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Winter's Tale, The

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<h2>ACT I.</h2>   SCENE I.  Sicilia.  An Antechamber in LEONTES' Palace.   <blockquote>[Enter CAMILLO and ARCHIDAMUS] </blockquote> ARCHIDAMUS If you shall chance, Camillo, to visit Bohemia, on the like occasion whereon my services are now on foot, you shall see, as I have said, great difference betwixt our Bohemia and your Sicilia.   CAMILLO I think this coming summer the King of Sicilia means to pay Bohemia the visitation which he justly owes him.   ARCHIDAMUS Wherein our entertainment shall shame us we will be justified in our loves; for indeed,—   CAMILLO Beseech you,—   ARCHIDAMUS Verily, I speak it in the freedom of my knowledge: we cannot with such magnificence—in so rare—I know not what to say.—We will give you sleepy drinks, that your senses, unintelligent of our insufficience, may, though they cannot praise us, as little accuse us.   CAMILLO You pay a great deal too dear for what's given freely.   ARCHIDAMUS Believe me, I speak as my understanding instructs me and as mine honesty puts it to utterance.   CAMILLO Sicilia cannot show himself overkind to Bohemia. They were trained together in their childhoods; and there rooted betwixt them then such an affection which cannot choose but branch now. Since their more mature dignities and royal necessities made separation of their society, their encounters, though not personal, have been royally attorneyed with interchange of gifts, letters, loving embassies; that they have seemed to be together, though absent; shook hands, as over a vast; and embraced as it were from the ends of opposed winds. The heavens continue their loves!   ARCHIDAMUS I think there is not in the world either malice or matter to alter it. You have an unspeakable comfort of your young Prince Mamillius: it is a gentleman of the greatest promise that ever came into my note.   CAMILLO I very well agree with you in the hopes of him. It is a gallant child; one that indeed physics the subject, makes old hearts fresh: they that went on crutches ere he was born desire yet their life to see him a man.   ARCHIDAMUS Would they else be content to die?   CAMILLO Yes, if there were no other excuse why they should desire to live.   ARCHIDAMUS If the king had no son, they would desire to live on crutches till he had one. <blockquote>[Exeunt.] </blockquote>           SCENE II.  The same.  A Room of State in the Palace.   <blockquote>[Enter LEONTES, POLIXENES, HERMIONE, MAMILLIUS, CAMILLO, and Attendants.] </blockquote> POLIXENES Nine changes of the watery star hath been The shepherd's note since we have left our throne Without a burden: time as long again Would be fill'd up, my brother, with our thanks; And yet we should, for perpetuity, Go hence in debt: and therefore, like a cipher, Yet standing in rich place, I multiply With one we-thank-you many thousands more That go before it.   LEONTES                             Stay your thanks a while, And pay them when you part.   POLIXENES                                                Sir, that's to-morrow. I am question'd by my fears, of what may chance Or breed upon our absence; that may blow No sneaping winds at home, to make us say, 'This is put forth too truly.' Besides, I have stay'd To tire your royalty.   LEONTES                                  We are tougher, brother, Than you can put us to't.   POLIXENES                                        No longer stay.   LEONTES One seven-night longer.   POLIXENES                                         Very sooth, to-morrow.   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' the world, So soon as yours, could win me: so it should now, Were there necessity in your request, although 'Twere needful I denied it. My affairs Do even drag me homeward: which to hinder, Were, in your love a whip to me; my stay To you a charge and trouble: to save both, Farewell, our brother.   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 by-gone 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 Prefix'd for's parting:—yet, good deed, Leontes, I love thee not a jar of the 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 to unsphere the stars with oaths, Should yet say 'Sir, no going.' Verily, You shall not go; a lady's verily is As potent as a lord's. Will 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 gaoler 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 to-morrow as to-day, And to be boy eternal.   HERMIONE Was not my lord the verier wag o' the two?   POLIXENES We were as twinn'd lambs that did frisk i' the sun And bleat the one at th' other. What we chang'd Was innocence for innocence; we knew not The doctrine of ill-doing, nor dream'd That any did. Had we pursu'd that life, And our weak spirits ne'er been higher rear'd With stronger blood, we should have answer'd heaven Boldly 'Not guilty,' the imposition clear'd Hereditary ours.   HERMIONE                           By this we gather You have tripp'd since.   POLIXENES                                      O my most sacred lady, Temptations have since then been born to 's! for In those unfledg'd days was my wife a girl; Your precious self had then not cross'd the eyes Of my young play-fellow.   HERMIONE                                           Grace to boot! Of this make no conclusion, lest you say Your queen and I are devils: yet, go on; The offences we have made you do we'll answer; If you first sinn'd with us, and that with us You did continue fault, and that you slipp'd not With any but with us.   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 pr'ythee 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 the 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 the purpose—when? Nay, let me have't; I long.   LEONTES                                          Why, that was when Three crabbèd months had sour'd themselves to death, Ere I could make thee open thy white hand And clap thyself my love; then didst thou utter 'I am yours for ever.'   HERMIONE                                   It is Grace indeed. Why, lo you now, I have spoke to the purpose twice; The one for ever earn'd a royal husband; Th' other for some while a friend. <blockquote>[Giving her hand to POLIXENES.] </blockquote> 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 practis'd smiles As in a looking-glass; and then to sigh, as 'twere The mort o' the 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 smutch'd 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 call'd neat.— <blockquote>[Observing POLIXENES and HERMIONE] </blockquote>                                 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'er-dy'd blacks, as wind, as waters,—false As dice are to be wish'd 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 centre: Thou dost make possible things not so held, Communicat'st with dreams;—how can this be?— With what's unreal thou co-active art, And fellow'st nothing: then 'tis very credent Thou mayst co-join with something; and thou dost,— And that beyond commission; and I find it,— And that to the infection of my brains And hardening of my brows.   POLIXENES                                               What means Sicilia?   HERMIONE He something seems unsettled.   POLIXENES                                                   How! my lord! What cheer? How is't with you, best brother?   HERMIONE                                                   You look As if you held a brow of much distraction: Are you mov'd, 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 unbreech'd, 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 Offic'd 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' the 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! <blockquote>[Observing POLIXENES and HERMIONE] </blockquote> How she holds up the neb, the bill to him! And arms her with the boldness of a wife To her allowing husband! <blockquote>[Exeunt POLIXENES, HERMIONE, and Attendants.] </blockquote>                                           Gone already! Inch-thick, knee-deep, o'er head and ears a fork'd one!— Go, play, boy, play:—thy mother plays, and I Play too; but so disgrac'd a part, whose issue Will hiss me to my grave: contempt and clamour Will be my knell.—Go, play, boy, play.—There have been, Or I am much deceiv'd, cuckolds ere now; And many a man there is, even at this present, Now while I speak this, holds his wife by the arm That little thinks she has been sluic'd in his absence, And his pond fish'd by his next neighbour, by Sir Smile, his neighbour; nay, there's comfort in't, Whiles other men have gates, and those gates open'd, As mine, against their will: should all despair That hath 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 of us 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.— <blockquote>[Exit MAMILLIUS.] </blockquote> 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; whispering, 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 head-piece 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-councils, wherein, priest-like, thou Hast cleans'd my bosom; I from thee departed Thy penitent reform'd: but we have been Deceiv'd in thy integrity, deceiv'd 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 requir'd; or else thou must be counted A servant grafted in my serious trust, And therein negligent; or else a fool That seest a game play'd 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 wilful-negligent, It was my folly; if industriously I play'd 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 affects the wisest: these, my lord, Are such allow'd 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                               Have not you seen, Camillo,— But that's past doubt: you have, or your eye-glass Is thicker than a cuckold's horn,—or heard,— For, to a vision so apparent, rumour Cannot be mute,—or thought,—for cogitation Resides not in that man that does not think it,— 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 is nothing; nor nothing have these nothings, If this be nothing.   CAMILLO                              Good my lord, be cur'd Of this diseas'd 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 honour 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 bench'd and rear'd 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 draught 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 honourable. I have lov'd 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' the 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 remov'd, 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 honour, 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 advis'd me. <blockquote>[Exit.] </blockquote> 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 flourish'd 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 break-neck. Happy star reign now! Here comes Bohemia. <blockquote>[Enter POLIXENES.] </blockquote> POLIXENES                                     This is strange! methinks My favour here begins to warp. Not speak?— Good-day, Camillo.   CAMILLO                                  Hail, most royal sir!   POLIXENES What is the news i' the court?   CAMILLO                                                 None rare, my lord.   POLIXENES The king hath on him such a countenance As he had lost some province, and a region Lov'd as he loves himself; even now I met him With customary compliment; when he, Wafting his eyes to the contrary, and falling A lip of much contempt, speeds from me; 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 chang'd complexions are to me a mirror Which shows me mine chang'd too; for I must be A party in this alteration, finding Myself thus alter'd 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 look'd on thousands who have sped the better By my regard, but kill'd none so. Camillo,— As you are certainly a gentleman, thereto Clerk-like, experienc'd, 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 behove my knowledge Thereof to be inform'd, imprison't not In ignorant concealment.   CAMILLO                                         I may not answer.   POLIXENES A sickness caught of me, and yet I well! I must be answer'd.—Dost thou hear, Camillo, I conjure thee, by all the parts of man Which honour 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 charg'd in honour, and by him That I think honourable: therefore mark my counsel, Which must be ev'n as swiftly follow'd 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 touch'd his queen Forbiddenly.   POLIXENES                      O, then my best blood turn To an infected jelly, and my name Be yok'd with his that did betray the best! Turn then my freshest reputation to A savour that may strike the dullest nostril Where I arrive, and my approach be shunn'd, 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 pil'd 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 impawn'd,—away to-night. Your followers I will whisper to the business; And will, by twos and threes, at several posterns, Clear them o' the city: for myself, I'll put My fortunes to your service, which are here By this discovery lost. Be not uncertain; For, by the honour of my parents, I Have utter'd truth: which if you seek to prove, I dare not stand by; nor shall you be safer Than one condemn'd by the king's own mouth, thereon His execution sworn.   POLIXENES                                   I do believe thee; I saw his heart in his face. Give me thy hand; Be pilot to me, and thy places shall Still neighbour 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 dishonour'd by a man which ever Profess'd 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 this 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. <blockquote>[Exeunt.] </blockquote>     <hr class="narrow" />     <div style="break-after:column;"></div>

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