7

WINTER'S TALE.

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 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 knowledge; 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 utterance.

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 attorneyed,' 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 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 watery star have been The shepherd's note, since we have left our throne Without a burden. Time as long again Would be filled 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.
I am questioned 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 staid
To tire your royalty.

Leon. We are tougher, brother,
Than you can put us to't.
Pol.

No longer stay.
Leon. One sevennight longer.
Pol.

Very sooth, to-morrow. Leon. We'll part the time between 's then; and in

that l'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

1 That for Oh that! is not uncommon in old writers. 2 Sneaping, nipping. 3 i. e. to make me say, I had too good reason for my fears concerning what may happen in my absence from home. VOL. III.

2

The by-gone day proclaimed; say this to him,
He's beat from his best ward.
Leon.

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 Pol.] 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
Prefixed for his parting; yet, good deed, Leontes,
I love thee not a jar o' the clock behind
What lady she her lord.—You'll stay?
Pol.

No, madam. Her. Nay, but you will ? Pol.

I

may not, verily
Her. Verily!
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
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.

Not

your jailer, then,

you ?

But your kind hostess. Come, I'll question you
Of my lord's tricks, and yours, when you were boys ;
You were pretty lordings 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. I

Her. Was not my lord the verier wag o’ the two?
Pol. We were as twinned lambs, that did frisk

i'the sun,

And bleat the one at the other. What we changed,
Was innocence for innocence; we knew not
The doctrine of ill doing, nor dreamed
That any did. Had we pursued that life,
And our weak spirits ne'er been higher reared
With stronger blood, we should have answered Heaven
Boldly, Not Guilty; the imposition cleared,
Hereditary ours.
Her.

By this we gather,
You have tripped since.
Pol.

O, my most sacred lady,
Temptations have since then been born to us; for
In those unfledged days was my wife a girl ;
Your precious self had then not crossed 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 sinned with us, and that with us
You did continue fault, and that you slipped 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.