I say, thou liest, Camillo, and I hate thee:
Pronounce thee a gross lout, a mindless slave;
Or else a hovering temporizer, that
Canst with thine eyes at once see good and evil,
Inclining to them both: Were my wife's liver
Infected as her life, she would not live
The running of one glass.
Cam.
Who does infect her? Leon. Why he, that wears her like his medal, hanging
About his neck, Bohemia: Who-if I
Had servants true about me: that bare eyes
To see alike mine honour as their profits,
Their own particular thrifts,-they would do
Which should undo more doing: Ay, and thou,
His cup-bearer,-whom I from meaner form
Have bench'd, and rear'd to worship; who
may'st see
Plainly, as heaven sees earth, and earth sees
heaven,
How I am galled,-might'st bespice a cup,
To give mine enemy a lasting wink;
Which draught to me were cordial.
Sir, my lord,
I could do this: and that with no rash potion,
But with a ling'ring dram, that should not work
Maliciously like poison: But I cannot
Believe this crack to be in my dread mistress,
So sovereignly being honourable.
Go then; and with a countenance as clear
As friendship wears at feasts, keep with Bohe-
mia,
And with your queen: I am his cupbearer;
If from me he have wholesome beverage,
Account me not your servant.
Leon.
This is all:
Do't and thou hast the one half of my heart;
Do't not, thou split'st thine own.
Cam.
I'll do't, my lord Leon. I will seem friendly, as thou hast advis'd [Erit
Cam. O miserable lady !-But, for me,
What case stand I in 7 I must be the poisoner
Of good Polixenes: and my ground to do 't
Is the obedience to a master; one,
Who, in rebellion with himself, will have
All that are his, so too.-To do this leed,
Promotion follows: If I could find example
Of thousands, that had struck anointed kings,
And flourish'd after, I'd not do't: but since
Nor brass, nor stone, nor parchment, bears not
one,
Leon.
Make't thy question, and go rot!
Dost think, I am so muddy, so unsettled,
To appoint myself in this vexation? sully
The purity and whiteness of my sheets,
Which to preserve, is sleep; which being spotted,
Is goads, thorns, nettles, tails of wasps?
Give scandal to the blood o' the prince my son,
Who, I do think is mine, and love as mine;
Without ripe moving to't? Would I do this?
Could man so blench?'
Cam
I must believe you, sir;
Jdo: and will fetch off Bohemia fort;
Provided, that when he's remov'd, your highness
Will take again your queen, as yours at first;
Even for your son's sake; and, thereby, for
sealing
The injury of tongues in courts and kingdoms
Known and allied to yours.
Leon.
Thou dost advise me,
Even so as I mine own course have set down:
I'll give no blemish to her honour, none.
Let villany itself forswear't. I must
Forsake the court to do't, or no, is certain
To me a break-neck. Happy star, reign now!
Here comes Bohemia.
This is strange! methinks, My favour here begins to warp. Not speak Good day, Camillo.
Hail, most royal sir!
Pol. What is the news i' the court ?
Сат.
None rare, my lord.
As he had lost some province, and a region,
Pol. The king hath on him such a countenance,
Lov'd as he loves himself: even now I met him
With customary compliment; when he,
Wafting his eyes to the contrary, and falling
A lip of much contempt, speeds from me; and
That changes thus his manners.
So leaves me, to consider what is breeding,
Pol. How! dare not? do not. Do you know,
Cam. I dare not know, my lord.
Be intelligent to me? 'Tis thereabouts;
And cannot say, you dare not. Good Camillo,
For, to yourself, what you do know, you must;
Your chang'd complexions are to me a mirror,
Which shows me mine chang'd too: for I must be
A party in this alteration, finding
Cam.
Myself thus alter'd with it.
There is a sickness
I cannot name the disease; and it is caught
Which puts some of us in distemper; but
Of you that yet are well.
Pol.
How! canght of me?
Make me not sighted like the basilisk:
I have look'd on thousands, who have sped the
better
By my regard, but kill'd none so. Camillo,-
As you are certainly a gentleman; thereto,
Our gentry, than our parents' noble names,
Clerk-like, experienc'd, which no less adorns
If you know aught which does behoove my know
In whose success we are gentle,-I beseech you,
ledge
Thereof to be inform'd, imprison it not
In ignorant concealment.
Cam
I may not answer
I must be answer'd.-Dost thou hear, Camillo,
Pol. A sickness caught of me, and yet I well
Which honour does acknowledge,-whereof the
I conjure thee, by all the parts of man,
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For what 7 Become some women best; so that there be not
Too much hair there, but in a semicircle,
Or half-moon made with a pen.
2 Lady.
As he had seen't, or been an instrument
To vice you to't,-that you have touch'd his Mam. I learn'd it out of women's faces-Pray
O, then my best blood turn
To an infected jelly; and my name
Be yok'd with his, that did betray the best!
Turn then my freshest reputation to
A savour, that may strike the dullest nostril
Where I arrive; and my approach be shunn'd,
Nay, hated too, worse than the great'st infection
That e'er was heard, or read!
Cam.
Swear his thought over
By each particular star in heaven, and
By all their influences, you may as well
Forbid the sea for to obey the moon,
As or, by oath, remove, or counsel, shake
The fabrick of his folly; whose foundation
Is pil'd upon his faith, and will continue
The standing of his body.
Pol.
How should this grow?
Cam. I know not: but, I am sure, 'tis safer to
Avoid what's grown, than question how 'tis born.
If therefore you dare trust my honesty,-
That lies enclosed in this trunk, which you
Shall bear along impawn'd,-away to-night.
Your followers I will whisper to the business;
And will, by two's, and three's,at several posterns,
Clear them o' the city: For myself, I'll put
My fortunes to your service, which are here
By this discovery lost. Be not uncertain:
For, by the honour of my parents, I
Have utter'd truth: which if you seek to prove,
I dare not stand by; nor shall you be safer
Than one condemn'd by the king's own mouth,
thereon
His execution sworn.
Pol.
I saw his heart in his face. Give me thy hand;
Be pilot to me, and thy places shall
Still neighbour mine; My ships are ready, and
My people did expect my hence departure
Two days ago.-This jealousy
Is for a precious creature: as she's rare,
Must it be great; and, as his person's mighty,
Must it be violent; and, as he does conceive,
He is dishonour'd by Iman which ever
Profess'd to him, why, his revenges must
In that be made more bitter. Fear o'ershades me:
Good expedition be my friend, and comfort
The gracious queen, part of his theme,
nothing
Of his ill-ta'en suspicion ! Come, Camillo ;
I will respect thee as a father, if
Thou bear'st my life off hence: Let us avoid. Cam. It is in mine authority, to command The keys of all the posterns: Please your high
Saw I men scour so on their way: I ey'd them Even to their ships.
Leon. How bless'd am I In my just censure! in my true opinion!Alack, for lesser knowledge! How accurs'd, In being so blest I-There may be in the cup A spider steep'd, and one may drink; depart, Is not infected: but if one present And yet partake no venom; for his knowledge
The abhorr'd ingredient to his eye; make known How he hath drank, he cracks his gorge, his sides,
With violent hefts :-I have drunk, and seen the spider.
Camillo was his help in this, his pander :-
There is a plot against my life, my crown;
Ali's true that is mistrusted that false villain,
Whom I employ'd, was pre-employ'd by him:
He has discover'd my design, and I
Remain a pinch'd thing; yea, a very trick
For them to play at will:-How came the pos-
By his great authority; Which often hath no less prevail'd than so, On your command.
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