ARGUMENT.

Polixenes, king of Bohemia, during a visit to his friend Leontes, king of Sicily, awakens the jealousy of his host, who unjustly suspects him of an intrigue with his wife Hermione, and endeavors to prevail on a courtier, named Camillo, to poison his guest: instead however of complying with his request, Camillo informs the unsuspecting monarch of his danger, and accompanies him in his flight to Bohemia. Leontes now vents his rage on the innocent Hermione, who is debarred from the society of her son, and confined in prison, where she is delivered of a daughter named Perdita, who is considered as spurious, and ordered to be exposed by her inhuman father. Antigonus, to whose custody the infant is committed, reaches the Bohemian territories, and during his progress is strangled by a bear, while the child is found by a poor shepherd, who rears it as his own. In the mean time, the character of Hermione is completely vindicated by the answer of the oracle of Delphi, which informs Leontes that he shall want an heir to his kingdom till the lost infant is found; and in confirmation of its truth, his son suddenly expires immediately after the arrival of the commissioners. The spirits of the queen are unable to sustain this last shock, and the intelligence of her death is soon after conveyed to her repentant husband. At the age of sixteen, Perdita captivates the affections of Florizel, the son of Polixenes, who contrives to escape from Bohemia with his affianced bride, and reaches the coast of Sicily, whither he is pursued by his enraged father: the apparel and jewels, which were found with the infant at the time of its exposure, are now produced by the shepherd, and Perdita is recognised as the daughter of Leontes, and bestowed in marriage on her lover. Paulina, the widow of Antigonus, invites her master and his guests to inspect a statue of Hermione, which excites unbounded admiration as a triumph of art, when the supposed marble becomes animated, and Leontes recovers his amiable wife, who had in retirement. awaited the fulfilment of the oracle.

SHAK.

V.

R

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.

JAILER.

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,

Two other Ladies, attending the queen.

Lords, Ladies, and Attendants; Satyrs for a dance; Shep

herds, Shepherdesses, Guards, &c.

SCENE, Sometimes in Sicilia, sometimes in Bohemia.

WINTER'S TALE.

ACT I.

SCENE I.

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,

Arch. Verily, I speak it in the freedom of my knowlege: we cannot with such magnificence-in so rare-I know not what to say.-We 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 utter

ance.

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 dignities, and royal necessities, made separation of their society, their encounters, though not personal, have been royally. attorney'd,1 with interchange of gifts, letters, loving embassies; that they have seemed to be together, though absent; shook hands, as over a vast; 2 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,3 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?

Nobly supplied by substitution of embassies.

2 Wide waste of country.

Affords a cordial to the state.

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 crutches till he had one.

[Exeunt.

The same.

SCENE II.

A room of state in the palace.

Enter LEONTES, POLIXENES, HERMIONE, MAMILLIUS, CAMILLO, and Attendants.

Pol. Nine changes of the watery 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.

No sneaping 1 winds at home, to make us say,

This is put forth too truly!'2 Besides, I have stay'd

1 Nipping.

2 I had too good reason for my fears concerning what might happen during my absence from home.