Folger Shakespeare Library

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Contents

Front Matter |
ACT 1 |
ACT 2 |
ACT 3 |
ACT 4 |
ACT 5 |

From the Director of the Folger Shakespeare Library

It is hard to imagine a world without Shakespeare. Since their composition four hundred years ago, Shakespeare’s plays and poems have traveled the globe, inviting those who see and read his works to make them their own.

Readers of the New Folger Editions are part of this ongoing process of “taking up Shakespeare,” finding our own thoughts and feelings in language that strikes us as old or unusual and, for that very reason, new. We still struggle to keep up with a writer who could think a mile a minute, whose words paint pictures that shift like clouds. These expertly edited texts are presented to the public as a resource for study, artistic adaptation, and enjoyment. By making the classic texts of the New Folger Editions available in electronic form as Folger Digital Texts, we place a trusted resource in the hands of anyone who wants them.

The New Folger Editions of Shakespeare’s plays, which are the basis for the texts realized here in digital form, are special because of their origin. The Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, DC, is the single greatest documentary source of Shakespeare’s works. An unparalleled collection of early modern books, manuscripts, and artwork connected to Shakespeare, the Folger’s holdings have been consulted extensively in the preparation of these texts. The Editions also reflect the expertise gained through the regular performance of Shakespeare’s works in the Folger’s Elizabethan Theater.

I want to express my deep thanks to editors Barbara Mowat and Paul Werstine for creating these indispensable editions of Shakespeare’s works, which incorporate the best of textual scholarship with a richness of commentary that is both inspired and engaging. Readers who want to know more about Shakespeare and his plays can follow the paths these distinguished scholars have tread by visiting the Folger either in-person or online, where a range of physical and digital resources exists to supplement the material in these texts. I commend to you these words, and hope that they inspire.

Michael Witmore
Director, Folger Shakespeare Library

Textual Introduction
By Barbara Mowat and Paul Werstine

Until now, with the release of the Folger Digital Texts, readers in search of a free online text of Shakespeare’s plays had to be content primarily with using the Moby™ Text, which reproduces a late-nineteenth century version of the plays. What is the difference? Many ordinary readers assume that there is a single text for the plays: what Shakespeare wrote. But Shakespeare’s plays were not published the way modern novels or plays are published today: as a single, authoritative text. In some cases, the plays have come down to us in multiple published versions, represented by various Quartos (Qq) and by the great collection put together by his colleagues in 1623, called the First Folio (F). There are, for example, three very different versions of Hamlet, two of King Lear, Henry V, Romeo and Juliet, and others. Editors choose which version to use as their base text, and then amend that text with words, lines or speech prefixes from the other versions that, in their judgment, make for a better or more accurate text.

Other editorial decisions involve choices about whether an unfamiliar word could be understood in light of other writings of the period or whether it should be changed; decisions about words that made it into Shakespeare’s text by accident through four hundred years of printings and misprinting; and even decisions based on cultural preference and taste. When the Moby™ Text was created, for example, it was deemed “improper” and “indecent” for Miranda to chastise Caliban for having attempted to rape her. (See The Tempest, 1.2: “Abhorred slave,/Which any print of goodness wilt not take,/Being capable of all ill! I pitied thee…”). All Shakespeare editors at the time took the speech away from her and gave it to her father, Prospero.

The editors of the Moby™ Shakespeare produced their text long before scholars fully understood the proper grounds on which to make the thousands of decisions that Shakespeare editors face. The Folger Library Shakespeare Editions, on which the Folger Digital Texts depend, make this editorial process as nearly transparent as is possible, in contrast to older texts, like the Moby™, which hide editorial interventions. The reader of the Folger Shakespeare knows where the text has been altered because editorial interventions are signaled by square brackets (for example, from Othello: “If she in chains of magic were not bound,”), half-square brackets (for example, from Henry V: “With blood and sword and fire to win your right,”), or angle brackets (for example, from Hamlet: “O farewell, honest soldier. Who hath relieved/you?”). At any point in the text, you can hover your cursor over a bracket for more information.

Because the Folger Digital Texts are edited in accord with twenty-first century knowledge about Shakespeare’s texts, the Folger here provides them to readers, scholars, teachers, actors, directors, and students, free of charge, confident of their quality as texts of the plays and pleased to be able to make this contribution to the study and enjoyment of Shakespeare.

Synopsis

The “tale” of The Winter’s Tale unfolds in scenes set sixteen years apart. In the first part of the play, Leontes, king of Sicilia, plays host to his friend Polixenes, king of Bohemia. Suddenly, Leontes becomes unreasonably jealous of Polixenes and Leontes’s pregnant wife, Hermione. Leontes calls for Polixenes to be killed, but he escapes.

Hermione, under arrest, gives birth to a daughter; Leontes orders the baby to be taken overseas and abandoned. The death of the couple’s young son, Mamillius, brings Leontes to his senses, too late. Word arrives that Hermione, too, has died. In Bohemia, a shepherd finds and adopts the baby girl, Perdita.

Sixteen years later, the story resumes. Polixenes’s son, Florizell, loves Perdita. When Polixenes forbids the unequal match, the couple flees to Sicilia, where the tale reaches its conclusion. Perdita’s identity as a princess is revealed, allowing her and Florizell to marry; Leontes and Polixenes reconcile; and Hermione returns in the form of a statue, steps down from its pedestal, and reunites with her family.

Characters in the Play
Leontes, King of Sicilia
Hermione, Queen of Sicilia
Mamillius, their son
Perdita, their daughter
Polixenes, King of Bohemia
Florizell, his son
Camillo, a courtier, friend to Leontes and then to Polixenes
Antigonus, a Sicilian courtier
Paulina, his wife and lady-in-waiting to Hermione
Cleomenes
Dion
courtiers in Sicilia
Emilia, a lady-in-waiting to Hermione
Shepherd, foster father to Perdita
Shepherd’s Son
Autolycus, former servant to Florizell, now a rogue
Archidamus, a Bohemian courtier
Time, as Chorus
Two Ladies attending on Hermione
Lords, Servants, and Gentlemen attending on Leontes
An Officer of the court
A Mariner
A Jailer
Mopsa
Dorcas
shepherdesses in Bohemia
Servant to the Shepherd
Shepherds and Shepherdesses
Twelve Countrymen disguised as satyrs

ACT 1
Scene 1
Enter Camillo and Archidamus.
ARCHIDAMUS FTLN 0001 If you shall chance, Camillo, to visit Bohemia
FTLN 0002 on the like occasion whereon my services
FTLN 0003 are now on foot, you shall see, as I have said, great
FTLN 0004 difference betwixt our Bohemia and your Sicilia.
CAMILLO FTLN 0005 5 I think this coming summer the King of
FTLN 0006 Sicilia means to pay Bohemia the visitation which
FTLN 0007 he justly owes him.
ARCHIDAMUS FTLN 0008 Wherein our entertainment shall shame
FTLN 0009 us; we will be justified in our loves. For indeed—
CAMILLO FTLN 0010 10 Beseech you—
ARCHIDAMUS FTLN 0011 Verily, I speak it in the freedom of my
FTLN 0012 knowledge. We cannot with such magnificence—in
FTLN 0013 so rare—I know not what to say. We will give you
FTLN 0014 sleepy drinks, that your senses, unintelligent of our
FTLN 0015 15 insufficience, may, though they cannot praise us, as
FTLN 0016 little accuse us.
CAMILLO FTLN 0017 You pay a great deal too dear for what’s given
FTLN 0018 freely.
ARCHIDAMUS FTLN 0019 Believe me, I speak as my understanding
FTLN 0020 20 instructs me and as mine honesty puts it to
FTLN 0021 utterance.
CAMILLO FTLN 0022 Sicilia cannot show himself over-kind to Bohemia.
FTLN 0023 They were trained together in their childhoods,
FTLN 0024 and there rooted betwixt them then such an
7

9
The Winter’s Tale
ACT 1. SC. 2
FTLN 0025 25 affection which cannot choose but branch now.
FTLN 0026 Since their more mature dignities and royal necessities
FTLN 0027 made separation of their society, their encounters,
FTLN 0028 though not personal, hath been royally
FTLN 0029 attorneyed with interchange of gifts, letters, loving
FTLN 0030 30 embassies, that they have seemed to be together
FTLN 0031 though absent, shook hands as over a vast, and
FTLN 0032 embraced as it were from the ends of opposed
FTLN 0033 winds. The heavens continue their loves.
ARCHIDAMUS FTLN 0034 I think there is not in the world either
FTLN 0035 35 malice or matter to alter it. You have an unspeakable
FTLN 0036 comfort of your young Prince Mamillius. It is a
FTLN 0037 gentleman of the greatest promise that ever came
FTLN 0038 into my note.
CAMILLO FTLN 0039 I very well agree with you in the hopes of
FTLN 0040 40 him. It is a gallant child—one that indeed physics
FTLN 0041 the subject, makes old hearts fresh. They that went
FTLN 0042 on crutches ere he was born desire yet their life to
FTLN 0043 see him a man.
ARCHIDAMUS FTLN 0044 Would they else be content to die?
CAMILLO FTLN 0045 45 Yes, if there were no other excuse why they
FTLN 0046 should desire to live.
ARCHIDAMUS FTLN 0047 If the King had no son, they would desire
FTLN 0048 to live on crutches till he had one.
They exit.
Scene 2
Enter Leontes, Hermione, Mamillius, Polixenes, Camillo,
and Attendants.
POLIXENES
FTLN 0049 Nine changes of the wat’ry star hath been
FTLN 0050 The shepherd’s note since we have left our throne
FTLN 0051 Without a burden. Time as long again

11
The Winter’s Tale
ACT 1. SC. 2
FTLN 0052 Would be filled up, my brother, with our thanks,
FTLN 0053 5 And yet we should for perpetuity
FTLN 0054 Go hence in debt. And therefore, like a cipher,
FTLN 0055 Yet standing in rich place, I multiply
FTLN 0056 With one “We thank you” many thousands more
FTLN 0057 That go before it.
LEONTES FTLN 0058 10 Stay your thanks awhile,
FTLN 0059 And pay them when you part.
POLIXENES FTLN 0060 Sir, that’s tomorrow.
FTLN 0061 I am questioned by my fears of what may chance
FTLN 0062 Or breed upon our absence, that may blow
FTLN 0063 15 No sneaping winds at home to make us say
FTLN 0064 “This is put forth too truly.” Besides, I have stayed
FTLN 0065 To tire your Royalty.
LEONTES FTLN 0066 We are tougher, brother,
FTLN 0067 Than you can put us to ’t.
POLIXENES FTLN 0068 20 No longer stay.
LEONTES
FTLN 0069 One sev’nnight longer.
POLIXENES FTLN 0070 Very sooth, tomorrow.
LEONTES
FTLN 0071 We’ll part the time between ’s, then, and in that
FTLN 0072 I’ll no gainsaying.
POLIXENES FTLN 0073 25 Press me not, beseech you, so.
FTLN 0074 There is no tongue that moves, none, none i’ th’
FTLN 0075 world,
FTLN 0076 So soon as yours could win me. So it should now,
FTLN 0077 Were there necessity in your request, although
FTLN 0078 30 ’Twere needful I denied it. My affairs
FTLN 0079 Do even drag me homeward, which to hinder
FTLN 0080 Were in your love a whip to me, my stay
FTLN 0081 To you a charge and trouble. To save both,
FTLN 0082 Farewell, our brother.
LEONTES FTLN 0083 35 Tongue-tied, our queen?
FTLN 0084 Speak you.

13
The Winter’s Tale
ACT 1. SC. 2
HERMIONE
FTLN 0085 I had thought, sir, to have held my peace until
FTLN 0086 You had drawn oaths from him not to stay. You, sir,
FTLN 0087 Charge him too coldly. Tell him you are sure
FTLN 0088 40 All in Bohemia’s well. This satisfaction
FTLN 0089 The bygone day proclaimed. Say this to him,
FTLN 0090 He’s beat from his best ward.
LEONTES FTLN 0091 Well said, Hermione.
HERMIONE
FTLN 0092 To tell he longs to see his son were strong.
FTLN 0093 45 But let him say so then, and let him go.
FTLN 0094 But let him swear so and he shall not stay;
FTLN 0095 We’ll thwack him hence with distaffs.
FTLN 0096 To Polixenes. Yet of your royal presence I’ll
FTLN 0097 adventure
FTLN 0098 50 The borrow of a week. When at Bohemia
FTLN 0099 You take my lord, I’ll give him my commission
FTLN 0100 To let him there a month behind the gest
FTLN 0101 Prefixed for ’s parting.—Yet, good deed, Leontes,
FTLN 0102 I love thee not a jar o’ th’ clock behind
FTLN 0103 55 What lady she her lord.—You’ll stay?
POLIXENES FTLN 0104 No, madam.
HERMIONE
FTLN 0105 Nay, but you will?
POLIXENES FTLN 0106 I may not, verily.
HERMIONE FTLN 0107 Verily?
FTLN 0108 60 You put me off with limber vows. But I,
FTLN 0109 Though you would seek t’ unsphere the stars with
FTLN 0110 oaths,
FTLN 0111 Should yet say “Sir, no going.” Verily,
FTLN 0112 You shall not go. A lady’s “verily” is
FTLN 0113 65 As potent as a lord’s. Will you go yet?
FTLN 0114 Force me to keep you as a prisoner,
FTLN 0115 Not like a guest, so you shall pay your fees
FTLN 0116 When you depart and save your thanks. How say you?

15
The Winter’s Tale
ACT 1. SC. 2
FTLN 0117 My prisoner or my guest? By your dread “verily,”
FTLN 0118 70 One of them you shall be.
POLIXENES FTLN 0119 Your guest, then, madam.
FTLN 0120 To be your prisoner should import offending,
FTLN 0121 Which is for me less easy to commit
FTLN 0122 Than you to punish.
HERMIONE FTLN 0123 75 Not your jailer, then,
FTLN 0124 But your kind hostess. Come, I’ll question you
FTLN 0125 Of my lord’s tricks and yours when you were boys.
FTLN 0126 You were pretty lordings then?
POLIXENES FTLN 0127 We were, fair queen,
FTLN 0128 80 Two lads that thought there was no more behind
FTLN 0129 But such a day tomorrow as today,
FTLN 0130 And to be boy eternal.
HERMIONE FTLN 0131 Was not my lord
FTLN 0132 The verier wag o’ th’ two?
POLIXENES
FTLN 0133 85 We were as twinned lambs that did frisk i’ th’ sun
FTLN 0134 And bleat the one at th’ other. What we changed
FTLN 0135 Was innocence for innocence. We knew not
FTLN 0136 The doctrine of ill-doing, nor dreamed
FTLN 0137 That any did. Had we pursued that life,
FTLN 0138 90 And our weak spirits ne’er been higher reared
FTLN 0139 With stronger blood, we should have answered
FTLN 0140 heaven
FTLN 0141 Boldly “Not guilty,” the imposition cleared
FTLN 0142 Hereditary ours.
HERMIONE FTLN 0143 95 By this we gather
FTLN 0144 You have tripped since.
POLIXENES FTLN 0145 O my most sacred lady,
FTLN 0146 Temptations have since then been born to ’s, for
FTLN 0147 In those unfledged days was my wife a girl;
FTLN 0148 100 Your precious self had then not crossed the eyes
FTLN 0149 Of my young playfellow.
HERMIONE FTLN 0150 Grace to boot!
FTLN 0151 Of this make no conclusion, lest you say

17
The Winter’s Tale
ACT 1. SC. 2
FTLN 0152 Your queen and I are devils. Yet go on.
FTLN 0153 105 Th’ offenses we have made you do we’ll answer,
FTLN 0154 If you first sinned with us, and that with us
FTLN 0155 You did continue fault, and that you slipped not
FTLN 0156 With any but with us.
LEONTES FTLN 0157 Is he won yet?
HERMIONE
FTLN 0158 110 He’ll stay, my lord.
LEONTES FTLN 0159 At my request he would not.
FTLN 0160 Hermione, my dearest, thou never spok’st
FTLN 0161 To better purpose.
HERMIONE FTLN 0162 Never?
LEONTES FTLN 0163 115 Never but once.
HERMIONE
FTLN 0164 What, have I twice said well? When was ’t before?
FTLN 0165 I prithee tell me. Cram ’s with praise, and make ’s
FTLN 0166 As fat as tame things. One good deed dying
FTLN 0167 tongueless
FTLN 0168 120 Slaughters a thousand waiting upon that.
FTLN 0169 Our praises are our wages. You may ride ’s
FTLN 0170 With one soft kiss a thousand furlongs ere
FTLN 0171 With spur we heat an acre. But to th’ goal:
FTLN 0172 My last good deed was to entreat his stay.
FTLN 0173 125 What was my first? It has an elder sister,
FTLN 0174 Or I mistake you. O, would her name were Grace!
FTLN 0175 But once before I spoke to th’ purpose? When?
FTLN 0176 Nay, let me have ’t; I long.
LEONTES FTLN 0177 Why, that was when
FTLN 0178 130 Three crabbèd months had soured themselves to
FTLN 0179 death
FTLN 0180 Ere I could make thee open thy white hand
FTLN 0181 And clap thyself my love; then didst thou utter
FTLN 0182 “I am yours forever.”
HERMIONE FTLN 0183 135 ’Tis grace indeed.
FTLN 0184 Why, lo you now, I have spoke to th’ purpose twice.

19
The Winter’s Tale
ACT 1. SC. 2
FTLN 0185 The one forever earned a royal husband,
FTLN 0186 Th’ other for some while a friend.
She gives Polixenes her hand.
LEONTES , aside FTLN 0187 Too hot, too hot!
FTLN 0188 140 To mingle friendship far is mingling bloods.
FTLN 0189 I have tremor cordis on me. My heart dances,
FTLN 0190 But not for joy, not joy. This entertainment
FTLN 0191 May a free face put on, derive a liberty
FTLN 0192 From heartiness, from bounty, fertile bosom,
FTLN 0193 145 And well become the agent. ’T may, I grant.
FTLN 0194 But to be paddling palms and pinching fingers,
FTLN 0195 As now they are, and making practiced smiles
FTLN 0196 As in a looking glass, and then to sigh, as ’twere
FTLN 0197 The mort o’ th’ deer—O, that is entertainment
FTLN 0198 150 My bosom likes not, nor my brows.—Mamillius,
FTLN 0199 Art thou my boy?
MAMILLIUS FTLN 0200 Ay, my good lord.
LEONTES FTLN 0201 I’ fecks!
FTLN 0202 Why, that’s my bawcock. What, hast smutched thy
FTLN 0203 155 nose?
FTLN 0204 They say it is a copy out of mine. Come, captain,
FTLN 0205 We must be neat—not neat, but cleanly, captain.
FTLN 0206 And yet the steer, the heifer, and the calf
FTLN 0207 Are all called neat.—Still virginalling
FTLN 0208 160 Upon his palm?—How now, you wanton calf?
FTLN 0209 Art thou my calf?
MAMILLIUS FTLN 0210 Yes, if you will, my lord.
LEONTES
FTLN 0211 Thou want’st a rough pash and the shoots that I
FTLN 0212 have
FTLN 0213 165 To be full like me; yet they say we are
FTLN 0214 Almost as like as eggs. Women say so,
FTLN 0215 That will say anything. But were they false
FTLN 0216 As o’erdyed blacks, as wind, as waters, false
FTLN 0217 As dice are to be wished by one that fixes

21
The Winter’s Tale
ACT 1. SC. 2
FTLN 0218 170 No bourn ’twixt his and mine, yet were it true
FTLN 0219 To say this boy were like me. Come, sir page,
FTLN 0220 Look on me with your welkin eye. Sweet villain,
FTLN 0221 Most dear’st, my collop! Can thy dam?—may ’t
FTLN 0222 be?—
FTLN 0223 175 Affection, thy intention stabs the center.
FTLN 0224 Thou dost make possible things not so held,
FTLN 0225 Communicat’st with dreams—how can this be?
FTLN 0226 With what’s unreal thou coactive art,
FTLN 0227 And fellow’st nothing. Then ’tis very credent
FTLN 0228 180 Thou may’st co-join with something; and thou dost,
FTLN 0229 And that beyond commission, and I find it,
FTLN 0230 And that to the infection of my brains
FTLN 0231 And hard’ning of my brows.
POLIXENES FTLN 0232 What means Sicilia?
HERMIONE
FTLN 0233 185 He something seems unsettled.
POLIXENES FTLN 0234 How, my lord?
LEONTES
FTLN 0235 What cheer? How is ’t with you, best brother?
HERMIONE FTLN 0236 You look
FTLN 0237 As if you held a brow of much distraction.
FTLN 0238 190 Are you moved, my lord?
LEONTES FTLN 0239 No, in good earnest.
FTLN 0240 How sometimes nature will betray its folly,
FTLN 0241 Its tenderness, and make itself a pastime
FTLN 0242 To harder bosoms! Looking on the lines
FTLN 0243 195 Of my boy’s face, methoughts I did recoil
FTLN 0244 Twenty-three years, and saw myself unbreeched,
FTLN 0245 In my green velvet coat, my dagger muzzled
FTLN 0246 Lest it should bite its master and so prove,
FTLN 0247 As ornaments oft do, too dangerous.
FTLN 0248 200 How like, methought, I then was to this kernel,
FTLN 0249 This squash, this gentleman.—Mine honest friend,
FTLN 0250 Will you take eggs for money?
MAMILLIUS FTLN 0251 No, my lord, I’ll fight.

23
The Winter’s Tale
ACT 1. SC. 2
LEONTES
FTLN 0252 You will? Why, happy man be ’s dole!—My brother,
FTLN 0253 205 Are you so fond of your young prince as we
FTLN 0254 Do seem to be of ours?
POLIXENES FTLN 0255 If at home, sir,
FTLN 0256 He’s all my exercise, my mirth, my matter,
FTLN 0257 Now my sworn friend and then mine enemy,
FTLN 0258 210 My parasite, my soldier, statesman, all.
FTLN 0259 He makes a July’s day short as December,
FTLN 0260 And with his varying childness cures in me
FTLN 0261 Thoughts that would thick my blood.
LEONTES FTLN 0262 So stands this
FTLN 0263 215 squire
FTLN 0264 Officed with me. We two will walk, my lord,
FTLN 0265 And leave you to your graver steps.—Hermione,
FTLN 0266 How thou lov’st us show in our brother’s welcome.
FTLN 0267 Let what is dear in Sicily be cheap.
FTLN 0268 220 Next to thyself and my young rover, he’s
FTLN 0269 Apparent to my heart.
HERMIONE FTLN 0270 If you would seek us,
FTLN 0271 We are yours i’ th’ garden. Shall ’s attend you there?
LEONTES
FTLN 0272 To your own bents dispose you. You’ll be found,
FTLN 0273 225 Be you beneath the sky. Aside. I am angling now,
FTLN 0274 Though you perceive me not how I give line.
FTLN 0275 Go to, go to!
FTLN 0276 How she holds up the neb, the bill to him,
FTLN 0277 And arms her with the boldness of a wife
FTLN 0278 230 To her allowing husband!
Exit Hermione, Polixenes, and Attendants.
FTLN 0279 Gone already.
FTLN 0280 Inch thick, knee-deep, o’er head and ears a forked
FTLN 0281 one!—
FTLN 0282 Go play, boy, play. Thy mother plays, and I
FTLN 0283 235 Play too, but so disgraced a part, whose issue

25
The Winter’s Tale
ACT 1. SC. 2
FTLN 0284 Will hiss me to my grave. Contempt and clamor
FTLN 0285 Will be my knell. Go play, boy, play.—There have
FTLN 0286 been,
FTLN 0287 Or I am much deceived, cuckolds ere now;
FTLN 0288 240 And many a man there is, even at this present,
FTLN 0289 Now while I speak this, holds his wife by th’ arm,
FTLN 0290 That little thinks she has been sluiced in ’s absence,
FTLN 0291 And his pond fished by his next neighbor, by
FTLN 0292 Sir Smile, his neighbor. Nay, there’s comfort in ’t
FTLN 0293 245 Whiles other men have gates and those gates
FTLN 0294 opened,
FTLN 0295 As mine, against their will. Should all despair
FTLN 0296 That have revolted wives, the tenth of mankind
FTLN 0297 Would hang themselves. Physic for ’t there’s none.
FTLN 0298 250 It is a bawdy planet, that will strike
FTLN 0299 Where ’tis predominant; and ’tis powerful, think it,
FTLN 0300 From east, west, north, and south. Be it concluded,
FTLN 0301 No barricado for a belly. Know ’t,
FTLN 0302 It will let in and out the enemy
FTLN 0303 255 With bag and baggage. Many thousand on ’s
FTLN 0304 Have the disease and feel ’t not.—How now, boy?
MAMILLIUS
FTLN 0305 I am like you, they say.
LEONTES FTLN 0306 Why, that’s some comfort.—
FTLN 0307 What, Camillo there?
CAMILLO , coming forward FTLN 0308 260 Ay, my good lord.
LEONTES
FTLN 0309 Go play, Mamillius. Thou ’rt an honest man.
Mamillius exits.
FTLN 0310 Camillo, this great sir will yet stay longer.
CAMILLO
FTLN 0311 You had much ado to make his anchor hold.
FTLN 0312 When you cast out, it still came home.
LEONTES FTLN 0313 265 Didst note it?

27
The Winter’s Tale
ACT 1. SC. 2
CAMILLO
FTLN 0314 He would not stay at your petitions, made
FTLN 0315 His business more material.
LEONTES FTLN 0316 Didst perceive it?
FTLN 0317 Aside. They’re here with me already, whisp’ring,
FTLN 0318 270 rounding:
FTLN 0319 “Sicilia is a so-forth.” ’Tis far gone
FTLN 0320 When I shall gust it last.—How came ’t, Camillo,
FTLN 0321 That he did stay?
CAMILLO FTLN 0322 At the good queen’s entreaty.
LEONTES
FTLN 0323 275 “At the queen’s” be ’t. “Good” should be pertinent,
FTLN 0324 But so it is, it is not. Was this taken
FTLN 0325 By any understanding pate but thine?
FTLN 0326 For thy conceit is soaking, will draw in
FTLN 0327 More than the common blocks. Not noted, is ’t,
FTLN 0328 280 But of the finer natures, by some severals
FTLN 0329 Of headpiece extraordinary? Lower messes
FTLN 0330 Perchance are to this business purblind? Say.
CAMILLO
FTLN 0331 Business, my lord? I think most understand
FTLN 0332 Bohemia stays here longer.
LEONTES
FTLN 0333 285 Ha?
CAMILLO FTLN 0334 Stays here longer.
LEONTES FTLN 0335 Ay, but why?
CAMILLO
FTLN 0336 To satisfy your Highness and the entreaties
FTLN 0337 Of our most gracious mistress.
LEONTES FTLN 0338 290 Satisfy?
FTLN 0339 Th’ entreaties of your mistress? Satisfy?
FTLN 0340 Let that suffice. I have trusted thee, Camillo,
FTLN 0341 With all the nearest things to my heart, as well
FTLN 0342 My chamber-counsels, wherein, priestlike, thou
FTLN 0343 295 Hast cleansed my bosom; I from thee departed
FTLN 0344 Thy penitent reformed. But we have been

29
The Winter’s Tale
ACT 1. SC. 2
FTLN 0345 Deceived in thy integrity, deceived
FTLN 0346 In that which seems so.
CAMILLO FTLN 0347 Be it forbid, my lord!
LEONTES
FTLN 0348 300 To bide upon ’t: thou art not honest; or,
FTLN 0349 If thou inclin’st that way, thou art a coward,
FTLN 0350 Which hoxes honesty behind, restraining
FTLN 0351 From course required; or else thou must be
FTLN 0352 counted
FTLN 0353 305 A servant grafted in my serious trust
FTLN 0354 And therein negligent; or else a fool
FTLN 0355 That seest a game played home, the rich stake
FTLN 0356 drawn,
FTLN 0357 And tak’st it all for jest.
CAMILLO FTLN 0358 310 My gracious lord,
FTLN 0359 I may be negligent, foolish, and fearful.
FTLN 0360 In every one of these no man is free,
FTLN 0361 But that his negligence, his folly, fear,
FTLN 0362 Among the infinite doings of the world,
FTLN 0363 315 Sometime puts forth. In your affairs, my lord,
FTLN 0364 If ever I were willful-negligent,
FTLN 0365 It was my folly; if industriously
FTLN 0366 I played the fool, it was my negligence,
FTLN 0367 Not weighing well the end; if ever fearful
FTLN 0368 320 To do a thing where I the issue doubted,
FTLN 0369 Whereof the execution did cry out
FTLN 0370 Against the non-performance, ’twas a fear
FTLN 0371 Which oft infects the wisest. These, my lord,
FTLN 0372 Are such allowed infirmities that honesty
FTLN 0373 325 Is never free of. But, beseech your Grace,
FTLN 0374 Be plainer with me; let me know my trespass
FTLN 0375 By its own visage. If I then deny it,
FTLN 0376 ’Tis none of mine.
LEONTES FTLN 0377 Ha’ not you seen, Camillo—
FTLN 0378 330 But that’s past doubt; you have, or your eyeglass

31
The Winter’s Tale
ACT 1. SC. 2
FTLN 0379 Is thicker than a cuckold’s horn—or heard—
FTLN 0380 For to a vision so apparent, rumor
FTLN 0381 Cannot be mute—or thought—for cogitation
FTLN 0382 Resides not in that man that does not think—
FTLN 0383 335 My wife is slippery? If thou wilt confess—
FTLN 0384 Or else be impudently negative
FTLN 0385 To have nor eyes nor ears nor thought—then say
FTLN 0386 My wife’s a hobby-horse, deserves a name
FTLN 0387 As rank as any flax-wench that puts to
FTLN 0388 340 Before her troth-plight. Say ’t, and justify ’t.
CAMILLO
FTLN 0389 I would not be a stander-by to hear
FTLN 0390 My sovereign mistress clouded so without
FTLN 0391 My present vengeance taken. ’Shrew my heart,
FTLN 0392 You never spoke what did become you less
FTLN 0393 345 Than this, which to reiterate were sin
FTLN 0394 As deep as that, though true.
LEONTES FTLN 0395 Is whispering nothing?
FTLN 0396 Is leaning cheek to cheek? Is meeting noses?
FTLN 0397 Kissing with inside lip? Stopping the career
FTLN 0398 350 Of laughter with a sigh?—a note infallible
FTLN 0399 Of breaking honesty. Horsing foot on foot?
FTLN 0400 Skulking in corners? Wishing clocks more swift?
FTLN 0401 Hours minutes? Noon midnight? And all eyes
FTLN 0402 Blind with the pin and web but theirs, theirs only,
FTLN 0403 355 That would unseen be wicked? Is this nothing?
FTLN 0404 Why, then the world and all that’s in ’t is nothing,
FTLN 0405 The covering sky is nothing, Bohemia nothing,
FTLN 0406 My wife is nothing, nor nothing have these nothings,
FTLN 0407 If this be nothing.
CAMILLO FTLN 0408 360 Good my lord, be cured
FTLN 0409 Of this diseased opinion, and betimes,
FTLN 0410 For ’tis most dangerous.
LEONTES FTLN 0411 Say it be, ’tis true.

33
The Winter’s Tale
ACT 1. SC. 2
CAMILLO
FTLN 0412 No, no, my lord.
LEONTES FTLN 0413 365 It is. You lie, you lie.
FTLN 0414 I say thou liest, Camillo, and I hate thee,
FTLN 0415 Pronounce thee a gross lout, a mindless slave,
FTLN 0416 Or else a hovering temporizer that
FTLN 0417 Canst with thine eyes at once see good and evil,
FTLN 0418 370 Inclining to them both. Were my wife’s liver
FTLN 0419 Infected as her life, she would not live
FTLN 0420 The running of one glass.
CAMILLO FTLN 0421 Who does infect her?
LEONTES
FTLN 0422 Why, he that wears her like her medal, hanging
FTLN 0423 375 About his neck—Bohemia, who, if I
FTLN 0424 Had servants true about me, that bare eyes
FTLN 0425 To see alike mine honor as their profits,
FTLN 0426 Their own particular thrifts, they would do that
FTLN 0427 Which should undo more doing. Ay, and thou,
FTLN 0428 380 His cupbearer—whom I from meaner form
FTLN 0429 Have benched and reared to worship, who mayst see
FTLN 0430 Plainly as heaven sees Earth and Earth sees heaven
FTLN 0431 How I am galled—mightst bespice a cup
FTLN 0432 To give mine enemy a lasting wink,
FTLN 0433 385 Which draft to me were cordial.
CAMILLO FTLN 0434 Sir, my lord,
FTLN 0435 I could do this, and that with no rash potion,
FTLN 0436 But with a ling’ring dram that should not work
FTLN 0437 Maliciously like poison. But I cannot
FTLN 0438 390 Believe this crack to be in my dread mistress,
FTLN 0439 So sovereignly being honorable. I have loved thee—
LEONTES FTLN 0440 Make that thy question, and go rot!
FTLN 0441 Dost think I am so muddy, so unsettled,
FTLN 0442 To appoint myself in this vexation, sully
FTLN 0443 395 The purity and whiteness of my sheets—
FTLN 0444 Which to preserve is sleep, which being spotted

35
The Winter’s Tale
ACT 1. SC. 2
FTLN 0445 Is goads, thorns, nettles, tails of wasps—
FTLN 0446 Give scandal to the blood o’ th’ Prince, my son,
FTLN 0447 Who I do think is mine and love as mine,
FTLN 0448 400 Without ripe moving to ’t? Would I do this?
FTLN 0449 Could man so blench?
CAMILLO FTLN 0450 I must believe you, sir.
FTLN 0451 I do, and will fetch off Bohemia for ’t—
FTLN 0452 Provided that, when he’s removed, your Highness
FTLN 0453 405 Will take again your queen as yours at first,
FTLN 0454 Even for your son’s sake, and thereby for sealing
FTLN 0455 The injury of tongues in courts and kingdoms
FTLN 0456 Known and allied to yours.
LEONTES FTLN 0457 Thou dost advise me
FTLN 0458 410 Even so as I mine own course have set down.
FTLN 0459 I’ll give no blemish to her honor, none.
CAMILLO FTLN 0460 My lord,
FTLN 0461 Go then, and with a countenance as clear
FTLN 0462 As friendship wears at feasts, keep with Bohemia
FTLN 0463 415 And with your queen. I am his cupbearer.
FTLN 0464 If from me he have wholesome beverage,
FTLN 0465 Account me not your servant.
LEONTES FTLN 0466 This is all.
FTLN 0467 Do ’t and thou hast the one half of my heart;
FTLN 0468 420 Do ’t not, thou splitt’st thine own.
CAMILLO FTLN 0469 I’ll do ’t, my lord.
LEONTES
FTLN 0470 I will seem friendly, as thou hast advised me.
He exits.
CAMILLO
FTLN 0471 O miserable lady! But, for me,
FTLN 0472 What case stand I in? I must be the poisoner
FTLN 0473 425 Of good Polixenes, and my ground to do ’t
FTLN 0474 Is the obedience to a master, one
FTLN 0475 Who in rebellion with himself will have
FTLN 0476 All that are his so too. To do this deed,

37
The Winter’s Tale
ACT 1. SC. 2
FTLN 0477 Promotion follows. If I could find example
FTLN 0478 430 Of thousands that had struck anointed kings
FTLN 0479 And flourished after, I’d not do ’t. But since
FTLN 0480 Nor brass, nor stone, nor parchment bears not one,
FTLN 0481 Let villainy itself forswear ’t. I must
FTLN 0482 Forsake the court. To do ’t or no is certain
FTLN 0483 435 To me a breakneck. Happy star reign now!
FTLN 0484 Here comes Bohemia.
Enter Polixenes.
POLIXENES , aside FTLN 0485 This is strange. Methinks
FTLN 0486 My favor here begins to warp. Not speak?—
FTLN 0487 Good day, Camillo.
CAMILLO FTLN 0488 440 Hail, most royal sir.
POLIXENES
FTLN 0489 What is the news i’ th’ court?
CAMILLO FTLN 0490 None rare, my lord.
POLIXENES
FTLN 0491 The King hath on him such a countenance
FTLN 0492 As he had lost some province and a region
FTLN 0493 445 Loved as he loves himself. Even now I met him
FTLN 0494 With customary compliment, when he,
FTLN 0495 Wafting his eyes to th’ contrary and falling
FTLN 0496 A lip of much contempt, speeds from me, and
FTLN 0497 So leaves me to consider what is breeding
FTLN 0498 450 That changes thus his manners.
CAMILLO FTLN 0499 I dare not know, my
FTLN 0500 lord.
POLIXENES
FTLN 0501 How, dare not? Do not? Do you know and dare not?
FTLN 0502 Be intelligent to me—’tis thereabouts;
FTLN 0503 455 For to yourself what you do know, you must,
FTLN 0504 And cannot say you dare not. Good Camillo,
FTLN 0505 Your changed complexions are to me a mirror
FTLN 0506 Which shows me mine changed too, for I must be

39
The Winter’s Tale
ACT 1. SC. 2
FTLN 0507 A party in this alteration, finding
FTLN 0508 460 Myself thus altered with ’t.
CAMILLO FTLN 0509 There is a sickness
FTLN 0510 Which puts some of us in distemper, but
FTLN 0511 I cannot name the disease, and it is caught
FTLN 0512 Of you that yet are well.
POLIXENES FTLN 0513 465 How caught of me?
FTLN 0514 Make me not sighted like the basilisk.
FTLN 0515 I have looked on thousands who have sped the
FTLN 0516 better
FTLN 0517 By my regard, but killed none so. Camillo,
FTLN 0518 470 As you are certainly a gentleman, thereto
FTLN 0519 Clerklike experienced, which no less adorns
FTLN 0520 Our gentry than our parents’ noble names,
FTLN 0521 In whose success we are gentle, I beseech you,
FTLN 0522 If you know aught which does behoove my
FTLN 0523 475 knowledge
FTLN 0524 Thereof to be informed, imprison ’t not
FTLN 0525 In ignorant concealment.
CAMILLO FTLN 0526 I may not answer.
POLIXENES
FTLN 0527 A sickness caught of me, and yet I well?
FTLN 0528 480 I must be answered. Dost thou hear, Camillo?
FTLN 0529 I conjure thee by all the parts of man
FTLN 0530 Which honor does acknowledge, whereof the least
FTLN 0531 Is not this suit of mine, that thou declare
FTLN 0532 What incidency thou dost guess of harm
FTLN 0533 485 Is creeping toward me; how far off, how near;
FTLN 0534 Which way to be prevented, if to be;
FTLN 0535 If not, how best to bear it.
CAMILLO FTLN 0536 Sir, I will tell you,
FTLN 0537 Since I am charged in honor and by him
FTLN 0538 490 That I think honorable. Therefore mark my counsel,
FTLN 0539 Which must be e’en as swiftly followed as
FTLN 0540 I mean to utter it, or both yourself and me
FTLN 0541 Cry lost, and so goodnight.

41
The Winter’s Tale
ACT 1. SC. 2
POLIXENES FTLN 0542 On, good Camillo.
CAMILLO
FTLN 0543 495 I am appointed him to murder you.
POLIXENES
FTLN 0544 By whom, Camillo?
CAMILLO FTLN 0545 By the King.
POLIXENES FTLN 0546 For what?
CAMILLO
FTLN 0547 He thinks, nay with all confidence he swears,
FTLN 0548 500 As he had seen ’t or been an instrument
FTLN 0549 To vice you to ’t, that you have touched his queen
FTLN 0550 Forbiddenly.
POLIXENES FTLN 0551 O, then my best blood turn
FTLN 0552 To an infected jelly, and my name
FTLN 0553 505 Be yoked with his that did betray the Best!
FTLN 0554 Turn then my freshest reputation to
FTLN 0555 A savor that may strike the dullest nostril
FTLN 0556 Where I arrive, and my approach be shunned,
FTLN 0557 Nay, hated too, worse than the great’st infection
FTLN 0558 510 That e’er was heard or read.
CAMILLO FTLN 0559 Swear his thought over
FTLN 0560 By each particular star in heaven and
FTLN 0561 By all their influences, you may as well
FTLN 0562 Forbid the sea for to obey the moon
FTLN 0563 515 As or by oath remove or counsel shake
FTLN 0564 The fabric of his folly, whose foundation
FTLN 0565 Is piled upon his faith and will continue
FTLN 0566 The standing of his body.
POLIXENES FTLN 0567 How should this grow?
CAMILLO
FTLN 0568 520 I know not. But I am sure ’tis safer to
FTLN 0569 Avoid what’s grown than question how ’tis born.
FTLN 0570 If therefore you dare trust my honesty,
FTLN 0571 That lies enclosèd in this trunk which you
FTLN 0572 Shall bear along impawned, away tonight!

43
The Winter’s Tale
ACT 1. SC. 2
FTLN 0573 525 Your followers I will whisper to the business,
FTLN 0574 And will by twos and threes at several posterns
FTLN 0575 Clear them o’ th’ city. For myself, I’ll put
FTLN 0576 My fortunes to your service, which are here
FTLN 0577 By this discovery lost. Be not uncertain,
FTLN 0578 530 For, by the honor of my parents, I
FTLN 0579 Have uttered truth—which if you seek to prove,
FTLN 0580 I dare not stand by; nor shall you be safer
FTLN 0581 Than one condemned by the King’s own mouth,
FTLN 0582 thereon
FTLN 0583 535 His execution sworn.
POLIXENES FTLN 0584 I do believe thee.
FTLN 0585 I saw his heart in ’s face. Give me thy hand.
FTLN 0586 Be pilot to me and thy places shall
FTLN 0587 Still neighbor mine. My ships are ready and
FTLN 0588 540 My people did expect my hence departure
FTLN 0589 Two days ago. This jealousy
FTLN 0590 Is for a precious creature. As she’s rare,
FTLN 0591 Must it be great; and as his person’s mighty,
FTLN 0592 Must it be violent; and as he does conceive
FTLN 0593 545 He is dishonored by a man which ever
FTLN 0594 Professed to him, why, his revenges must
FTLN 0595 In that be made more bitter. Fear o’ershades me.
FTLN 0596 Good expedition be my friend, and comfort
FTLN 0597 The gracious queen, part of his theme, but nothing
FTLN 0598 550 Of his ill-ta’en suspicion. Come, Camillo,
FTLN 0599 I will respect thee as a father if
FTLN 0600 Thou bear’st my life off hence. Let us avoid.
CAMILLO
FTLN 0601 It is in mine authority to command
FTLN 0602 The keys of all the posterns. Please your Highness
FTLN 0603 555 To take the urgent hour. Come, sir, away.
They exit.

ACT 2
Scene 1
Enter Hermione, Mamillius, and Ladies.
HERMIONE
FTLN 0604 Take the boy to you. He so troubles me
FTLN 0605 ’Tis past enduring.
FIRST LADY FTLN 0606 Come, my gracious lord,
FTLN 0607 Shall I be your playfellow?
MAMILLIUS
FTLN 0608 5 No, I’ll none of you.
FIRST LADY FTLN 0609 Why, my sweet lord?
MAMILLIUS
FTLN 0610 You’ll kiss me hard and speak to me as if
FTLN 0611 I were a baby still.—I love you better.
SECOND LADY
FTLN 0612 And why so, my lord?
MAMILLIUS FTLN 0613 10 Not for because
FTLN 0614 Your brows are blacker—yet black brows, they say,
FTLN 0615 Become some women best, so that there be not
FTLN 0616 Too much hair there, but in a semicircle,
FTLN 0617 Or a half-moon made with a pen.
SECOND LADY FTLN 0618 15 Who taught this?
MAMILLIUS
FTLN 0619 I learned it out of women’s faces.—Pray now,
FTLN 0620 What color are your eyebrows?
FIRST LADY FTLN 0621 Blue, my lord.
47

49
The Winter’s Tale
ACT 2. SC. 1
MAMILLIUS
FTLN 0622 Nay, that’s a mock. I have seen a lady’s nose
FTLN 0623 20 That has been blue, but not her eyebrows.
FIRST LADY FTLN 0624 Hark ye,
FTLN 0625 The Queen your mother rounds apace. We shall
FTLN 0626 Present our services to a fine new prince
FTLN 0627 One of these days, and then you’d wanton with us
FTLN 0628 25 If we would have you.
SECOND LADY FTLN 0629 She is spread of late
FTLN 0630 Into a goodly bulk. Good time encounter her!
HERMIONE
FTLN 0631 What wisdom stirs amongst you?—Come, sir, now
FTLN 0632 I am for you again. Pray you sit by us,
FTLN 0633 30 And tell ’s a tale.
MAMILLIUS FTLN 0634 Merry or sad shall ’t be?
HERMIONE FTLN 0635 As merry as you will.
MAMILLIUS
FTLN 0636 A sad tale’s best for winter. I have one
FTLN 0637 Of sprites and goblins.
HERMIONE FTLN 0638 35 Let’s have that, good sir.
FTLN 0639 Come on, sit down. Come on, and do your best
FTLN 0640 To fright me with your sprites. You’re powerful at it.
MAMILLIUS
FTLN 0641 There was a man—
HERMIONE FTLN 0642 Nay, come sit down, then on.
MAMILLIUS
FTLN 0643 40 Dwelt by a churchyard. I will tell it softly,
FTLN 0644 Yond crickets shall not hear it.
HERMIONE
FTLN 0645 Come on then, and give ’t me in mine ear.
They talk privately.
Enter Leontes, Antigonus, and Lords.
LEONTES
FTLN 0646 Was he met there? His train? Camillo with him?

51
The Winter’s Tale
ACT 2. SC. 1
LORD
FTLN 0647 Behind the tuft of pines I met them. Never
FTLN 0648 45 Saw I men scour so on their way. I eyed them
FTLN 0649 Even to their ships.
LEONTES FTLN 0650 How blest am I
FTLN 0651 In my just censure, in my true opinion!
FTLN 0652 Alack, for lesser knowledge! How accursed
FTLN 0653 50 In being so blest! There may be in the cup
FTLN 0654 A spider steeped, and one may drink, depart,
FTLN 0655 And yet partake no venom, for his knowledge
FTLN 0656 Is not infected; but if one present
FTLN 0657 Th’ abhorred ingredient to his eye, make known
FTLN 0658 55 How he hath drunk, he cracks his gorge, his sides,
FTLN 0659 With violent hefts. I have drunk, and seen the spider.
FTLN 0660 Camillo was his help in this, his pander.
FTLN 0661 There is a plot against my life, my crown.
FTLN 0662 All’s true that is mistrusted. That false villain
FTLN 0663 60 Whom I employed was pre-employed by him.
FTLN 0664 He has discovered my design, and I
FTLN 0665 Remain a pinched thing, yea, a very trick
FTLN 0666 For them to play at will. How came the posterns
FTLN 0667 So easily open?
LORD FTLN 0668 65 By his great authority,
FTLN 0669 Which often hath no less prevailed than so
FTLN 0670 On your command.
LEONTES FTLN 0671 I know ’t too well.
FTLN 0672 To Hermione. Give me the boy. I am glad you did
FTLN 0673 70 not nurse him.
FTLN 0674 Though he does bear some signs of me, yet you
FTLN 0675 Have too much blood in him.
HERMIONE FTLN 0676 What is this? Sport?
LEONTES , to the Ladies
FTLN 0677 Bear the boy hence. He shall not come about her.
FTLN 0678 75 Away with him, and let her sport herself

53
The Winter’s Tale
ACT 2. SC. 1
FTLN 0679 With that she’s big with, (to Hermione) for ’tis
FTLN 0680 Polixenes
FTLN 0681 Has made thee swell thus.
A Lady exits with Mamillius.
HERMIONE FTLN 0682 But I’d say he had not,
FTLN 0683 80 And I’ll be sworn you would believe my saying,
FTLN 0684 Howe’er you lean to th’ nayward.
LEONTES FTLN 0685 You, my lords,
FTLN 0686 Look on her, mark her well. Be but about
FTLN 0687 To say “She is a goodly lady,” and
FTLN 0688 85 The justice of your hearts will thereto add
FTLN 0689 “’Tis pity she’s not honest, honorable.”
FTLN 0690 Praise her but for this her without-door form,
FTLN 0691 Which on my faith deserves high speech, and
FTLN 0692 straight
FTLN 0693 90 The shrug, the “hum,” or “ha,” these petty brands
FTLN 0694 That calumny doth use—O, I am out,
FTLN 0695 That mercy does, for calumny will sear
FTLN 0696 Virtue itself—these shrugs, these “hum”s and “ha”s,
FTLN 0697 When you have said she’s goodly, come between
FTLN 0698 95 Ere you can say she’s honest. But be ’t known,
FTLN 0699 From him that has most cause to grieve it should be,
FTLN 0700 She’s an adult’ress.
HERMIONE FTLN 0701 Should a villain say so,
FTLN 0702 The most replenished villain in the world,
FTLN 0703 100 He were as much more villain. You, my lord,
FTLN 0704 Do but mistake.
LEONTES FTLN 0705 You have mistook, my lady,
FTLN 0706 Polixenes for Leontes. O thou thing,
FTLN 0707 Which I’ll not call a creature of thy place
FTLN 0708 105 Lest barbarism, making me the precedent,
FTLN 0709 Should a like language use to all degrees,
FTLN 0710 And mannerly distinguishment leave out
FTLN 0711 Betwixt the prince and beggar.—I have said
FTLN 0712 She’s an adult’ress; I have said with whom.
FTLN 0713 110 More, she’s a traitor, and Camillo is
FTLN 0714 A federary with her, and one that knows

55
The Winter’s Tale
ACT 2. SC. 1
FTLN 0715 What she should shame to know herself
FTLN 0716 But with her most vile principal: that she’s
FTLN 0717 A bed-swerver, even as bad as those
FTLN 0718 115 That vulgars give bold’st titles; ay, and privy
FTLN 0719 To this their late escape.
HERMIONE FTLN 0720 No, by my life,
FTLN 0721 Privy to none of this. How will this grieve you,
FTLN 0722 When you shall come to clearer knowledge, that
FTLN 0723 120 You thus have published me! Gentle my lord,
FTLN 0724 You scarce can right me throughly then to say
FTLN 0725 You did mistake.
LEONTES FTLN 0726 No. If I mistake
FTLN 0727 In those foundations which I build upon,
FTLN 0728 125 The center is not big enough to bear
FTLN 0729 A schoolboy’s top.—Away with her to prison.
FTLN 0730 He who shall speak for her is afar off guilty
FTLN 0731 But that he speaks.
HERMIONE FTLN 0732 There’s some ill planet reigns.
FTLN 0733 130 I must be patient till the heavens look
FTLN 0734 With an aspect more favorable. Good my lords,
FTLN 0735 I am not prone to weeping, as our sex
FTLN 0736 Commonly are, the want of which vain dew
FTLN 0737 Perchance shall dry your pities. But I have
FTLN 0738 135 That honorable grief lodged here which burns
FTLN 0739 Worse than tears drown. Beseech you all, my lords,
FTLN 0740 With thoughts so qualified as your charities
FTLN 0741 Shall best instruct you, measure me; and so
FTLN 0742 The King’s will be performed.
LEONTES FTLN 0743 140 Shall I be heard?
HERMIONE
FTLN 0744 Who is ’t that goes with me? Beseech your Highness
FTLN 0745 My women may be with me, for you see
FTLN 0746 My plight requires it.—Do not weep, good fools;
FTLN 0747 There is no cause. When you shall know your
FTLN 0748 145 mistress
FTLN 0749 Has deserved prison, then abound in tears
FTLN 0750 As I come out. This action I now go on

57
The Winter’s Tale
ACT 2. SC. 1
FTLN 0751 Is for my better grace.—Adieu, my lord.
FTLN 0752 I never wished to see you sorry; now
FTLN 0753 150 I trust I shall.—My women, come; you have leave.
LEONTES FTLN 0754 Go, do our bidding. Hence!
Hermione exits, under guard, with her Ladies.
LORD
FTLN 0755 Beseech your Highness, call the Queen again.
ANTIGONUS
FTLN 0756 Be certain what you do, sir, lest your justice
FTLN 0757 Prove violence, in the which three great ones suffer:
FTLN 0758 155 Yourself, your queen, your son.
LORD FTLN 0759 For her, my lord,
FTLN 0760 I dare my life lay down—and will do ’t, sir,
FTLN 0761 Please you t’ accept it—that the Queen is spotless
FTLN 0762 I’ th’ eyes of heaven, and to you—I mean
FTLN 0763 160 In this which you accuse her.
ANTIGONUS FTLN 0764 If it prove
FTLN 0765 She’s otherwise, I’ll keep my stables where
FTLN 0766 I lodge my wife. I’ll go in couples with her;
FTLN 0767 Than when I feel and see her, no farther trust her.
FTLN 0768 165 For every inch of woman in the world,
FTLN 0769 Ay, every dram of woman’s flesh, is false,
FTLN 0770 If she be.
LEONTES FTLN 0771 Hold your peaces.
LORD FTLN 0772 Good my lord—
ANTIGONUS
FTLN 0773 170 It is for you we speak, not for ourselves.
FTLN 0774 You are abused, and by some putter-on
FTLN 0775 That will be damned for ’t. Would I knew the
FTLN 0776 villain!
FTLN 0777 I would land-damn him. Be she honor-flawed,
FTLN 0778 175 I have three daughters—the eldest is eleven;
FTLN 0779 The second and the third, nine and some five;
FTLN 0780 If this prove true, they’ll pay for ’t. By mine honor,
FTLN 0781 I’ll geld ’em all; fourteen they shall not see
FTLN 0782 To bring false generations. They are co-heirs,

59
The Winter’s Tale
ACT 2. SC. 1
FTLN 0783 180 And I had rather glib myself than they
FTLN 0784 Should not produce fair issue.
LEONTES FTLN 0785 Cease. No more.
FTLN 0786 You smell this business with a sense as cold
FTLN 0787 As is a dead man’s nose. But I do see ’t and feel ’t,
FTLN 0788 185 As you feel doing thus, and see withal
FTLN 0789 The instruments that feel.
ANTIGONUS FTLN 0790 If it be so,
FTLN 0791 We need no grave to bury honesty.
FTLN 0792 There’s not a grain of it the face to sweeten
FTLN 0793 190 Of the whole dungy Earth.
LEONTES FTLN 0794 What? Lack I credit?
LORD
FTLN 0795 I had rather you did lack than I, my lord,
FTLN 0796 Upon this ground. And more it would content me
FTLN 0797 To have her honor true than your suspicion,
FTLN 0798 195 Be blamed for ’t how you might.
LEONTES FTLN 0799 Why, what need we
FTLN 0800 Commune with you of this, but rather follow
FTLN 0801 Our forceful instigation? Our prerogative
FTLN 0802 Calls not your counsels, but our natural goodness
FTLN 0803 200 Imparts this, which if you—or stupefied
FTLN 0804 Or seeming so in skill—cannot or will not
FTLN 0805 Relish a truth like us, inform yourselves
FTLN 0806 We need no more of your advice. The matter,
FTLN 0807 The loss, the gain, the ord’ring on ’t is all
FTLN 0808 205 Properly ours.
ANTIGONUS FTLN 0809 And I wish, my liege,
FTLN 0810 You had only in your silent judgment tried it,
FTLN 0811 Without more overture.
LEONTES FTLN 0812 How could that be?
FTLN 0813 210 Either thou art most ignorant by age,
FTLN 0814 Or thou wert born a fool. Camillo’s flight,
FTLN 0815 Added to their familiarity—
FTLN 0816 Which was as gross as ever touched conjecture,
FTLN 0817 That lacked sight only, naught for approbation

61
The Winter’s Tale
ACT 2. SC. 2
FTLN 0818 215 But only seeing, all other circumstances
FTLN 0819 Made up to th’ deed—doth push on this
FTLN 0820 proceeding.
FTLN 0821 Yet, for a greater confirmation—
FTLN 0822 For in an act of this importance ’twere
FTLN 0823 220 Most piteous to be wild—I have dispatched in post
FTLN 0824 To sacred Delphos, to Apollo’s temple,
FTLN 0825 Cleomenes and Dion, whom you know
FTLN 0826 Of stuffed sufficiency. Now from the oracle
FTLN 0827 They will bring all, whose spiritual counsel had
FTLN 0828 225 Shall stop or spur me. Have I done well?
LORD FTLN 0829 Well done,
FTLN 0830 my lord.
LEONTES
FTLN 0831 Though I am satisfied and need no more
FTLN 0832 Than what I know, yet shall the oracle
FTLN 0833 230 Give rest to th’ minds of others, such as he
FTLN 0834 Whose ignorant credulity will not
FTLN 0835 Come up to th’ truth. So have we thought it good
FTLN 0836 From our free person she should be confined,
FTLN 0837 Lest that the treachery of the two fled hence
FTLN 0838 235 Be left her to perform. Come, follow us.
FTLN 0839 We are to speak in public, for this business
FTLN 0840 Will raise us all.
ANTIGONUS , aside FTLN 0841 To laughter, as I take it,
FTLN 0842 If the good truth were known.
They exit.
Scene 2
Enter Paulina, a Gentleman, and Paulina’s Attendants.
PAULINA , to Gentleman
FTLN 0843 The keeper of the prison, call to him.
FTLN 0844 Let him have knowledge who I am.
Gentleman exits.
FTLN 0845 Good lady,

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FTLN 0846 No court in Europe is too good for thee.
FTLN 0847 5 What dost thou then in prison?
Enter Jailer, with the Gentleman.
FTLN 0848 Now, good sir,
FTLN 0849 You know me, do you not?
JAILER FTLN 0850 For a worthy lady
FTLN 0851 And one who much I honor.
PAULINA FTLN 0852 10 Pray you then,
FTLN 0853 Conduct me to the Queen.
JAILER FTLN 0854 I may not, madam.
FTLN 0855 To the contrary I have express commandment.
PAULINA
FTLN 0856 Here’s ado, to lock up honesty and honor from
FTLN 0857 15 Th’ access of gentle visitors. Is ’t lawful, pray you,
FTLN 0858 To see her women? Any of them? Emilia?
JAILER FTLN 0859 So please you, madam,
FTLN 0860 To put apart these your attendants, I
FTLN 0861 Shall bring Emilia forth.
PAULINA FTLN 0862 20 I pray now, call her.—
FTLN 0863 Withdraw yourselves.
Attendants and Gentleman exit.
JAILER
FTLN 0864 And, madam, I must be present at your conference.
PAULINA FTLN 0865 Well, be ’t so, prithee. Jailer exits.
FTLN 0866 Here’s such ado to make no stain a stain
FTLN 0867 25 As passes coloring.
Enter Emilia with Jailer.
FTLN 0868 Dear gentlewoman,
FTLN 0869 How fares our gracious lady?
EMILIA
FTLN 0870 As well as one so great and so forlorn
FTLN 0871 May hold together. On her frights and griefs,
FTLN 0872 30 Which never tender lady hath borne greater,
FTLN 0873 She is something before her time delivered.

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PAULINA
FTLN 0874 A boy?
EMILIA FTLN 0875 A daughter, and a goodly babe,
FTLN 0876 Lusty and like to live. The Queen receives
FTLN 0877 35 Much comfort in ’t, says “My poor prisoner,
FTLN 0878 I am innocent as you.”
PAULINA FTLN 0879 I dare be sworn.
FTLN 0880 These dangerous unsafe lunes i’ th’ King, beshrew
FTLN 0881 them!
FTLN 0882 40 He must be told on ’t, and he shall. The office
FTLN 0883 Becomes a woman best. I’ll take ’t upon me.
FTLN 0884 If I prove honey-mouthed, let my tongue blister
FTLN 0885 And never to my red-looked anger be
FTLN 0886 The trumpet anymore. Pray you, Emilia,
FTLN 0887 45 Commend my best obedience to the Queen.
FTLN 0888 If she dares trust me with her little babe,
FTLN 0889 I’ll show ’t the King and undertake to be
FTLN 0890 Her advocate to th’ loud’st We do not know
FTLN 0891 How he may soften at the sight o’ th’ child.
FTLN 0892 50 The silence often of pure innocence
FTLN 0893 Persuades when speaking fails.
EMILIA FTLN 0894 Most worthy madam,
FTLN 0895 Your honor and your goodness is so evident
FTLN 0896 That your free undertaking cannot miss
FTLN 0897 55 A thriving issue. There is no lady living
FTLN 0898 So meet for this great errand. Please your Ladyship
FTLN 0899 To visit the next room, I’ll presently
FTLN 0900 Acquaint the Queen of your most noble offer,
FTLN 0901 Who but today hammered of this design,
FTLN 0902 60 But durst not tempt a minister of honor
FTLN 0903 Lest she should be denied.
PAULINA FTLN 0904 Tell her, Emilia,
FTLN 0905 I’ll use that tongue I have. If wit flow from ’t
FTLN 0906 As boldness from my bosom, let ’t not be doubted
FTLN 0907 65 I shall do good.

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EMILIA FTLN 0908 Now be you blest for it!
FTLN 0909 I’ll to the Queen. Please you come something
FTLN 0910 nearer.
JAILER , to Paulina
FTLN 0911 Madam, if ’t please the Queen to send the babe,
FTLN 0912 70 I know not what I shall incur to pass it,
FTLN 0913 Having no warrant.
PAULINA FTLN 0914 You need not fear it, sir.
FTLN 0915 This child was prisoner to the womb, and is
FTLN 0916 By law and process of great nature thence
FTLN 0917 75 Freed and enfranchised, not a party to
FTLN 0918 The anger of the King, nor guilty of,
FTLN 0919 If any be, the trespass of the Queen.
JAILER FTLN 0920 I do believe it.
PAULINA
FTLN 0921 Do not you fear. Upon mine honor, I
FTLN 0922 80 Will stand betwixt you and danger.
They exit.
Scene 3
Enter Leontes.
LEONTES
FTLN 0923 Nor night nor day no rest. It is but weakness
FTLN 0924 To bear the matter thus, mere weakness. If
FTLN 0925 The cause were not in being—part o’ th’ cause,
FTLN 0926 She th’ adult’ress, for the harlot king
FTLN 0927 5 Is quite beyond mine arm, out of the blank
FTLN 0928 And level of my brain, plot-proof. But she
FTLN 0929 I can hook to me. Say that she were gone,
FTLN 0930 Given to the fire, a moiety of my rest
FTLN 0931 Might come to me again.—Who’s there?
Enter a Servant.
SERVANT FTLN 0932 10 My lord.

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LEONTES FTLN 0933 How does the boy?
SERVANT FTLN 0934 He took good rest tonight. ’Tis hoped
FTLN 0935 His sickness is discharged.
LEONTES FTLN 0936 To see his nobleness,
FTLN 0937 15 Conceiving the dishonor of his mother.
FTLN 0938 He straight declined, drooped, took it deeply,
FTLN 0939 Fastened and fixed the shame on ’t in himself,
FTLN 0940 Threw off his spirit, his appetite, his sleep,
FTLN 0941 And downright languished. Leave me solely. Go,
FTLN 0942 20 See how he fares. Servant exits.
FTLN 0943 Fie, fie, no thought of him.
FTLN 0944 The very thought of my revenges that way
FTLN 0945 Recoil upon me—in himself too mighty,
FTLN 0946 And in his parties, his alliance. Let him be
FTLN 0947 25 Until a time may serve. For present vengeance,
FTLN 0948 Take it on her. Camillo and Polixenes
FTLN 0949 Laugh at me, make their pastime at my sorrow.
FTLN 0950 They should not laugh if I could reach them, nor
FTLN 0951 Shall she within my power.
Enter Paulina, carrying the baby, with Servants,
Antigonus, and Lords.
LORD FTLN 0952 30 You must not enter.
PAULINA
FTLN 0953 Nay, rather, good my lords, be second to me.
FTLN 0954 Fear you his tyrannous passion more, alas,
FTLN 0955 Than the Queen’s life? A gracious innocent soul,
FTLN 0956 More free than he is jealous.
ANTIGONUS FTLN 0957 35 That’s enough.
SERVANT
FTLN 0958 Madam, he hath not slept tonight, commanded
FTLN 0959 None should come at him.
PAULINA FTLN 0960 Not so hot, good sir.
FTLN 0961 I come to bring him sleep. ’Tis such as you
FTLN 0962 40 That creep like shadows by him and do sigh

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FTLN 0963 At each his needless heavings, such as you
FTLN 0964 Nourish the cause of his awaking. I
FTLN 0965 Do come with words as medicinal as true,
FTLN 0966 Honest as either, to purge him of that humor
FTLN 0967 45 That presses him from sleep.
LEONTES FTLN 0968 What noise there, ho?
PAULINA
FTLN 0969 No noise, my lord, but needful conference
FTLN 0970 About some gossips for your Highness.
LEONTES FTLN 0971 How?—
FTLN 0972 50 Away with that audacious lady. Antigonus,
FTLN 0973 I charged thee that she should not come about me.
FTLN 0974 I knew she would.
ANTIGONUS FTLN 0975 I told her so, my lord,
FTLN 0976 On your displeasure’s peril and on mine,
FTLN 0977 55 She should not visit you.
LEONTES FTLN 0978 What, canst not rule her?
PAULINA
FTLN 0979 From all dishonesty he can. In this,
FTLN 0980 Unless he take the course that you have done—
FTLN 0981 Commit me for committing honor—trust it,
FTLN 0982 60 He shall not rule me.
ANTIGONUS FTLN 0983 La you now, you hear.
FTLN 0984 When she will take the rein I let her run,
FTLN 0985 But she’ll not stumble.
PAULINA FTLN 0986 Good my liege, I come—
FTLN 0987 65 And I beseech you hear me, who professes
FTLN 0988 Myself your loyal servant, your physician,
FTLN 0989 Your most obedient counselor, yet that dares
FTLN 0990 Less appear so in comforting your evils
FTLN 0991 Than such as most seem yours—I say I come
FTLN 0992 70 From your good queen.
LEONTES FTLN 0993 Good queen?
PAULINA
FTLN 0994 Good queen, my lord, good queen, I say “good
FTLN 0995 queen,”

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FTLN 0996 And would by combat make her good, so were I
FTLN 0997 75 A man, the worst about you.
LEONTES FTLN 0998 Force her hence.
PAULINA
FTLN 0999 Let him that makes but trifles of his eyes
FTLN 1000 First hand me. On mine own accord I’ll off,
FTLN 1001 But first I’ll do my errand.—The good queen,
FTLN 1002 80 For she is good, hath brought you forth a
FTLN 1003 daughter—
FTLN 1004 Here ’tis—commends it to your blessing.
She lays down the baby.
LEONTES FTLN 1005 Out!
FTLN 1006 A mankind witch! Hence with her, out o’ door.
FTLN 1007 85 A most intelligencing bawd.
PAULINA FTLN 1008 Not so.
FTLN 1009 I am as ignorant in that as you
FTLN 1010 In so entitling me, and no less honest
FTLN 1011 Than you are mad—which is enough, I’ll warrant,
FTLN 1012 90 As this world goes, to pass for honest.
LEONTES FTLN 1013 Traitors,
FTLN 1014 Will you not push her out? To Antigonus. Give her
FTLN 1015 the bastard,
FTLN 1016 Thou dotard; thou art woman-tired, unroosted
FTLN 1017 95 By thy Dame Partlet here. Take up the bastard,
FTLN 1018 Take ’t up, I say. Give ’t to thy crone.
PAULINA , to Antigonus FTLN 1019 Forever
FTLN 1020 Unvenerable be thy hands if thou
FTLN 1021 Tak’st up the Princess by that forced baseness
FTLN 1022 100 Which he has put upon ’t.
LEONTES FTLN 1023 He dreads his wife.
PAULINA
FTLN 1024 So I would you did. Then ’twere past all doubt
FTLN 1025 You’d call your children yours.
LEONTES FTLN 1026 A nest of traitors!
ANTIGONUS
FTLN 1027 105 I am none, by this good light.

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PAULINA FTLN 1028 Nor I, nor any
FTLN 1029 But one that’s here, and that’s himself. For he
FTLN 1030 The sacred honor of himself, his queen’s,
FTLN 1031 His hopeful son’s, his babe’s, betrays to slander,
FTLN 1032 110 Whose sting is sharper than the sword’s; and will
FTLN 1033 not—
FTLN 1034 For, as the case now stands, it is a curse
FTLN 1035 He cannot be compelled to ’t—once remove
FTLN 1036 The root of his opinion, which is rotten
FTLN 1037 115 As ever oak or stone was sound.
LEONTES FTLN 1038 A callet
FTLN 1039 Of boundless tongue, who late hath beat her
FTLN 1040 husband
FTLN 1041 And now baits me! This brat is none of mine.
FTLN 1042 120 It is the issue of Polixenes.
FTLN 1043 Hence with it, and together with the dam
FTLN 1044 Commit them to the fire.
PAULINA FTLN 1045 It is yours,
FTLN 1046 And, might we lay th’ old proverb to your charge,
FTLN 1047 125 So like you ’tis the worse.—Behold, my lords,
FTLN 1048 Although the print be little, the whole matter
FTLN 1049 And copy of the father—eye, nose, lip,
FTLN 1050 The trick of ’s frown, his forehead, nay, the valley,
FTLN 1051 The pretty dimples of his chin and cheek, his
FTLN 1052 130 smiles,
FTLN 1053 The very mold and frame of hand, nail, finger.
FTLN 1054 And thou, good goddess Nature, which hast made it
FTLN 1055 So like to him that got it, if thou hast
FTLN 1056 The ordering of the mind too, ’mongst all colors
FTLN 1057 135 No yellow in ’t, lest she suspect, as he does,
FTLN 1058 Her children not her husband’s.
LEONTES FTLN 1059 A gross hag!—
FTLN 1060 And, losel, thou art worthy to be hanged
FTLN 1061 That wilt not stay her tongue.
ANTIGONUS FTLN 1062 140 Hang all the husbands
FTLN 1063 That cannot do that feat, you’ll leave yourself
FTLN 1064 Hardly one subject.

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LEONTES FTLN 1065 Once more, take her hence.
PAULINA
FTLN 1066 A most unworthy and unnatural lord
FTLN 1067 145 Can do no more.
LEONTES FTLN 1068 I’ll ha’ thee burnt.
PAULINA FTLN 1069 I care not.
FTLN 1070 It is an heretic that makes the fire,
FTLN 1071 Not she which burns in ’t. I’ll not call you tyrant;
FTLN 1072 150 But this most cruel usage of your queen,
FTLN 1073 Not able to produce more accusation
FTLN 1074 Than your own weak-hinged fancy, something
FTLN 1075 savors
FTLN 1076 Of tyranny, and will ignoble make you,
FTLN 1077 155 Yea, scandalous to the world.
LEONTES , to Antigonus FTLN 1078 On your allegiance,
FTLN 1079 Out of the chamber with her! Were I a tyrant,
FTLN 1080 Where were her life? She durst not call me so
FTLN 1081 If she did know me one. Away with her!
PAULINA , to Lords
FTLN 1082 160 I pray you do not push me; I’ll be gone.—
FTLN 1083 Look to your babe, my lord; ’tis yours. Jove send her
FTLN 1084 A better guiding spirit.—What needs these hands?
FTLN 1085 You that are thus so tender o’er his follies
FTLN 1086 Will never do him good, not one of you.
FTLN 1087 165 So, so. Farewell, we are gone. She exits.
LEONTES , to Antigonus
FTLN 1088 Thou, traitor, hast set on thy wife to this.
FTLN 1089 My child? Away with ’t! Even thou, that hast
FTLN 1090 A heart so tender o’er it, take it hence,
FTLN 1091 And see it instantly consumed with fire.
FTLN 1092 170 Even thou, and none but thou. Take it up straight.
FTLN 1093 Within this hour bring me word ’tis done,
FTLN 1094 And by good testimony, or I’ll seize thy life,
FTLN 1095 With what thou else call’st thine. If thou refuse
FTLN 1096 And wilt encounter with my wrath, say so.

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FTLN 1097 175 The bastard brains with these my proper hands
FTLN 1098 Shall I dash out. Go, take it to the fire,
FTLN 1099 For thou sett’st on thy wife.
ANTIGONUS FTLN 1100 I did not, sir.
FTLN 1101 These lords, my noble fellows, if they please,
FTLN 1102 180 Can clear me in ’t.
LORDS FTLN 1103 We can, my royal liege.
FTLN 1104 He is not guilty of her coming hither.
LEONTES FTLN 1105 You’re liars all.
LORD
FTLN 1106 Beseech your Highness, give us better credit.
FTLN 1107 185 We have always truly served you, and beseech
FTLN 1108 So to esteem of us. And on our knees we beg,
FTLN 1109 As recompense of our dear services
FTLN 1110 Past and to come, that you do change this purpose,
FTLN 1111 Which being so horrible, so bloody, must
FTLN 1112 190 Lead on to some foul issue. We all kneel.
LEONTES
FTLN 1113 I am a feather for each wind that blows.
FTLN 1114 Shall I live on to see this bastard kneel
FTLN 1115 And call me father? Better burn it now
FTLN 1116 Than curse it then. But be it; let it live.
FTLN 1117 195 It shall not neither. To Antigonus. You, sir, come
FTLN 1118 you hither,
FTLN 1119 You that have been so tenderly officious
FTLN 1120 With Lady Margery, your midwife there,
FTLN 1121 To save this bastard’s life—for ’tis a bastard,
FTLN 1122 200 So sure as this beard’s gray. What will you
FTLN 1123 adventure
FTLN 1124 To save this brat’s life?
ANTIGONUS FTLN 1125 Anything, my lord,
FTLN 1126 That my ability may undergo
FTLN 1127 205 And nobleness impose. At least thus much:
FTLN 1128 I’ll pawn the little blood which I have left
FTLN 1129 To save the innocent. Anything possible.

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LEONTES
FTLN 1130 It shall be possible. Swear by this sword
FTLN 1131 Thou wilt perform my bidding.
ANTIGONUS , his hand on the hilt FTLN 1132 210 I will, my lord.
LEONTES
FTLN 1133 Mark, and perform it, seest thou; for the fail
FTLN 1134 Of any point in ’t shall not only be
FTLN 1135 Death to thyself but to thy lewd-tongued wife,
FTLN 1136 Whom for this time we pardon. We enjoin thee,
FTLN 1137 215 As thou art liegeman to us, that thou carry
FTLN 1138 This female bastard hence, and that thou bear it
FTLN 1139 To some remote and desert place quite out
FTLN 1140 Of our dominions, and that there thou leave it,
FTLN 1141 Without more mercy, to it own protection
FTLN 1142 220 And favor of the climate. As by strange fortune
FTLN 1143 It came to us, I do in justice charge thee,
FTLN 1144 On thy soul’s peril and thy body’s torture,
FTLN 1145 That thou commend it strangely to some place
FTLN 1146 Where chance may nurse or end it. Take it up.
ANTIGONUS
FTLN 1147 225 I swear to do this, though a present death
FTLN 1148 Had been more merciful.—Come on, poor babe.
He picks up the baby.
FTLN 1149 Some powerful spirit instruct the kites and ravens
FTLN 1150 To be thy nurses! Wolves and bears, they say,
FTLN 1151 Casting their savageness aside, have done
FTLN 1152 230 Like offices of pity. To Leontes. Sir, be prosperous
FTLN 1153 In more than this deed does require.—And blessing
FTLN 1154 Against this cruelty fight on thy side,
FTLN 1155 Poor thing, condemned to loss.
He exits, carrying the baby.
LEONTES FTLN 1156 No, I’ll not rear
FTLN 1157 235 Another’s issue.
Enter a Servant.
SERVANT FTLN 1158 Please your Highness, posts

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FTLN 1159 From those you sent to th’ oracle are come
FTLN 1160 An hour since. Cleomenes and Dion,
FTLN 1161 Being well arrived from Delphos, are both landed,
FTLN 1162 240 Hasting to th’ court.
LORD , to Leontes FTLN 1163 So please you, sir, their speed
FTLN 1164 Hath been beyond account.
LEONTES FTLN 1165 Twenty-three days
FTLN 1166 They have been absent. ’Tis good speed, foretells
FTLN 1167 245 The great Apollo suddenly will have
FTLN 1168 The truth of this appear. Prepare you, lords.
FTLN 1169 Summon a session, that we may arraign
FTLN 1170 Our most disloyal lady; for, as she hath
FTLN 1171 Been publicly accused, so shall she have
FTLN 1172 250 A just and open trial. While she lives,
FTLN 1173 My heart will be a burden to me. Leave me,
FTLN 1174 And think upon my bidding.
They exit.

ACT 3
Scene 1
Enter Cleomenes and Dion.
CLEOMENES
FTLN 1175 The climate’s delicate, the air most sweet,
FTLN 1176 Fertile the isle, the temple much surpassing
FTLN 1177 The common praise it bears.
DION FTLN 1178 I shall report,
FTLN 1179 5 For most it caught me, the celestial habits—
FTLN 1180 Methinks I so should term them—and the reverence
FTLN 1181 Of the grave wearers. O, the sacrifice,
FTLN 1182 How ceremonious, solemn, and unearthly
FTLN 1183 It was i’ th’ off’ring!
CLEOMENES FTLN 1184 10 But of all, the burst
FTLN 1185 And the ear-deaf’ning voice o’ th’ oracle,
FTLN 1186 Kin to Jove’s thunder, so surprised my sense
FTLN 1187 That I was nothing.
DION FTLN 1188 If th’ event o’ th’ journey
FTLN 1189 15 Prove as successful to the Queen—O, be ’t so!—
FTLN 1190 As it hath been to us rare, pleasant, speedy,
FTLN 1191 The time is worth the use on ’t.
CLEOMENES FTLN 1192 Great Apollo
FTLN 1193 Turn all to th’ best! These proclamations,
FTLN 1194 20 So forcing faults upon Hermione,
FTLN 1195 I little like.
DION FTLN 1196 The violent carriage of it
FTLN 1197 Will clear or end the business when the oracle,
87

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FTLN 1198 Thus by Apollo’s great divine sealed up,
FTLN 1199 25 Shall the contents discover. Something rare
FTLN 1200 Even then will rush to knowledge. Go. Fresh horses;
FTLN 1201 And gracious be the issue.
They exit.
Scene 2
Enter Leontes, Lords, and Officers.
LEONTES
FTLN 1202 This sessions, to our great grief we pronounce,
FTLN 1203 Even pushes ’gainst our heart: the party tried
FTLN 1204 The daughter of a king, our wife, and one
FTLN 1205 Of us too much beloved. Let us be cleared
FTLN 1206 5 Of being tyrannous, since we so openly
FTLN 1207 Proceed in justice, which shall have due course
FTLN 1208 Even to the guilt or the purgation.
FTLN 1209 Produce the prisoner.
OFFICER
FTLN 1210 It is his Highness’ pleasure that the Queen
FTLN 1211 10 Appear in person here in court.
Enter Hermione, as to her trial, Paulina, and Ladies.
FTLN 1212 Silence!
LEONTES FTLN 1213 Read the indictment.
OFFICER reads FTLN 1214 Hermione, queen to the worthy Leontes,
FTLN 1215 King of Sicilia, thou art here accused and arraigned
FTLN 1216 15 of high treason, in committing adultery with Polixenes,
FTLN 1217 King of Bohemia, and conspiring with Camillo
FTLN 1218 to take away the life of our sovereign lord the King, thy
FTLN 1219 royal husband; the pretense whereof being by circumstances
FTLN 1220 partly laid open, thou, Hermione, contrary to
FTLN 1221 20 the faith and allegiance of a true subject, didst counsel
FTLN 1222 and aid them, for their better safety, to fly away by
FTLN 1223 night.

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HERMIONE
FTLN 1224 Since what I am to say must be but that
FTLN 1225 Which contradicts my accusation, and
FTLN 1226 25 The testimony on my part no other
FTLN 1227 But what comes from myself, it shall scarce boot me
FTLN 1228 To say “Not guilty.” Mine integrity,
FTLN 1229 Being counted falsehood, shall, as I express it,
FTLN 1230 Be so received. But thus: if powers divine
FTLN 1231 30 Behold our human actions, as they do,
FTLN 1232 I doubt not then but innocence shall make
FTLN 1233 False accusation blush and tyranny
FTLN 1234 Tremble at patience. You, my lord, best know,
FTLN 1235 Whom least will seem to do so, my past life
FTLN 1236 35 Hath been as continent, as chaste, as true,
FTLN 1237 As I am now unhappy; which is more
FTLN 1238 Than history can pattern, though devised
FTLN 1239 And played to take spectators. For behold me,
FTLN 1240 A fellow of the royal bed, which owe
FTLN 1241 40 A moiety of the throne, a great king’s daughter,
FTLN 1242 The mother to a hopeful prince, here standing
FTLN 1243 To prate and talk for life and honor fore
FTLN 1244 Who please to come and hear. For life, I prize it
FTLN 1245 As I weigh grief, which I would spare. For honor,
FTLN 1246 45 ’Tis a derivative from me to mine,
FTLN 1247 And only that I stand for. I appeal
FTLN 1248 To your own conscience, sir, before Polixenes
FTLN 1249 Came to your court, how I was in your grace,
FTLN 1250 How merited to be so; since he came,
FTLN 1251 50 With what encounter so uncurrent I
FTLN 1252 Have strained t’ appear thus; if one jot beyond
FTLN 1253 The bound of honor, or in act or will
FTLN 1254 That way inclining, hardened be the hearts
FTLN 1255 Of all that hear me, and my near’st of kin
FTLN 1256 55 Cry fie upon my grave.

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LEONTES FTLN 1257 I ne’er heard yet
FTLN 1258 That any of these bolder vices wanted
FTLN 1259 Less impudence to gainsay what they did
FTLN 1260 Than to perform it first.
HERMIONE FTLN 1261 60 That’s true enough,
FTLN 1262 Though ’tis a saying, sir, not due to me.
LEONTES
FTLN 1263 You will not own it.
HERMIONE FTLN 1264 More than mistress of
FTLN 1265 Which comes to me in name of fault, I must not
FTLN 1266 65 At all acknowledge. For Polixenes,
FTLN 1267 With whom I am accused, I do confess
FTLN 1268 I loved him as in honor he required,
FTLN 1269 With such a kind of love as might become
FTLN 1270 A lady like me, with a love even such,
FTLN 1271 70 So and no other, as yourself commanded,
FTLN 1272 Which not to have done, I think, had been in me
FTLN 1273 Both disobedience and ingratitude
FTLN 1274 To you and toward your friend, whose love had
FTLN 1275 spoke,
FTLN 1276 75 Even since it could speak, from an infant, freely
FTLN 1277 That it was yours. Now, for conspiracy,
FTLN 1278 I know not how it tastes, though it be dished
FTLN 1279 For me to try how. All I know of it
FTLN 1280 Is that Camillo was an honest man;
FTLN 1281 80 And why he left your court, the gods themselves,
FTLN 1282 Wotting no more than I, are ignorant.
LEONTES
FTLN 1283 You knew of his departure, as you know
FTLN 1284 What you have underta’en to do in ’s absence.
HERMIONE FTLN 1285 Sir,
FTLN 1286 85 You speak a language that I understand not.
FTLN 1287 My life stands in the level of your dreams,
FTLN 1288 Which I’ll lay down.
LEONTES FTLN 1289 Your actions are my dreams.

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FTLN 1290 You had a bastard by Polixenes,
FTLN 1291 90 And I but dreamed it. As you were past all shame—
FTLN 1292 Those of your fact are so—so past all truth,
FTLN 1293 Which to deny concerns more than avails; for as
FTLN 1294 Thy brat hath been cast out, like to itself,
FTLN 1295 No father owning it—which is indeed
FTLN 1296 95 More criminal in thee than it—so thou
FTLN 1297 Shalt feel our justice, in whose easiest passage
FTLN 1298 Look for no less than death.
HERMIONE FTLN 1299 Sir, spare your threats.
FTLN 1300 The bug which you would fright me with I seek.
FTLN 1301 100 To me can life be no commodity.
FTLN 1302 The crown and comfort of my life, your favor,
FTLN 1303 I do give lost, for I do feel it gone,
FTLN 1304 But know not how it went. My second joy
FTLN 1305 And first fruits of my body, from his presence
FTLN 1306 105 I am barred like one infectious. My third comfort,
FTLN 1307 Starred most unluckily, is from my breast,
FTLN 1308 The innocent milk in it most innocent mouth,
FTLN 1309 Haled out to murder; myself on every post
FTLN 1310 Proclaimed a strumpet; with immodest hatred
FTLN 1311 110 The childbed privilege denied, which longs
FTLN 1312 To women of all fashion; lastly, hurried
FTLN 1313 Here to this place, i’ th’ open air, before
FTLN 1314 I have got strength of limit. Now, my liege,
FTLN 1315 Tell me what blessings I have here alive,
FTLN 1316 115 That I should fear to die? Therefore proceed.
FTLN 1317 But yet hear this (mistake me not: no life,
FTLN 1318 I prize it not a straw, but for mine honor,
FTLN 1319 Which I would free), if I shall be condemned
FTLN 1320 Upon surmises, all proofs sleeping else
FTLN 1321 120 But what your jealousies awake, I tell you
FTLN 1322 ’Tis rigor, and not law. Your Honors all,
FTLN 1323 I do refer me to the oracle.
FTLN 1324 Apollo be my judge.
LORD FTLN 1325 This your request

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FTLN 1326 125 Is altogether just. Therefore bring forth,
FTLN 1327 And in Apollo’s name, his oracle. Officers exit.
HERMIONE
FTLN 1328 The Emperor of Russia was my father.
FTLN 1329 O, that he were alive and here beholding
FTLN 1330 His daughter’s trial, that he did but see
FTLN 1331 130 The flatness of my misery, yet with eyes
FTLN 1332 Of pity, not revenge.
Enter Cleomenes, Dion, with Officers.
OFFICER , presenting a sword
FTLN 1333 You here shall swear upon this sword of justice
FTLN 1334 That you, Cleomenes and Dion, have
FTLN 1335 Been both at Delphos, and from thence have
FTLN 1336 135 brought
FTLN 1337 This sealed-up oracle, by the hand delivered
FTLN 1338 Of great Apollo’s priest, and that since then
FTLN 1339 You have not dared to break the holy seal
FTLN 1340 Nor read the secrets in ’t.
CLEOMENES, DION FTLN 1341 140 All this we swear.
LEONTES FTLN 1342 Break up the seals and read.
OFFICER reads FTLN 1343 Hermione is chaste, Polixenes blameless,
FTLN 1344 Camillo a true subject, Leontes a jealous tyrant,
FTLN 1345 his innocent babe truly begotten; and the King shall
FTLN 1346 145 live without an heir if that which is lost be not
FTLN 1347 found.
LORDS
FTLN 1348 Now blessèd be the great Apollo!
HERMIONE FTLN 1349 Praised!
LEONTES FTLN 1350 Hast thou read truth?
OFFICER
FTLN 1351 150 Ay, my lord, even so as it is here set down.
LEONTES
FTLN 1352 There is no truth at all i’ th’ oracle.
FTLN 1353 The sessions shall proceed. This is mere falsehood.

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Enter a Servant.
SERVANT
FTLN 1354 My lord the King, the King!
LEONTES FTLN 1355 What is the business?
SERVANT
FTLN 1356 155 O sir, I shall be hated to report it.
FTLN 1357 The Prince your son, with mere conceit and fear
FTLN 1358 Of the Queen’s speed, is gone.
LEONTES FTLN 1359 How? Gone?
SERVANT FTLN 1360 Is dead.
LEONTES
FTLN 1361 160 Apollo’s angry, and the heavens themselves
FTLN 1362 Do strike at my injustice.
Hermione falls.
FTLN 1363 How now there?
PAULINA
FTLN 1364 This news is mortal to the Queen. Look down
FTLN 1365 And see what death is doing.
LEONTES FTLN 1366 165 Take her hence.
FTLN 1367 Her heart is but o’ercharged. She will recover.
FTLN 1368 I have too much believed mine own suspicion.
FTLN 1369 Beseech you, tenderly apply to her
FTLN 1370 Some remedies for life.
Paulina exits with Officers carrying Hermione.
FTLN 1371 170 Apollo, pardon
FTLN 1372 My great profaneness ’gainst thine oracle.
FTLN 1373 I’ll reconcile me to Polixenes,
FTLN 1374 New woo my queen, recall the good Camillo,
FTLN 1375 Whom I proclaim a man of truth, of mercy;
FTLN 1376 175 For, being transported by my jealousies
FTLN 1377 To bloody thoughts and to revenge, I chose
FTLN 1378 Camillo for the minister to poison

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FTLN 1379 My friend Polixenes, which had been done
FTLN 1380 But that the good mind of Camillo tardied
FTLN 1381 180 My swift command, though I with death and with
FTLN 1382 Reward did threaten and encourage him,
FTLN 1383 Not doing it and being done. He, most humane
FTLN 1384 And filled with honor, to my kingly guest
FTLN 1385 Unclasped my practice, quit his fortunes here,
FTLN 1386 185 Which you knew great, and to the hazard
FTLN 1387 Of all incertainties himself commended,
FTLN 1388 No richer than his honor. How he glisters
FTLN 1389 Through my rust, and how his piety
FTLN 1390 Does my deeds make the blacker!
Enter Paulina.
PAULINA FTLN 1391 190 Woe the while!
FTLN 1392 O, cut my lace, lest my heart, cracking it,
FTLN 1393 Break too!
LORD FTLN 1394 What fit is this, good lady?
PAULINA , to Leontes
FTLN 1395 What studied torments, tyrant, hast for me?
FTLN 1396 195 What wheels, racks, fires? What flaying? Boiling
FTLN 1397 In leads or oils? What old or newer torture
FTLN 1398 Must I receive, whose every word deserves
FTLN 1399 To taste of thy most worst? Thy tyranny,
FTLN 1400 Together working with thy jealousies,
FTLN 1401 200 Fancies too weak for boys, too green and idle
FTLN 1402 For girls of nine, O, think what they have done,
FTLN 1403 And then run mad indeed, stark mad, for all
FTLN 1404 Thy bygone fooleries were but spices of it.
FTLN 1405 That thou betrayedst Polixenes, ’twas nothing;
FTLN 1406 205 That did but show thee of a fool, inconstant
FTLN 1407 And damnable ingrateful. Nor was ’t much
FTLN 1408 Thou wouldst have poisoned good Camillo’s honor,
FTLN 1409 To have him kill a king: poor trespasses,
FTLN 1410 More monstrous standing by, whereof I reckon

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FTLN 1411 210 The casting forth to crows thy baby daughter
FTLN 1412 To be or none or little, though a devil
FTLN 1413 Would have shed water out of fire ere done ’t.
FTLN 1414 Nor is ’t directly laid to thee the death
FTLN 1415 Of the young prince, whose honorable thoughts,
FTLN 1416 215 Thoughts high for one so tender, cleft the heart
FTLN 1417 That could conceive a gross and foolish sire
FTLN 1418 Blemished his gracious dam. This is not, no,
FTLN 1419 Laid to thy answer. But the last—O lords,
FTLN 1420 When I have said, cry woe!—the Queen, the Queen,
FTLN 1421 220 The sweet’st, dear’st creature’s dead, and vengeance
FTLN 1422 for ’t
FTLN 1423 Not dropped down yet.
LORD FTLN 1424 The higher powers forbid!
PAULINA
FTLN 1425 I say she’s dead. I’ll swear ’t. If word nor oath
FTLN 1426 225 Prevail not, go and see. If you can bring
FTLN 1427 Tincture or luster in her lip, her eye,
FTLN 1428 Heat outwardly or breath within, I’ll serve you
FTLN 1429 As I would do the gods.—But, O thou tyrant,
FTLN 1430 Do not repent these things, for they are heavier
FTLN 1431 230 Than all thy woes can stir. Therefore betake thee
FTLN 1432 To nothing but despair. A thousand knees
FTLN 1433 Ten thousand years together, naked, fasting,
FTLN 1434 Upon a barren mountain, and still winter
FTLN 1435 In storm perpetual, could not move the gods
FTLN 1436 235 To look that way thou wert.
LEONTES FTLN 1437 Go on, go on.
FTLN 1438 Thou canst not speak too much. I have deserved
FTLN 1439 All tongues to talk their bitt’rest.
LORD , to Paulina FTLN 1440 Say no more.
FTLN 1441 240 Howe’er the business goes, you have made fault
FTLN 1442 I’ th’ boldness of your speech.
PAULINA FTLN 1443 I am sorry for ’t.
FTLN 1444 All faults I make, when I shall come to know them,

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FTLN 1445 I do repent. Alas, I have showed too much
FTLN 1446 245 The rashness of a woman. He is touched
FTLN 1447 To th’ noble heart.—What’s gone and what’s past
FTLN 1448 help
FTLN 1449 Should be past grief. Do not receive affliction
FTLN 1450 At my petition. I beseech you, rather
FTLN 1451 250 Let me be punished, that have minded you
FTLN 1452 Of what you should forget. Now, good my liege,
FTLN 1453 Sir, royal sir, forgive a foolish woman.
FTLN 1454 The love I bore your queen—lo, fool again!—
FTLN 1455 I’ll speak of her no more, nor of your children.
FTLN 1456 255 I’ll not remember you of my own lord,
FTLN 1457 Who is lost too. Take your patience to you,
FTLN 1458 And I’ll say nothing.
LEONTES FTLN 1459 Thou didst speak but well
FTLN 1460 When most the truth, which I receive much better
FTLN 1461 260 Than to be pitied of thee. Prithee, bring me
FTLN 1462 To the dead bodies of my queen and son.
FTLN 1463 One grave shall be for both. Upon them shall
FTLN 1464 The causes of their death appear, unto
FTLN 1465 Our shame perpetual. Once a day I’ll visit
FTLN 1466 265 The chapel where they lie, and tears shed there
FTLN 1467 Shall be my recreation. So long as nature
FTLN 1468 Will bear up with this exercise, so long
FTLN 1469 I daily vow to use it. Come, and lead me
FTLN 1470 To these sorrows.
They exit.
Scene 3
Enter Antigonus carrying the babe, and a Mariner.
ANTIGONUS
FTLN 1471 Thou art perfect, then, our ship hath touched upon
FTLN 1472 The deserts of Bohemia?

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MARINER FTLN 1473 Ay, my lord, and fear
FTLN 1474 We have landed in ill time. The skies look grimly
FTLN 1475 5 And threaten present blusters. In my conscience,
FTLN 1476 The heavens with that we have in hand are angry
FTLN 1477 And frown upon ’s.
ANTIGONUS
FTLN 1478 Their sacred wills be done. Go, get aboard.
FTLN 1479 Look to thy bark. I’ll not be long before
FTLN 1480 10 I call upon thee.
MARINER FTLN 1481 Make your best haste, and go not
FTLN 1482 Too far i’ th’ land. ’Tis like to be loud weather.
FTLN 1483 Besides, this place is famous for the creatures
FTLN 1484 Of prey that keep upon ’t.
ANTIGONUS FTLN 1485 15 Go thou away.
FTLN 1486 I’ll follow instantly.
MARINER FTLN 1487 I am glad at heart
FTLN 1488 To be so rid o’ th’ business. He exits.
ANTIGONUS FTLN 1489 Come, poor babe.
FTLN 1490 20 I have heard, but not believed, the spirits o’ th’ dead
FTLN 1491 May walk again. If such thing be, thy mother
FTLN 1492 Appeared to me last night, for ne’er was dream
FTLN 1493 So like a waking. To me comes a creature,
FTLN 1494 Sometimes her head on one side, some another.
FTLN 1495 25 I never saw a vessel of like sorrow,
FTLN 1496 So filled and so becoming. In pure white robes,
FTLN 1497 Like very sanctity, she did approach
FTLN 1498 My cabin where I lay, thrice bowed before me,
FTLN 1499 And, gasping to begin some speech, her eyes
FTLN 1500 30 Became two spouts. The fury spent, anon
FTLN 1501 Did this break from her: “Good Antigonus,
FTLN 1502 Since fate, against thy better disposition,
FTLN 1503 Hath made thy person for the thrower-out
FTLN 1504 Of my poor babe, according to thine oath,
FTLN 1505 35 Places remote enough are in Bohemia.
FTLN 1506 There weep, and leave it crying. And, for the babe
FTLN 1507 Is counted lost forever, Perdita

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FTLN 1508 I prithee call ’t. For this ungentle business
FTLN 1509 Put on thee by my lord, thou ne’er shalt see
FTLN 1510 40 Thy wife Paulina more.” And so, with shrieks,
FTLN 1511 She melted into air. Affrighted much,
FTLN 1512 I did in time collect myself and thought
FTLN 1513 This was so and no slumber. Dreams are toys,
FTLN 1514 Yet for this once, yea, superstitiously,
FTLN 1515 45 I will be squared by this. I do believe
FTLN 1516 Hermione hath suffered death, and that
FTLN 1517 Apollo would, this being indeed the issue
FTLN 1518 Of King Polixenes, it should here be laid,
FTLN 1519 Either for life or death, upon the earth
FTLN 1520 50 Of its right father.—Blossom, speed thee well.
FTLN 1521 There lie, and there thy character; there these,
He lays down the baby, a bundle, and a box.
FTLN 1522 Which may, if fortune please, both breed thee, pretty,
FTLN 1523 And still rest thine. Thunder. The storm begins.
FTLN 1524 Poor wretch,
FTLN 1525 55 That for thy mother’s fault art thus exposed
FTLN 1526 To loss and what may follow. Weep I cannot,
FTLN 1527 But my heart bleeds, and most accurst am I
FTLN 1528 To be by oath enjoined to this. Farewell.
FTLN 1529 The day frowns more and more. Thou ’rt like to have
FTLN 1530 60 A lullaby too rough. I never saw
FTLN 1531 The heavens so dim by day.
Thunder, and sounds of hunting.
FTLN 1532 A savage clamor!
FTLN 1533 Well may I get aboard! This is the chase.
FTLN 1534 I am gone forever! He exits, pursued by a bear.
Enter Shepherd.
SHEPHERD FTLN 1535 65 I would there were no age between ten and
FTLN 1536 three-and-twenty, or that youth would sleep out the
FTLN 1537 rest, for there is nothing in the between but getting
FTLN 1538 wenches with child, wronging the ancientry, stealing,

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FTLN 1539 fighting—Hark you now. Would any but these
FTLN 1540 70 boiled brains of nineteen and two-and-twenty hunt
FTLN 1541 this weather? They have scared away two of my best
FTLN 1542 sheep, which I fear the wolf will sooner find than
FTLN 1543 the master. If anywhere I have them, ’tis by the
FTLN 1544 seaside, browsing of ivy. Good luck, an ’t be thy will,
FTLN 1545 75 what have we here? Mercy on ’s, a bairn! A very
FTLN 1546 pretty bairn. A boy or a child, I wonder? A pretty
FTLN 1547 one, a very pretty one. Sure some scape. Though I
FTLN 1548 am not bookish, yet I can read waiting-gentlewoman
FTLN 1549 in the scape. This has been some stair-work,
FTLN 1550 80 some trunk-work, some behind-door work. They
FTLN 1551 were warmer that got this than the poor thing is
FTLN 1552 here. I’ll take it up for pity. Yet I’ll tarry till my son
FTLN 1553 come. He halloed but even now.—Whoa-ho-ho!
Enter Shepherd’s Son.
SHEPHERD’S SON FTLN 1554 Hilloa, loa!
SHEPHERD FTLN 1555 85 What, art so near? If thou ’lt see a thing to
FTLN 1556 talk on when thou art dead and rotten, come hither.
FTLN 1557 What ail’st thou, man?
SHEPHERD’S SON FTLN 1558 I have seen two such sights, by sea
FTLN 1559 and by land—but I am not to say it is a sea, for it is
FTLN 1560 90 now the sky; betwixt the firmament and it, you
FTLN 1561 cannot thrust a bodkin’s point.
SHEPHERD FTLN 1562 Why, boy, how is it?
SHEPHERD’S SON FTLN 1563 I would you did but see how it chafes,
FTLN 1564 how it rages, how it takes up the shore. But that’s
FTLN 1565 95 not to the point. O, the most piteous cry of the poor
FTLN 1566 souls! Sometimes to see ’em, and not to see ’em.
FTLN 1567 Now the ship boring the moon with her mainmast,
FTLN 1568 and anon swallowed with yeast and froth, as you’d
FTLN 1569 thrust a cork into a hogshead. And then for the land
FTLN 1570 100 service, to see how the bear tore out his shoulder-bone,
FTLN 1571 how he cried to me for help, and said his

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FTLN 1572 name was Antigonus, a nobleman. But to make an
FTLN 1573 end of the ship: to see how the sea flap-dragoned it.
FTLN 1574 But, first, how the poor souls roared and the sea
FTLN 1575 105 mocked them, and how the poor gentleman roared
FTLN 1576 and the bear mocked him, both roaring louder than
FTLN 1577 the sea or weather.
SHEPHERD FTLN 1578 Name of mercy, when was this, boy?
SHEPHERD’S SON FTLN 1579 Now, now. I have not winked since I
FTLN 1580 110 saw these sights. The men are not yet cold under
FTLN 1581 water, nor the bear half dined on the gentleman.
FTLN 1582 He’s at it now.
SHEPHERD FTLN 1583 Would I had been by to have helped the old
FTLN 1584 man.
SHEPHERD’S SON FTLN 1585 115 I would you had been by the ship side,
FTLN 1586 to have helped her. There your charity would have
FTLN 1587 lacked footing.
SHEPHERD FTLN 1588 Heavy matters, heavy matters. But look
FTLN 1589 thee here, boy. Now bless thyself. Thou met’st with
FTLN 1590 120 things dying, I with things newborn. Here’s a sight
FTLN 1591 for thee. Look thee, a bearing cloth for a squire’s
FTLN 1592 child. Look thee here. Take up, take up, boy. Open
FTLN 1593 ’t. So, let’s see. It was told me I should be rich by
FTLN 1594 the fairies. This is some changeling. Open ’t. What’s
FTLN 1595 125 within, boy?
SHEPHERD’S SON , opening the box FTLN 1596 You’re a made old
FTLN 1597 man. If the sins of your youth are forgiven you,
FTLN 1598 you’re well to live. Gold, all gold.
SHEPHERD FTLN 1599 This is fairy gold, boy, and ’twill prove so.
FTLN 1600 130 Up with ’t, keep it close. Home, home, the next way.
FTLN 1601 We are lucky, boy, and to be so still requires
FTLN 1602 nothing but secrecy. Let my sheep go. Come, good
FTLN 1603 boy, the next way home.
SHEPHERD’S SON FTLN 1604 Go you the next way with your
FTLN 1605 135 findings. I’ll go see if the bear be gone from the
FTLN 1606 gentleman and how much he hath eaten. They are

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FTLN 1607 never curst but when they are hungry. If there be
FTLN 1608 any of him left, I’ll bury it.
SHEPHERD FTLN 1609 That’s a good deed. If thou mayest discern
FTLN 1610 140 by that which is left of him what he is, fetch me to
FTLN 1611 th’ sight of him.
SHEPHERD’S SON FTLN 1612 Marry, will I, and you shall help to
FTLN 1613 put him i’ th’ ground.
SHEPHERD FTLN 1614’Tis a lucky day, boy, and we’ll do good
FTLN 1615 145 deeds on ’t.
They exit.

ACT 4
Scene 1
Enter Time, the Chorus.
TIME
FTLN 1616 I, that please some, try all—both joy and terror
FTLN 1617 Of good and bad, that makes and unfolds error—
FTLN 1618 Now take upon me, in the name of Time,
FTLN 1619 To use my wings. Impute it not a crime
FTLN 1620 5 To me or my swift passage that I slide
FTLN 1621 O’er sixteen years, and leave the growth untried
FTLN 1622 Of that wide gap, since it is in my power
FTLN 1623 To o’erthrow law and in one self-born hour
FTLN 1624 To plant and o’erwhelm custom. Let me pass
FTLN 1625 10 The same I am ere ancient’st order was
FTLN 1626 Or what is now received. I witness to
FTLN 1627 The times that brought them in. So shall I do
FTLN 1628 To th’ freshest things now reigning, and make stale
FTLN 1629 The glistering of this present, as my tale
FTLN 1630 15 Now seems to it. Your patience this allowing,
FTLN 1631 I turn my glass and give my scene such growing
FTLN 1632 As you had slept between. Leontes leaving,
FTLN 1633 Th’ effects of his fond jealousies so grieving
FTLN 1634 That he shuts up himself, imagine me,
FTLN 1635 20 Gentle spectators, that I now may be
FTLN 1636 In fair Bohemia. And remember well
FTLN 1637 I mentioned a son o’ th’ King’s, which Florizell
FTLN 1638 I now name to you, and with speed so pace
119

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ACT 4. SC. 2
FTLN 1639 To speak of Perdita, now grown in grace
FTLN 1640 25 Equal with wond’ring. What of her ensues
FTLN 1641 I list not prophesy; but let Time’s news
FTLN 1642 Be known when ’tis brought forth. A shepherd’s
FTLN 1643 daughter
FTLN 1644 And what to her adheres, which follows after,
FTLN 1645 30 Is th’ argument of Time. Of this allow,
FTLN 1646 If ever you have spent time worse ere now.
FTLN 1647 If never, yet that Time himself doth say
FTLN 1648 He wishes earnestly you never may.
He exits.
Scene 2
Enter Polixenes and Camillo.
POLIXENES FTLN 1649 I pray thee, good Camillo, be no more
FTLN 1650 importunate. ’Tis a sickness denying thee anything,
FTLN 1651 a death to grant this.
CAMILLO FTLN 1652 It is fifteen years since I saw my country.
FTLN 1653 5 Though I have for the most part been aired abroad,
FTLN 1654 I desire to lay my bones there. Besides, the penitent
FTLN 1655 king, my master, hath sent for me, to whose feeling
FTLN 1656 sorrows I might be some allay—or I o’erween to
FTLN 1657 think so—which is another spur to my departure.
POLIXENES FTLN 1658 10 As thou lov’st me, Camillo, wipe not out the
FTLN 1659 rest of thy services by leaving me now. The need I
FTLN 1660 have of thee thine own goodness hath made. Better
FTLN 1661 not to have had thee than thus to want thee. Thou,
FTLN 1662 having made me businesses which none without
FTLN 1663 15 thee can sufficiently manage, must either stay to
FTLN 1664 execute them thyself or take away with thee the very
FTLN 1665 services thou hast done, which if I have not enough
FTLN 1666 considered, as too much I cannot, to be more
FTLN 1667 thankful to thee shall be my study, and my profit
FTLN 1668 20 therein the heaping friendships. Of that fatal country

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FTLN 1669 Sicilia, prithee speak no more, whose very
FTLN 1670 naming punishes me with the remembrance of that
FTLN 1671 penitent, as thou call’st him, and reconciled king
FTLN 1672 my brother, whose loss of his most precious queen
FTLN 1673 25 and children are even now to be afresh lamented.
FTLN 1674 Say to me, when sawst thou the Prince Florizell, my
FTLN 1675 son? Kings are no less unhappy, their issue not
FTLN 1676 being gracious, than they are in losing them when
FTLN 1677 they have approved their virtues.
CAMILLO FTLN 1678 30 Sir, it is three days since I saw the Prince.
FTLN 1679 What his happier affairs may be are to me unknown,
FTLN 1680 but I have missingly noted he is of late
FTLN 1681 much retired from court and is less frequent to his
FTLN 1682 princely exercises than formerly he hath appeared.
POLIXENES FTLN 1683 35 I have considered so much, Camillo, and
FTLN 1684 with some care, so far that I have eyes under my
FTLN 1685 service which look upon his removedness, from
FTLN 1686 whom I have this intelligence: that he is seldom
FTLN 1687 from the house of a most homely shepherd, a man,
FTLN 1688 40 they say, that from very nothing, and beyond the
FTLN 1689 imagination of his neighbors, is grown into an
FTLN 1690 unspeakable estate.
CAMILLO FTLN 1691 I have heard, sir, of such a man, who hath a
FTLN 1692 daughter of most rare note. The report of her is
FTLN 1693 45 extended more than can be thought to begin from
FTLN 1694 such a cottage.
POLIXENES FTLN 1695 That’s likewise part of my intelligence, but,
FTLN 1696 I fear, the angle that plucks our son thither. Thou
FTLN 1697 shalt accompany us to the place, where we will, not
FTLN 1698 50 appearing what we are, have some question with
FTLN 1699 the shepherd, from whose simplicity I think it not
FTLN 1700 uneasy to get the cause of my son’s resort thither.
FTLN 1701 Prithee be my present partner in this business, and
FTLN 1702 lay aside the thoughts of Sicilia.
CAMILLO FTLN 1703 55 I willingly obey your command.

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POLIXENES FTLN 1704 My best Camillo. We must disguise
FTLN 1705 ourselves.
They exit.
Scene 3
Enter Autolycus singing.
AUTOLYCUS
FTLN 1706 When daffodils begin to peer,
FTLN 1707 With heigh, the doxy over the dale,
FTLN 1708 Why, then comes in the sweet o’ the year,
FTLN 1709 For the red blood reigns in the winter’s pale.
FTLN 1710 5 The white sheet bleaching on the hedge,
FTLN 1711 With heigh, the sweet birds, O how they sing!
FTLN 1712 Doth set my pugging tooth an edge,
FTLN 1713 For a quart of ale is a dish for a king.
FTLN 1714 The lark, that tirralirra chants,
FTLN 1715 10 With heigh, with heigh, the thrush and the jay,
FTLN 1716 Are summer songs for me and my aunts,
FTLN 1717 While we lie tumbling in the hay.
FTLN 1718 I have served Prince Florizell and in my time wore
FTLN 1719 three-pile, but now I am out of service.
FTLN 1720 15 But shall I go mourn for that, my dear?
FTLN 1721 The pale moon shines by night,
FTLN 1722 And when I wander here and there,
FTLN 1723 I then do most go right.
FTLN 1724 If tinkers may have leave to live,
FTLN 1725 20 And bear the sow-skin budget,
FTLN 1726 Then my account I well may give,
FTLN 1727 And in the stocks avouch it.

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FTLN 1728 My traffic is sheets. When the kite builds, look to
FTLN 1729 lesser linen. My father named me Autolycus, who,
FTLN 1730 25 being, as I am, littered under Mercury, was likewise
FTLN 1731 a snapper-up of unconsidered trifles. With die and
FTLN 1732 drab I purchased this caparison, and my revenue is
FTLN 1733 the silly cheat. Gallows and knock are too powerful
FTLN 1734 on the highway. Beating and hanging are terrors to
FTLN 1735 30 me. For the life to come, I sleep out the thought of
FTLN 1736 it. A prize, a prize!
Enter Shepherd’s Son.
SHEPHERD’S SON FTLN 1737 Let me see, every ’leven wether tods,
FTLN 1738 every tod yields pound and odd shilling; fifteen
FTLN 1739 hundred shorn, what comes the wool to?
AUTOLYCUS , aside FTLN 1740 35 If the springe hold, the cock’s
FTLN 1741 mine. He lies down.
SHEPHERD’S SON FTLN 1742 I cannot do ’t without counters. Let
FTLN 1743 me see, what am I to buy for our sheep-shearing
FTLN 1744 feast? (He reads a paper.) Three pound of sugar,
FTLN 1745 40 five pound of currants, rice—what will this sister of
FTLN 1746 mine do with rice? But my father hath made her
FTLN 1747 mistress of the feast, and she lays it on. She hath
FTLN 1748 made me four-and-twenty nosegays for the shearers,
FTLN 1749 three-man song men all, and very good ones;
FTLN 1750 45 but they are most of them means and basses, but
FTLN 1751 one Puritan amongst them, and he sings psalms to
FTLN 1752 hornpipes. I must have saffron to color the warden
FTLN 1753 pies; mace; dates, none, that’s out of my note;
FTLN 1754 nutmegs, seven; a race or two of ginger, but that I
FTLN 1755 50 may beg; four pound of prunes, and as many of
FTLN 1756 raisins o’ th’ sun.
AUTOLYCUS , writhing as if in pain FTLN 1757 O, that ever I was
FTLN 1758 born!
SHEPHERD’S SON FTLN 1759 I’ th’ name of me!

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AUTOLYCUS FTLN 1760 55 O, help me, help me! Pluck but off these
FTLN 1761 rags, and then death, death.
SHEPHERD’S SON FTLN 1762 Alack, poor soul, thou hast need of
FTLN 1763 more rags to lay on thee rather than have these off.
AUTOLYCUS FTLN 1764 O sir, the loathsomeness of them offends
FTLN 1765 60 me more than the stripes I have received, which are
FTLN 1766 mighty ones and millions.
SHEPHERD’S SON FTLN 1767 Alas, poor man, a million of beating
FTLN 1768 may come to a great matter.
AUTOLYCUS FTLN 1769 I am robbed, sir, and beaten, my money
FTLN 1770 65 and apparel ta’en from me, and these detestable
FTLN 1771 things put upon me.
SHEPHERD’S SON FTLN 1772 What, by a horseman, or a footman?
AUTOLYCUS FTLN 1773 A footman, sweet sir, a footman.
SHEPHERD’S SON FTLN 1774 Indeed, he should be a footman by
FTLN 1775 70 the garments he has left with thee. If this be a
FTLN 1776 horseman’s coat, it hath seen very hot service. Lend
FTLN 1777 me thy hand; I’ll help thee. Come, lend me thy
FTLN 1778 hand.
AUTOLYCUS FTLN 1779 O, good sir, tenderly, O!
SHEPHERD’S SON FTLN 1780 75 Alas, poor soul.
AUTOLYCUS FTLN 1781 O, good sir, softly, good sir. I fear, sir, my
FTLN 1782 shoulder blade is out.
SHEPHERD’S SON FTLN 1783 How now? Canst stand?
AUTOLYCUS , stealing the Shepherd’s Son’s purse FTLN 1784 Softly,
FTLN 1785 80 dear sir, good sir, softly. You ha’ done me a charitable
FTLN 1786 office.
SHEPHERD’S SON FTLN 1787 Dost lack any money? I have a little
FTLN 1788 money for thee.
AUTOLYCUS FTLN 1789 No, good sweet sir, no, I beseech you, sir. I
FTLN 1790 85 have a kinsman not past three-quarters of a mile
FTLN 1791 hence, unto whom I was going. I shall there have
FTLN 1792 money or anything I want. Offer me no money, I
FTLN 1793 pray you; that kills my heart.
SHEPHERD’S SON FTLN 1794 What manner of fellow was he that
FTLN 1795 90 robbed you?

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AUTOLYCUS FTLN 1796 A fellow, sir, that I have known to go about
FTLN 1797 with troll-my-dames. I knew him once a servant of
FTLN 1798 the Prince. I cannot tell, good sir, for which of his
FTLN 1799 virtues it was, but he was certainly whipped out of
FTLN 1800 95 the court.
SHEPHERD’S SON FTLN 1801 His vices, you would say. There’s no
FTLN 1802 virtue whipped out of the court. They cherish it to
FTLN 1803 make it stay there, and yet it will no more but abide.
AUTOLYCUS FTLN 1804 Vices, I would say, sir. I know this man
FTLN 1805 100 well. He hath been since an ape-bearer, then a
FTLN 1806 process-server, a bailiff. Then he compassed a motion
FTLN 1807 of the Prodigal Son, and married a tinker’s wife
FTLN 1808 within a mile where my land and living lies, and,
FTLN 1809 having flown over many knavish professions, he
FTLN 1810 105 settled only in rogue. Some call him Autolycus.
SHEPHERD’S SON FTLN 1811 Out upon him! Prig, for my life, prig!
FTLN 1812 He haunts wakes, fairs, and bearbaitings.
AUTOLYCUS FTLN 1813 Very true, sir: he, sir, he. That’s the rogue
FTLN 1814 that put me into this apparel.
SHEPHERD’S SON FTLN 1815 110 Not a more cowardly rogue in all
FTLN 1816 Bohemia. If you had but looked big and spit at him,
FTLN 1817 he’d have run.
AUTOLYCUS FTLN 1818 I must confess to you, sir, I am no fighter. I
FTLN 1819 am false of heart that way, and that he knew, I
FTLN 1820 115 warrant him.
SHEPHERD’S SON FTLN 1821 How do you now?
AUTOLYCUS FTLN 1822 Sweet sir, much better than I was. I can
FTLN 1823 stand and walk. I will even take my leave of you and
FTLN 1824 pace softly towards my kinsman’s.
SHEPHERD’S SON FTLN 1825 120 Shall I bring thee on the way?
AUTOLYCUS FTLN 1826 No, good-faced sir, no, sweet sir.
SHEPHERD’S SON FTLN 1827 Then fare thee well. I must go buy
FTLN 1828 spices for our sheep-shearing.
AUTOLYCUS FTLN 1829 Prosper you, sweet sir.
Shepherd’s Son exits.
FTLN 1830 125 Your purse is not hot enough to purchase your

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FTLN 1831 spice. I’ll be with you at your sheep-shearing too. If
FTLN 1832 I make not this cheat bring out another, and the
FTLN 1833 shearers prove sheep, let me be unrolled and my
FTLN 1834 name put in the book of virtue.
Sings. FTLN 1835 130 Jog on, jog on, the footpath way,
FTLN 1836 And merrily hent the stile-a.
FTLN 1837 A merry heart goes all the day,
FTLN 1838 Your sad tires in a mile-a.
He exits.
Scene 4
Enter Florizell and Perdita.
FLORIZELL
FTLN 1839 These your unusual weeds to each part of you
FTLN 1840 Does give a life—no shepherdess, but Flora
FTLN 1841 Peering in April’s front. This your sheep-shearing
FTLN 1842 Is as a meeting of the petty gods,
FTLN 1843 5 And you the queen on ’t.
PERDITA FTLN 1844 Sir, my gracious lord,
FTLN 1845 To chide at your extremes it not becomes me;
FTLN 1846 O, pardon that I name them! Your high self,
FTLN 1847 The gracious mark o’ th’ land, you have obscured
FTLN 1848 10 With a swain’s wearing, and me, poor lowly maid,
FTLN 1849 Most goddesslike pranked up. But that our feasts
FTLN 1850 In every mess have folly, and the feeders
FTLN 1851 Digest it with a custom, I should blush
FTLN 1852 To see you so attired, swoon, I think,
FTLN 1853 15 To show myself a glass.
FLORIZELL FTLN 1854 I bless the time
FTLN 1855 When my good falcon made her flight across
FTLN 1856 Thy father’s ground.
PERDITA FTLN 1857 Now Jove afford you cause.
FTLN 1858 20 To me the difference forges dread. Your greatness

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FTLN 1859 Hath not been used to fear. Even now I tremble
FTLN 1860 To think your father by some accident
FTLN 1861 Should pass this way as you did. O the Fates,
FTLN 1862 How would he look to see his work, so noble,
FTLN 1863 25 Vilely bound up? What would he say? Or how
FTLN 1864 Should I, in these my borrowed flaunts, behold
FTLN 1865 The sternness of his presence?
FLORIZELL FTLN 1866 Apprehend
FTLN 1867 Nothing but jollity. The gods themselves,
FTLN 1868 30 Humbling their deities to love, have taken
FTLN 1869 The shapes of beasts upon them. Jupiter
FTLN 1870 Became a bull, and bellowed; the green Neptune
FTLN 1871 A ram, and bleated; and the fire-robed god,
FTLN 1872 Golden Apollo, a poor humble swain,
FTLN 1873 35 As I seem now. Their transformations
FTLN 1874 Were never for a piece of beauty rarer,
FTLN 1875 Nor in a way so chaste, since my desires
FTLN 1876 Run not before mine honor, nor my lusts
FTLN 1877 Burn hotter than my faith.
PERDITA FTLN 1878 40 O, but sir,
FTLN 1879 Your resolution cannot hold when ’tis
FTLN 1880 Opposed, as it must be, by th’ power of the King.
FTLN 1881 One of these two must be necessities,
FTLN 1882 Which then will speak: that you must change this
FTLN 1883 45 purpose
FTLN 1884 Or I my life.
FLORIZELL FTLN 1885 Thou dear’st Perdita,
FTLN 1886 With these forced thoughts I prithee darken not
FTLN 1887 The mirth o’ th’ feast. Or I’ll be thine, my fair,
FTLN 1888 50 Or not my father’s. For I cannot be
FTLN 1889 Mine own, nor anything to any, if
FTLN 1890 I be not thine. To this I am most constant,
FTLN 1891 Though destiny say no. Be merry, gentle.
FTLN 1892 Strangle such thoughts as these with anything
FTLN 1893 55 That you behold the while. Your guests are coming.

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FTLN 1894 Lift up your countenance as it were the day
FTLN 1895 Of celebration of that nuptial which
FTLN 1896 We two have sworn shall come.
PERDITA FTLN 1897 O Lady Fortune,
FTLN 1898 60 Stand you auspicious!
FLORIZELL FTLN 1899 See, your guests approach.
FTLN 1900 Address yourself to entertain them sprightly,
FTLN 1901 And let’s be red with mirth.
Enter Shepherd, Shepherd’s Son, Mopsa, Dorcas,
Shepherds and Shepherdesses, Servants, Musicians,
and Polixenes and Camillo in disguise.
SHEPHERD
FTLN 1902 Fie, daughter, when my old wife lived, upon
FTLN 1903 65 This day she was both pantler, butler, cook,
FTLN 1904 Both dame and servant; welcomed all; served all;
FTLN 1905 Would sing her song and dance her turn, now here
FTLN 1906 At upper end o’ th’ table, now i’ th’ middle;
FTLN 1907 On his shoulder, and his; her face afire
FTLN 1908 70 With labor, and the thing she took to quench it
FTLN 1909 She would to each one sip. You are retired
FTLN 1910 As if you were a feasted one and not
FTLN 1911 The hostess of the meeting. Pray you bid
FTLN 1912 These unknown friends to ’s welcome, for it is
FTLN 1913 75 A way to make us better friends, more known.
FTLN 1914 Come, quench your blushes and present yourself
FTLN 1915 That which you are, mistress o’ th’ feast. Come on,
FTLN 1916 And bid us welcome to your sheep-shearing,
FTLN 1917 As your good flock shall prosper.
PERDITA , to Polixenes FTLN 1918 80 Sir, welcome.
FTLN 1919 It is my father’s will I should take on me
FTLN 1920 The hostess-ship o’ th’ day. To Camillo. You’re
FTLN 1921 welcome, sir.—
FTLN 1922 Give me those flowers there, Dorcas.—Reverend
FTLN 1923 85 sirs,

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FTLN 1924 For you there’s rosemary and rue. These keep
FTLN 1925 Seeming and savor all the winter long.
FTLN 1926 Grace and remembrance be to you both,
FTLN 1927 And welcome to our shearing.
POLIXENES FTLN 1928 90 Shepherdess—
FTLN 1929 A fair one are you—well you fit our ages
FTLN 1930 With flowers of winter.
PERDITA FTLN 1931 Sir, the year growing ancient,
FTLN 1932 Not yet on summer’s death nor on the birth
FTLN 1933 95 Of trembling winter, the fairest flowers o’ th’ season
FTLN 1934 Are our carnations and streaked gillyvors,
FTLN 1935 Which some call nature’s bastards. Of that kind
FTLN 1936 Our rustic garden’s barren, and I care not
FTLN 1937 To get slips of them.
POLIXENES FTLN 1938 100 Wherefore, gentle maiden,
FTLN 1939 Do you neglect them?
PERDITA FTLN 1940 For I have heard it said
FTLN 1941 There is an art which in their piedness shares
FTLN 1942 With great creating nature.
POLIXENES FTLN 1943 105 Say there be;
FTLN 1944 Yet nature is made better by no mean
FTLN 1945 But nature makes that mean. So, over that art
FTLN 1946 Which you say adds to nature is an art
FTLN 1947 That nature makes. You see, sweet maid, we marry
FTLN 1948 110 A gentler scion to the wildest stock,
FTLN 1949 And make conceive a bark of baser kind
FTLN 1950 By bud of nobler race. This is an art
FTLN 1951 Which does mend nature, change it rather, but
FTLN 1952 The art itself is nature.
PERDITA FTLN 1953 115 So it is.
POLIXENES
FTLN 1954 Then make your garden rich in gillyvors,
FTLN 1955 And do not call them bastards.
PERDITA FTLN 1956 I’ll not put
FTLN 1957 The dibble in earth to set one slip of them,

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FTLN 1958 120 No more than, were I painted, I would wish
FTLN 1959 This youth should say ’twere well, and only
FTLN 1960 therefore
FTLN 1961 Desire to breed by me. Here’s flowers for you:
FTLN 1962 Hot lavender, mints, savory, marjoram,
FTLN 1963 125 The marigold, that goes to bed wi’ th’ sun
FTLN 1964 And with him rises weeping. These are flowers
FTLN 1965 Of middle summer, and I think they are given
FTLN 1966 To men of middle age. You’re very welcome.
CAMILLO
FTLN 1967 I should leave grazing, were I of your flock,
FTLN 1968 130 And only live by gazing.
PERDITA FTLN 1969 Out, alas!
FTLN 1970 You’d be so lean that blasts of January
FTLN 1971 Would blow you through and through. (To
Florizell.) FTLN 1972 Now, my fair’st friend,
FTLN 1973 135 I would I had some flowers o’ th’ spring, that might
FTLN 1974 Become your time of day, (to the Shepherdesses)
FTLN 1975 and yours, and yours,
FTLN 1976 That wear upon your virgin branches yet
FTLN 1977 Your maidenheads growing. O Proserpina,
FTLN 1978 140 For the flowers now that, frighted, thou let’st fall
FTLN 1979 From Dis’s wagon! Daffodils,
FTLN 1980 That come before the swallow dares, and take
FTLN 1981 The winds of March with beauty; violets dim,
FTLN 1982 But sweeter than the lids of Juno’s eyes
FTLN 1983 145 Or Cytherea’s breath; pale primroses,
FTLN 1984 That die unmarried ere they can behold
FTLN 1985 Bright Phoebus in his strength—a malady
FTLN 1986 Most incident to maids; bold oxlips and
FTLN 1987 The crown imperial; lilies of all kinds,
FTLN 1988 150 The flower-de-luce being one—O, these I lack
FTLN 1989 To make you garlands of, and my sweet friend,
FTLN 1990 To strew him o’er and o’er.
FLORIZELL FTLN 1991 What, like a corse?

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ACT 4. SC. 4
PERDITA
FTLN 1992 No, like a bank for love to lie and play on,
FTLN 1993 155 Not like a corse; or if, not to be buried,
FTLN 1994 But quick and in mine arms. Come, take your
FTLN 1995 flowers.
FTLN 1996 Methinks I play as I have seen them do
FTLN 1997 In Whitsun pastorals. Sure this robe of mine
FTLN 1998 160 Does change my disposition.
FLORIZELL FTLN 1999 What you do
FTLN 2000 Still betters what is done. When you speak, sweet,
FTLN 2001 I’d have you do it ever. When you sing,
FTLN 2002 I’d have you buy and sell so, so give alms,
FTLN 2003 165 Pray so; and for the ord’ring your affairs,
FTLN 2004 To sing them too. When you do dance, I wish you
FTLN 2005 A wave o’ th’ sea, that you might ever do
FTLN 2006 Nothing but that, move still, still so,
FTLN 2007 And own no other function. Each your doing,
FTLN 2008 170 So singular in each particular,
FTLN 2009 Crowns what you are doing in the present deeds,
FTLN 2010 That all your acts are queens.
PERDITA FTLN 2011 O Doricles,
FTLN 2012 Your praises are too large. But that your youth
FTLN 2013 175 And the true blood which peeps fairly through ’t
FTLN 2014 Do plainly give you out an unstained shepherd,
FTLN 2015 With wisdom I might fear, my Doricles,
FTLN 2016 You wooed me the false way.
FLORIZELL FTLN 2017 I think you have
FTLN 2018 180 As little skill to fear as I have purpose
FTLN 2019 To put you to ’t. But come, our dance, I pray.
FTLN 2020 Your hand, my Perdita. So turtles pair
FTLN 2021 That never mean to part.
PERDITA FTLN 2022 I’ll swear for ’em.
POLIXENES , to Camillo
FTLN 2023 185 This is the prettiest lowborn lass that ever
FTLN 2024 Ran on the greensward. Nothing she does or seems
FTLN 2025 But smacks of something greater than herself,
FTLN 2026 Too noble for this place.

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CAMILLO FTLN 2027 He tells her something
FTLN 2028 190 That makes her blood look out. Good sooth, she is
FTLN 2029 The queen of curds and cream.
SHEPHERD’S SON , to Musicians FTLN 2030 Come on, strike up.
DORCAS
FTLN 2031 Mopsa must be your mistress? Marry, garlic
FTLN 2032 To mend her kissing with.
MOPSA FTLN 2033 195 Now, in good time!
SHEPHERD’S SON
FTLN 2034 Not a word, a word. We stand upon our manners.—
FTLN 2035 Come, strike up. Music begins.
Here a Dance of Shepherds and Shepherdesses.
POLIXENES
FTLN 2036 Pray, good shepherd, what fair swain is this
FTLN 2037 Which dances with your daughter?
SHEPHERD
FTLN 2038 200 They call him Doricles, and boasts himself
FTLN 2039 To have a worthy feeding. But I have it
FTLN 2040 Upon his own report, and I believe it.
FTLN 2041 He looks like sooth. He says he loves my daughter.
FTLN 2042 I think so too, for never gazed the moon
FTLN 2043 205 Upon the water as he’ll stand and read,
FTLN 2044 As ’twere, my daughter’s eyes. And, to be plain,
FTLN 2045 I think there is not half a kiss to choose
FTLN 2046 Who loves another best.
POLIXENES FTLN 2047 She dances featly.
SHEPHERD
FTLN 2048 210 So she does anything, though I report it
FTLN 2049 That should be silent. If young Doricles
FTLN 2050 Do light upon her, she shall bring him that
FTLN 2051 Which he not dreams of.
Enter a Servant.
SERVANT FTLN 2052 O, master, if you did but hear the peddler at
FTLN 2053 215 the door, you would never dance again after a tabor
FTLN 2054 and pipe; no, the bagpipe could not move you. He

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The Winter’s Tale
ACT 4. SC. 4
FTLN 2055 sings several tunes faster than you’ll tell money. He
FTLN 2056 utters them as he had eaten ballads and all men’s
FTLN 2057 ears grew to his tunes.
SHEPHERD’S SON FTLN 2058 220 He could never come better. He shall
FTLN 2059 come in. I love a ballad but even too well if it be
FTLN 2060 doleful matter merrily set down, or a very pleasant
FTLN 2061 thing indeed and sung lamentably.
SERVANT FTLN 2062 He hath songs for man or woman, of all sizes.
FTLN 2063 225 No milliner can so fit his customers with gloves. He
FTLN 2064 has the prettiest love songs for maids, so without
FTLN 2065 bawdry, which is strange, with such delicate burdens
FTLN 2066 of dildos and fadings, “Jump her and thump
FTLN 2067 her.” And where some stretch-mouthed rascal
FTLN 2068 230 would, as it were, mean mischief and break a foul
FTLN 2069 gap into the matter, he makes the maid to answer
FTLN 2070 “Whoop, do me no harm, good man”; puts him off,
FTLN 2071 slights him, with “Whoop, do me no harm, good
FTLN 2072 man.”
POLIXENES FTLN 2073 235 This is a brave fellow.
SHEPHERD’S SON FTLN 2074 Believe me, thou talkest of an admirable
FTLN 2075 conceited fellow. Has he any unbraided
FTLN 2076 wares?
SERVANT FTLN 2077 He hath ribbons of all the colors i’ th’ rainbow;
FTLN 2078 240 points more than all the lawyers in Bohemia
FTLN 2079 can learnedly handle, though they come to him by
FTLN 2080 th’ gross; inkles, caddises, cambrics, lawns—why,
FTLN 2081 he sings ’em over as they were gods or goddesses.
FTLN 2082 You would think a smock were a she-angel, he so
FTLN 2083 245 chants to the sleeve-hand and the work about the
FTLN 2084 square on ’t.
SHEPHERD’S SON FTLN 2085 Prithee bring him in, and let him
FTLN 2086 approach singing.
PERDITA FTLN 2087 Forewarn him that he use no scurrilous words
FTLN 2088 250 in ’s tunes. Servant exits.
SHEPHERD’S SON FTLN 2089 You have of these peddlers that have
FTLN 2090 more in them than you’d think, sister.

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PERDITA FTLN 2091 Ay, good brother, or go about to think.
Enter Autolycus, wearing a false beard, singing.
AUTOLYCUS
FTLN 2092 Lawn as white as driven snow,
FTLN 2093 255 Cypress black as e’er was crow,
FTLN 2094 Gloves as sweet as damask roses,
FTLN 2095 Masks for faces and for noses,
FTLN 2096 Bugle bracelet, necklace amber,
FTLN 2097 Perfume for a lady’s chamber,
FTLN 2098 260 Golden coifs and stomachers
FTLN 2099 For my lads to give their dears,
FTLN 2100 Pins and poking-sticks of steel,
FTLN 2101 What maids lack from head to heel,
FTLN 2102 Come buy of me, come. Come buy, come buy.
FTLN 2103 265 Buy, lads, or else your lasses cry.
FTLN 2104 Come buy.
SHEPHERD’S SON FTLN 2105 If I were not in love with Mopsa, thou
FTLN 2106 shouldst take no money of me; but being enthralled
FTLN 2107 as I am, it will also be the bondage of certain
FTLN 2108 270 ribbons and gloves.
MOPSA FTLN 2109 I was promised them against the feast, but they
FTLN 2110 come not too late now.
DORCAS FTLN 2111 He hath promised you more than that, or there
FTLN 2112 be liars.
MOPSA FTLN 2113 275 He hath paid you all he promised you. Maybe
FTLN 2114 he has paid you more, which will shame you to give
FTLN 2115 him again.
SHEPHERD’S SON FTLN 2116 Is there no manners left among
FTLN 2117 maids? Will they wear their plackets where they
FTLN 2118 280 should bear their faces? Is there not milking time,
FTLN 2119 when you are going to bed, or kiln-hole, to whistle
FTLN 2120 of these secrets, but you must be tittle-tattling
FTLN 2121 before all our guests? ’Tis well they are whisp’ring.
FTLN 2122 Clamor your tongues, and not a word more.

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MOPSA FTLN 2123 285 I have done. Come, you promised me a tawdry
FTLN 2124 lace and a pair of sweet gloves.
SHEPHERD’S SON FTLN 2125 Have I not told thee how I was cozened
FTLN 2126 by the way and lost all my money?
AUTOLYCUS FTLN 2127 And indeed, sir, there are cozeners abroad;
FTLN 2128 290 therefore it behooves men to be wary.
SHEPHERD’S SON FTLN 2129 Fear not thou, man. Thou shalt lose
FTLN 2130 nothing here.
AUTOLYCUS FTLN 2131 I hope so, sir, for I have about me many
FTLN 2132 parcels of charge.
SHEPHERD’S SON FTLN 2133 295 What hast here? Ballads?
MOPSA FTLN 2134 Pray now, buy some. I love a ballad in print
FTLN 2135 alife, for then we are sure they are true.
AUTOLYCUS FTLN 2136 Here’s one to a very doleful tune, how a
FTLN 2137 usurer’s wife was brought to bed of twenty moneybags
FTLN 2138 300 at a burden, and how she longed to eat adders’
FTLN 2139 heads and toads carbonadoed.
MOPSA FTLN 2140 Is it true, think you?
AUTOLYCUS FTLN 2141 Very true, and but a month old.
DORCAS FTLN 2142 Bless me from marrying a usurer!
AUTOLYCUS FTLN 2143 305 Here’s the midwife’s name to ’t, one Mistress
FTLN 2144 Taleporter, and five or six honest wives that
FTLN 2145 were present. Why should I carry lies abroad?
MOPSA , to Shepherd’s Son FTLN 2146 Pray you now, buy it.
SHEPHERD’S SON , to Autolycus FTLN 2147 Come on, lay it by, and
FTLN 2148 310 let’s first see more ballads. We’ll buy the other
FTLN 2149 things anon.
AUTOLYCUS FTLN 2150 Here’s another ballad, of a fish that appeared
FTLN 2151 upon the coast on Wednesday the fourscore
FTLN 2152 of April, forty thousand fathom above water, and
FTLN 2153 315 sung this ballad against the hard hearts of maids. It
FTLN 2154 was thought she was a woman, and was turned into
FTLN 2155 a cold fish for she would not exchange flesh with
FTLN 2156 one that loved her. The ballad is very pitiful, and as
FTLN 2157 true.
DORCAS FTLN 2158 320 Is it true too, think you?

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AUTOLYCUS FTLN 2159 Five justices’ hands at it, and witnesses
FTLN 2160 more than my pack will hold.
SHEPHERD’S SON FTLN 2161 Lay it by too. Another.
AUTOLYCUS FTLN 2162 This is a merry ballad, but a very pretty
FTLN 2163 325 one.
MOPSA FTLN 2164 Let’s have some merry ones.
AUTOLYCUS FTLN 2165 Why, this is a passing merry one and goes
FTLN 2166 to the tune of “Two Maids Wooing a Man.” There’s
FTLN 2167 scarce a maid westward but she sings it. ’Tis in
FTLN 2168 330 request, I can tell you.
MOPSA FTLN 2169 We can both sing it. If thou ’lt bear a part, thou
FTLN 2170 shalt hear; ’tis in three parts.
DORCAS FTLN 2171 We had the tune on ’t a month ago.
AUTOLYCUS FTLN 2172 I can bear my part. You must know ’tis my
FTLN 2173 335 occupation. Have at it with you.
Song.
AUTOLYCUS FTLN 2174 Get you hence, for I must go
FTLN 2175 Where it fits not you to know.
DORCAS FTLN 2176 Whither?
MOPSA FTLN 2177 O, whither?
DORCAS FTLN 2178 340 Whither?
MOPSA FTLN 2179 It becomes thy oath full well
FTLN 2180 Thou to me thy secrets tell.
DORCAS FTLN 2181 Me too. Let me go thither.
MOPSA FTLN 2182 Or thou goest to th’ grange or mill.
DORCAS FTLN 2183 345 If to either, thou dost ill.
AUTOLYCUS FTLN 2184 Neither.
DORCAS FTLN 2185 What, neither?
AUTOLYCUS FTLN 2186 Neither.
DORCAS FTLN 2187 Thou hast sworn my love to be.
MOPSA FTLN 2188 350 Thou hast sworn it more to me.
FTLN 2189 Then whither goest? Say whither.
SHEPHERD’S SON FTLN 2190 We’ll have this song out anon by
FTLN 2191 ourselves. My father and the gentlemen are in sad

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FTLN 2192 talk, and we’ll not trouble them. Come, bring away
FTLN 2193 355 thy pack after me.—Wenches, I’ll buy for you
FTLN 2194 both.—Peddler, let’s have the first choice.—Follow
FTLN 2195 me, girls.
He exits with Mopsa, Dorcas, Shepherds and
Shepherdesses.
AUTOLYCUS FTLN 2196 And you shall pay well for ’em.
Song.
FTLN 2197 Will you buy any tape,
FTLN 2198 360 Or lace for your cape,
FTLN 2199 My dainty duck, my dear-a?
FTLN 2200 Any silk, any thread,
FTLN 2201 Any toys for your head,
FTLN 2202 Of the new’st and fin’st, fin’st wear-a?
FTLN 2203 365 Come to the peddler.
FTLN 2204 Money’s a meddler
FTLN 2205 That doth utter all men’s ware-a.
He exits.
Enter a Servant.
SERVANT , to Shepherd FTLN 2206 Master, there is three carters,
FTLN 2207 three shepherds, three neatherds, three swineherds,
FTLN 2208 370 that have made themselves all men of hair.
FTLN 2209 They call themselves saultiers, and they have a
FTLN 2210 dance which the wenches say is a gallimaufry of
FTLN 2211 gambols, because they are not in ’t, but they themselves
FTLN 2212 are o’ th’ mind, if it be not too rough for
FTLN 2213 375 some that know little but bowling, it will please
FTLN 2214 plentifully.
SHEPHERD FTLN 2215 Away! We’ll none on ’t. Here has been too
FTLN 2216 much homely foolery already.—I know, sir, we
FTLN 2217 weary you.
POLIXENES FTLN 2218 380 You weary those that refresh us. Pray, let’s
FTLN 2219 see these four threes of herdsmen.

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SERVANT FTLN 2220 One three of them, by their own report, sir,
FTLN 2221 hath danced before the King, and not the worst of
FTLN 2222 the three but jumps twelve foot and a half by th’
FTLN 2223 385 square.
SHEPHERD FTLN 2224 Leave your prating. Since these good men
FTLN 2225 are pleased, let them come in—but quickly now.
SERVANT FTLN 2226 Why, they stay at door, sir.
He admits the herdsmen.
Here a Dance of twelve herdsmen, dressed as Satyrs.
Herdsmen, Musicians, and Servants exit.
POLIXENES , to Shepherd
FTLN 2227 O father, you’ll know more of that hereafter.
FTLN 2228 390 Aside to Camillo. Is it not too far gone? ’Tis time to
FTLN 2229 part them.
FTLN 2230 He’s simple, and tells much. To Florizell. How now,
FTLN 2231 fair shepherd?
FTLN 2232 Your heart is full of something that does take
FTLN 2233 395 Your mind from feasting. Sooth, when I was young
FTLN 2234 And handed love, as you do, I was wont
FTLN 2235 To load my she with knacks. I would have ransacked
FTLN 2236 The peddler’s silken treasury and have poured it
FTLN 2237 To her acceptance. You have let him go
FTLN 2238 400 And nothing marted with him. If your lass
FTLN 2239 Interpretation should abuse and call this
FTLN 2240 Your lack of love or bounty, you were straited
FTLN 2241 For a reply, at least if you make a care
FTLN 2242 Of happy holding her.
FLORIZELL FTLN 2243 405 Old sir, I know
FTLN 2244 She prizes not such trifles as these are.
FTLN 2245 The gifts she looks from me are packed and locked
FTLN 2246 Up in my heart, which I have given already,
FTLN 2247 But not delivered. To Perdita. O, hear me breathe
FTLN 2248 410 my life
FTLN 2249 Before this ancient sir, who, it should seem,

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FTLN 2250 Hath sometime loved. I take thy hand, this hand
FTLN 2251 As soft as dove’s down and as white as it,
FTLN 2252 Or Ethiopian’s tooth, or the fanned snow that’s
FTLN 2253 415 bolted
FTLN 2254 By th’ northern blasts twice o’er.
POLIXENES FTLN 2255 What follows this?—
FTLN 2256 How prettily th’ young swain seems to wash
FTLN 2257 The hand was fair before.—I have put you out.
FTLN 2258 420 But to your protestation. Let me hear
FTLN 2259 What you profess.
FLORIZELL FTLN 2260 Do, and be witness to ’t.
POLIXENES
FTLN 2261 And this my neighbor too?
FLORIZELL FTLN 2262 And he, and more
FTLN 2263 425 Than he, and men—the Earth, the heavens, and
FTLN 2264 all—
FTLN 2265 That were I crowned the most imperial monarch,
FTLN 2266 Thereof most worthy, were I the fairest youth
FTLN 2267 That ever made eye swerve, had force and knowledge
FTLN 2268 430 More than was ever man’s, I would not prize them
FTLN 2269 Without her love; for her employ them all,
FTLN 2270 Commend them and condemn them to her service
FTLN 2271 Or to their own perdition.
POLIXENES FTLN 2272 Fairly offered.
CAMILLO
FTLN 2273 435 This shows a sound affection.
SHEPHERD FTLN 2274 But my daughter,
FTLN 2275 Say you the like to him?
PERDITA FTLN 2276 I cannot speak
FTLN 2277 So well, nothing so well, no, nor mean better.
FTLN 2278 440 By th’ pattern of mine own thoughts I cut out
FTLN 2279 The purity of his.
SHEPHERD FTLN 2280 Take hands, a bargain.—
FTLN 2281 And, friends unknown, you shall bear witness to ’t:
FTLN 2282 I give my daughter to him and will make
FTLN 2283 445 Her portion equal his.

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FLORIZELL FTLN 2284 O, that must be
FTLN 2285 I’ th’ virtue of your daughter. One being dead,
FTLN 2286 I shall have more than you can dream of yet,
FTLN 2287 Enough then for your wonder. But come on,
FTLN 2288 450 Contract us fore these witnesses.
SHEPHERD FTLN 2289 Come, your hand—
FTLN 2290 And daughter, yours.
POLIXENES , To Florizell FTLN 2291 Soft, swain, awhile, beseech
FTLN 2292 you.
FTLN 2293 455 Have you a father?
FLORIZELL FTLN 2294 I have, but what of him?
POLIXENES
FTLN 2295 Knows he of this?
FLORIZELL FTLN 2296 He neither does nor shall.
POLIXENES FTLN 2297 Methinks a father
FTLN 2298 460 Is at the nuptial of his son a guest
FTLN 2299 That best becomes the table. Pray you once more,
FTLN 2300 Is not your father grown incapable
FTLN 2301 Of reasonable affairs? Is he not stupid
FTLN 2302 With age and alt’ring rheums? Can he speak? Hear?
FTLN 2303 465 Know man from man? Dispute his own estate?
FTLN 2304 Lies he not bedrid, and again does nothing
FTLN 2305 But what he did being childish?
FLORIZELL FTLN 2306 No, good sir.
FTLN 2307 He has his health and ampler strength indeed
FTLN 2308 470 Than most have of his age.
POLIXENES FTLN 2309 By my white beard,
FTLN 2310 You offer him, if this be so, a wrong
FTLN 2311 Something unfilial. Reason my son
FTLN 2312 Should choose himself a wife, but as good reason
FTLN 2313 475 The father, all whose joy is nothing else
FTLN 2314 But fair posterity, should hold some counsel
FTLN 2315 In such a business.
FLORIZELL FTLN 2316 I yield all this;
FTLN 2317 But for some other reasons, my grave sir,

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FTLN 2318 480 Which ’tis not fit you know, I not acquaint
FTLN 2319 My father of this business.
POLIXENES FTLN 2320 Let him know ’t.
FLORIZELL
FTLN 2321 He shall not.
POLIXENES FTLN 2322 Prithee let him.
FLORIZELL FTLN 2323 485 No, he must not.
SHEPHERD
FTLN 2324 Let him, my son. He shall not need to grieve
FTLN 2325 At knowing of thy choice.
FLORIZELL FTLN 2326 Come, come, he must not.
FTLN 2327 Mark our contract.
POLIXENES , removing his disguise FTLN 2328 490 Mark your divorce,
FTLN 2329 young sir,
FTLN 2330 Whom son I dare not call. Thou art too base
FTLN 2331 To be acknowledged. Thou a scepter’s heir
FTLN 2332 That thus affects a sheep-hook!—Thou, old traitor,
FTLN 2333 495 I am sorry that by hanging thee I can
FTLN 2334 But shorten thy life one week.—And thou, fresh
FTLN 2335 piece
FTLN 2336 Of excellent witchcraft, whom of force must know
FTLN 2337 The royal fool thou cop’st with—
SHEPHERD FTLN 2338 500 O, my heart!
POLIXENES
FTLN 2339 I’ll have thy beauty scratched with briers and made
FTLN 2340 More homely than thy state.—For thee, fond boy,
FTLN 2341 If I may ever know thou dost but sigh
FTLN 2342 That thou no more shalt see this knack—as never
FTLN 2343 505 I mean thou shalt—we’ll bar thee from succession,
FTLN 2344 Not hold thee of our blood, no, not our kin,
FTLN 2345 Far’r than Deucalion off. Mark thou my words.
FTLN 2346 Follow us to the court. To Shepherd. Thou, churl,
FTLN 2347 for this time,
FTLN 2348 510 Though full of our displeasure, yet we free thee
FTLN 2349 From the dead blow of it.—And you, enchantment,
FTLN 2350 Worthy enough a herdsman—yea, him too,

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FTLN 2351 That makes himself, but for our honor therein,
FTLN 2352 Unworthy thee—if ever henceforth thou
FTLN 2353 515 These rural latches to his entrance open,
FTLN 2354 Or hoop his body more with thy embraces,
FTLN 2355 I will devise a death as cruel for thee
FTLN 2356 As thou art tender to ’t. He exits.
PERDITA FTLN 2357 Even here undone.
FTLN 2358 520 I was not much afeard, for once or twice
FTLN 2359 I was about to speak and tell him plainly
FTLN 2360 The selfsame sun that shines upon his court
FTLN 2361 Hides not his visage from our cottage but
FTLN 2362 Looks on alike. To Florizell. Will ’t please you, sir,
FTLN 2363 525 be gone?
FTLN 2364 I told you what would come of this. Beseech you,
FTLN 2365 Of your own state take care. This dream of mine—
FTLN 2366 Being now awake, I’ll queen it no inch farther,
FTLN 2367 But milk my ewes and weep.
CAMILLO , to Shepherd FTLN 2368 530 Why, how now, father?
FTLN 2369 Speak ere thou diest.
SHEPHERD FTLN 2370 I cannot speak, nor think,
FTLN 2371 Nor dare to know that which I know. To Florizell.
FTLN 2372 O sir,
FTLN 2373 535 You have undone a man of fourscore three,
FTLN 2374 That thought to fill his grave in quiet, yea,
FTLN 2375 To die upon the bed my father died,
FTLN 2376 To lie close by his honest bones; but now
FTLN 2377 Some hangman must put on my shroud and lay me
FTLN 2378 540 Where no priest shovels in dust. To Perdita. O
FTLN 2379 cursèd wretch,
FTLN 2380 That knew’st this was the Prince, and wouldst
FTLN 2381 adventure
FTLN 2382 To mingle faith with him!—Undone, undone!
FTLN 2383 545 If I might die within this hour, I have lived
FTLN 2384 To die when I desire. He exits.
FLORIZELL , to Perdita FTLN 2385 Why look you so upon me?
FTLN 2386 I am but sorry, not afeard; delayed,

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FTLN 2387 But nothing altered. What I was, I am,
FTLN 2388 550 More straining on for plucking back, not following
FTLN 2389 My leash unwillingly.
CAMILLO FTLN 2390 Gracious my lord,
FTLN 2391 You know your father’s temper. At this time
FTLN 2392 He will allow no speech, which I do guess
FTLN 2393 555 You do not purpose to him; and as hardly
FTLN 2394 Will he endure your sight as yet, I fear.
FTLN 2395 Then, till the fury of his Highness settle,
FTLN 2396 Come not before him.
FLORIZELL FTLN 2397 I not purpose it.
FTLN 2398 560 I think Camillo?
CAMILLO , removing his disguise FTLN 2399 Even he, my lord.
PERDITA , to Florizell
FTLN 2400 How often have I told you ’twould be thus?
FTLN 2401 How often said my dignity would last
FTLN 2402 But till ’twere known?
FLORIZELL FTLN 2403 565 It cannot fail but by
FTLN 2404 The violation of my faith; and then
FTLN 2405 Let nature crush the sides o’ th’ Earth together
FTLN 2406 And mar the seeds within. Lift up thy looks.
FTLN 2407 From my succession wipe me, father. I
FTLN 2408 570 Am heir to my affection.
CAMILLO FTLN 2409 Be advised.
FLORIZELL
FTLN 2410 I am, and by my fancy. If my reason
FTLN 2411 Will thereto be obedient, I have reason.
FTLN 2412 If not, my senses, better pleased with madness,
FTLN 2413 575 Do bid it welcome.
CAMILLO FTLN 2414 This is desperate, sir.
FLORIZELL
FTLN 2415 So call it; but it does fulfill my vow.
FTLN 2416 I needs must think it honesty. Camillo,
FTLN 2417 Not for Bohemia nor the pomp that may
FTLN 2418 580 Be thereat gleaned, for all the sun sees or
FTLN 2419 The close earth wombs or the profound seas hides

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ACT 4. SC. 4
FTLN 2420 In unknown fathoms, will I break my oath
FTLN 2421 To this my fair beloved. Therefore, I pray you,
FTLN 2422 As you have ever been my father’s honored friend,
FTLN 2423 585 When he shall miss me, as in faith I mean not
FTLN 2424 To see him anymore, cast your good counsels
FTLN 2425 Upon his passion. Let myself and fortune
FTLN 2426 Tug for the time to come. This you may know
FTLN 2427 And so deliver: I am put to sea
FTLN 2428 590 With her who here I cannot hold on shore.
FTLN 2429 And most opportune to our need I have
FTLN 2430 A vessel rides fast by, but not prepared
FTLN 2431 For this design. What course I mean to hold
FTLN 2432 Shall nothing benefit your knowledge, nor
FTLN 2433 595 Concern me the reporting.
CAMILLO FTLN 2434 O my lord,
FTLN 2435 I would your spirit were easier for advice
FTLN 2436 Or stronger for your need.
FLORIZELL FTLN 2437 Hark, Perdita.—
FTLN 2438 600 I’ll hear you by and by.
Florizell and Perdita walk aside.
CAMILLO FTLN 2439 He’s irremovable,
FTLN 2440 Resolved for flight. Now were I happy if
FTLN 2441 His going I could frame to serve my turn,
FTLN 2442 Save him from danger, do him love and honor,
FTLN 2443 605 Purchase the sight again of dear Sicilia
FTLN 2444 And that unhappy king, my master, whom
FTLN 2445 I so much thirst to see.
FLORIZELL , coming forward FTLN 2446 Now, good Camillo,
FTLN 2447 I am so fraught with curious business that
FTLN 2448 610 I leave out ceremony.
CAMILLO FTLN 2449 Sir, I think
FTLN 2450 You have heard of my poor services i’ th’ love
FTLN 2451 That I have borne your father?
FLORIZELL FTLN 2452 Very nobly
FTLN 2453 615 Have you deserved. It is my father’s music

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FTLN 2454 To speak your deeds, not little of his care
FTLN 2455 To have them recompensed as thought on.
CAMILLO FTLN 2456 Well, my
FTLN 2457 lord,
FTLN 2458 620 If you may please to think I love the King
FTLN 2459 And, through him, what’s nearest to him, which is
FTLN 2460 Your gracious self, embrace but my direction,
FTLN 2461 If your more ponderous and settled project
FTLN 2462 May suffer alteration. On mine honor,
FTLN 2463 625 I’ll point you where you shall have such receiving
FTLN 2464 As shall become your Highness, where you may
FTLN 2465 Enjoy your mistress—from the whom I see
FTLN 2466 There’s no disjunction to be made but by,
FTLN 2467 As heavens forfend, your ruin—marry her,
FTLN 2468 630 And with my best endeavors in your absence,
FTLN 2469 Your discontenting father strive to qualify
FTLN 2470 And bring him up to liking.
FLORIZELL FTLN 2471 How, Camillo,
FTLN 2472 May this, almost a miracle, be done,
FTLN 2473 635 That I may call thee something more than man,
FTLN 2474 And after that trust to thee?
CAMILLO FTLN 2475 Have you thought on
FTLN 2476 A place whereto you’ll go?
FLORIZELL FTLN 2477 Not any yet.
FTLN 2478 640 But as th’ unthought-on accident is guilty
FTLN 2479 To what we wildly do, so we profess
FTLN 2480 Ourselves to be the slaves of chance, and flies
FTLN 2481 Of every wind that blows.
CAMILLO FTLN 2482 Then list to me.
FTLN 2483 645 This follows: if you will not change your purpose
FTLN 2484 But undergo this flight, make for Sicilia,
FTLN 2485 And there present yourself and your fair princess,
FTLN 2486 For so I see she must be, ’fore Leontes.
FTLN 2487 She shall be habited as it becomes
FTLN 2488 650 The partner of your bed. Methinks I see

173
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ACT 4. SC. 4
FTLN 2489 Leontes opening his free arms and weeping
FTLN 2490 His welcomes forth, asks thee, the son, forgiveness,
FTLN 2491 As ’twere i’ th’ father’s person; kisses the hands
FTLN 2492 Of your fresh princess; o’er and o’er divides him
FTLN 2493 655 ’Twixt his unkindness and his kindness. Th’ one
FTLN 2494 He chides to hell and bids the other grow
FTLN 2495 Faster than thought or time.
FLORIZELL FTLN 2496 Worthy Camillo,
FTLN 2497 What color for my visitation shall I
FTLN 2498 660 Hold up before him?
CAMILLO FTLN 2499 Sent by the King your father
FTLN 2500 To greet him and to give him comforts. Sir,
FTLN 2501 The manner of your bearing towards him, with
FTLN 2502 What you, as from your father, shall deliver,
FTLN 2503 665 Things known betwixt us three, I’ll write you down,
FTLN 2504 The which shall point you forth at every sitting
FTLN 2505 What you must say, that he shall not perceive
FTLN 2506 But that you have your father’s bosom there
FTLN 2507 And speak his very heart.
FLORIZELL FTLN 2508 670 I am bound to you.
FTLN 2509 There is some sap in this.
CAMILLO FTLN 2510 A course more promising
FTLN 2511 Than a wild dedication of yourselves
FTLN 2512 To unpathed waters, undreamed shores, most
FTLN 2513 675 certain
FTLN 2514 To miseries enough; no hope to help you,
FTLN 2515 But as you shake off one to take another;
FTLN 2516 Nothing so certain as your anchors, who
FTLN 2517 Do their best office if they can but stay you
FTLN 2518 680 Where you’ll be loath to be. Besides, you know
FTLN 2519 Prosperity’s the very bond of love,
FTLN 2520 Whose fresh complexion and whose heart together
FTLN 2521 Affliction alters.
PERDITA FTLN 2522 One of these is true.
FTLN 2523 685 I think affliction may subdue the cheek
FTLN 2524 But not take in the mind.

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ACT 4. SC. 4
CAMILLO FTLN 2525 Yea, say you so?
FTLN 2526 There shall not at your father’s house these seven
FTLN 2527 years
FTLN 2528 690 Be born another such.
FLORIZELL FTLN 2529 My good Camillo,
FTLN 2530 She’s as forward of her breeding as she is
FTLN 2531 I’ th’ rear our birth.
CAMILLO FTLN 2532 I cannot say ’tis pity
FTLN 2533 695 She lacks instructions, for she seems a mistress
FTLN 2534 To most that teach.
PERDITA FTLN 2535 Your pardon, sir. For this
FTLN 2536 I’ll blush you thanks.
FLORIZELL FTLN 2537 My prettiest Perdita.
FTLN 2538 700 But O, the thorns we stand upon!—Camillo,
FTLN 2539 Preserver of my father, now of me,
FTLN 2540 The medicine of our house, how shall we do?
FTLN 2541 We are not furnished like Bohemia’s son,
FTLN 2542 Nor shall appear in Sicilia.
CAMILLO FTLN 2543 705 My lord,
FTLN 2544 Fear none of this. I think you know my fortunes
FTLN 2545 Do all lie there. It shall be so my care
FTLN 2546 To have you royally appointed as if
FTLN 2547 The scene you play were mine. For instance, sir,
FTLN 2548 710 That you may know you shall not want, one word.
They step aside and talk.
Enter Autolycus.
AUTOLYCUS FTLN 2549 Ha, ha, what a fool Honesty is! And Trust,
FTLN 2550 his sworn brother, a very simple gentleman! I have
FTLN 2551 sold all my trumpery. Not a counterfeit stone, not a
FTLN 2552 ribbon, glass, pomander, brooch, table book, ballad,
FTLN 2553 715 knife, tape, glove, shoe tie, bracelet, horn ring,
FTLN 2554 to keep my pack from fasting. They throng who
FTLN 2555 should buy first, as if my trinkets had been hallowed
FTLN 2556 and brought a benediction to the buyer; by which
FTLN 2557 means I saw whose purse was best in picture, and

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ACT 4. SC. 4
FTLN 2558 720 what I saw, to my good use I remembered. My
FTLN 2559 clown, who wants but something to be a reasonable
FTLN 2560 man, grew so in love with the wenches’ song that he
FTLN 2561 would not stir his pettitoes till he had both tune and
FTLN 2562 words, which so drew the rest of the herd to me that
FTLN 2563 725 all their other senses stuck in ears. You might have
FTLN 2564 pinched a placket, it was senseless; ’twas nothing to
FTLN 2565 geld a codpiece of a purse. I could have filed
FTLN 2566 keys off that hung in chains. No hearing, no feeling,
FTLN 2567 but my sir’s song and admiring the nothing of it. So
FTLN 2568 730 that in this time of lethargy I picked and cut most of
FTLN 2569 their festival purses. And had not the old man come
FTLN 2570 in with a hubbub against his daughter and the
FTLN 2571 King’s son, and scared my choughs from the chaff, I
FTLN 2572 had not left a purse alive in the whole army.
Camillo, Florizell, and Perdita come forward.
CAMILLO , to Florizell
FTLN 2573 735 Nay, but my letters, by this means being there
FTLN 2574 So soon as you arrive, shall clear that doubt.
FLORIZELL
FTLN 2575 And those that you’ll procure from King Leontes—
CAMILLO
FTLN 2576 Shall satisfy your father.
PERDITA FTLN 2577 Happy be you!
FTLN 2578 740 All that you speak shows fair.
CAMILLO , noticing Autolycus FTLN 2579 Who have we here?
FTLN 2580 We’ll make an instrument of this, omit
FTLN 2581 Nothing may give us aid.
AUTOLYCUS , aside
FTLN 2582 If they have overheard me now, why, hanging.
CAMILLO FTLN 2583 745 How now, good fellow? Why shak’st thou so?
FTLN 2584 Fear not, man. Here’s no harm intended to thee.
AUTOLYCUS FTLN 2585 I am a poor fellow, sir.
CAMILLO FTLN 2586 Why, be so still. Here’s nobody will steal that
FTLN 2587 from thee. Yet for the outside of thy poverty we

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ACT 4. SC. 4
FTLN 2588 750 must make an exchange. Therefore discase thee
FTLN 2589 instantly—thou must think there’s a necessity in
FTLN 2590 ’t—and change garments with this gentleman.
FTLN 2591 Though the pennyworth on his side be the worst,
FTLN 2592 yet hold thee, there’s some boot.
He hands Autolycus money.
AUTOLYCUS FTLN 2593 755 I am a poor fellow, sir. Aside. I know you
FTLN 2594 well enough.
CAMILLO FTLN 2595 Nay, prithee, dispatch. The gentleman is half
FTLN 2596 flayed already.
AUTOLYCUS FTLN 2597 Are you in earnest, sir? Aside. I smell the
FTLN 2598 760 trick on ’t.
FLORIZELL FTLN 2599 Dispatch, I prithee.
AUTOLYCUS FTLN 2600 Indeed, I have had earnest, but I cannot
FTLN 2601 with conscience take it.
CAMILLO FTLN 2602 Unbuckle, unbuckle.
Florizell and Autolycus exchange garments.
FTLN 2603 765 Fortunate mistress—let my prophecy
FTLN 2604 Come home to you!—you must retire yourself
FTLN 2605 Into some covert. Take your sweetheart’s hat
FTLN 2606 And pluck it o’er your brows, muffle your face,
FTLN 2607 Dismantle you, and, as you can, disliken
FTLN 2608 770 The truth of your own seeming, that you may—
FTLN 2609 For I do fear eyes over—to shipboard
FTLN 2610 Get undescried.
PERDITA FTLN 2611 I see the play so lies
FTLN 2612 That I must bear a part.
CAMILLO FTLN 2613 775 No remedy.—
FTLN 2614 Have you done there?
FLORIZELL FTLN 2615 Should I now meet my father,
FTLN 2616 He would not call me son.
CAMILLO FTLN 2617 Nay, you shall have no hat.
He gives Florizell’s hat to Perdita.
FTLN 2618 780 Come, lady, come.—Farewell, my friend.
AUTOLYCUS FTLN 2619 Adieu, sir.

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FLORIZELL
FTLN 2620 O Perdita, what have we twain forgot?
FTLN 2621 Pray you, a word. They talk aside.
CAMILLO , aside
FTLN 2622 What I do next shall be to tell the King
FTLN 2623 785 Of this escape, and whither they are bound;
FTLN 2624 Wherein my hope is I shall so prevail
FTLN 2625 To force him after, in whose company
FTLN 2626 I shall re-view Sicilia, for whose sight
FTLN 2627 I have a woman’s longing.
FLORIZELL FTLN 2628 790 Fortune speed us!—
FTLN 2629 Thus we set on, Camillo, to th’ seaside.
CAMILLO FTLN 2630 The swifter speed the better.
Camillo, Florizell, and Perdita exit.
AUTOLYCUS FTLN 2631 I understand the business; I hear it. To have
FTLN 2632 an open ear, a quick eye, and a nimble hand is
FTLN 2633 795 necessary for a cutpurse; a good nose is requisite
FTLN 2634 also, to smell out work for th’ other senses. I see this
FTLN 2635 is the time that the unjust man doth thrive. What an
FTLN 2636 exchange had this been without boot! What a boot
FTLN 2637 is here with this exchange! Sure the gods do this
FTLN 2638 800 year connive at us, and we may do anything extempore.
FTLN 2639 The Prince himself is about a piece of iniquity,
FTLN 2640 stealing away from his father with his clog at his
FTLN 2641 heels. If I thought it were a piece of honesty to
FTLN 2642 acquaint the King withal, I would not do ’t. I hold it
FTLN 2643 805 the more knavery to conceal it, and therein am I
FTLN 2644 constant to my profession.
Enter Shepherd’s Son and Shepherd, carrying the
bundle and the box.
FTLN 2645 Aside, aside! Here is more matter for a hot brain.
FTLN 2646 Every lane’s end, every shop, church, session, hanging,
FTLN 2647 yields a careful man work. He moves aside.

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SHEPHERD’S SON , to Shepherd FTLN 2648 810 See, see, what a man
FTLN 2649 you are now! There is no other way but to tell the
FTLN 2650 King she’s a changeling and none of your flesh and
FTLN 2651 blood.
SHEPHERD FTLN 2652 Nay, but hear me.
SHEPHERD’S SON FTLN 2653 815 Nay, but hear me!
SHEPHERD FTLN 2654 Go to, then.
SHEPHERD’S SON FTLN 2655 She being none of your flesh and
FTLN 2656 blood, your flesh and blood has not offended the
FTLN 2657 King, and so your flesh and blood is not to be
FTLN 2658 820 punished by him. Show those things you found
FTLN 2659 about her, those secret things, all but what she has
FTLN 2660 with her. This being done, let the law go whistle, I
FTLN 2661 warrant you.
SHEPHERD FTLN 2662 I will tell the King all, every word, yea, and
FTLN 2663 825 his son’s pranks too; who, I may say, is no honest
FTLN 2664 man, neither to his father nor to me, to go about to
FTLN 2665 make me the King’s brother-in-law.
SHEPHERD’S SON FTLN 2666 Indeed, brother-in-law was the farthest
FTLN 2667 off you could have been to him, and then your
FTLN 2668 830 blood had been the dearer by I know how much an
FTLN 2669 ounce.
AUTOLYCUS , aside FTLN 2670 Very wisely, puppies.
SHEPHERD FTLN 2671 Well, let us to the King. There is that in this
FTLN 2672 fardel will make him scratch his beard.
AUTOLYCUS , aside FTLN 2673 835 I know not what impediment this
FTLN 2674 complaint may be to the flight of my master.
SHEPHERD’S SON FTLN 2675 Pray heartily he be at’ palace.
AUTOLYCUS , aside FTLN 2676 Though I am not naturally honest,
FTLN 2677 I am so sometimes by chance. Let me pocket up my
FTLN 2678 840 peddler’s excrement. (He removes his false beard.)
FTLN 2679 How now, rustics, whither are you bound?
SHEPHERD FTLN 2680 To th’ palace, an it like your Worship.
AUTOLYCUS FTLN 2681 Your affairs there? What, with whom, the
FTLN 2682 condition of that fardel, the place of your dwelling,

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ACT 4. SC. 4
FTLN 2683 845 your names, your ages, of what having, breeding,
FTLN 2684 and anything that is fitting to be known, discover!
SHEPHERD’S SON FTLN 2685 We are but plain fellows, sir.
AUTOLYCUS FTLN 2686 A lie; you are rough and hairy. Let me have
FTLN 2687 no lying. It becomes none but tradesmen, and they
FTLN 2688 850 often give us soldiers the lie, but we pay them for it
FTLN 2689 with stamped coin, not stabbing steel; therefore
FTLN 2690 they do not give us the lie.
SHEPHERD’S SON FTLN 2691 Your Worship had like to have given
FTLN 2692 us one, if you had not taken yourself with the
FTLN 2693 855 manner.
SHEPHERD FTLN 2694 Are you a courtier, an ’t like you, sir?
AUTOLYCUS FTLN 2695 Whether it like me or no, I am a courtier.
FTLN 2696 Seest thou not the air of the court in these enfoldings?
FTLN 2697 Hath not my gait in it the measure of the
FTLN 2698 860 court? Receives not thy nose court odor from me?
FTLN 2699 Reflect I not on thy baseness court contempt?
FTLN 2700 Think’st thou, for that I insinuate and toze from
FTLN 2701 thee thy business, I am therefore no courtier? I am
FTLN 2702 courtier cap-a-pie; and one that will either push on
FTLN 2703 865 or pluck back thy business there. Whereupon I
FTLN 2704 command thee to open thy affair.
SHEPHERD FTLN 2705 My business, sir, is to the King.
AUTOLYCUS FTLN 2706 What advocate hast thou to him?
SHEPHERD FTLN 2707 I know not, an ’t like you.
SHEPHERD’S SON , aside to Shepherd FTLN 2708 870 Advocate’s the
FTLN 2709 court word for a pheasant. Say you have none.
SHEPHERD , to Autolycus FTLN 2710 None, sir. I have no pheasant,
FTLN 2711 cock nor hen.
AUTOLYCUS
FTLN 2712 How blest are we that are not simple men!
FTLN 2713 875 Yet Nature might have made me as these are.
FTLN 2714 Therefore I will not disdain.
SHEPHERD’S SON , to Shepherd FTLN 2715 This cannot be but a
FTLN 2716 great courtier.

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ACT 4. SC. 4
SHEPHERD FTLN 2717 His garments are rich, but he wears them
FTLN 2718 880 not handsomely.
SHEPHERD’S SON FTLN 2719 He seems to be the more noble in
FTLN 2720 being fantastical. A great man, I’ll warrant. I know
FTLN 2721 by the picking on ’s teeth.
AUTOLYCUS FTLN 2722 The fardel there. What’s i’ th’ fardel?
FTLN 2723 885 Wherefore that box?
SHEPHERD FTLN 2724 Sir, there lies such secrets in this fardel and
FTLN 2725 box which none must know but the King, and
FTLN 2726 which he shall know within this hour if I may come
FTLN 2727 to th’ speech of him.
AUTOLYCUS FTLN 2728 890 Age, thou hast lost thy labor.
SHEPHERD FTLN 2729 Why, sir?
AUTOLYCUS FTLN 2730 The King is not at the palace. He is gone
FTLN 2731 aboard a new ship to purge melancholy and air
FTLN 2732 himself, for, if thou beest capable of things serious,
FTLN 2733 895 thou must know the King is full of grief.
SHEPHERD FTLN 2734 So ’tis said, sir—about his son, that should
FTLN 2735 have married a shepherd’s daughter.
AUTOLYCUS FTLN 2736 If that shepherd be not in handfast, let him
FTLN 2737 fly. The curses he shall have, the tortures he shall
FTLN 2738 900 feel, will break the back of man, the heart of
FTLN 2739 monster.
SHEPHERD’S SON FTLN 2740 Think you so, sir?
AUTOLYCUS FTLN 2741 Not he alone shall suffer what wit can
FTLN 2742 make heavy and vengeance bitter; but those that are
FTLN 2743 905 germane to him, though removed fifty times, shall
FTLN 2744 all come under the hangman—which, though it be
FTLN 2745 great pity, yet it is necessary. An old sheep-whistling
FTLN 2746 rogue, a ram tender, to offer to have his daughter
FTLN 2747 come into grace! Some say he shall be stoned, but
FTLN 2748 910 that death is too soft for him, say I. Draw our throne
FTLN 2749 into a sheepcote? All deaths are too few, the sharpest
FTLN 2750 too easy.
SHEPHERD’S SON FTLN 2751 Has the old man e’er a son, sir, do you
FTLN 2752 hear, an ’t like you, sir?

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AUTOLYCUS FTLN 2753 915 He has a son, who shall be flayed alive; then
FTLN 2754 ’nointed over with honey, set on the head of a
FTLN 2755 wasps’-nest; then stand till he be three-quarters and
FTLN 2756 a dram dead, then recovered again with aqua vitae
FTLN 2757 or some other hot infusion; then, raw as he is, and
FTLN 2758 920 in the hottest day prognostication proclaims, shall
FTLN 2759 he be set against a brick wall, the sun looking with a
FTLN 2760 southward eye upon him, where he is to behold him
FTLN 2761 with flies blown to death. But what talk we of these
FTLN 2762 traitorly rascals, whose miseries are to be smiled at,
FTLN 2763 925 their offenses being so capital? Tell me—for you
FTLN 2764 seem to be honest plain men—what you have to the
FTLN 2765 King. Being something gently considered, I’ll bring
FTLN 2766 you where he is aboard, tender your persons to his
FTLN 2767 presence, whisper him in your behalfs; and if it be
FTLN 2768 930 in man besides the King to effect your suits, here is
FTLN 2769 man shall do it.
SHEPHERD’S SON , to Shepherd FTLN 2770 He seems to be of
FTLN 2771 great authority. Close with him, give him gold; and
FTLN 2772 though authority be a stubborn bear, yet he is oft
FTLN 2773 935 led by the nose with gold. Show the inside of your
FTLN 2774 purse to the outside of his hand, and no more ado.
FTLN 2775 Remember: “stoned,” and “flayed alive.”
SHEPHERD , to Autolycus FTLN 2776 An ’t please you, sir, to
FTLN 2777 undertake the business for us, here is that gold I
FTLN 2778 940 have. I’ll make it as much more, and leave this
FTLN 2779 young man in pawn till I bring it you.
AUTOLYCUS FTLN 2780 After I have done what I promised?
SHEPHERD FTLN 2781 Ay, sir.
AUTOLYCUS FTLN 2782 Well, give me the moiety. Shepherd hands
him money. FTLN 2783 945 Are you a party in this business?
SHEPHERD’S SON FTLN 2784 In some sort, sir; but though my case
FTLN 2785 be a pitiful one, I hope I shall not be flayed out of it.
AUTOLYCUS FTLN 2786 O, that’s the case of the shepherd’s son!
FTLN 2787 Hang him, he’ll be made an example.
SHEPHERD’S SON , to Shepherd FTLN 2788 950 Comfort, good comfort.

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FTLN 2789 We must to the King, and show our strange
FTLN 2790 sights. He must know ’tis none of your daughter nor
FTLN 2791 my sister. We are gone else.—Sir, I will give you as
FTLN 2792 much as this old man does when the business is
FTLN 2793 955 performed, and remain, as he says, your pawn till it
FTLN 2794 be brought you.
AUTOLYCUS FTLN 2795 I will trust you. Walk before toward the
FTLN 2796 seaside. Go on the right hand. I will but look upon
FTLN 2797 the hedge, and follow you.
SHEPHERD’S SON , to Shepherd FTLN 2798 960 We are blessed in this
FTLN 2799 man, as I may say, even blessed.
SHEPHERD FTLN 2800 Let’s before, as he bids us. He was provided
FTLN 2801 to do us good. Shepherd and his son exit.
AUTOLYCUS FTLN 2802 If I had a mind to be honest, I see Fortune
FTLN 2803 965 would not suffer me. She drops booties in my
FTLN 2804 mouth. I am courted now with a double occasion:
FTLN 2805 gold, and a means to do the Prince my master good;
FTLN 2806 which who knows how that may turn back to my
FTLN 2807 advancement? I will bring these two moles, these
FTLN 2808 970 blind ones, aboard him. If he think it fit to shore
FTLN 2809 them again and that the complaint they have to the
FTLN 2810 King concerns him nothing, let him call me rogue
FTLN 2811 for being so far officious, for I am proof against that
FTLN 2812 title and what shame else belongs to ’t. To him will I
FTLN 2813 975 present them. There may be matter in it.
He exits.

ACT 5
Scene 1
Enter Leontes, Cleomenes, Dion, Paulina, and
Servants.
CLEOMENES
FTLN 2814 Sir, you have done enough, and have performed
FTLN 2815 A saintlike sorrow. No fault could you make
FTLN 2816 Which you have not redeemed—indeed, paid down
FTLN 2817 More penitence than done trespass. At the last,
FTLN 2818 5 Do as the heavens have done: forget your evil;
FTLN 2819 With them forgive yourself.
LEONTES FTLN 2820 Whilst I remember
FTLN 2821 Her and her virtues, I cannot forget
FTLN 2822 My blemishes in them, and so still think of
FTLN 2823 10 The wrong I did myself, which was so much
FTLN 2824 That heirless it hath made my kingdom and
FTLN 2825 Destroyed the sweet’st companion that e’er man
FTLN 2826 Bred his hopes out of.
PAULINA FTLN 2827 True, too true, my lord.
FTLN 2828 15 If one by one you wedded all the world,
FTLN 2829 Or from the all that are took something good
FTLN 2830 To make a perfect woman, she you killed
FTLN 2831 Would be unparalleled.
LEONTES FTLN 2832 I think so. Killed?
FTLN 2833 20 She I killed? I did so, but thou strik’st me
FTLN 2834 Sorely to say I did. It is as bitter
195

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ACT 5. SC. 1
FTLN 2835 Upon thy tongue as in my thought. Now, good now,
FTLN 2836 Say so but seldom.
CLEOMENES FTLN 2837 Not at all, good lady.
FTLN 2838 25 You might have spoken a thousand things that
FTLN 2839 would
FTLN 2840 Have done the time more benefit and graced
FTLN 2841 Your kindness better.
PAULINA FTLN 2842 You are one of those
FTLN 2843 30 Would have him wed again.
DION FTLN 2844 If you would not so,
FTLN 2845 You pity not the state nor the remembrance
FTLN 2846 Of his most sovereign name, consider little
FTLN 2847 What dangers by his Highness’ fail of issue
FTLN 2848 35 May drop upon his kingdom and devour
FTLN 2849 Incertain lookers-on. What were more holy
FTLN 2850 Than to rejoice the former queen is well?
FTLN 2851 What holier than, for royalty’s repair,
FTLN 2852 For present comfort, and for future good,
FTLN 2853 40 To bless the bed of majesty again
FTLN 2854 With a sweet fellow to ’t?
PAULINA FTLN 2855 There is none worthy,
FTLN 2856 Respecting her that’s gone. Besides, the gods
FTLN 2857 Will have fulfilled their secret purposes.
FTLN 2858 45 For has not the divine Apollo said,
FTLN 2859 Is ’t not the tenor of his oracle,
FTLN 2860 That King Leontes shall not have an heir
FTLN 2861 Till his lost child be found? Which that it shall
FTLN 2862 Is all as monstrous to our human reason
FTLN 2863 50 As my Antigonus to break his grave
FTLN 2864 And come again to me—who, on my life,
FTLN 2865 Did perish with the infant. ’Tis your counsel
FTLN 2866 My lord should to the heavens be contrary,
FTLN 2867 Oppose against their wills. Care not for issue.
FTLN 2868 55 The crown will find an heir. Great Alexander
FTLN 2869 Left his to th’ worthiest; so his successor
FTLN 2870 Was like to be the best.

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LEONTES FTLN 2871 Good Paulina,
FTLN 2872 Who hast the memory of Hermione,
FTLN 2873 60 I know, in honor, O, that ever I
FTLN 2874 Had squared me to thy counsel! Then even now
FTLN 2875 I might have looked upon my queen’s full eyes,
FTLN 2876 Have taken treasure from her lips—
PAULINA FTLN 2877 And left them
FTLN 2878 65 More rich for what they yielded.
LEONTES FTLN 2879 Thou speak’st truth.
FTLN 2880 No more such wives, therefore no wife. One worse,
FTLN 2881 And better used, would make her sainted spirit
FTLN 2882 Again possess her corpse, and on this stage,
FTLN 2883 70 Where we offenders now appear, soul-vexed,
FTLN 2884 And begin “Why to me?”
PAULINA FTLN 2885 Had she such power,
FTLN 2886 She had just cause.
LEONTES FTLN 2887 She had, and would incense me
FTLN 2888 75 To murder her I married.
PAULINA FTLN 2889 I should so.
FTLN 2890 Were I the ghost that walked, I’d bid you mark
FTLN 2891 Her eye, and tell me for what dull part in ’t
FTLN 2892 You chose her. Then I’d shriek, that even your ears
FTLN 2893 80 Should rift to hear me, and the words that followed
FTLN 2894 Should be “Remember mine.”
LEONTES FTLN 2895 Stars, stars,
FTLN 2896 And all eyes else dead coals! Fear thou no wife;
FTLN 2897 I’ll have no wife, Paulina.
PAULINA FTLN 2898 85 Will you swear
FTLN 2899 Never to marry but by my free leave?
LEONTES
FTLN 2900 Never, Paulina, so be blest my spirit.
PAULINA
FTLN 2901 Then, good my lords, bear witness to his oath.
CLEOMENES
FTLN 2902 You tempt him over-much.

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PAULINA FTLN 2903 90 Unless another
FTLN 2904 As like Hermione as is her picture
FTLN 2905 Affront his eye.
CLEOMENES FTLN 2906 Good madam—
PAULINA FTLN 2907 I have done.
FTLN 2908 95 Yet if my lord will marry—if you will, sir,
FTLN 2909 No remedy but you will—give me the office
FTLN 2910 To choose you a queen. She shall not be so young
FTLN 2911 As was your former, but she shall be such
FTLN 2912 As, walked your first queen’s ghost, it should take
FTLN 2913 100 joy
FTLN 2914 To see her in your arms.
LEONTES FTLN 2915 My true Paulina,
FTLN 2916 We shall not marry till thou bid’st us.
PAULINA FTLN 2917 That
FTLN 2918 105 Shall be when your first queen’s again in breath,
FTLN 2919 Never till then.
Enter a Servant.
SERVANT
FTLN 2920 One that gives out himself Prince Florizell,
FTLN 2921 Son of Polixenes, with his princess—she
FTLN 2922 The fairest I have yet beheld—desires access
FTLN 2923 110 To your high presence.
LEONTES FTLN 2924 What with him? He comes not
FTLN 2925 Like to his father’s greatness. His approach,
FTLN 2926 So out of circumstance and sudden, tells us
FTLN 2927 ’Tis not a visitation framed, but forced
FTLN 2928 115 By need and accident. What train?
SERVANT FTLN 2929 But few,
FTLN 2930 And those but mean.
LEONTES FTLN 2931 His princess, say you, with him?
SERVANT
FTLN 2932 Ay, the most peerless piece of earth, I think,
FTLN 2933 120 That e’er the sun shone bright on.

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ACT 5. SC. 1
PAULINA FTLN 2934 O Hermione,
FTLN 2935 As every present time doth boast itself
FTLN 2936 Above a better gone, so must thy grave
FTLN 2937 Give way to what’s seen now. To Servant. Sir, you
FTLN 2938 125 yourself
FTLN 2939 Have said and writ so—but your writing now
FTLN 2940 Is colder than that theme—she had not been
FTLN 2941 Nor was not to be equalled. Thus your verse
FTLN 2942 Flowed with her beauty once. ’Tis shrewdly ebbed
FTLN 2943 130 To say you have seen a better.
SERVANT FTLN 2944 Pardon, madam.
FTLN 2945 The one I have almost forgot—your pardon;
FTLN 2946 The other, when she has obtained your eye,
FTLN 2947 Will have your tongue too. This is a creature,
FTLN 2948 135 Would she begin a sect, might quench the zeal
FTLN 2949 Of all professors else, make proselytes
FTLN 2950 Of who she but bid follow.
PAULINA FTLN 2951 How, not women?
SERVANT
FTLN 2952 Women will love her that she is a woman
FTLN 2953 140 More worth than any man; men, that she is
FTLN 2954 The rarest of all women.
LEONTES FTLN 2955 Go, Cleomenes.
FTLN 2956 Yourself, assisted with your honored friends,
FTLN 2957 Bring them to our embracement.
Cleomenes and others exit.
FTLN 2958 145 Still, ’tis strange
FTLN 2959 He thus should steal upon us.
PAULINA FTLN 2960 Had our prince,
FTLN 2961 Jewel of children, seen this hour, he had paired
FTLN 2962 Well with this lord. There was not full a month
FTLN 2963 150 Between their births.
LEONTES FTLN 2964 Prithee, no more; cease. Thou
FTLN 2965 know’st
FTLN 2966 He dies to me again when talked of. Sure,
FTLN 2967 When I shall see this gentleman, thy speeches

205
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ACT 5. SC. 1
FTLN 2968 155 Will bring me to consider that which may
FTLN 2969 Unfurnish me of reason. They are come.
Enter Florizell, Perdita, Cleomenes, and others.
FTLN 2970 Your mother was most true to wedlock, prince,
FTLN 2971 For she did print your royal father off,
FTLN 2972 Conceiving you. Were I but twenty-one,
FTLN 2973 160 Your father’s image is so hit in you,
FTLN 2974 His very air, that I should call you brother,
FTLN 2975 As I did him, and speak of something wildly
FTLN 2976 By us performed before. Most dearly welcome,
FTLN 2977 And your fair princess—goddess! O, alas,
FTLN 2978 165 I lost a couple that ’twixt heaven and Earth
FTLN 2979 Might thus have stood, begetting wonder, as
FTLN 2980 You, gracious couple, do. And then I lost—
FTLN 2981 All mine own folly—the society,
FTLN 2982 Amity too, of your brave father, whom,
FTLN 2983 170 Though bearing misery, I desire my life
FTLN 2984 Once more to look on him.
FLORIZELL FTLN 2985 By his command
FTLN 2986 Have I here touched Sicilia, and from him
FTLN 2987 Give you all greetings that a king, at friend,
FTLN 2988 175 Can send his brother. And but infirmity,
FTLN 2989 Which waits upon worn times, hath something
FTLN 2990 seized
FTLN 2991 His wished ability, he had himself
FTLN 2992 The lands and waters ’twixt your throne and his
FTLN 2993 180 Measured to look upon you, whom he loves—
FTLN 2994 He bade me say so—more than all the scepters
FTLN 2995 And those that bear them living.
LEONTES FTLN 2996 O my brother,
FTLN 2997 Good gentleman, the wrongs I have done thee stir
FTLN 2998 185 Afresh within me, and these thy offices,
FTLN 2999 So rarely kind, are as interpreters
FTLN 3000 Of my behindhand slackness. Welcome hither,
FTLN 3001 As is the spring to th’ earth. And hath he too

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ACT 5. SC. 1
FTLN 3002 Exposed this paragon to th’ fearful usage,
FTLN 3003 190 At least ungentle, of the dreadful Neptune,
FTLN 3004 To greet a man not worth her pains, much less
FTLN 3005 Th’ adventure of her person?
FLORIZELL FTLN 3006 Good my lord,
FTLN 3007 She came from Libya.
LEONTES FTLN 3008 195 Where the warlike Smalus,
FTLN 3009 That noble honored lord, is feared and loved?
FLORIZELL
FTLN 3010 Most royal sir, from thence, from him, whose
FTLN 3011 daughter
FTLN 3012 His tears proclaimed his, parting with her. Thence,
FTLN 3013 200 A prosperous south wind friendly, we have crossed
FTLN 3014 To execute the charge my father gave me
FTLN 3015 For visiting your Highness. My best train
FTLN 3016 I have from your Sicilian shores dismissed,
FTLN 3017 Who for Bohemia bend, to signify
FTLN 3018 205 Not only my success in Libya, sir,
FTLN 3019 But my arrival and my wife’s in safety
FTLN 3020 Here where we are.
LEONTES FTLN 3021 The blessèd gods
FTLN 3022 Purge all infection from our air whilst you
FTLN 3023 210 Do climate here! You have a holy father,
FTLN 3024 A graceful gentleman, against whose person,
FTLN 3025 So sacred as it is, I have done sin,
FTLN 3026 For which the heavens, taking angry note,
FTLN 3027 Have left me issueless. And your father’s blest,
FTLN 3028 215 As he from heaven merits it, with you,
FTLN 3029 Worthy his goodness. What might I have been
FTLN 3030 Might I a son and daughter now have looked on,
FTLN 3031 Such goodly things as you?
Enter a Lord.
LORD FTLN 3032 Most noble sir,
FTLN 3033 220 That which I shall report will bear no credit,

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ACT 5. SC. 1
FTLN 3034 Were not the proof so nigh. Please you, great sir,
FTLN 3035 Bohemia greets you from himself by me,
FTLN 3036 Desires you to attach his son, who has—
FTLN 3037 His dignity and duty both cast off—
FTLN 3038 225 Fled from his father, from his hopes, and with
FTLN 3039 A shepherd’s daughter.
LEONTES FTLN 3040 Where’s Bohemia? Speak.
LORD
FTLN 3041 Here in your city. I now came from him.
FTLN 3042 I speak amazedly, and it becomes
FTLN 3043 230 My marvel and my message. To your court
FTLN 3044 Whiles he was hast’ning—in the chase, it seems,
FTLN 3045 Of this fair couple—meets he on the way
FTLN 3046 The father of this seeming lady and
FTLN 3047 Her brother, having both their country quitted
FTLN 3048 235 With this young prince.
FLORIZELL FTLN 3049 Camillo has betrayed me,
FTLN 3050 Whose honor and whose honesty till now
FTLN 3051 Endured all weathers.
LORD FTLN 3052 Lay ’t so to his charge.
FTLN 3053 240 He’s with the King your father.
LEONTES FTLN 3054 Who? Camillo?
LORD
FTLN 3055 Camillo, sir. I spake with him, who now
FTLN 3056 Has these poor men in question. Never saw I
FTLN 3057 Wretches so quake. They kneel, they kiss the earth,
FTLN 3058 245 Forswear themselves as often as they speak.
FTLN 3059 Bohemia stops his ears and threatens them
FTLN 3060 With divers deaths in death.
PERDITA FTLN 3061 O my poor father!
FTLN 3062 The heaven sets spies upon us, will not have
FTLN 3063 250 Our contract celebrated.
LEONTES FTLN 3064 You are married?
FLORIZELL
FTLN 3065 We are not, sir, nor are we like to be.

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ACT 5. SC. 1
FTLN 3066 The stars, I see, will kiss the valleys first.
FTLN 3067 The odds for high and low’s alike.
LEONTES FTLN 3068 255 My lord,
FTLN 3069 Is this the daughter of a king?
FLORIZELL FTLN 3070 She is
FTLN 3071 When once she is my wife.
LEONTES
FTLN 3072 That “once,” I see, by your good father’s speed
FTLN 3073 260 Will come on very slowly. I am sorry,
FTLN 3074 Most sorry, you have broken from his liking,
FTLN 3075 Where you were tied in duty, and as sorry
FTLN 3076 Your choice is not so rich in worth as beauty,
FTLN 3077 That you might well enjoy her.
FLORIZELL , to Perdita FTLN 3078 265 Dear, look up.
FTLN 3079 Though Fortune, visible an enemy,
FTLN 3080 Should chase us with my father, power no jot
FTLN 3081 Hath she to change our loves.—Beseech you, sir,
FTLN 3082 Remember since you owed no more to time
FTLN 3083 270 Than I do now. With thought of such affections,
FTLN 3084 Step forth mine advocate. At your request,
FTLN 3085 My father will grant precious things as trifles.
LEONTES
FTLN 3086 Would he do so, I’d beg your precious mistress,
FTLN 3087 Which he counts but a trifle.
PAULINA FTLN 3088 275 Sir, my liege,
FTLN 3089 Your eye hath too much youth in ’t. Not a month
FTLN 3090 ’Fore your queen died, she was more worth such
FTLN 3091 gazes
FTLN 3092 Than what you look on now.
LEONTES FTLN 3093 280 I thought of her
FTLN 3094 Even in these looks I made. To Florizell. But your
FTLN 3095 petition
FTLN 3096 Is yet unanswered. I will to your father.
FTLN 3097 Your honor not o’erthrown by your desires,
FTLN 3098 285 I am friend to them and you. Upon which errand

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FTLN 3099 I now go toward him. Therefore follow me,
FTLN 3100 And mark what way I make. Come, good my lord.
They exit.
Scene 2
Enter Autolycus and a Gentleman.
AUTOLYCUS FTLN 3101 Beseech you, sir, were you present at this
FTLN 3102 relation?
FIRST GENTLEMAN FTLN 3103 I was by at the opening of the fardel,
FTLN 3104 heard the old shepherd deliver the manner how he
FTLN 3105 5 found it, whereupon, after a little amazedness, we
FTLN 3106 were all commanded out of the chamber. Only this,
FTLN 3107 methought, I heard the shepherd say: he found the
FTLN 3108 child.
AUTOLYCUS FTLN 3109 I would most gladly know the issue of it.
FIRST GENTLEMAN FTLN 3110 10 I make a broken delivery of the
FTLN 3111 business, but the changes I perceived in the King
FTLN 3112 and Camillo were very notes of admiration. They
FTLN 3113 seemed almost, with staring on one another, to tear
FTLN 3114 the cases of their eyes. There was speech in their
FTLN 3115 15 dumbness, language in their very gesture. They
FTLN 3116 looked as they had heard of a world ransomed, or
FTLN 3117 one destroyed. A notable passion of wonder appeared
FTLN 3118 in them, but the wisest beholder that knew
FTLN 3119 no more but seeing could not say if th’ importance
FTLN 3120 20 were joy or sorrow; but in the extremity of the one it
FTLN 3121 must needs be.
Enter another Gentleman.
FTLN 3122 Here comes a gentleman that happily knows more.—
FTLN 3123 The news, Rogero?
SECOND GENTLEMAN FTLN 3124 Nothing but bonfires. The oracle
FTLN 3125 25 is fulfilled: the King’s daughter is found! Such a

215
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ACT 5. SC. 2
FTLN 3126 deal of wonder is broken out within this hour that
FTLN 3127 ballad makers cannot be able to express it.
Enter another Gentleman.
FTLN 3128 Here comes the Lady Paulina’s steward. He can
FTLN 3129 deliver you more.—How goes it now, sir? This news
FTLN 3130 30 which is called true is so like an old tale that the
FTLN 3131 verity of it is in strong suspicion. Has the King
FTLN 3132 found his heir?
THIRD GENTLEMAN FTLN 3133 Most true, if ever truth were pregnant
FTLN 3134 by circumstance. That which you hear you’ll
FTLN 3135 35 swear you see, there is such unity in the proofs. The
FTLN 3136 mantle of Queen Hermione’s, her jewel about the
FTLN 3137 neck of it, the letters of Antigonus found with it,
FTLN 3138 which they know to be his character, the majesty of
FTLN 3139 the creature in resemblance of the mother, the
FTLN 3140 40 affection of nobleness which nature shows above
FTLN 3141 her breeding, and many other evidences proclaim
FTLN 3142 her with all certainty to be the King’s daughter. Did
FTLN 3143 you see the meeting of the two kings?
SECOND GENTLEMAN FTLN 3144 No.
THIRD GENTLEMAN FTLN 3145 45 Then have you lost a sight which
FTLN 3146 was to be seen, cannot be spoken of. There might
FTLN 3147 you have beheld one joy crown another, so and in
FTLN 3148 such manner that it seemed sorrow wept to take
FTLN 3149 leave of them, for their joy waded in tears. There
FTLN 3150 50 was casting up of eyes, holding up of hands, with
FTLN 3151 countenance of such distraction that they were to
FTLN 3152 be known by garment, not by favor. Our king, being
FTLN 3153 ready to leap out of himself for joy of his found
FTLN 3154 daughter, as if that joy were now become a loss,
FTLN 3155 55 cries “O, thy mother, thy mother!” then asks Bohemia
FTLN 3156 forgiveness, then embraces his son-in-law, then
FTLN 3157 again worries he his daughter with clipping her.
FTLN 3158 Now he thanks the old shepherd, which stands by

217
The Winter’s Tale
ACT 5. SC. 2
FTLN 3159 like a weather-bitten conduit of many kings’ reigns.
FTLN 3160 60 I never heard of such another encounter, which
FTLN 3161 lames report to follow it and undoes description to
FTLN 3162 do it.
SECOND GENTLEMAN FTLN 3163 What, pray you, became of Antigonus,
FTLN 3164 that carried hence the child?
THIRD GENTLEMAN FTLN 3165 65 Like an old tale still, which will
FTLN 3166 have matter to rehearse though credit be asleep and
FTLN 3167 not an ear open: he was torn to pieces with a bear.
FTLN 3168 This avouches the shepherd’s son, who has not only
FTLN 3169 his innocence, which seems much, to justify him,
FTLN 3170 70 but a handkerchief and rings of his that Paulina
FTLN 3171 knows.
FIRST GENTLEMAN FTLN 3172 What became of his bark and his
FTLN 3173 followers?
THIRD GENTLEMAN FTLN 3174 Wracked the same instant of their
FTLN 3175 75 master’s death and in the view of the shepherd, so
FTLN 3176 that all the instruments which aided to expose the
FTLN 3177 child were even then lost when it was found. But O,
FTLN 3178 the noble combat that ’twixt joy and sorrow was
FTLN 3179 fought in Paulina. She had one eye declined for the
FTLN 3180 80 loss of her husband, another elevated that the
FTLN 3181 oracle was fulfilled. She lifted the Princess from the
FTLN 3182 earth, and so locks her in embracing as if she would
FTLN 3183 pin her to her heart that she might no more be in
FTLN 3184 danger of losing.
FIRST GENTLEMAN FTLN 3185 85 The dignity of this act was worth the
FTLN 3186 audience of kings and princes, for by such was it
FTLN 3187 acted.
THIRD GENTLEMAN FTLN 3188 One of the prettiest touches of all,
FTLN 3189 and that which angled for mine eyes—caught the
FTLN 3190 90 water, though not the fish—was when at the relation
FTLN 3191 of the Queen’s death—with the manner how
FTLN 3192 she came to ’t bravely confessed and lamented by
FTLN 3193 the King—how attentiveness wounded his daughter,

219
The Winter’s Tale
ACT 5. SC. 2
FTLN 3194 till, from one sign of dolor to another, she did,
FTLN 3195 95 with an “Alas,” I would fain say bleed tears, for I am
FTLN 3196 sure my heart wept blood. Who was most marble
FTLN 3197 there changed color; some swooned, all sorrowed.
FTLN 3198 If all the world could have seen ’t, the woe had been
FTLN 3199 universal.
FIRST GENTLEMAN FTLN 3200 100 Are they returned to the court?
THIRD GENTLEMAN FTLN 3201 No. The Princess hearing of her
FTLN 3202 mother’s statue, which is in the keeping of
FTLN 3203 Paulina—a piece many years in doing and now
FTLN 3204 newly performed by that rare Italian master, Julio
FTLN 3205 105 Romano, who, had he himself eternity and could
FTLN 3206 put breath into his work, would beguile Nature of
FTLN 3207 her custom, so perfectly he is her ape; he so near to
FTLN 3208 Hermione hath done Hermione that they say one
FTLN 3209 would speak to her and stand in hope of answer.
FTLN 3210 110 Thither with all greediness of affection are they
FTLN 3211 gone, and there they intend to sup.
SECOND GENTLEMAN FTLN 3212 I thought she had some great
FTLN 3213 matter there in hand, for she hath privately twice or
FTLN 3214 thrice a day, ever since the death of Hermione,
FTLN 3215 115 visited that removed house. Shall we thither and
FTLN 3216 with our company piece the rejoicing?
FIRST GENTLEMAN FTLN 3217 Who would be thence that has the
FTLN 3218 benefit of access? Every wink of an eye some new
FTLN 3219 grace will be born. Our absence makes us unthrifty
FTLN 3220 120 to our knowledge. Let’s along.
The Three Gentlemen exit.
AUTOLYCUS FTLN 3221 Now, had I not the dash of my former life
FTLN 3222 in me, would preferment drop on my head. I
FTLN 3223 brought the old man and his son aboard the Prince,
FTLN 3224 told him I heard them talk of a fardel and I know
FTLN 3225 125 not what. But he at that time, overfond of the
FTLN 3226 shepherd’s daughter—so he then took her to be—
FTLN 3227 who began to be much seasick, and himself little

221
The Winter’s Tale
ACT 5. SC. 2
FTLN 3228 better, extremity of weather continuing, this mystery
FTLN 3229 remained undiscovered. But ’tis all one to
FTLN 3230 130 me, for had I been the finder-out of this secret, it
FTLN 3231 would not have relished among my other
FTLN 3232 discredits.
Enter Shepherd and Shepherd’s Son,
both dressed in rich clothing.
FTLN 3233 Here come those I have done good to against my
FTLN 3234 will, and already appearing in the blossoms of their
FTLN 3235 135 fortune.
SHEPHERD FTLN 3236 Come, boy, I am past more children, but thy
FTLN 3237 sons and daughters will be all gentlemen born.
SHEPHERD’S SON , to Autolycus FTLN 3238 You are well met, sir.
FTLN 3239 You denied to fight with me this other day because I
FTLN 3240 140 was no gentleman born. See you these clothes? Say
FTLN 3241 you see them not and think me still no gentleman
FTLN 3242 born. You were best say these robes are not gentlemen
FTLN 3243 born. Give me the lie, do, and try whether I am
FTLN 3244 not now a gentleman born.
AUTOLYCUS FTLN 3245 145 I know you are now, sir, a gentleman born.
SHEPHERD’S SON FTLN 3246 Ay, and have been so any time these
FTLN 3247 four hours.
SHEPHERD FTLN 3248 And so have I, boy.
SHEPHERD’S SON FTLN 3249 So you have—but I was a gentleman
FTLN 3250 150 born before my father. For the King’s son took me
FTLN 3251 by the hand and called me brother, and then the
FTLN 3252 two kings called my father brother, and then the
FTLN 3253 Prince my brother and the Princess my sister called
FTLN 3254 my father father; and so we wept, and there was the
FTLN 3255 155 first gentlemanlike tears that ever we shed.
SHEPHERD FTLN 3256 We may live, son, to shed many more.
SHEPHERD’S SON FTLN 3257 Ay, or else ’twere hard luck, being in
FTLN 3258 so preposterous estate as we are.
AUTOLYCUS FTLN 3259 I humbly beseech you, sir, to pardon me all

223
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ACT 5. SC. 2
FTLN 3260 160 the faults I have committed to your Worship and to
FTLN 3261 give me your good report to the Prince my master.
SHEPHERD FTLN 3262 Prithee, son, do, for we must be gentle now
FTLN 3263 we are gentlemen.
SHEPHERD’S SON , to Autolycus FTLN 3264 Thou wilt amend thy
FTLN 3265 165 life?
AUTOLYCUS FTLN 3266 Ay, an it like your good Worship.
SHEPHERD’S SON FTLN 3267 Give me thy hand. I will swear to the
FTLN 3268 Prince thou art as honest a true fellow as any is in
FTLN 3269 Bohemia.
SHEPHERD FTLN 3270 170 You may say it, but not swear it.
SHEPHERD’S SON FTLN 3271 Not swear it, now I am a gentleman?
FTLN 3272 Let boors and franklins say it; I’ll swear it.
SHEPHERD FTLN 3273 How if it be false, son?
SHEPHERD’S SON FTLN 3274 If it be ne’er so false, a true gentleman
FTLN 3275 175 may swear it in the behalf of his friend.—And
FTLN 3276 I’ll swear to the Prince thou art a tall fellow of thy
FTLN 3277 hands and that thou wilt not be drunk; but I know
FTLN 3278 thou art no tall fellow of thy hands and that thou
FTLN 3279 wilt be drunk. But I’ll swear it, and I would thou
FTLN 3280 180 wouldst be a tall fellow of thy hands.
AUTOLYCUS FTLN 3281 I will prove so, sir, to my power.
SHEPHERD’S SON FTLN 3282 Ay, by any means prove a tall fellow. If
FTLN 3283 I do not wonder how thou dar’st venture to be
FTLN 3284 drunk, not being a tall fellow, trust me not. Hark,
FTLN 3285 185 the Kings and Princes, our kindred, are going to see
FTLN 3286 the Queen’s picture. Come, follow us. We’ll be thy
FTLN 3287 good masters.
They exit.

225
The Winter’s Tale
ACT 5. SC. 3
Scene 3
Enter Leontes, Polixenes, Florizell, Perdita, Camillo,
Paulina, and Lords.
LEONTES
FTLN 3288 O grave and good Paulina, the great comfort
FTLN 3289 That I have had of thee!
PAULINA FTLN 3290 What, sovereign sir,
FTLN 3291 I did not well, I meant well. All my services
FTLN 3292 5 You have paid home. But that you have vouchsafed,
FTLN 3293 With your crowned brother and these your contracted
FTLN 3294 Heirs of your kingdoms, my poor house to visit,
FTLN 3295 It is a surplus of your grace which never
FTLN 3296 My life may last to answer.
LEONTES FTLN 3297 10 O Paulina,
FTLN 3298 We honor you with trouble. But we came
FTLN 3299 To see the statue of our queen. Your gallery
FTLN 3300 Have we passed through, not without much content
FTLN 3301 In many singularities; but we saw not
FTLN 3302 15 That which my daughter came to look upon,
FTLN 3303 The statue of her mother.
PAULINA FTLN 3304 As she lived peerless,
FTLN 3305 So her dead likeness, I do well believe,
FTLN 3306 Excels whatever yet you looked upon
FTLN 3307 20 Or hand of man hath done. Therefore I keep it
FTLN 3308 Lonely, apart. But here it is. Prepare
FTLN 3309 To see the life as lively mocked as ever
FTLN 3310 Still sleep mocked death. Behold, and say ’tis well.
She draws a curtain
to reveal Hermione (like a statue).
FTLN 3311 I like your silence. It the more shows off
FTLN 3312 25 Your wonder. But yet speak. First you, my liege.
FTLN 3313 Comes it not something near?
LEONTES FTLN 3314 Her natural posture!—
FTLN 3315 Chide me, dear stone, that I may say indeed
FTLN 3316 Thou art Hermione; or rather, thou art she

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ACT 5. SC. 3
FTLN 3317 30 In thy not chiding, for she was as tender
FTLN 3318 As infancy and grace.—But yet, Paulina,
FTLN 3319 Hermione was not so much wrinkled, nothing
FTLN 3320 So agèd as this seems.
POLIXENES FTLN 3321 O, not by much!
PAULINA
FTLN 3322 35 So much the more our carver’s excellence,
FTLN 3323 Which lets go by some sixteen years and makes her
FTLN 3324 As she lived now.
LEONTES FTLN 3325 As now she might have done,
FTLN 3326 So much to my good comfort as it is
FTLN 3327 40 Now piercing to my soul. O, thus she stood,
FTLN 3328 Even with such life of majesty—warm life,
FTLN 3329 As now it coldly stands—when first I wooed her.
FTLN 3330 I am ashamed. Does not the stone rebuke me
FTLN 3331 For being more stone than it?—O royal piece,
FTLN 3332 45 There’s magic in thy majesty, which has
FTLN 3333 My evils conjured to remembrance and
FTLN 3334 From thy admiring daughter took the spirits,
FTLN 3335 Standing like stone with thee.
PERDITA FTLN 3336 And give me leave,
FTLN 3337 50 And do not say ’tis superstition, that
FTLN 3338 I kneel, and then implore her blessing. She kneels.
FTLN 3339 Lady,
FTLN 3340 Dear queen, that ended when I but began,
FTLN 3341 Give me that hand of yours to kiss.
PAULINA FTLN 3342 55 O, patience!
FTLN 3343 The statue is but newly fixed; the color’s
FTLN 3344 Not dry.
CAMILLO , to Leontes, who weeps
FTLN 3345 My lord, your sorrow was too sore laid on,
FTLN 3346 Which sixteen winters cannot blow away,
FTLN 3347 60 So many summers dry. Scarce any joy
FTLN 3348 Did ever so long live; no sorrow
FTLN 3349 But killed itself much sooner.

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ACT 5. SC. 3
POLIXENES FTLN 3350 Dear my brother,
FTLN 3351 Let him that was the cause of this have power
FTLN 3352 65 To take off so much grief from you as he
FTLN 3353 Will piece up in himself.
PAULINA FTLN 3354 Indeed, my lord,
FTLN 3355 If I had thought the sight of my poor image
FTLN 3356 Would thus have wrought you—for the stone is
FTLN 3357 70 mine—
FTLN 3358 I’d not have showed it.
LEONTES FTLN 3359 Do not draw the curtain.
PAULINA
FTLN 3360 No longer shall you gaze on ’t, lest your fancy
FTLN 3361 May think anon it moves.
LEONTES FTLN 3362 75 Let be, let be.
FTLN 3363 Would I were dead but that methinks already—
FTLN 3364 What was he that did make it?—See, my lord,
FTLN 3365 Would you not deem it breathed? And that those
FTLN 3366 veins
FTLN 3367 80 Did verily bear blood?
POLIXENES FTLN 3368 Masterly done.
FTLN 3369 The very life seems warm upon her lip.
LEONTES
FTLN 3370 The fixture of her eye has motion in ’t,
FTLN 3371 As we are mocked with art.
PAULINA FTLN 3372 85 I’ll draw the curtain.
FTLN 3373 My lord’s almost so far transported that
FTLN 3374 He’ll think anon it lives.
LEONTES FTLN 3375 O sweet Paulina,
FTLN 3376 Make me to think so twenty years together!
FTLN 3377 90 No settled senses of the world can match
FTLN 3378 The pleasure of that madness. Let ’t alone.
PAULINA
FTLN 3379 I am sorry, sir, I have thus far stirred you, but
FTLN 3380 I could afflict you farther.
LEONTES FTLN 3381 Do, Paulina,
FTLN 3382 95 For this affliction has a taste as sweet

231
The Winter’s Tale
ACT 5. SC. 3
FTLN 3383 As any cordial comfort. Still methinks
FTLN 3384 There is an air comes from her. What fine chisel
FTLN 3385 Could ever yet cut breath? Let no man mock me,
FTLN 3386 For I will kiss her.
PAULINA FTLN 3387 100 Good my lord, forbear.
FTLN 3388 The ruddiness upon her lip is wet.
FTLN 3389 You’ll mar it if you kiss it, stain your own
FTLN 3390 With oily painting. Shall I draw the curtain?
LEONTES
FTLN 3391 No, not these twenty years.
PERDITA , rising FTLN 3392 105 So long could I
FTLN 3393 Stand by, a looker-on.
PAULINA FTLN 3394 Either forbear,
FTLN 3395 Quit presently the chapel, or resolve you
FTLN 3396 For more amazement. If you can behold it,
FTLN 3397 110 I’ll make the statue move indeed, descend
FTLN 3398 And take you by the hand. But then you’ll think—
FTLN 3399 Which I protest against—I am assisted
FTLN 3400 By wicked powers.
LEONTES FTLN 3401 What you can make her do
FTLN 3402 115 I am content to look on; what to speak,
FTLN 3403 I am content to hear, for ’tis as easy
FTLN 3404 To make her speak as move.
PAULINA FTLN 3405 It is required
FTLN 3406 You do awake your faith. Then all stand still—
FTLN 3407 120 Or those that think it is unlawful business
FTLN 3408 I am about, let them depart.
LEONTES FTLN 3409 Proceed.
FTLN 3410 No foot shall stir.
PAULINA FTLN 3411 Music, awake her! Strike!
Music sounds.
FTLN 3412 125 ’Tis time. Descend. Be stone no more. Approach.
FTLN 3413 Strike all that look upon with marvel. Come,
FTLN 3414 I’ll fill your grave up. Stir, nay, come away.
FTLN 3415 Bequeath to death your numbness, for from him
FTLN 3416 Dear life redeems you.—You perceive she stirs.

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Hermione descends.
FTLN 3417 130 Start not. Her actions shall be holy as
FTLN 3418 You hear my spell is lawful. Do not shun her
FTLN 3419 Until you see her die again, for then
FTLN 3420 You kill her double. Nay, present your hand.
FTLN 3421 When she was young, you wooed her; now in age
FTLN 3422 135 Is she become the suitor?
LEONTES FTLN 3423 O, she’s warm!
FTLN 3424 If this be magic, let it be an art
FTLN 3425 Lawful as eating.
POLIXENES FTLN 3426 She embraces him.
CAMILLO FTLN 3427 140 She hangs about his neck.
FTLN 3428 If she pertain to life, let her speak too.
POLIXENES
FTLN 3429 Ay, and make it manifest where she has lived,
FTLN 3430 Or how stol’n from the dead.
PAULINA FTLN 3431 That she is living,
FTLN 3432 145 Were it but told you, should be hooted at
FTLN 3433 Like an old tale, but it appears she lives,
FTLN 3434 Though yet she speak not. Mark a little while.
FTLN 3435 To Perdita. Please you to interpose, fair madam.
FTLN 3436 Kneel
FTLN 3437 150 And pray your mother’s blessing. To Hermione.
FTLN 3438 Turn, good lady.
FTLN 3439 Our Perdita is found.
HERMIONE FTLN 3440 You gods, look down,
FTLN 3441 And from your sacred vials pour your graces
FTLN 3442 155 Upon my daughter’s head! Tell me, mine own,
FTLN 3443 Where hast thou been preserved? Where lived? How
FTLN 3444 found
FTLN 3445 Thy father’s court? For thou shalt hear that I,
FTLN 3446 Knowing by Paulina that the oracle
FTLN 3447 160 Gave hope thou wast in being, have preserved
FTLN 3448 Myself to see the issue.
PAULINA FTLN 3449 There’s time enough for that,
FTLN 3450 Lest they desire upon this push to trouble

235
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ACT 5. SC. 3
FTLN 3451 Your joys with like relation. Go together,
FTLN 3452 165 You precious winners all. Your exultation
FTLN 3453 Partake to everyone. I, an old turtle,
FTLN 3454 Will wing me to some withered bough and there
FTLN 3455 My mate, that’s never to be found again,
FTLN 3456 Lament till I am lost.
LEONTES FTLN 3457 170 O peace, Paulina.
FTLN 3458 Thou shouldst a husband take by my consent,
FTLN 3459 As I by thine a wife. This is a match,
FTLN 3460 And made between ’s by vows. Thou hast found
FTLN 3461 mine—
FTLN 3462 175 But how is to be questioned, for I saw her,
FTLN 3463 As I thought, dead, and have in vain said many
FTLN 3464 A prayer upon her grave. I’ll not seek far—
FTLN 3465 For him, I partly know his mind—to find thee
FTLN 3466 An honorable husband.—Come, Camillo,
FTLN 3467 180 And take her by the hand, whose worth and honesty
FTLN 3468 Is richly noted and here justified
FTLN 3469 By us, a pair of kings. Let’s from this place.
FTLN 3470 To Hermione. What, look upon my brother! Both
FTLN 3471 your pardons
FTLN 3472 185 That e’er I put between your holy looks
FTLN 3473 My ill suspicion. This your son-in-law
FTLN 3474 And son unto the King, whom heavens directing,
FTLN 3475 Is troth-plight to your daughter.—Good Paulina,
FTLN 3476 Lead us from hence, where we may leisurely
FTLN 3477 190 Each one demand and answer to his part
FTLN 3478 Performed in this wide gap of time since first
FTLN 3479 We were dissevered. Hastily lead away.
They exit.