The Winter's Tale by William Shakespeare
Act 1 - Scene 1
Antechamber in LEONTES’ palace.
Archidamus : If you shall chance, Camillo, to visit Bohemia, on
[p]the like
occasion whereon my services are now on
[p]foot, you shall see, as I
have said, great
[p]difference betwixt our Bohemia and your Sicilia.
Camillo : I think, this coming summer, the King of Sicilia
[p]means to pay
Bohemia the visitation which he justly owes him.
Archidamus : Wherein our entertainment shall shame us we will be
[p]justified in
our loves; for indeed--
Camillo : Beseech you,--
Archidamus : Verily, I speak it in the freedom of my knowledge:
[p]we cannot with
such magnificence--in so rare--I know
[p]not what to say. We will give
you sleepy drinks,
[p]that your senses, unintelligent of our
insufficience,
[p]may, though they cannot praise us, as little
accuse
[p]us.
Camillo : You pay a great deal too dear for what's given freely.
Archidamus : Believe me, I speak as my understanding instructs me
[p]and as mine
honesty puts it to utterance.
Camillo : Sicilia cannot show himself over-kind to Bohemia.
[p]They were trained
together in their childhoods; and
[p]there rooted betwixt them then
such an affection,
[p]which cannot choose but branch now. Since
their
[p]more mature dignities and royal necessities
made
[p]separation of their society, their encounters,
[p]though not
personal, have been royally attorneyed
[p]with interchange of gifts,
letters, loving
[p]embassies; that they have seemed to be
together,
[p]though absent, shook hands, as over a vast,
and
[p]embraced, as it were, from the ends of opposed
[p]winds. The
heavens continue their loves!
Archidamus : I think there is not in the world either malice or
[p]matter to alter
it. You have an unspeakable
[p]comfort of your young prince Mamillius:
it is a
[p]gentleman of the greatest promise that ever came
[p]into my
note.
Camillo : I very well agree with you in the hopes of him: it
[p]is a gallant
child; one that indeed physics the
[p]subject, makes old hearts fresh:
they that went on
[p]crutches ere he was born desire yet their life
to
[p]see him a man.
Archidamus : Would they else be content to die?
Camillo : Yes; if there were no other excuse why they should
[p]desire to live.
Archidamus : If the king had no son, they would desire to live
[p]on crutches till
he had one.
Next: Act 1 - Scene 2
