1
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 ... 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, hath 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 ... speechwith 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.

---

2
POLIXENES
Nine changes of the wat’ry star ... hath 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.
LEONTES
Stay your thanks awhile, And pay them when you part.
POLIXENES
Sir, that’s tomorrow.... 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 stayed To tire your Royalty.
LEONTES
We are tougher, brother, Than you can put us to ’t.
POLIXENES
No longer stay.
LEONTES
One sev’nnight longer.
POLIXENES
Very sooth, tomorrow.
LEONTES
We’ll part the time between ’s, then, and in that I’ll no gainsaying.
POLIXENES
Press me not, ... beseech you, so. There is no tongue that moves, none, none i’ th’ 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.
LEONTES
Tongue-tied, our queen? Speak you.
HERMIONE
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 bygone day proclaimed. Say this to him, He’s beat from his best ward.
LEONTES
Well said, Hermione.
HERMIONE
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. To Polixenes. Yet of your royal presence 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 ’s parting.—Yet, good deed, Leontes, I love thee not a jar o’ th’ clock behind What lady she her lord.—You’ll stay?
POLIXENES
No, madam.
HERMIONE
Nay, but you will?
POLIXENES
I may not, verily.
HERMIONE
Verily? You put me off ... with limber vows. But I, Though you would seek t’ 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.
POLIXENES
Your guest, then, madam. To be your prisoner should import offending, Which is for me less easy to commit Than you to punish.
HERMIONE
Not your jailer, then, 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?
POLIXENES
We were, fair queen, Two lads that thought there was no more behind But such a day tomorrow as today, And to be boy eternal.
HERMIONE
Was not my lord The verier wag o’ th’ two?
POLIXENES
We were as twinned lambs ... that did frisk i’ th’ sun And bleat the one at th’ 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.
HERMIONE
By this we gather You have tripped since.
POLIXENES
O my most sacred lady,... Temptations have since then been born to ’s, for In those unfledged days was my wife a girl; Your precious self had then not crossed the eyes Of my young playfellow.
HERMIONE
Grace to boot!... Of this make no conclusion, lest you say Your queen and I are devils. Yet go on. Th’ offenses 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.
LEONTES
Is he won yet?
HERMIONE
He’ll stay, my lord.
LEONTES
At my request ... he would not. Hermione, my dearest, thou never spok’st To better purpose.
HERMIONE
Never?
LEONTES
Never but once.
HERMIONE
What, have I twice said well? ... When was ’t before? I prithee tell me. Cram ’s with praise, and make ’s As fat as tame things. One good deed dying tongueless Slaughters a thousand waiting upon that. Our praises are our wages. You may ride ’s With one soft kiss a thousand furlongs ere With spur we heat an acre. But to th’ goal: My last good deed was to entreat his stay. What was my first? It has an elder sister, Or I mistake you. O, would her name were Grace! But once before I spoke to th’ purpose? When? Nay, let me have ’t; I long.
LEONTES
Why, that was when Three crabbèd months had soured themselves to death Ere I could make thee open thy white hand And clap thyself my love; then didst thou utter “I am yours forever.”
HERMIONE
’Tis grace indeed.... Why, lo you now, I have spoke to th’ purpose twice. The one forever earned a royal husband, Th’ other for some while a friend. She gives Polixenes her hand.
LEONTES (aside)
Too hot, too hot!... 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. ’T may, I grant. But to be paddling palms and pinching fingers, As now they are, and making practiced smiles As in a looking glass, and then to sigh, as ’twere The mort o’ th’ deer—O, that is entertainment My bosom likes not, nor my brows.—Mamillius, Art thou my boy?
MAMILLIUS
Ay, my good lord.
LEONTES
I’ fecks!... Why, that’s my bawcock. What, hast smutched thy nose? They say it is 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 called neat.—Still virginalling Upon his palm?—How now, you wanton calf? Art thou my calf?
MAMILLIUS
Yes, if you will, my lord.
LEONTES
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 anything. But were they false As o’erdyed blacks, as wind, as waters, false As dice are to be wished 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 villain, Most dear’st, my collop! Can thy dam?—may ’t be?— Affection, thy intention stabs the center. 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 co-join with something; and thou dost, And that beyond commission, and I find it, And that to the infection of my brains And hard’ning of my brows.
POLIXENES
What means Sicilia?
HERMIONE
He something seems unsettled.
POLIXENES
How, my lord?
LEONTES
What cheer? How is ’t with you, best brother?
HERMIONE
You look As if you held a brow of much distraction. Are you moved, my lord?
LEONTES
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, methoughts I did recoil Twenty-three years, and saw myself unbreeched, 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?
MAMILLIUS
No, my lord, I’ll fight.
LEONTES
You will? Why, happy man be ’s dole!—My brother, Are you so fond of your young prince as we Do seem to be of ours?
POLIXENES
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.
LEONTES
So stands this squire... Officed 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 welcome. Let what is dear in Sicily be cheap. Next to thyself and my young rover, he’s Apparent to my heart.
HERMIONE
If you would seek us, We are yours i’ th’ garden. Shall ’s attend you there?
LEONTES
To your own bents dispose you. ... You’ll be found, Be you beneath the sky. Aside. I am angling now, Though you perceive me not how I give line. Go to, go to! How she holds up the neb, the bill to him, And arms her with the boldness of a wife To her allowing husband!

---

3
CONTD.
Gone already.... Inch thick, knee-deep, o’er head and ears a forked one!— Go play, boy, play. Thy mother plays, and I Play too, but so disgraced a part, whose issue Will hiss me to my grave. Contempt and clamor Will be my knell. Go play, boy, play.—There have been, Or I am much deceived, cuckolds ere now; And many a man there is, even at this present, Now while I speak this, holds his wife by th’ arm, That little thinks she has been sluiced in ’s absence, And his pond fished by his next neighbor, by Sir Smile, his neighbor. Nay, there’s comfort in ’t Whiles other men have gates and those gates opened, As mine, against their will. Should all despair That have revolted wives, the tenth of mankind Would hang themselves. Physic for ’t there’s 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 ’t, It will let in and out the enemy With bag and baggage. Many thousand on ’s Have the disease and feel ’t not.—How now, boy?
MAMILLIUS
I am like you, they say.
LEONTES
Why, that’s some comfort.— What, Camillo there?
CAMILLO
Ay, my good lord.
LEONTES
Go play, Mamillius. Thou ’rt an honest man. Mamillius exits. Camillo, this great sir will yet stay longer.
CAMILLO
You had much ado to make his anchor hold. When you cast out, it still came home.
LEONTES
Didst note it?
CAMILLO
He would not stay at your petitions, made His business more material.
LEONTES
Didst perceive it? Aside. They’re here with me already, whisp’ring, rounding: “Sicilia is a so-forth.” ’Tis far gone When I shall gust it last.—How came ’t, Camillo, That he did stay?
CAMILLO
At the good queen’s entreaty.
LEONTES
“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, is ’t, But of the finer natures, by some severals Of headpiece extraordinary? Lower messes Perchance are to this business purblind? Say.
CAMILLO
Business, my lord? I think most understand Bohemia stays here longer.
LEONTES
Ha?
CAMILLO
Stays here longer.
LEONTES
Ay, but why?
CAMILLO
To satisfy your Highness and the entreaties Of our most gracious mistress.
LEONTES
Satisfy? Th’ 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-counsels, wherein, priestlike, thou Hast cleansed my bosom; I from thee departed Thy penitent reformed. But we have been Deceived in thy integrity, deceived In that which seems so.
CAMILLO
Be it forbid, my lord!
LEONTES
To bide upon ’t: thou art not honest; ... or, If thou inclin’st that way, thou art a coward, Which hoxes honesty behind, restraining From course required; or else thou must be counted A servant grafted in my serious trust And therein negligent; or else a fool That seest a game played home, the rich stake drawn, And tak’st it all for jest.
CAMILLO
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, Among the infinite doings of the world, Sometime puts forth. In your affairs, my lord, If ever I were willful-negligent, It was my folly; if industriously I played 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 infects the wisest. These, my lord, Are such allowed 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.
LEONTES
Ha’ not you seen, ... Camillo— But that’s past doubt; you have, or your eyeglass Is thicker than a cuckold’s horn—or heard— For to a vision so apparent, rumor Cannot be mute—or thought—for cogitation Resides not in that man that does not think— My wife is slippery? If thou wilt confess— Or else be impudently negative To have nor eyes nor ears nor thought—then say My wife’s a hobby-horse, deserves a name As rank as any flax-wench that puts to Before her troth-plight. Say ’t, and justify ’t.
CAMILLO
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.
LEONTES
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 the 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 nothing, The covering sky is nothing, Bohemia nothing, My wife is nothing, nor nothing have these nothings, If this be nothing.
CAMILLO
Good my lord, be cured Of this diseased opinion, and betimes, For ’tis most dangerous.
LEONTES
Say it be, ’tis true.
CAMILLO
No, no, my lord.
LEONTES
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.
CAMILLO
Who does infect her?
LEONTES
Why, he that wears her like her medal, ... hanging About his neck—Bohemia, who, if I Had servants true about me, that bare eyes To see alike mine honor as their profits, Their own particular thrifts, they would do that Which should undo more doing. Ay, and thou, His cupbearer—whom I from meaner form Have benched and reared to worship, who mayst see Plainly as heaven sees Earth and Earth sees heaven How I am galled—mightst bespice a cup To give mine enemy a lasting wink, Which draft to me were cordial.
CAMILLO
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 honorable. I have loved thee—
LEONTES
Make that 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’ th’ 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?
CAMILLO
I must believe you, sir.... I do, and will fetch off Bohemia for ’t— Provided that, when he’s removed, 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.
LEONTES
Thou dost advise me Even so as I mine own course have set down. I’ll give no blemish to her honor, none.
CAMILLO
My lord,... Go then, and with a countenance as clear As friendship wears at feasts, keep with Bohemia And with your queen. I am his cupbearer. If from me he have wholesome beverage, Account me not your servant.
LEONTES
This is all. Do ’t and thou hast the one half of my heart; Do ’t not, thou splitt’st thine own.
CAMILLO
I’ll do ’t, my lord.
LEONTES
I will seem friendly, as thou hast advised me.

---

4
CAMILLO
O miserable lady! ... But, for me, What case stand I in? 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 deed, Promotion follows. If I could find example Of thousands that had struck anointed kings And flourished after, I’d not do ’t. But since Nor brass, nor stone, nor parchment bears not one, Let villainy itself forswear ’t. I must Forsake the court. To do ’t or no is certain To me a breakneck. Happy star reign now! Here comes Bohemia.
POLIXENES (aside)
This is strange. Methinks My favor here begins to warp. Not speak?— Good day, Camillo.
CAMILLO
Hail, most royal sir.
POLIXENES
What is the news i’ th’ court?
CAMILLO
None rare, my lord.
POLIXENES
The King hath on him ... such a countenance As he had lost some province and a region Loved as he loves himself. Even now I met him With customary compliment, when he, Wafting his eyes to th’ contrary and falling A lip of much contempt, speeds from me, and So leaves me to consider what is breeding That changes thus his manners.
CAMILLO
I dare not know, my lord.
POLIXENES
How, dare not? Do not? ... Do you know and dare not? Be intelligent to me—’tis thereabouts; For to yourself what you do know, you must, And cannot say you dare not. Good Camillo, Your changed complexions are to me a mirror Which shows me mine changed too, for I must be A party in this alteration, finding Myself thus altered with ’t.
CAMILLO
There is a sickness... Which puts some of us in distemper, but I cannot name the disease, and it is caught Of you that yet are well.
POLIXENES
How caught of me?... Make me not sighted like the basilisk. I have looked on thousands who have sped the better By my regard, but killed none so. Camillo, As you are certainly a gentleman, thereto Clerklike experienced, which no less adorns Our gentry than our parents’ noble names, In whose success we are gentle, I beseech you, If you know aught which does behoove my knowledge Thereof to be informed, imprison ’t not In ignorant concealment.
CAMILLO
I may not answer.
POLIXENES
A sickness caught of me, ... and yet I well? I must be answered. Dost thou hear, Camillo? I conjure thee by all the parts of man Which honor does acknowledge, whereof the least Is not this suit of mine, that thou declare What incidency thou dost guess of harm Is creeping toward me; how far off, how near; Which way to be prevented, if to be; If not, how best to bear it.
CAMILLO
Sir, I will tell you,... Since I am charged in honor and by him That I think honorable. Therefore mark my counsel, Which must be e’en as swiftly followed as I mean to utter it, or both yourself and me Cry lost, and so goodnight.
POLIXENES
On, good Camillo.
CAMILLO
I am appointed him to murder you.
POLIXENES
By whom, Camillo?
CAMILLO
By the King.
POLIXENES
For what?
CAMILLO
He thinks, nay with all confidence he swears, As he had seen ’t or been an instrument To vice you to ’t, that you have touched his queen Forbiddenly.
POLIXENES
O, then my best blood ... turn To an infected jelly, and my name Be yoked with his that did betray the Best! Turn then my freshest reputation to A savor that may strike the dullest nostril Where I arrive, and my approach be shunned, Nay, hated too, worse than the great’st infection That e’er was heard or read.
CAMILLO
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 fabric of his folly, whose foundation Is piled upon his faith and will continue The standing of his body.
POLIXENES
How should this grow?
CAMILLO
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 enclosèd in this trunk which you Shall bear along impawned, away tonight! Your followers I will whisper to the business, And will by twos and threes at several posterns Clear them o’ th’ city. For myself, I’ll put My fortunes to your service, which are here By this discovery lost. Be not uncertain, For, by the honor of my parents, I Have uttered truth—which if you seek to prove, I dare not stand by; nor shall you be safer Than one condemned by the King’s own mouth, thereon His execution sworn.
POLIXENES
I do believe thee.... I saw his heart in ’s face. Give me thy hand. Be pilot to me and thy places shall Still neighbor 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 dishonored by a man which ever Professed 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, but 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.
CAMILLO
It is in mine authority to command The keys of all the posterns. Please your Highness To take the urgent hour. Come, sir, away.

---

5
HERMIONE
Take the boy to you. He so troubles me ’Tis past enduring.
FIRST LADY
Come, my gracious lord, Shall I be your playfellow?
MAMILLIUS
No, I’ll none of you.
FIRST LADY
Why, my sweet lord?
MAMILLIUS
You’ll kiss me hard and speak to me as if I were a baby still.—I love you better.
SECOND LADY
And why so, my lord?
MAMILLIUS
Not for because... Your brows are blacker—yet black brows, they say, Become some women best, so that there be not Too much hair there, but in a semicircle, Or a half-moon made with a pen.
SECOND LADY
Who taught this?
MAMILLIUS
I learned it out of women’s faces.—Pray now, What color are your eyebrows?
FIRST LADY
Blue, my lord.
MAMILLIUS
Nay, that’s a mock. I have seen a lady’s nose That has been blue, but not her eyebrows.
FIRST LADY
Hark ye, The Queen your mother rounds apace. We shall Present our services to a fine new prince One of these days, and then you’d wanton with us If we would have you.
SECOND LADY
She is spread of late Into a goodly bulk. Good time encounter her!
HERMIONE
What wisdom stirs amongst you?—Come, sir, now I am for you again. Pray you sit by us, And tell ’s a tale.
MAMILLIUS
Merry or sad shall ’t be?
HERMIONE
As merry as you will.
MAMILLIUS
A sad tale’s best for winter. I have one Of sprites and goblins.
HERMIONE
Let’s have that, good sir. Come on, sit down. Come on, and do your best To fright me with your sprites. You’re powerful at it.
MAMILLIUS
There was a man—
HERMIONE
Nay, come sit down, then on.
MAMILLIUS
Dwelt by a churchyard. I will tell it softly, Yond crickets shall not hear it.
HERMIONE
Come on then, and give ’t me in mine ear.
LEONTES
Was he met there? His train? Camillo with him?
LORD
Behind the tuft of pines I met them. Never Saw I men scour so on their way. I eyed them Even to their ships.
LEONTES
How blest am I... In my just censure, in my true opinion! Alack, for lesser knowledge! How accursed In being so blest! There may be in the cup A spider steeped, and one may drink, depart, And yet partake no venom, for his knowledge Is not infected; but if one present Th’ abhorred ingredient to his eye, make known How he hath drunk, 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. All’s true that is mistrusted. That false villain Whom I employed was pre-employed by him. He has discovered my design, and I Remain a pinched thing, yea, a very trick For them to play at will. How came the posterns So easily open?
LORD
By his great authority, Which often hath no less prevailed than so On your command.
LEONTES
I know ’t too well. To Hermione. Give me the boy. I am glad you did not nurse him. Though he does bear some signs of me, yet you Have too much blood in him.
HERMIONE
What is this? Sport?
LEONTES
Bear the boy hence. ... He shall not come about her. Away with him, and let her sport herself With that she’s big with, for ’tis Polixenes Has made thee swell thus.
HERMIONE
But I’d say he had not, And I’ll be sworn you would believe my saying, Howe’er you lean to th’ nayward.
LEONTES
You, my lords,... Look on her, mark her well. Be but about To say “She is a goodly lady,” and The justice of your hearts will thereto add “’Tis pity she’s not honest, honorable.” Praise her but for this her without-door form, Which on my faith deserves high speech, and straight The shrug, the “hum,” or “ha,” these petty brands That calumny doth use—O, I am out, That mercy does, for calumny will sear Virtue itself—these shrugs, these “hum”s and “ha”s, When you have said she’s goodly, come between Ere you can say she’s honest. But be ’t known, From him that has most cause to grieve it should be, She’s an adulteress.
HERMIONE
Should a villain say so, The most replenished villain in the world, He were as much more villain. You, my lord, Do but mistake.
LEONTES
You have mistook, my lady,... Polixenes for Leontes. O thou thing, Which I’ll not call a creature of thy place Lest barbarism, making me the precedent, Should a like language use to all degrees, And mannerly distinguishment leave out Betwixt the prince and beggar.—I have said She’s an adult’ress; I have said with whom. More, she’s a traitor, and Camillo is A federary with her, and one that knows What she should shame to know herself But with her most vile principal: that she’s A bed-swerver, even as bad as those That vulgars give bold’st titles; ay, and privy To this their late escape.
HERMIONE
No, by my life,... Privy to none of this. How will this grieve you, When you shall come to clearer knowledge, that You thus have published me! Gentle my lord, You scarce can right me throughly then to say You did mistake.
LEONTES
No. If I mistake... In those foundations which I build upon, The center is not big enough to bear A schoolboy’s top.—Away with her to prison. He who shall speak for her is afar off guilty But that he speaks.
HERMIONE
There’s some ill planet reigns.... I must be patient till the heavens look With an aspect more favorable. Good my lords, I am not prone to weeping, as our sex Commonly are, the want of which vain dew Perchance shall dry your pities. But I have That honorable grief lodged here which burns Worse than tears drown. Beseech you all, my lords, With thoughts so qualified as your charities Shall best instruct you, measure me; and so The King’s will be performed.
LEONTES
Shall I be heard?
HERMIONE
Who is ’t that goes with me? ... Beseech your Highness My women may be with me, for you see My plight requires it.—Do not weep, good fools; There is no cause. When you shall know your mistress Has deserved prison, then abound in tears As I come out. This action I now go on Is for my better grace.—Adieu, my lord. I never wished to see you sorry; now I trust I shall.—My women, come; you have leave.
LEONTES
Go, do our bidding. Hence!

---

6
LORD
Beseech your Highness, call the Queen again.
ANTIGONUS
Be certain what you do, sir, lest your justice Prove violence, in the which three great ones suffer: Yourself, your queen, your son.
LORD
For her, my lord,... I dare my life lay down—and will do ’t, sir, Please you t’ accept it—that the Queen is spotless I’ th’ eyes of heaven, and to you—I mean In this which you accuse her.
ANTIGONUS
If it prove She’s otherwise, ... I’ll keep my stables where I lodge my wife. I’ll go in couples with her; Than when I feel and see her, no farther trust her. For every inch of woman in the world, Ay, every dram of woman’s flesh, is false, If she be.
LEONTES
Hold your peaces.
LORD
Good my lord—
ANTIGONUS
It is for you we speak, ... not for ourselves. You are abused, and by some putter-on That will be damned for ’t. Would I knew the villain! I would land-damn him. Be she honor-flawed, I have three daughters—the eldest is eleven; The second and the third, nine and some five; If this prove true, they’ll pay for ’t. By mine honor, I’ll geld ’em all; fourteen they shall not see To bring false generations. They are co-heirs, And I had rather glib myself than they Should not produce fair issue.
LEONTES
Cease. No more.... You smell this business with a sense as cold As is a dead man’s nose. But I do see ’t and feel ’t, As you feel doing thus, and see withal The instruments that feel.
ANTIGONUS
If it be so, We need no grave to bury honesty. There’s not a grain of it the face to sweeten Of the whole dungy Earth.
LEONTES
What? Lack I credit?
LORD
I had rather ... you did lack than I, my lord, Upon this ground. And more it would content me To have her honor true than your suspicion, Be blamed for ’t how you might.
LEONTES
Why, what need we... Commune with you of this, but rather follow Our forceful instigation? Our prerogative Calls not your counsels, but our natural goodness Imparts this, which if you—or stupefied Or seeming so in skill—cannot or will not Relish a truth like us, inform yourselves We need no more of your advice. The matter, The loss, the gain, the ord’ring on ’t is all Properly ours.
ANTIGONUS
And I wish, my liege, You had only in your silent judgment tried it, Without more overture.
LEONTES
How could that be?... Either thou art most ignorant by age, Or thou wert born a fool. Camillo’s flight, Added to their familiarity— Which was as gross as ever touched conjecture, That lacked sight only, naught for approbation But only seeing, all other circumstances Made up to th’ deed—doth push on this proceeding. Yet, for a greater confirmation— For in an act of this importance ’twere Most piteous to be wild—I have dispatched in post To sacred Delphos, to Apollo’s temple, Cleomenes and Dion, whom you know Of stuffed sufficiency. Now from the oracle They will bring all, whose spiritual counsel had Shall stop or spur me. Have I done well?
LORD
Well done, my lord.
LEONTES
Though I am satisfied ... and need no more Than what I know, yet shall the oracle Give rest to th’ minds of others, such as he Whose ignorant credulity will not Come up to th’ truth. So have we thought it good From our free person she should be confined, Lest that the treachery of the two fled hence Be left her to perform. Come, follow us. We are to speak in public, for this business Will raise us all.
ANTIGONUS (aside)
To laughter, as I take it, If the good truth were known.

---

7
PAULINA
The keeper of the prison, ... call to him. Let him have knowledge who I am. Gentleman exits. Good lady, No court in Europe is too good for thee. What dost thou then in prison? Now, good sir, You know me, do you not?
GAOLER
For a worthy lady And one who much I honor.
PAULINA
Pray you then, Conduct me to the Queen.
GAOLER
I may not, madam. To the contrary I have express commandment.
PAULINA
Here’s ado, to lock up honesty and honor from Th’ access of gentle visitors. Is ’t lawful, pray you, To see her women? Any of them? Emilia?
GAOLER
So please you, madam, To put apart these your attendants, I Shall bring Emilia forth.
PAULINA
I pray now, call her.— Withdraw yourselves. Attendants and Gentleman exit.
GAOLER
And, madam, I must be present at your conference.
PAULINA
Well, be ’t so, prithee.... Here’s such ado to make no stain a stain As passes coloring. Dear gentlewoman, How fares our gracious lady?
EMILIA
As well as one ... so great and so forlorn May hold together. On her frights and griefs, Which never tender lady hath borne greater, She is something before her time delivered.
PAULINA
A boy?
EMILIA
A daughter, and a goodly babe, Lusty and like to live. The Queen receives Much comfort in ’t, says “My poor prisoner, I am innocent as you.”
PAULINA
I dare be sworn.... These dangerous unsafe lunes i’ th’ King, beshrew them! He must be told on ’t, and he shall. The office Becomes a woman best. I’ll take ’t upon me. If I prove honey-mouthed, let my tongue blister And never to my red-looked anger be The trumpet anymore. Pray you, Emilia, Commend my best obedience to the Queen. If she dares trust me with her little babe, I’ll show ’t the King and undertake to be Her advocate to th’ loud’st We do not know How he may soften at the sight o’ th’ child. The silence often of pure innocence Persuades when speaking fails.
EMILIA
Most worthy madam,... Your honor and your goodness is so evident That your free undertaking cannot miss A thriving issue. There is no lady living So meet for this great errand. Please your Ladyship To visit the next room, I’ll presently Acquaint the Queen of your most noble offer, Who but today hammered of this design, But durst not tempt a minister of honor Lest she should be denied.
PAULINA
Tell her, Emilia, I’ll use that tongue I have. If wit flow from ’t As boldness from my bosom, let ’t not be doubted I shall do good.
EMILIA
Now be you blest for it! I’ll to the Queen. Please you come something nearer.
GAOLER
Madam, if ’t please the Queen to send the babe, I know not what I shall incur to pass it, Having no warrant.
PAULINA
You need not fear it, sir.... This child was prisoner to the womb, and is By law and process of great nature thence Freed and enfranchised, not a party to The anger of the King, nor guilty of, If any be, the trespass of the Queen.
GAOLER
I do believe it.
PAULINA
Do not you fear. Upon mine honor, I Will stand betwixt you and danger.

---

8
LEONTES
Nor night nor day no rest. ... It is but weakness To bear the matter thus, mere weakness. If The cause were not in being—part o’ th’ cause, She th’ adult’ress, for the harlot king Is quite beyond mine arm, out of the blank And level of my brain, plot-proof. But she I can hook to me. Say that she were gone, Given to the fire, a moiety of my rest Might come to me again.—Who’s there?
SERVANT
My lord.
LEONTES
How does the boy?
SERVANT
He took good rest tonight. ’Tis hoped His sickness is discharged.
LEONTES
To see his nobleness,... Conceiving the dishonor of his mother. He straight declined, drooped, took it deeply, Fastened and fixed the shame on ’t in himself, Threw off his spirit, his appetite, his sleep, And downright languished. Leave me solely. Go, See how he fares.Servant exits. Fie, fie, no thought of him. The very thought of my revenges that way Recoil upon me—in himself too mighty, And in his parties, his alliance. Let him be Until a time may serve. For present vengeance, Take it on her. Camillo and Polixenes Laugh at me, make their pastime at my sorrow. They should not laugh if I could reach them, nor Shall she within my power.

---

9
LORD
You must not enter.
PAULINA
Nay, rather, good my lords, be second to me. Fear you his tyrannous passion more, alas, Than the Queen’s life? A gracious innocent soul, More free than he is jealous.
ANTIGONUS
That’s enough.
SERVANT
Madam, he hath not slept tonight, commanded None should come at him.
PAULINA
Not so hot, good sir.... I come to bring him sleep. ’Tis such as you That creep like shadows by him and do sigh At each his needless heavings, such as you Nourish the cause of his awaking. I Do come with words as medicinal as true, Honest as either, to purge him of that humor That presses him from sleep.
LEONTES
What noise there, ho?
PAULINA
No noise, my lord, but needful conference About some gossips for your Highness.
LEONTES
How?— Away with that audacious lady. Antigonus, I charged thee that she should not come about me. I knew she would.
ANTIGONUS
I told her so, my lord, On your displeasure’s peril and on mine, She should not visit you.
LEONTES
What, canst not rule her?
PAULINA
From all dishonesty he can. In this, Unless he take the course that you have done— Commit me for committing honor—trust it, He shall not rule me.
ANTIGONUS
La you now, you hear. When she will take the rein I let her run, But she’ll not stumble.
PAULINA
Good my liege, ... I come— And I beseech you hear me, who professes Myself your loyal servant, your physician, Your most obedient counselor, yet that dares Less appear so in comforting your evils Than such as most seem yours—I say I come From your good queen.
LEONTES
Good queen?
PAULINA
Good queen, my lord, good queen, I say “good queen,” And would by combat make her good, so were I A man, the worst about you.
LEONTES
Force her hence.
PAULINA
Let him that makes but trifles ... of his eyes First hand me. On mine own accord I’ll off, But first I’ll do my errand.—The good queen, For she is good, hath brought you forth a daughter— Here ’tis—commends it to your blessing. She lays down the baby.
LEONTES
Out! A mankind witch! Hence with her, out o’ door. A most intelligencing bawd.
PAULINA
Not so. I am as ignorant in that as you In so entitling me, and no less honest Than you are mad—which is enough, I’ll warrant, As this world goes, to pass for honest.
LEONTES
Traitors, Will you not push her out? ... To Antigonus. Give her the bastard, Thou dotard; thou art woman-tired, unroosted By thy Dame Partlet here. Take up the bastard, Take ’t up, I say. Give ’t to thy crone.
PAULINA
Forever Unvenerable be thy hands if thou Tak’st up the Princess by that forced baseness Which he has put upon ’t.
LEONTES
He dreads his wife.
PAULINA
So I would you did. Then ’twere past all doubt You’d call your children yours.
LEONTES
A nest of traitors!
ANTIGONUS
I am none, by this good light.
PAULINA
Nor I, nor any But one that’s here, ... and that’s himself. For he The sacred honor of himself, his queen’s, His hopeful son’s, his babe’s, betrays to slander, Whose sting is sharper than the sword’s; and will not— For, as the case now stands, it is a curse He cannot be compelled to ’t—once remove The root of his opinion, which is rotten As ever oak or stone was sound.
LEONTES
A callet Of boundless tongue, ... who late hath beat her husband And now baits me! This brat is none of mine. It is the issue of Polixenes. Hence with it, and together with the dam Commit them to the fire.
PAULINA
It is yours,... And, might we lay th’ old proverb to your charge, So like you ’tis the worse.—Behold, my lords, Although the print be little, the whole matter And copy of the father—eye, nose, lip, The trick of ’s frown, his forehead, nay, the valley, The pretty dimples of his chin and cheek, his smiles, The very mold and frame of hand, nail, finger. And thou, good goddess Nature, which hast made it So like to him that got it, if thou hast The ordering of the mind too, ’mongst all colors No yellow in ’t, lest she suspect, as he does, Her children not her husband’s.
LEONTES
A gross hag!— And, losel, thou art worthy to be hanged That wilt not stay her tongue.
ANTIGONUS
Hang all the husbands That cannot do that feat, you’ll leave yourself Hardly one subject.
LEONTES
Once more, take her hence.
PAULINA
A most unworthy and unnatural lord Can do no more.
LEONTES
I’ll ha’ thee burnt.
PAULINA
I care not. It is an heretic that makes the fire,... Not she which burns in ’t. I’ll not call you tyrant; But this most cruel usage of your queen, Not able to produce more accusation Than your own weak-hinged fancy, something savors Of tyranny, and will ignoble make you, Yea, scandalous to the world.
LEONTES
On your allegiance,... Out of the chamber with her! Were I a tyrant, Where were her life? She durst not call me so If she did know me one. Away with her!
PAULINA
I pray you do not push me; ... I’ll be gone.— Look to your babe, my lord; ’tis yours. Jove send her A better guiding spirit.—What needs these hands? You that are thus so tender o’er his follies Will never do him good, not one of you. So, so. Farewell, we are gone.

---

10
LEONTES
Thou, traitor, ... hast set on thy wife to this. My child? Away with ’t! Even thou, that hast A heart so tender o’er it, take it hence, And see it instantly consumed with fire. Even thou, and none but thou. Take it up straight. Within this hour bring me word ’tis done, And by good testimony, or I’ll seize thy life, With what thou else call’st thine. If thou refuse And wilt encounter with my wrath, say so. The bastard brains with these my proper hands Shall I dash out. Go, take it to the fire, For thou sett’st on thy wife.
ANTIGONUS
I did not, sir. These lords, my noble fellows, if they please, Can clear me in ’t.
LORDS
We can, my royal liege. He is not guilty of her coming hither.
LEONTES
You’re liars all.
LORD
Beseech your Highness, ... give us better credit. We have always truly served you, and beseech So to esteem of us. And on our knees we beg, As recompense of our dear services Past and to come, that you do change this purpose, Which being so horrible, so bloody, must Lead on to some foul issue. We all kneel.
LEONTES
I am a feather ... for each wind that blows. Shall I live on to see this bastard kneel And call me father? Better burn it now Than curse it then. But be it; let it live. It shall not neither. To Antigonus. You, sir, come you hither, You that have been so tenderly officious With Lady Margery, your midwife there, To save this bastard’s life—for ’tis a bastard, So sure as this beard’s gray. What will you adventure To save this brat’s life?
ANTIGONUS
Anything, my lord,... That my ability may undergo And nobleness impose. At least thus much: I’ll pawn the little blood which I have left To save the innocent. Anything possible.
LEONTES
It shall be possible. Swear by this sword Thou wilt perform my bidding.
ANTIGONUS
I will, my lord.
LEONTES
Mark, and perform it, ... seest thou; for the fail Of any point in ’t shall not only be Death to thyself but to thy lewd-tongued wife, Whom for this time we pardon. We enjoin thee, As thou art liegeman to us, that thou carry This female bastard hence, and that thou bear it To some remote and desert place quite out Of our dominions, and that there thou leave it, Without more mercy, to it own protection And favor of the climate. As by strange fortune It came to us, I do in justice charge thee, On thy soul’s peril and thy body’s torture, That thou commend it strangely to some place Where chance may nurse or end it. Take it up.
ANTIGONUS
I swear to do this, ... though a present death Had been more merciful.—Come on, poor babe. He picks up the baby. Some powerful spirit instruct the kites and ravens To be thy nurses! Wolves and bears, they say, Casting their savageness aside, have done Like offices of pity. To Leontes. Sir, be prosperous In more than this deed does require.—And blessing Against this cruelty fight on thy side, Poor thing, condemned to loss.
LEONTES
No, I’ll not rear Another’s issue.
SERVANT
Please your Highness, ... posts From those you sent to th’ oracle are come An hour since. Cleomenes and Dion, Being well arrived from Delphos, are both landed, Hasting to th’ court.
LORD
So please you, sir, their speed Hath been beyond account.
LEONTES
Twenty-three days... They have been absent. ’Tis good speed, foretells The great Apollo suddenly will have The truth of this appear. Prepare you, lords. Summon a session, that we may arraign Our most disloyal lady; for, as she hath Been publicly accused, so shall she have A just and open trial. While she lives, My heart will be a burden to me. Leave me, And think upon my bidding.

---

11
CLEOMENES
The climate’s delicate, the air most sweet, Fertile the isle, the temple much surpassing The common praise it bears.
DION
I shall report,... For most it caught me, the celestial habits— Methinks I so should term them—and the reverence Of the grave wearers. O, the sacrifice, How ceremonious, solemn, and unearthly It was i’ th’ off’ring!
CLEOMENES
But of all, the burst And the ear-deaf’ning voice o’ th’ oracle, Kin to Jove’s thunder, so surprised my sense That I was nothing.
DION
If th’ event o’ th’ journey Prove as successful to the Queen—O, be ’t so!— As it hath been to us rare, pleasant, speedy, The time is worth the use on ’t.
CLEOMENES
Great Apollo Turn all to th’ best! These proclamations, So forcing faults upon Hermione, I little like.
DION
The violent carriage ... of it Will clear or end the business when the oracle, Thus by Apollo’s great divine sealed up, Shall the contents discover. Something rare Even then will rush to knowledge. Go. Fresh horses; and gracious be the issue.

---

12
LEONTES
This sessions, ... to our great grief we pronounce, Even pushes ’gainst our heart: the party tried The daughter of a king, our wife, and one Of us too much beloved. Let us be cleared Of being tyrannous, since we so openly Proceed in justice, which shall have due course Even to the guilt or the purgation. Produce the prisoner.
OFFICER
It is his Highness’ pleasure that the Queen Appear in person here in court. Silence!
LEONTES
Read the indictment.
OFFICER
Hermione, queen to the worthy Leontes,... King of Sicilia, thou art here accused and arraigned of high treason, in committing adultery with Polixenes, King of Bohemia, and conspiring with Camillo to take away the life of our sovereign lord the King, thy royal husband; the pretense whereof being by circumstances partly laid open, thou, Hermione, contrary to the faith and allegiance of a true subject, didst counsel and aid them, for their better safety, to fly away by night.
HERMIONE
Since what I am to say ... must be but that Which contradicts my accusation, and The testimony on my part no other But what comes from myself, it shall scarce boot me To say “Not guilty.” Mine integrity, Being counted falsehood, shall, as I express it, Be so received. But thus: if powers divine Behold our human actions, as they do, I doubt not then but innocence shall make False accusation blush and tyranny Tremble at patience. You, my lord, best know, Whom least will seem to do so, my past life Hath been as continent, as chaste, as true, As I am now unhappy; which is more Than history can pattern, though devised And played to take spectators. For behold me, A fellow of the royal bed, which owe A moiety of the throne, a great king’s daughter, The mother to a hopeful prince, here standing To prate and talk for life and honor fore Who please to come and hear. For life, I prize it As I weigh grief, which I would spare. For honor, ’Tis a derivative from me to mine, And only that I stand for. I appeal To your own conscience, sir, before Polixenes Came to your court, how I was in your grace, How merited to be so; since he came, With what encounter so uncurrent I Have strained t’ appear thus; if one jot beyond The bound of honor, or in act or will That way inclining, hardened be the hearts Of all that hear me, and my near’st of kin Cry fie upon my grave.
LEONTES
I ne’er heard yet That any of these bolder vices wanted Less impudence to gainsay what they did Than to perform it first.
HERMIONE
That’s true enough, Though ’tis a saying, sir, not due to me.
LEONTES
You will not own it.
HERMIONE
More than mistress of... Which comes to me in name of fault, I must not At all acknowledge. For Polixenes, With whom I am accused, I do confess I loved him as in honor he required, With such a kind of love as might become A lady like me, with a love even such, So and no other, as yourself commanded, Which not to have done, I think, had been in me Both disobedience and ingratitude To you and toward your friend, whose love had spoke, Even since it could speak, from an infant, freely That it was yours. Now, for conspiracy, I know not how it tastes, though it be dished For me to try how. All I know of it Is that Camillo was an honest man; And why he left your court, the gods themselves, Wotting no more than I, are ignorant.
LEONTES
You knew of his departure, as you know What you have underta’en to do in ’s absence.
HERMIONE
Sir, You speak a language that I understand not. My life stands in the level of your dreams, Which I’ll lay down.
LEONTES
Your actions are my dreams.... You had a bastard by Polixenes, And I but dreamed it. As you were past all shame— Those of your fact are so—so past all truth, Which to deny concerns more than avails; for as Thy brat hath been cast out, like to itself, No father owning it—which is indeed More criminal in thee than it—so thou Shalt feel our justice, in whose easiest passage Look for no less than death.
HERMIONE
Sir, spare your threats.... The bug which you would fright me with I seek. To me can life be no commodity. The crown and comfort of my life, your favor, I do give lost, for I do feel it gone, But know not how it went. My second joy And first fruits of my body, from his presence I am barred like one infectious. My third comfort, Starred most unluckily, is from my breast, The innocent milk in it most innocent mouth, Haled out to murder; myself on every post Proclaimed a strumpet; with immodest hatred The childbed privilege denied, which longs To women of all fashion; lastly, hurried Here to this place, i’ th’ open air, before I have got strength of limit. Now, my liege, Tell me what blessings I have here alive, That I should fear to die? Therefore proceed. But yet hear this (mistake me not: no life, I prize it not a straw, but for mine honor, Which I would free), if I shall be condemned Upon surmises, all proofs sleeping else But what your jealousies awake, I tell you ’Tis rigor, and not law. Your Honors all, I do refer me to the oracle. Apollo be my judge.
LORD
This your request Is altogether just. Therefore bring forth, And in Apollo’s name, his oracle.Officers exit.
HERMIONE
The Emperor of Russia was my father.... O, that he were alive and here beholding His daughter’s trial, that he did but see The flatness of my misery, yet with eyes Of pity, not revenge.
OFFICER
You here shall swear ... upon this sword of justice That you, Cleomenes and Dion, have Been both at Delphos, and from thence have brought This sealed-up oracle, by the hand delivered Of great Apollo’s priest, and that since then You have not dared to break the holy seal Nor read the secrets in ’t.
CLEOMENES, DION
All this we swear.
LEONTES
Break up the seals and read.
OFFICER
Hermione is chaste, Polixenes blameless, Camillo a true subject, Leontes a jealous tyrant, his innocent babe truly begotten; and the King shall live without an heir if that which is lost be not found.
LORDS
Now blessèd be the great Apollo!
HERMIONE
Praised!
LEONTES
Hast thou read truth?
OFFICER
Ay, my lord, even so as it is here set down.
LEONTES
There is no truth at all i’ th’ oracle. The sessions shall proceed. This is mere falsehood.
SERVANT
My lord the King, the King!
LEONTES
What is the business?
SERVANT
O sir, I shall be hated to report it. The Prince your son, with mere conceit and fear Of the Queen’s speed, is gone.
LEONTES
How? Gone?
SERVANT
Is dead.
LEONTES
Apollo’s angry, and the heavens themselves Do strike at my injustice. Hermione falls. How now there?
PAULINA
This news is mortal to the Queen. Look down And see what death is doing.
LEONTES
Take her hence. Her heart is but o’ercharged. She will recover. I have too much believed mine own suspicion. Beseech you, tenderly apply to her Some remedies for life.

---

13
CONTD>
Apollo, pardon My great profaneness ... ’gainst thine oracle. I’ll reconcile me to Polixenes, New woo my queen, recall the good Camillo, Whom I proclaim a man of truth, of mercy; For, being transported by my jealousies To bloody thoughts and to revenge, I chose Camillo for the minister to poison My friend Polixenes, which had been done But that the good mind of Camillo tardied My swift command, though I with death and with Reward did threaten and encourage him, Not doing it and being done. He, most humane And filled with honor, to my kingly guest Unclasped my practice, quit his fortunes here, Which you knew great, and to the hazard Of all incertainties himself commended, No richer than his honor. How he glisters Through my rust, and how his piety Does my deeds make the blacker!
PAULINA
Woe the while! O, cut my lace, lest my heart, cracking it, Break too!
LORD
What fit is this, good lady?
PAULINA
What studied torments, tyrant, hast for me?... What wheels, racks, fires? What flaying? Boiling In leads or oils? What old or newer torture Must I receive, whose every word deserves To taste of thy most worst? Thy tyranny, Together working with thy jealousies, Fancies too weak for boys, too green and idle For girls of nine, O, think what they have done, And then run mad indeed, stark mad, for all Thy bygone fooleries were but spices of it. That thou betrayedst Polixenes, ’twas nothing; That did but show thee of a fool, inconstant And damnable ingrateful. Nor was ’t much Thou wouldst have poisoned good Camillo’s honor, To have him kill a king: poor trespasses, More monstrous standing by, whereof I reckon The casting forth to crows thy baby daughter To be or none or little, though a devil Would have shed water out of fire ere done ’t. Nor is ’t directly laid to thee the death Of the young prince, whose honorable thoughts, Thoughts high for one so tender, cleft the heart That could conceive a gross and foolish sire Blemished his gracious dam. This is not, no, Laid to thy answer. But the last—O lords, When I have said, cry woe!—the Queen, the Queen, The sweet’st, dear’st creature’s dead, and vengeance for ’t Not dropped down yet.
LORD
The higher powers forbid!
PAULINA
I say she’s dead. ... I’ll swear ’t. If word nor oath Prevail not, go and see. If you can bring Tincture or luster in her lip, her eye, Heat outwardly or breath within, I’ll serve you As I would do the gods.—But, O thou tyrant, Do not repent these things, for they are heavier Than all thy woes can stir. Therefore betake thee To nothing but despair. A thousand knees Ten thousand years together, naked, fasting, Upon a barren mountain, and still winter In storm perpetual, could not move the gods To look that way thou wert.
LEONTES
Go on, go on. Thou canst not speak too much. I have deserved All tongues to talk their bitt’rest.
LORD
Say no more. Howe’er the business goes, you have made fault I’ th’ boldness of your speech.
PAULINA
I am sorry for ’t.... All faults I make, when I shall come to know them, I do repent. Alas, I have showed too much The rashness of a woman. He is touched To th’ noble heart.—What’s gone and what’s past help Should be past grief. Do not receive affliction At my petition. I beseech you, rather Let me be punished, that have minded you Of what you should forget. Now, good my liege, Sir, royal sir, forgive a foolish woman. The love I bore your queen—lo, fool again!— I’ll speak of her no more, nor of your children. I’ll not remember you of my own lord, Who is lost too. Take your patience to you, And I’ll say nothing.
LEONTES
Thou didst speak but well... When most the truth, which I receive much better Than to be pitied of thee. Prithee, bring me To the dead bodies of my queen and son. One grave shall be for both. Upon them shall The causes of their death appear, unto Our shame perpetual. Once a day I’ll visit The chapel where they lie, and tears shed there Shall be my recreation. So long as nature Will bear up with this exercise, so long I daily vow to use it. Come, and lead me To these sorrows.

---

14
ANTIGONUS
Thou art perfect, then, our ship hath touched upon The deserts of Bohemia?
MARINER
Ay, my lord, and fear We have landed in ill time. The skies look grimly And threaten present blusters. In my conscience, The heavens with that we have in hand are angry And frown upon ’s.
ANTIGONUS
Their sacred wills be done. Go, get aboard. Look to thy bark. I’ll not be long before I call upon thee.
MARINER
Make your best haste, and go not Too far i’ th’ land. ’Tis like to be loud weather. Besides, this place is famous for the creatures Of prey that keep upon ’t.
ANTIGONUS
Go thou away. I’ll follow instantly.
MARINER
I am glad at heart To be so rid o’ th’ business.He exits.
ANTIGONUS
Come, poor babe.... I have heard, but not believed, the spirits o’ th’ dead May walk again. If such thing be, thy mother Appeared to me last night, for ne’er was dream So like a waking. To me comes a creature, Sometimes her head on one side, some another. I never saw a vessel of like sorrow, So filled and so becoming. In pure white robes, Like very sanctity, she did approach My cabin where I lay, thrice bowed before me, And, gasping to begin some speech, her eyes Became two spouts. The fury spent, anon Did this break from her: “Good Antigonus, Since fate, against thy better disposition, Hath made thy person for the thrower-out Of my poor babe, according to thine oath, Places remote enough are in Bohemia. There weep, and leave it crying. And, for the babe Is counted lost forever, Perdita I prithee call ’t. For this ungentle business Put on thee by my lord, thou ne’er shalt see Thy wife Paulina more.” And so, with shrieks, She melted into air. Affrighted much, I did in time collect myself and thought This was so and no slumber. Dreams are toys, Yet for this once, yea, superstitiously, I will be squared by this. I do believe Hermione hath suffered death, and that Apollo would, this being indeed the issue Of King Polixenes, it should here be laid, Either for life or death, upon the earth Of its right father.—Blossom, speed thee well. There lie, and there thy character; there these, He lays down the baby, a bundle, and a box. Which may, if fortune please, both breed thee, pretty, And still rest thine. Thunder. The storm begins. Poor wretch, That for thy mother’s fault art thus exposed To loss and what may follow. Weep I cannot, But my heart bleeds, and most accurst am I To be by oath enjoined to this. Farewell. The day frowns more and more. Thou ’rt like to have A lullaby too rough. I never saw The heavens so dim by day. Thunder, and sounds of hunting. A savage clamor! Well may I get aboard! This is the chase. I am gone forever!

---

15
SHEPHERD
I would there were no age between ten and three-and-twenty, ... or that youth would sleep out the rest, for there is nothing in the between but getting wenches with child, wronging the ancientry, stealing, fighting—Hark you now. Would any but these boiled brains of nineteen and two-and-twenty hunt this weather? They have scared away two of my best sheep, which I fear the wolf will sooner find than the master. If anywhere I have them, ’tis by the seaside, browsing of ivy. Good luck, an ’t be thy will, what have we here? Mercy on ’s, a bairn! A very pretty bairn. A boy or a child, I wonder? A pretty one, a very pretty one. Sure some scape. Though I am not bookish, yet I can read waiting-gentlewoman in the scape. This has been some stair-work, some trunk-work, some behind-door work. They were warmer that got this than the poor thing is here. I’ll take it up for pity. Yet I’ll tarry till my son come. He halloed but even now.—Whoa-ho-ho!
CLOWN
Hilloa, loa!
SHEPHERD
What, art so near? If thou ’lt see a thing to talk on when thou art dead and rotten, come hither. What ail’st thou, man?
CLOWN
I have seen two such sights, by sea and by land—but I am not to say it is a sea, for it is now the sky; betwixt the firmament and it, you cannot thrust a bodkin’s point.
SHEPHERD
Why, boy, how is it?
CLOWN
I would you did but see how it chafes,... how it rages, how it takes up the shore. But that’s not to the point. O, the most piteous cry of the poor souls! Sometimes to see ’em, and not to see ’em. Now the ship boring the moon with her mainmast, and anon swallowed with yeast and froth, as you’d thrust a cork into a hogshead. And then for the land service, to see how the bear tore out his shoulder-bone, how he cried to me for help, and said his name was Antigonus, a nobleman. But to make an end of the ship: to see how the sea flap-dragoned it. But, first, how the poor souls roared and the sea mocked them, and how the poor gentleman roared and the bear mocked him, both roaring louder than the sea or weather.
SHEPHERD
Name of mercy, when was this, boy?
CLOWN
Now, now. I have not winked since I saw these sights. The men are not yet cold under water, nor the bear half dined on the gentleman. He’s at it now.
SHEPHERD
Would I had been by to have helped the old man.
CLOWN
I would you had been by the ship side, to have helped her. There your charity would have lacked footing.
SHEPHERD
Heavy matters, heavy matters. ... But look thee here, boy. Now bless thyself. Thou met’st with things dying, I with things newborn. Here’s a sight for thee. Look thee, a bearing cloth for a squire’s child. Look thee here. Take up, take up, boy. Open ’t. So, let’s see. It was told me I should be rich by the fairies. This is some changeling. Open ’t. What’s within, boy?
CLOWN
You’re a made old man. If the sins of your youth are forgiven you, you’re well to live. Gold, all gold.
SHEPHERD
This is fairy gold, boy, and ’twill prove so. Up with ’t, keep it close. Home, home, the next way. We are lucky, boy, and to be so still requires nothing but secrecy. Let my sheep go. Come, good boy, the next way home.
CLOWN
Go you the next way with your findings. I’ll go see if the bear be gone from the gentleman and how much he hath eaten. They are never curst but when they are hungry. If there be any of him left, I’ll bury it.
SHEPHERD
That’s a good deed. If thou mayest discern by that which is left of him what he is, fetch me to th’ sight of him.
CLOWN
Marry, will I, and you shall help to put him i’ th’ ground.
SHEPHERD
’Tis a lucky day, boy, and we’ll do good deeds on ’t.

---

16
TIME
I, that please some, ... try all—both joy and terror Of good and bad, that makes and unfolds error— Now take upon me, in the name of Time, To use my wings. Impute it not a crime To me or my swift passage that I slide O’er sixteen years, and leave the growth untried Of that wide gap, since it is in my power To o’erthrow law and in one self-born hour To plant and o’erwhelm custom. Let me pass The same I am ere ancient’st order was Or what is now received. I witness to The times that brought them in. So shall I do To th’ freshest things now reigning, and make stale The glistering of this present, as my tale Now seems to it. Your patience this allowing, I turn my glass and give my scene such growing As you had slept between. Leontes leaving, Th’ effects of his fond jealousies so grieving That he shuts up himself, imagine me, Gentle spectators, that I now may be In fair Bohemia. And remember well I mentioned a son o’ th’ King’s, which Florizell I now name to you, and with speed so pace To speak of Perdita, now grown in grace Equal with wond’ring. What of her ensues I list not prophesy; but let Time’s news Be known when ’tis brought forth. A shepherd’s daughter And what to her adheres, which follows after, Is th’ argument of Time. Of this allow, If ever you have spent time worse ere now. If never, yet that Time himself doth say He wishes earnestly you never may.

---

17
POLIXENES
I pray thee, good Camillo, be no more importunate. ’Tis a sickness denying thee anything, a death to grant this.
CAMILLO
It is fifteen years ... since I saw my country. Though I have for the most part been aired abroad, I desire to lay my bones there. Besides, the penitent king, my master, hath sent for me, to whose feeling sorrows I might be some allay—or I o’erween to think so—which is another spur to my departure.
POLIXENES
As thou lov’st me, Camillo, wipe not out the rest of thy services by leaving me now.... The need I have of thee thine own goodness hath made. Better not to have had thee than thus to want thee. Thou, having made me businesses which none without thee can sufficiently manage, must either stay to execute them thyself or take away with thee the very services thou hast done, which if I have not enough considered, as too much I cannot, to be more thankful to thee shall be my study, and my profit therein the heaping friendships. Of that fatal country Sicilia, prithee speak no more, whose very naming punishes me with the remembrance of that penitent, as thou call’st him, and reconciled king my brother, whose loss of his most precious queen and children are even now to be afresh lamented. Say to me, when sawst thou the Prince Florizell, my son? Kings are no less unhappy, their issue not being gracious, than they are in losing them when they have approved their virtues.
CAMILLO
Sir, it is three days since I saw the Prince. What his happier affairs may be are to me unknown, but I have missingly noted he is of late much retired from court and is less frequent to his princely exercises than formerly he hath appeared.
POLIXENES
I have considered so much, Camillo, and with some care, so far that I have eyes under my service which look upon his removedness, from whom I have this intelligence: that he is seldom from the house of a most homely shepherd, a man, they say, that from very nothing, and beyond the imagination of his neighbors, is grown into an unspeakable estate.
CAMILLO
I have heard, sir, of such a man, who hath a daughter of most rare note. The report of her is extended more than can be thought to begin from such a cottage.
POLIXENES
That’s likewise part of my intelligence, ... but, I fear, the angle that plucks our son thither. Thou shalt accompany us to the place, where we will, not appearing what we are, have some question with the shepherd, from whose simplicity I think it not uneasy to get the cause of my son’s resort thither. Prithee be my present partner in this business, and lay aside the thoughts of Sicilia.
CAMILLO
I willingly obey your command.
POLIXENES
My best Camillo. We must disguise ourselves.

---

18
AUTOLYCUS (singing)
When daffodils begin to peer,... With heigh, the doxy over the dale, Why, then comes in the sweet o’ the year, For the red blood reigns in the winter’s pale.
The white sheet bleaching on the hedge, With heigh, the sweet birds, O how they sing! Doth set my pugging tooth an edge, For a quart of ale is a dish for a king.
The lark, that tirralirra chants, With heigh, with heigh, the thrush and the jay, Are summer songs for me and my aunts, While we lie tumbling in the hay.
I have served Prince Florizell and in my time wore three-pile, but now I am out of service.
But shall I go mourn for that, my dear? The pale moon shines by night, And when I wander here and there, I then do most go right.
If tinkers may have leave to live, And bear the sow-skin budget, Then my account I well may give, And in the stocks avouch it.
My traffic is sheets. When the kite builds, look to lesser linen. My father named me Autolycus, who, being, as I am, littered under Mercury, was likewise a snapper-up of unconsidered trifles. With die and drab I purchased this caparison, and my revenue is the silly cheat. Gallows and knock are too powerful on the highway. Beating and hanging are terrors to me. For the life to come, I sleep out the thought of it. A prize, a prize!
CLOWN
Let me see, every ’leven wether tods, every tod yields pound and odd shilling; fifteen hundred shorn, what comes the wool to?
AUTOLYCUS (aside)
If the springe hold, the cock’s mine.He lies down.
CLOWN
I cannot do ’t without counters. ... Let me see, what am I to buy for our sheep-shearing feast? Three pound of sugar, five pound of currants, rice—what will this sister of mine do with rice? But my father hath made her mistress of the feast, and she lays it on. She hath made me four-and-twenty nosegays for the shearers, three-man song men all, and very good ones; but they are most of them means and basses, but one Puritan amongst them, and he sings psalms to hornpipes. I must have saffron to color the warden pies; mace; dates, none, that’s out of my note; nutmegs, seven; a race or two of ginger, but that I may beg; four pound of prunes, and as many of raisins o’ th’ sun.
AUTOLYCUS
O, that ever I was born!
CLOWN
I’ th’ name of me!
AUTOLYCUS
O, help me, help me! Pluck but off these rags, and then death, death.
CLOWN
Alack, poor soul, thou hast need of more rags to lay on thee rather than have these off.
AUTOLYCUS
O sir, the loathsomeness of them offends me more than the stripes I have received, which are mighty ones and millions.
CLOWN
Alas, poor man, a million of beating may come to a great matter.
AUTOLYCUS
I am robbed, sir, and beaten, my money and apparel ta’en from me, and these detestable things put upon me.
CLOWN
What, by a horseman, or a footman?
AUTOLYCUS
A footman, sweet sir, a footman.
CLOWN
Indeed, he should be a footman by the garments he has left with thee. If this be a horseman’s coat, it hath seen very hot service. Lend me thy hand; I’ll help thee. Come, lend me thy hand.
AUTOLYCUS
O, good sir, tenderly, O!
CLOWN
Alas, poor soul.
AUTOLYCUS
O, good sir, softly, good sir. I fear, sir, my shoulder blade is out.
CLOWN
How now? Canst stand?
AUTOLYCUS
Softly, dear sir, good sir, softly. You ha’ done me a charitable office.
CLOWN
Dost lack any money? I have a little money for thee.
AUTOLYCUS
No, good sweet sir, no, I beseech you, sir. I have a kinsman not past three-quarters of a mile hence, unto whom I was going. I shall there have money or anything I want. Offer me no money, I pray you; that kills my heart.
CLOWN
What manner of fellow was he that robbed you?
AUTOLYCUS
A fellow, sir, that I have known to go about with troll-my-dames. I knew him once a servant of the Prince. I cannot tell, good sir, for which of his virtues it was, but he was certainly whipped out of the court.
CLOWN
His vices, you would say. There’s no virtue whipped out of the court. They cherish it to make it stay there, and yet it will no more but abide.
AUTOLYCUS
Vices, I would say, sir. ... I know this man well. He hath been since an ape-bearer, then a process-server, a bailiff. Then he compassed a motion of the Prodigal Son, and married a tinker’s wife within a mile where my land and living lies, and, having flown over many knavish professions, he settled only in rogue. Some call him Autolycus.
CLOWN
Out upon him! Prig, for my life, prig! He haunts wakes, fairs, and bearbaitings.
AUTOLYCUS
Very true, sir: he, sir, he. That’s the rogue that put me into this apparel.
CLOWN
Not a more cowardly rogue in all Bohemia. If you had but looked big and spit at him, he’d have run.
AUTOLYCUS
I must confess to you, sir, I am no fighter. I am false of heart that way, and that he knew, I warrant him.
CLOWN
How do you now?
AUTOLYCUS
Sweet sir, much better than I was. I can stand and walk. I will even take my leave of you and pace softly towards my kinsman’s.
CLOWN
Shall I bring thee on the way?
AUTOLYCUS
No, good-faced sir, no, sweet sir.
CLOWN
Then fare thee well. I must go buy spices for our sheep-shearing.
AUTOLYCUS
Prosper you, sweet sir. Your purse ... is not hot enough to purchase your spice. I’ll be with you at your sheep-shearing too. If I make not this cheat bring out another, and the shearers prove sheep, let me be unrolled and my name put in the book of virtue. Jog on, jog on, the footpath way, And merrily hent the stile-a. A merry heart goes all the day, Your sad tires in a mile-a.

---

19
FLORIZELL
These your unusual weeds to each part of you Does give a life—no shepherdess, but Flora Peering in April’s front. This your sheep-shearing Is as a meeting of the petty gods, And you the queen on ’t.
PERDITA
Sir, my gracious lord,... To chide at your extremes it not becomes me; O, pardon that I name them! Your high self, The gracious mark o’ th’ land, you have obscured With a swain’s wearing, and me, poor lowly maid, Most goddesslike pranked up. But that our feasts In every mess have folly, and the feeders Digest it with a custom, I should blush To see you so attired, swoon, I think, To show myself a glass.
FLORIZELL
I bless the time When my good falcon made her flight across Thy father’s ground.
PERDITA
Now Jove afford you cause. To me the difference forges dread. Your greatness Hath not been used to fear. Even now I tremble To think your father by some accident Should pass this way as you did. O the Fates, How would he look to see his work, so noble, Vilely bound up? What would he say? Or how Should I, in these my borrowed flaunts, behold The sternness of his presence?
FLORIZELL
Apprehend Nothing but jollity. ... The gods themselves, Humbling their deities to love, have taken The shapes of beasts upon them. Jupiter Became a bull, and bellowed; the green Neptune A ram, and bleated; and the fire-robed god, Golden Apollo, a poor humble swain, As I seem now. Their transformations Were never for a piece of beauty rarer, Nor in a way so chaste, since my desires Run not before mine honor, nor my lusts Burn hotter than my faith.
PERDITA
O, but sir, Your resolution cannot hold when ’tis Opposed, as it must be, by th’ power of the King. One of these two must be necessities, Which then will speak: that you must change this purpose Or I my life.
FLORIZELL
Thou dear’st Perdita,... With these forced thoughts I prithee darken not The mirth o’ th’ feast. Or I’ll be thine, my fair, Or not my father’s. For I cannot be Mine own, nor anything to any, if I be not thine. To this I am most constant, Though destiny say no. Be merry, gentle. Strangle such thoughts as these with anything That you behold the while. Your guests are coming. Lift up your countenance as it were the day Of celebration of that nuptial which We two have sworn shall come.
PERDITA
O Lady Fortune, Stand you auspicious!
FLORIZELL
See, your guests approach. Address yourself to entertain them sprightly, And let’s be red with mirth.

---

20
SHEPHERD
Fie, daughter, when my old wife lived, ... upon This day she was both pantler, butler, cook, Both dame and servant; welcomed all; served all; Would sing her song and dance her turn, now here At upper end o’ th’ table, now i’ th’ middle; On his shoulder, and his; her face afire With labor, and the thing she took to quench it She would to each one sip. You are retired As if you were a feasted one and not The hostess of the meeting. Pray you bid These unknown friends to ’s welcome, for it is A way to make us better friends, more known. Come, quench your blushes and present yourself That which you are, mistress o’ th’ feast. Come on, And bid us welcome to your sheep-shearing, As your good flock shall prosper.
PERDITA
Sir, welcome.... It is my father’s will I should take on me The hostess-ship o’ th’ day. To Camillo. You’re welcome, sir.— Give me those flowers there, Dorcas.—Reverend sirs, For you there’s rosemary and rue. These keep Seeming and savor all the winter long. Grace and remembrance be to you both, And welcome to our shearing.
POLIXENES
Shepherdess— A fair one are you—well you fit our ages With flowers of winter.
PERDITA
Sir, the year growing ancient,... Not yet on summer’s death nor on the birth Of trembling winter, the fairest flowers o’ th’ season Are our carnations and streaked gillyvors, Which some call nature’s bastards. Of that kind Our rustic garden’s barren, and I care not To get slips of them.
POLIXENES
Wherefore, gentle maiden, Do you neglect them?
PERDITA
For I have heard it said There is an art which in their piedness shares With great creating nature.
POLIXENES
Say there be;... Yet nature is made better by no mean But nature makes that mean. So, over that art Which you say adds to nature is an art That nature makes. You see, sweet maid, we marry A gentler scion to the wildest stock, And make conceive a bark of baser kind By bud of nobler race. This is an art Which does mend nature, change it rather, but The art itself is nature.
PERDITA
So it is.
POLIXENES
Then make your garden rich in gillyvors, And do not call them bastards.
PERDITA
I’ll not put... The dibble in earth to set one slip of them, No more than, were I painted, I would wish This youth should say ’twere well, and only therefore Desire to breed by me. Here’s flowers for you: Hot lavender, mints, savory, marjoram, The marigold, that goes to bed wi’ th’ sun And with him rises weeping. These are flowers Of middle summer, and I think they are given To men of middle age. You’re very welcome.
CAMILLO
I should leave grazing, were I of your flock, And only live by gazing.
PERDITA
Out, alas! You’d be so lean that blasts of January... Would blow you through and through. Now, my fair’st friend, I would I had some flowers o’ th’ spring, that might Become your time of day, and yours, and yours, That wear upon your virgin branches yet Your maidenheads growing. O Proserpina, For the flowers now that, frighted, thou let’st fall From Dis’s wagon! Daffodils, That come before the swallow dares, and take The winds of March with beauty; violets dim, But sweeter than the lids of Juno’s eyes Or Cytherea’s breath; pale primroses, That die unmarried ere they can behold Bright Phoebus in his strength—a malady Most incident to maids; bold oxlips and The crown imperial; lilies of all kinds, The flower-de-luce being one—O, these I lack To make you garlands of, and my sweet friend, To strew him o’er and o’er.
FLORIZELL
What, like a corse?
PERDITA
No, like a bank for love to lie and play on, Not like a corse; or if, not to be buried, But quick and in mine arms. Come, take your flowers. Methinks I play as I have seen them do In Whitsun pastorals. Sure this robe of mine Does change my disposition.
FLORIZELL
What you do Still betters what is done. ... When you speak, sweet, I’d have you do it ever. When you sing, I’d have you buy and sell so, so give alms, Pray so; and for the ord’ring your affairs, To sing them too. When you do dance, I wish you A wave o’ th’ sea, that you might ever do Nothing but that, move still, still so, And own no other function. Each your doing, So singular in each particular, Crowns what you are doing in the present deeds, That all your acts are queens.
PERDITA
O Doricles, ... Your praises are too large. But that your youth And the true blood which peeps fairly through ’t Do plainly give you out an unstained shepherd, With wisdom I might fear, my Doricles, You wooed me the false way.
FLORIZELL
I think you have As little skill to fear as I have purpose To put you to ’t. But come, our dance, I pray. Your hand, my Perdita. So turtles pair That never mean to part.
PERDITA
I’ll swear for ’em.
POLIXENES
This is the prettiest lowborn lass that ever Ran on the greensward. Nothing she does or seems But smacks of something greater than herself, Too noble for this place.
CAMILLO
He tells her something That makes her blood look out. Good sooth, she is The queen of curds and cream.
CLOWN
Come on, strike up.
DORCAS
Mopsa must be your mistress? Marry, garlic To mend her kissing with.
MOPSA
Now, in good time!
CLOWN
Not a word, a word. We stand upon our manners.— Come, strike up

---

21
POLIXENES
Pray, good shepherd, what fair swain is this Which dances with your daughter?
SHEPHERD
They call him Doricles, ... and boasts himself To have a worthy feeding. But I have it Upon his own report, and I believe it. He looks like sooth. He says he loves my daughter. I think so too, for never gazed the moon Upon the water as he’ll stand and read, As ’twere, my daughter’s eyes. And, to be plain, I think there is not half a kiss to choose Who loves another best.
POLIXENES
She dances featly.
SHEPHERD
So she does anything, though I report it That should be silent. If young Doricles Do light upon her, she shall bring him that Which he not dreams of.
SERVANT
O, master, ... if you did but hear the peddler at the door, you would never dance again after a tabor and pipe; no, the bagpipe could not move you. He sings several tunes faster than you’ll tell money. He utters them as he had eaten ballads and all men’s ears grew to his tunes.
CLOWN
He could never come better. He shall come in. I love a ballad but even too well if it be doleful matter merrily set down, or a very pleasant thing indeed and sung lamentably.
SERVANT
He hath songs for man or woman, ... of all sizes. No milliner can so fit his customers with gloves. He has the prettiest love songs for maids, so without bawdry, which is strange, with such delicate burdens of dildos and fadings, “Jump her and thump her.” And where some stretch-mouthed rascal would, as it were, mean mischief and break a foul gap into the matter, he makes the maid to answer “Whoop, do me no harm, good man”; puts him off, slights him, with “Whoop, do me no harm, good man.”
POLIXENES
This is a brave fellow.
CLOWN
Believe me, thou talkest of an admirable conceited fellow. Has he any unbraided wares?
SERVANT
He hath ribbons... of all the colors i’ th’ rainbow; points more than all the lawyers in Bohemia can learnedly handle, though they come to him by th’ gross; inkles, caddises, cambrics, lawns—why, he sings ’em over as they were gods or goddesses. You would think a smock were a she-angel, he so chants to the sleeve-hand and the work about the square on ’t.
CLOWN
Prithee bring him in, and let him approach singing.
PERDITA
Forewarn him that he use no scurrilous words in ’s tunes.Servant exits.
CLOWN
You have of these peddlers that have more in them than you’d think, sister.
PERDITA
Ay, good brother, or go about to think.

---

22
AUTOLYCUS
Lawn as white as driven snow,... Cypress black as e’er was crow, Gloves as sweet as damask roses, Masks for faces and for noses, Bugle bracelet, necklace amber, Perfume for a lady’s chamber, Golden coifs and stomachers For my lads to give their dears, Pins and poking-sticks of steel, What maids lack from head to heel, Come buy of me, come. Come buy, come buy. Buy, lads, or else your lasses cry. Come buy.
CLOWN
If I were not in love with Mopsa, thou shouldst take no money of me; but being enthralled as I am, it will also be the bondage of certain ribbons and gloves.
MOPSA
I was promised them against the feast, but they come not too late now.
DORCAS
He hath promised you more than that, or there be liars.
MOPSA
He hath paid you all he promised you. Maybe he has paid you more, which will shame you to give him again.
CLOWN
Is there no manners left among maids? ... Will they wear their plackets where they should bear their faces? Is there not milking time, when you are going to bed, or kiln-hole, to whistle of these secrets, but you must be tittle-tattling before all our guests? ’Tis well they are whisp’ring. Clamor your tongues, and not a word more.
MOPSA
I have done. Come, you promised me a tawdry lace and a pair of sweet gloves.
CLOWN
Have I not told thee how I was cozened by the way and lost all my money?
AUTOLYCUS
And indeed, sir, there are cozeners abroad; therefore it behooves men to be wary.
CLOWN
Fear not thou, man. Thou shalt lose nothing here.
AUTOLYCUS
I hope so, sir, for I have about me many parcels of charge.
CLOWN
What hast here? Ballads?
MOPSA
Pray now, buy some. I love a ballad in print alife, for then we are sure they are true.
AUTOLYCUS
Here’s one to a very doleful tune, how a usurer’s wife was brought to bed of twenty moneybags at a burden, and how she longed to eat adders’ heads and toads carbonadoed.
MOPSA
Is it true, think you?
AUTOLYCUS
Very true, and but a month old.
DORCAS
Bless me from marrying a usurer!
AUTOLYCUS
Here’s the midwife’s name to ’t, one Mistress Taleporter, and five or six honest wives that were present. Why should I carry lies abroad?
MOPSA
Pray you now, buy it.
CLOWN
Come on, lay it by, and let’s first see more ballads. We’ll buy the other things anon.
AUTOLYCUS
Here’s another ballad, ... of a fish that appeared upon the coast on Wednesday the fourscore of April, forty thousand fathom above water, and sung this ballad against the hard hearts of maids. It was thought she was a woman, and was turned into a cold fish for she would not exchange flesh with one that loved her. The ballad is very pitiful, and as true.
DORCAS
Is it true too, think you?
AUTOLYCUS
Five justices’ hands at it, and witnesses more than my pack will hold.
CLOWN
Lay it by too. Another.
AUTOLYCUS
This is a merry ballad, but a very pretty one.
MOPSA
Let’s have some merry ones.
AUTOLYCUS
Why, this is a passing merry one and goes to the tune of “Two Maids Wooing a Man.” There’s scarce a maid westward but she sings it. ’Tis in request, I can tell you.
MOPSA
We can both sing it. If thou ’lt bear a part, thou shalt hear; ’tis in three parts.
DORCAS
We had the tune on ’t a month ago.
AUTOLYCUS
I can bear my part. You must know ’tis my occupation. Have at it with you.
AUTOLYCUS
Get you hence, for I must go Where it fits not you to know.
DORCAS
Whither?
MOPSA
O, whither?
DORCAS
Whither?
MOPSA
It becomes thy oath full well Thou to me thy secrets tell.
DORCAS
Me too. Let me go thither.
MOPSA
Or thou goest to th’ grange or mill.
DORCAS
If to either, thou dost ill.
AUTOLYCUS
Neither.
DORCAS
What, neither?
AUTOLYCUS
Neither.
DORCAS
Thou hast sworn my love to be.
MOPSA
Thou hast sworn it more to me. Then whither goest? Say whither.
CLOWN
We’ll have this song out anon by ourselves. My father and the gentlemen are in sad talk, and we’ll not trouble them. Come, bring away thy pack after me.—Wenches, I’ll buy for you both.—Peddler, let’s have the first choice.—Follow me, girls.
AUTOLYCUS
And you shall pay well for ’em.
Will you buy any tape, Or lace for your cape, My dainty duck, my dear-a? Any silk, any thread, Any toys for your head, Of the new’st and fin’st, fin’st wear-a? Come to the peddler. Money’s a meddler That doth utter all men’s ware-a.

---

23
POLIXENES
How now, fair shepherd!... Your heart is full of something that does take Your mind from feasting. Sooth, when I was young And handed love as you do, I was wont To load my she with knacks: I would have ransack'd The pedlar's silken treasury and have pour'd it To her acceptance; you have let him go And nothing marted with him. If your lass Interpretation should abuse and call this Your lack of love or bounty, you were straited For a reply, at least if you make a care Of happy holding her.
FLORIZEL
Old sir, I know She prizes not such trifles as these are:... The gifts she looks from me are pack'd and lock'd Up in my heart; which I have given already, But not deliver'd. O, hear me breathe my life Before this ancient sir, who, it should seem, Hath sometime loved! I take thy hand, this hand, As soft as dove's down and as white as it, Or Ethiopian's tooth, or the fann'd snow that's bolted By the northern blasts twice o'er.
POLIXENES
What follows this? How prettily the young swain seems to wash The hand was fair before! I have put you out: But to your protestation; let me hear What you profess.
FLORIZEL
Do, and be witness to 't.
POLIXENES
And this my neighbour too?
FLORIZEL
And he, and more Than he, and men, the earth,... the heavens, and all: That, were I crown'd the most imperial monarch, Thereof most worthy, were I the fairest youth That ever made eye swerve, had force and knowledge More than was ever man's, I would not prize them Without her love; for her employ them all; Commend them and condemn them to her service Or to their own perdition.
POLIXENES
Fairly offer'd.
CAMILLO
This shows a sound affection.
Shepherd
But, my daughter, Say you the like to him?
PERDITA
I cannot speak So well, nothing so well; no, nor mean better: By the pattern of mine own thoughts I cut out The purity of his.
Shepherd
Take hands, a bargain! And, friends unknown, you shall bear witness to 't: I give my daughter to him, and will make Her portion equal his.
FLORIZEL
O, that must be I' the virtue of your daughter: one being dead, I shall have more than you can dream of yet; Enough then for your wonder. But, come on, Contract us 'fore these witnesses.
Shepherd
Come, your hand; And, daughter, yours.
POLIXENES
Soft, swain, awhile, beseech you; Have you a father?
FLORIZEL
I have: but what of him?
POLIXENES
Knows he of this?
FLORIZEL
He neither does nor shall.
POLIXENES
Methinks a father... Is at the nuptial of his son a guest That best becomes the table. Pray you once more, Is not your father grown incapable Of reasonable affairs? is he not stupid With age and altering rheums? can he speak? hear? Know man from man? dispute his own estate? Lies he not bed-rid? and again does nothing But what he did being childish?
FLORIZEL
No, good sir; He has his health and ampler strength indeed Than most have of his age.
POLIXENES
By my white beard,... You offer him, if this be so, a wrong Something unfilial: reason my son Should choose himself a wife, but as good reason The father, all whose joy is nothing else But fair posterity, should hold some counsel In such a business.
FLORIZEL
I yield all this; But for some other reasons, my grave sir, Which 'tis not fit you know, I not acquaint My father of this business.
POLIXENES
Let him know't.
FLORIZEL
He shall not.
POLIXENES
Prithee, let him.
FLORIZEL
No, he must not.
Shepherd
Let him, my son: he shall not need to grieve At knowing of thy choice.
FLORIZEL
Come, come, he must not. Mark our contract.
POLIXENES
Mark your divorce, young sir, ... Discovering himself Whom son I dare not call; thou art too base To be acknowledged: thou a sceptre's heir, That thus affect'st a sheep-hook! Thou old traitor, I am sorry that by hanging thee I can But shorten thy life one week. And thou, fresh piece Of excellent witchcraft, who of force must know The royal fool thou copest with,--
Shepherd
O, my heart!
POLIXENES
I'll have thy beauty scratch'd with briers,... and made More homely than thy state. For thee, fond boy, If I may ever know thou dost but sigh That thou no more shalt see this knack, as never I mean thou shalt, we'll bar thee from succession; Not hold thee of our blood, no, not our kin, Far than Deucalion off: mark thou my words: Follow us to the court. Thou churl, for this time, Though full of our displeasure, yet we free thee From the dead blow of it. And you, enchantment.-- Worthy enough a herdsman: yea, him too, That makes himself, but for our honour therein, Unworthy thee,--if ever henceforth thou These rural latches to his entrance open, Or hoop his body more with thy embraces, I will devise a death as cruel for thee As thou art tender to't.
PERDITA
Even here undone! I was not much afeard; for once or twice I was about to speak and tell him plainly, The selfsame sun that shines upon his court Hides not his visage from our cottage but Looks on alike. Will't please you, sir, be gone? I told you what would come of this: beseech you, Of your own state take care: this dream of mine,-- Being now awake, I'll queen it no inch farther, But milk my ewes and weep.
CAMILLO
Why, how now, father! Speak ere thou diest.
Shepherd
I cannot speak, nor think... Nor dare to know that which I know. O sir! You have undone a man of fourscore three, That thought to fill his grave in quiet, yea, To die upon the bed my father died, To lie close by his honest bones: but now Some hangman must put on my shroud and lay me Where no priest shovels in dust. O cursed wretch, That knew'st this was the prince, and wouldst adventure To mingle faith with him! Undone! undone! If I might die within this hour, I have lived To die when I desire.

---

24
FLORIZEL Why look you so upon me?... I am but sorry, not afeard; delay'd, But nothing alter'd: what I was, I am; More straining on for plucking back, not following My leash unwillingly.
CAMILLO
Gracious my lord,... You know your father's temper: at this time He will allow no speech, which I do guess You do not purpose to him; and as hardly Will he endure your sight as yet, I fear: Then, till the fury of his highness settle, Come not before him.
FLORIZEL
I not purpose it. I think, Camillo?
CAMILLO
Even he, my lord.
PERDITA
How often have I told you 'twould be thus! How often said, my dignity would last But till 'twere known!
FLORIZEL
It cannot fail but by... The violation of my faith; and then Let nature crush the sides o' the earth together And mar the seeds within! Lift up thy looks: From my succession wipe me, father; I Am heir to my affection.
CAMILLO
Be advised.
FLORIZEL
I am, and by my fancy: if my reason Will thereto be obedient, I have reason; If not, my senses, better pleased with madness, Do bid it welcome.
CAMILLO
This is desperate, sir.
FLORIZEL
So call it: but it does fulfil my vow;... I needs must think it honesty. Camillo, Not for Bohemia, nor the pomp that may Be thereat glean'd, for all the sun sees or The close earth wombs or the profound sea hides In unknown fathoms, will I break my oath To this my fair beloved: therefore, I pray you, As you have ever been my father's honour'd friend, When he shall miss me,--as, in faith, I mean not To see him any more,--cast your good counsels Upon his passion; let myself and fortune Tug for the time to come. This you may know And so deliver, I am put to sea With her whom here I cannot hold on shore; And most opportune to our need I have A vessel rides fast by, but not prepared For this design. What course I mean to hold Shall nothing benefit your knowledge, nor Concern me the reporting.
CAMILLO
O my lord! I would your spirit were easier for advice, Or stronger for your need.
FLORIZEL
Hark, Perdita Drawing her aside I'll hear you by and by.
CAMILLO
He's irremoveable, Resolved for flight.... Now were I happy, if His going I could frame to serve my turn, Save him from danger, do him love and honour, Purchase the sight again of dear Sicilia And that unhappy king, my master, whom I so much thirst to see.
FLORIZEL
Now, good Camillo; I am so fraught with curious business that I leave out ceremony.
CAMILLO
Sir, I think You have heard of my poor services, i' the love That I have borne your father?
FLORIZEL
Very nobly Have you deserved: it is my father's music To speak your deeds, not little of his care To have them recompensed as thought on.
CAMILLO
Well, my lord,... If you may please to think I love the king And through him what is nearest to him, which is Your gracious self, embrace but my direction: If your more ponderous and settled project May suffer alteration, on mine honour, I'll point you where you shall have such receiving As shall become your highness; where you may Enjoy your mistress, from the whom, I see, There's no disjunction to be made, but by-- As heavens forefend!--your ruin; marry her, And, with my best endeavours in your absence, Your discontenting father strive to qualify And bring him up to liking.
FLORIZEL
How, Camillo, May this, almost a miracle, be done? That I may call thee something more than man And after that trust to thee.
CAMILLO
Have you thought on A place whereto you'll go?
FLORIZEL
Not any yet: But as the unthought-on accident is guilty To what we wildly do, so we profess Ourselves to be the slaves of chance and flies Of every wind that blows.
CAMILLO
Then list to me:... This follows, if you will not change your purpose But undergo this flight, make for Sicilia, And there present yourself and your fair princess, For so I see she must be, 'fore Leontes: She shall be habited as it becomes The partner of your bed. Methinks I see Leontes opening his free arms and weeping His welcomes forth; asks thee the son forgiveness, As 'twere i' the father's person; kisses the hands Of your fresh princess; o'er and o'er divides him 'Twixt his unkindness and his kindness; the one He chides to hell and bids the other grow Faster than thought or time.
FLORIZEL
Worthy Camillo, What colour for my visitation shall I Hold up before him?
CAMILLO
Sent by the king your father... To greet him and to give him comforts. Sir, The manner of your bearing towards him, with What you as from your father shall deliver, Things known betwixt us three, I'll write you down: The which shall point you forth at every sitting What you must say; that he shall not perceive But that you have your father's bosom there And speak his very heart.
FLORIZEL
I am bound to you: There is some sap in this.
CAMILLO
A cause more promising Than a wild dedication of yourselves... To unpath'd waters, undream'd shores, most certain To miseries enough; no hope to help you, But as you shake off one to take another; Nothing so certain as your anchors, who Do their best office, if they can but stay you Where you'll be loath to be: besides you know Prosperity's the very bond of love, Whose fresh complexion and whose heart together Affliction alters.
PERDITA
One of these is true: I think affliction may subdue the cheek, But not take in the mind.
CAMILLO
Yea, say you so? There shall not at your father's house these seven years Be born another such.
FLORIZEL
My good Camillo, She is as forward of her breeding as She is i' the rear our birth.
CAMILLO
I cannot say 'tis pity She lacks instructions, for she seems a mistress To most that teach.
PERDITA
Your pardon, sir; for this I'll blush you thanks.
FLORIZEL
My prettiest Perdita!... But O, the thorns we stand upon! Camillo, Preserver of my father, now of me, The medicine of our house, how shall we do? We are not furnish'd like Bohemia's son, Nor shall appear in Sicilia.
CAMILLO
My lord, Fear none of this: I think you know my fortunes Do all lie there: it shall be so my care To have you royally appointed as if The scene you play were mine. For instance, sir, That you may know you shall not want, one word.

---

25
AUTOLYCUS
Ha, ha! what a fool Honesty is! ...and Trust, his sworn brother, a very simple gentleman! I have sold all my trumpery; not a counterfeit stone, not a ribbon, glass, pomander, brooch, table-book, ballad, knife, tape, glove, shoe-tie, bracelet, horn-ring, to keep my pack from fasting: they throng who should buy first, as if my trinkets had been hallowed and brought a benediction to the buyer: by which means I saw whose purse was best in picture; and what I saw, to my good use I remembered. My clown, who wants but something to be a reasonable man, grew so in love with the wenches' song, that he would not stir his pettitoes till he had both tune and words; which so drew the rest of the herd to me that all their other senses stuck in ears: you might have pinched a placket, it was senseless; 'twas nothing to geld a codpiece of a purse; I could have filed keys off that hung in chains: no hearing, no feeling, but my sir's song, and admiring the nothing of it. So that in this time of lethargy I picked and cut most of their festival purses; and had not the old man come in with a whoo-bub against his daughter and the king's son and scared my choughs from the chaff, I had not left a purse alive in the whole army.
CAMILLO
Nay, but my letters, by this means being there So soon as you arrive, shall clear that doubt.
FLORIZEL
And those that you'll procure from King Leontes--
CAMILLO
Shall satisfy your father.
PERDITA
Happy be you! All that you speak shows fair.
CAMILLO
Who have we here? We'll make an instrument of this, omit Nothing may give us aid.
AUTOLYCUS
If they have overheard me now, why, hanging.
CAMILLO
How now, good fellow! why shakest thou so? Fear not, man; here's no harm intended to thee.
AUTOLYCUS
I am a poor fellow, sir.
CAMILLO
Why, be so still; here's nobody... will steal that from thee: yet for the outside of thy poverty we must make an exchange; therefore discase thee instantly, --thou must think there's a necessity in't,--and change garments with this gentleman: though the pennyworth on his side be the worst, yet hold thee, there's some boot.
AUTOLYCUS
I am a poor fellow, sir. I know ye well enough.
CAMILLO
Nay, prithee, dispatch: the gentleman is half flayed already.
AUTOLYCUS
Are you in earnest, sir? I smell the trick on't.
FLORIZEL
Dispatch, I prithee.
AUTOLYCUS
Indeed, I have had earnest: but I cannot with conscience take it.
CAMILLO
Unbuckle, unbuckle.... Fortunate mistress,--let my prophecy Come home to ye!--you must retire yourself Into some covert: take your sweetheart's hat And pluck it o'er your brows, muffle your face, Dismantle you, and, as you can, disliken The truth of your own seeming; that you may-- For I do fear eyes over--to shipboard Get undescried.
PERDITA
I see the play so lies That I must bear a part.
CAMILLO
No remedy. Have you done there?
FLORIZEL
Should I now meet my father, He would not call me son.
CAMILLO
Nay, you shall have no hat. Come, lady, come. Farewell, my friend.
AUTOLYCUS
Adieu, sir.
FLORIZEL
O Perdita, what have we twain forgot! Pray you, a word.
CAMILLO
What I do next, shall be to tell the king... Of this escape and whither they are bound; Wherein my hope is I shall so prevail To force him after: in whose company I shall review Sicilia, for whose sight I have a woman's longing.
FLORIZEL
Fortune speed us! Thus we set on, Camillo, to the sea-side.
CAMILLO
The swifter speed the better.

---

26

---

27

---

28

---

29

---

30

---

31

---