The Winter’s Tale ebook

Contents

DRAMATIS PERSONAE

ACT I

SCENE I. Sicilia. An Antechamber in LEONTES' Palace.

SCENE II. The same. A Room of State in the Palace.

ACT II

SCENE I. Sicilia. A Room in the Palace.

SCENE II. The same. The outer Room of a Prison.

SCENE III. The same. A Room in the Palace.

ACT III

SCENE I. Sicilia. A Street in some Town.

SCENE II. The same. A Court of Justice

SCENE III. Bohemia. A desert Country near the Sea.

ACT IV

SCENE I.

SCENE II. Bohemia. A Room in the palace of POLIXENES.

SCENE III. The same. A Road near the Shepherd's cottage.

SCENE IV. The same. A Shepherd's Cottage.

ACT V

SCENE I. Sicilia. A Room in the palace of LEONTES.

SCENE II. The same. Before the Palace.

SCENE III. The same. A Room in PAULINA's house.

DRAMATIS PERSONAE

LEONTES, King of Sicilia.

MAMILLIUS, his son.

CAMILLO, Sicilian Lord.

ANTIGONUS, Sicilian Lord.

CLEOMENES, Sicilian Lord.

DION, Sicilian Lord.

Other Sicilian Lords.

Sicilian Gentlemen.

Officers of a Court of Judicature.

POLIXENES, King of Bohemia.

FLORIZEL, his son.

ARCHIDAMUS, a Bohemian Lord.

A Mariner.

Gaoler.

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 on the Queen.

Other Ladies, attending on the Queen.

MOPSA, shepherdess.

DORCAS, shepherdess.

Lords, Ladies, and Attendants; Satyrs for a Dance; Shepherds, Shepherdesses, Guards, &c.

SCENE: Sometimes in Sicilia; sometimes in Bohemia.

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.

CAMILLO.

I think this coming summer the King of Sicilia means to

pay Bohemia the visitation which he justly owes him.

ARCHIDAMUS.

Wherein our entertainment shall shame us we will be

justified in our loves; for indeed,–

CAMILLO.

Beseech you,–

ARCHIDAMUS.

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.

CAMILLO.

You pay a great deal too dear for what’s given freely.

ARCHIDAMUS.

Believe me, I speak as my understanding instructs me

and as mine honesty puts it to utterance.

CAMILLO.

Sicilia cannot show himself overkind 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!

ARCHIDAMUS.

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.

CAMILLO.

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.

ARCHIDAMUS.

Would they else be content to die?

CAMILLO.

Yes; if there were no other excuse why they should desire to

live.

ARCHIDAMUS.

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.]

POLIXENES.

Nine changes of the watery star hath 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.

LEONTES.

Stay your thanks a while,

And pay them when you part.

POLIXENES.

Sir, that’s to-morrow.

I 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,

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