Page images
PDF
EPUB
[graphic][merged small][graphic][merged small]
[blocks in formation]

ACT I.

SCENE I-Sicilia. An Antechamber in Leontes' palace. Enter Camillo and Archidamus.

Archidamus.

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 ne 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 knowledge: we cannot with such magnificence

Clown, his son.

Servant to the old shepher.
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,

Mopsa,

attending the queen.

Dorcas, Shepherdesses.

Lords, ladies, and attendants; satyrs for a dance, shepherds, shepherdesses, guards, &c.

Scene, sometimes in Sicilia, sometimes in Bohemia.

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, phywent on crutches ere he was born, desire yet their sics the subject, makes old hearts fresh: they, that 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 crutches till he had one. [Exeunt.

SCENE II-The same. A room of state in the palace. Enter Leontes, Polixenes, Hermione, Mamillius, Camillo, and attendants.

Pol. Nine changes of the wat'ry star have been in so rare-I know not what to say.--We will The shepherd's note, since we have left our throne give you sleepy drinks; that your senses, unintelli-Without a burden: time as long again

gent of our insufficience, may, though they can- Would be fill'd up, my brother, with our thanks: not praise us, as little accuse us.

Arch. Believe me, I speak as my understanding instructs me, and as mine honesty puts it to utter

ance.

And yet we should, for perpetuity,

Cam. You pay a great deal too dear, for what's Go hence in debt: And therefore, like a cipher, given freely. Yet standing in rich place, I multiply, With one we-thank-you, many thousands more That go before it. Leon. Stay your thanks awhile; Cam. Sicilia cannot show himself over-kind to And pay them when you part. Bohemia. They were trained together in their Pol. Sir, that's to-morrow. childhoods; and there rooted betwixt them then I am question'd by my fears, of what may chance, such an affection, which cannot choose but branch Or breed upon our absence: That may blow now. Since their more mature dignities, and royal No sneaping winds at home, to make us say, necessities, made separation of their society, their This is put forth too truly! Besides, I have stay'd encounters, though not personal, have been royally To tire your royalty. attornied' with interchange of gifts, letters, loving Leon.

embassies; that they have seemed to be together, Than you can put us to't.
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

(1) Nobly supplied by substitution of embassies.
(2) Wide waste of country.

We are tougher, brother,

No longer stay. longer.

Pol.
Leon. One seven-night
Pol.
Very sooth, to-morrow.
Leon. We'll part the time between's then: and
in that

(3) Affords a cordial to the state. (4) Nipping.

[blocks in formation]
[blocks in formation]

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.
Her.

Grace to boot!
Of this make no conclusion; lest you say,
Your queen and I are devils: Yet, go on;
The offences we have made you do, we'll answer;
If you first sinn'd with us, and that with us
You did continue fault, and that you slipp'd not
With any but with us.

Leon.

Is he won yet?

Her. He'll stay, my lord.
Leon.

At my request, he would not.

Hermione, my dearest, thou never spok'st
To better purpose.
Her.

Yet of your royal presence [To Polixenes.] I'll ad- Leon.

venture

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 gest1
Prefix'd for his parting: yet, good deed, Leontes,
I love thee not a jar o' the clock behind

Never?

Never, hut once.

Her. What? have I twice said well? when was't before?

[blocks in formation]

What lady she her lord. You'll stay?

Pol.

No, madam.

[blocks in formation]

I may not, verily.

Her. Verily!

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,

You put me off with limber vows: But I,

Though you would seek to unsphere the stars with Or I mistake you: O, would her name were Grace!

[blocks in formation]

[Giving her hand to Polixenes.
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

Her. Was not my lord the verier wag o' the two? The mort o'the deer; O, that is entertainment
Pol. We were as twinn'd lambs, that did frisk

[blocks in formation]

there?

We must be neat; not neat, but cleanly, captain: We are yours i'the garden: Shall's attend you
And yet the steer, the heifer, and the calf,
Are all call'd, neat.-Still virginalling1

[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, 2

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-died blacks, as wind, as waters; false
As dice are to be wish'd, by one that fixes
No bourn twixt his and mine; vet were it true
To say this boy were like me.-Come, sir page,
Look on me with your welkin eye: Sweet villain!
Most dear'st! my collop!-Can thy dam?-may't

be?

Leon. To your own bents dispose you: you'll be
found,
Be you beneath the sky:-I am angling now,
Though you perceive me not how I give line.
Go to, go to!

[Aside. Observing Polixenes and Hermione.
How she holds up the neb, 1o the bill to him!
And arms her with the boldness of a wife
To her allowing11 husband! Gone already;
Inch-thick, knee-deep; o'er head and ears a fork'd
one. 12-

[Exeunt Polixenes, Hermione, 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,

Affection! thy infection stabs the centre:
Thou dost make possible, things not so held,
Communicat'st with dreams;--(How can this be?) - Now, while I speak this, holds his wife by the arm,

With what's unreal thou coactive art,

5

And fellow'st nothing: Then, 'tis very credent, Thou may'st co-join with something; and thou dost;

(And that beyond commission; and I find it,) And that to the infection of my brains,

Pol.

And hardening of my brows.

What means Sicilia?

Her. He something seems unsettled.

What cheer? how is't with you, best brother?
Her.

Or I am much deceiv'd, cuckolds ere now;

And many a man there is, even at this present,

That little thinks she has been sluic'd in his absence,
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. Physic for't there is none;
It is a bawdy planet, that will strike
Where 'tis 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
No, in good earnest. - Have the disease, and feel't not.-How now, boy?

Pol.

How, my lord?

You look,

As if you held a brow of much distraction:

Are you mov'd, my lord?

Leon.

[blocks in formation]

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, is't,
But of the finer natures? by some severals,
Of head-piece extraordinary? lower messes, 15
Perchance, are to this business purblind: say.

Cam. Business, my lord? I think, most under-
stand

Bohemia stays here longer.

(8) May his share of life be a happy one!
(9) Heir apparent, next claimant. (10) Mouth,
(11) Approving. (12) A horned one, a cuckold.
(13) To round in the ear was to tell secretly.
(14) Taste.
(15) Inferiors in rank.

« PreviousContinue »