The Winter's Tale by William Shakespeare

Act 1 - Scene 2

A room of state in the same.

Polixenes : Nine changes of the watery star hath been [p]The shepherd's note since
we have left our throne [p]Without a burthen: time as long
again [p]Would be find up, my brother, with our thanks; [p]And yet we
should, for perpetuity, [p]Go hence in debt: and therefore, like a
cipher, [p]Yet standing in rich place, I multiply [p]With one 'We
thank you' many thousands moe [p]That go before it.

Leontes : Stay your thanks a while; [p]And pay them when you part.

Polixenes : Sir, that's to-morrow. [p]I am question'd by my fears, of what may
chance [p]Or breed upon our absence; that may blow [p]No sneaping
winds at home, to make us say [p]'This is put forth too truly:'
besides, I have stay'd [p]To tire your royalty.

Leontes : We are tougher, brother, [p]Than you can put us to't.

Polixenes : No longer stay.

Leontes : One seven-night longer.

Polixenes : Very sooth, to-morrow.

Leontes : We'll part the time between's then; and in that [p]I'll no
gainsaying.

Polixenes : Press me not, beseech you, so. [p]There is no tongue that moves, none,
none i' the world, [p]So soon as yours could win me: so it should
now, [p]Were there necessity in your request, although [p]'Twere
needful I denied it. My affairs [p]Do even drag me homeward: which to
hinder [p]Were in your love a whip to me; my stay [p]To you a charge
and trouble: to save both, [p]Farewell, our brother.

Leontes : Tongue-tied, our queen? [p]speak you.

Hermione : I had thought, sir, to have held my peace until [p]You have drawn
oaths from him not to stay. You, sir, [p]Charge him too coldly. Tell
him, you are sure [p]All in Bohemia's well; this satisfaction [p]The
by-gone day proclaim'd: say this to him, [p]He's beat from his best
ward.

Leontes : Well said, Hermione.

Hermione : To tell, he longs to see his son, were strong: [p]But let him say so
then, and let him go; [p]But let him swear so, and he shall not
stay, [p]We'll thwack him hence with distaffs. [p]Yet of your royal
presence I'll adventure [p]The borrow of a week. When at
Bohemia [p]You take my lord, I'll give him my commission [p]To let him
there a month behind the gest [p]Prefix'd for's parting: yet, good
deed, Leontes, [p]I love thee not a jar o' the clock behind [p]What
lady-she her lord. You'll stay?

Polixenes : No, madam.

Hermione : Nay, but you will?

Polixenes : I may not, verily.

Hermione : Verily! [p]You put me off with limber vows; but I, [p]Though you would
seek to unsphere the [p]stars with oaths, [p]Should yet say 'Sir, no
going.' Verily, [p]You shall not go: a lady's 'Verily' 's [p]As potent
as a lord's. Will you go yet? [p]Force me to keep you as a
prisoner, [p]Not like a guest; so you shall pay your fees [p]When you
depart, and save your thanks. How say you? [p]My prisoner? or my
guest? by your dread 'Verily,' [p]One of them you shall be.

Polixenes : Your guest, then, madam: [p]To be your prisoner should import
offending; [p]Which is for me less easy to commit [p]Than you to
punish.

Hermione : Not your gaoler, then, [p]But your kind hostess. Come, I'll question
you [p]Of my lord's tricks and yours when you were boys: [p]You were
pretty lordings then?

Polixenes : We were, fair queen, [p]Two lads that thought there was no more
behind [p]But such a day to-morrow as to-day, [p]And to be boy
eternal.

Hermione : Was not my lord [p]The verier wag o' the two?

Polixenes : We were as twinn'd lambs that did frisk i' the sun, [p]And bleat the
one at the other: what we changed [p]Was innocence for innocence; we
knew not [p]The doctrine of ill-doing, nor dream'd [p]That any did.
Had we pursued that life, [p]And our weak spirits ne'er been higher
rear'd [p]With stronger blood, we should have answer'd
heaven [p]Boldly 'not guilty;' the imposition clear'd [p]Hereditary
ours.

Hermione : By this we gather [p]You have tripp'd since.

Polixenes : O my most sacred lady! [p]Temptations have since then been born to's;
for [p]In those unfledged days was my wife a girl; [p]Your precious
self had then not cross'd the eyes [p]Of my young play-fellow.

Hermione : Grace to boot! [p]Of this make no conclusion, lest you say [p]Your
queen and I are devils: yet go on; [p]The offences we have made you do
we'll answer, [p]If you first sinn'd with us and that with us [p]You
did continue fault and that you slipp'd not [p]With any but with us.

Leontes : Is he won yet?

Hermione : He'll stay my lord.

Leontes : At my request he would not. [p]Hermione, my dearest, thou never
spokest [p]To better purpose.

Hermione : Never?

Leontes : Never, but once.

Hermione : What! have I twice said well? when was't before? [p]I prithee tell me;
cram's with praise, and make's [p]As fat as tame things: one good deed
dying tongueless [p]Slaughters a thousand waiting upon that. [p]Our
praises are our wages: you may ride's [p]With one soft kiss a thousand
furlongs ere [p]With spur we beat an acre. But to the goal: [p]My last
good deed was to entreat his stay: [p]What was my first? it has an
elder sister, [p]Or I mistake you: O, would her name were
Grace! [p]But once before I spoke to the purpose: when? [p]Nay, let me
have't; I long.

Leontes : Why, that was when [p]Three crabbed months had sour'd themselves to
death, [p]Ere I could make thee open thy white hand [p]And clap
thyself my love: then didst thou utter [p]'I am yours for ever.'

Hermione : 'Tis grace indeed. [p]Why, lo you now, I have spoke to the purpose
twice: [p]The one for ever earn'd a royal husband; [p]The other for
some while a friend.

Leontes : [Aside]. Too hot, too hot! [p]To mingle friendship far is mingling
bloods. [p]I have tremor cordis on me: my heart dances; [p]But not for
joy; not joy. This entertainment [p]May a free face put on, derive a
liberty [p]From heartiness, from bounty, fertile bosom, [p]And well
become the agent; 't may, I grant; [p]But to be paddling palms and
pinching fingers, [p]As now they are, and making practised
smiles, [p]As in a looking-glass, and then to sigh, as 'twere [p]The
mort o' the deer; O, that is entertainment [p]My bosom likes not, nor
my brows! Mamillius, [p]Art thou my boy?

Mamillius : Ay, my good lord.

Leontes : I' fecks! [p]Why, that's my bawcock. What, hast [p]smutch'd thy
nose? [p]They say it is a copy out of mine. Come, captain, [p]We must
be neat; not neat, but cleanly, captain: [p]And yet the steer, the
heifer and the calf [p]Are all call'd neat.--Still
virginalling [p]Upon his palm!--How now, you wanton calf! [p]Art thou
my calf?

Mamillius : Yes, if you will, my lord.

Leontes : Thou want'st a rough pash and the shoots that I have, [p]To be full
like me: yet they say we are [p]Almost as like as eggs; women say
so, [p]That will say anything but were they false [p]As o'er-dyed
blacks, as wind, as waters, false [p]As dice are to be wish'd by one
that fixes [p]No bourn 'twixt his and mine, yet were it true [p]To say
this boy were like me. Come, sir page, [p]Look on me with your welkin
eye: sweet villain! [p]Most dear'st! my collop! Can thy dam?--may't
be?-- [p]Affection! thy intention stabs the centre: [p]Thou dost make
possible things not so held, [p]Communicatest with dreams;--how can
this be?-- [p]With what's unreal thou coactive art, [p]And fellow'st
nothing: then 'tis very credent [p]Thou mayst co-join with something;
and thou dost, [p]And that beyond commission, and I find it, [p]And
that to the infection of my brains [p]And hardening of my brows.

Polixenes : What means Sicilia?

Hermione : He something seems unsettled.

Polixenes : How, my lord! [p]What cheer? how is't with you, best brother?

Hermione : You look as if you held a brow of much distraction [p]Are you moved,
my lord?

Leontes : No, in good earnest. [p]How sometimes nature will betray its
folly, [p]Its tenderness, and make itself a pastime [p]To harder
bosoms! Looking on the lines [p]Of my boy's face, methoughts I did
recoil [p]Twenty-three years, and saw myself unbreech'd, [p]In my
green velvet coat, my dagger muzzled, [p]Lest it should bite its
master, and so prove, [p]As ornaments oft do, too dangerous: [p]How
like, methought, I then was to this kernel, [p]This squash, this
gentleman. Mine honest friend, [p]Will you take eggs for money?

Mamillius : No, my lord, I'll fight.

Leontes : You will! why, happy man be's dole! My brother, [p]Are you so fond of
your young prince as we [p]Do seem to be of ours?

Polixenes : If at home, sir, [p]He's all my exercise, my mirth, my matter, [p]Now
my sworn friend and then mine enemy, [p]My parasite, my soldier,
statesman, all: [p]He makes a July's day short as December, [p]And
with his varying childness cures in me [p]Thoughts that would thick my
blood.

Leontes : So stands this squire [p]Officed with me: we two will walk, my
lord, [p]And leave you to your graver steps. Hermione, [p]How thou
lovest us, show in our brother's welcome; [p]Let what is dear in
Sicily be cheap: [p]Next to thyself and my young rover,
he's [p]Apparent to my heart.

Hermione : If you would seek us, [p]We are yours i' the garden: shall's attend
you there?

Leontes : To your own bents dispose you: you'll be found, [p]Be you beneath the
sky. [p][Aside] [p]I am angling now, [p]Though you perceive me not how
I give line. [p]Go to, go to! [p]How she holds up the neb, the bill to
him! [p]And arms her with the boldness of a wife [p]To her allowing
husband! [p][Exeunt POLIXENES, HERMIONE, and Attendants] [p]Gone
already! [p]Inch-thick, knee-deep, o'er head and [p]ears a fork'd
one! [p]Go, play, boy, play: thy mother plays, and I [p]Play too, but
so disgraced a part, whose issue [p]Will hiss me to my grave: contempt
and clamour [p]Will be my knell. Go, play, boy, play. [p]There have
been, [p]Or I am much deceived, cuckolds ere now; [p]And many a man
there is, even at this present, [p]Now while I speak this, holds his
wife by the arm, [p]That little thinks she has been sluiced in's
absence [p]And his pond fish'd by his next neighbour, by [p]Sir Smile,
his neighbour: nay, there's comfort in't [p]Whiles other men have
gates and those gates open'd, [p]As mine, against their will. Should
all despair [p]That have revolted wives, the tenth of mankind [p]Would
hang themselves. Physic for't there is none; [p]It is a bawdy planet,
that will strike [p]Where 'tis predominant; and 'tis powerful, think
it, [p]From east, west, north and south: be it concluded, [p]No
barricado for a belly; know't; [p]It will let in and out the
enemy [p]With bag and baggage: many thousand on's [p]Have the disease,
and feel't not. How now, boy!

Mamillius : I am like you, they say.

Leontes : Why that's some comfort. What, Camillo there?

Camillo : Ay, my good lord.

Leontes : Go play, Mamillius; thou'rt an honest man. [p][Exit
MAMILLIUS] [p]Camillo, this great sir will yet stay longer.

Camillo : You had much ado to make his anchor hold: [p]When you cast out, it
still came home.

Leontes : Didst note it?

Camillo : He would not stay at your petitions: made [p]His business more
material.

Leontes : Didst perceive it? [p][Aside] [p]They're here with me already,
whispering, rounding [p]'Sicilia is a so-forth:' 'tis far
gone, [p]When I shall gust it last. How came't, Camillo, [p]That he
did stay?

Camillo : At the good queen's entreaty.

Leontes : At the queen's be't: 'good' should be pertinent [p]But, so it is, it
is not. Was this taken [p]By any understanding pate but thine? [p]For
thy conceit is soaking, will draw in [p]More than the common blocks:
not noted, is't, [p]But of the finer natures? by some severals [p]Of
head-piece extraordinary? lower messes [p]Perchance are to this
business purblind? say.

Camillo : Business, my lord! I think most understand [p]Bohemia stays here
longer.

Leontes : Ha!

Camillo : Stays here longer.

Leontes : Ay, but why?

Camillo : To satisfy your highness and the entreaties [p]Of our most gracious
mistress.

Leontes : Satisfy! [p]The entreaties of your mistress! satisfy! [p]Let that
suffice. I have trusted thee, Camillo, [p]With all the nearest things
to my heart, as well [p]My chamber-councils, wherein, priest-like,
thou [p]Hast cleansed my bosom, I from thee departed [p]Thy penitent
reform'd: but we have been [p]Deceived in thy integrity,
deceived [p]In that which seems so.

Camillo : Be it forbid, my lord!

Leontes : To bide upon't, thou art not honest, or, [p]If thou inclinest that
way, thou art a coward, [p]Which hoxes honesty behind,
restraining [p]From course required; or else thou must be counted [p]A
servant grafted in my serious trust [p]And therein negligent; or else
a fool [p]That seest a game play'd home, the rich stake drawn, [p]And
takest it all for jest.

Camillo : My gracious lord, [p]I may be negligent, foolish and fearful; [p]In
every one of these no man is free, [p]But that his negligence, his
folly, fear, [p]Among the infinite doings of the world, [p]Sometime
puts forth. In your affairs, my lord, [p]If ever I were
wilful-negligent, [p]It was my folly; if industriously [p]I play'd the
fool, it was my negligence, [p]Not weighing well the end; if ever
fearful [p]To do a thing, where I the issue doubted, [p]Where of the
execution did cry out [p]Against the non-performance, 'twas a
fear [p]Which oft infects the wisest: these, my lord, [p]Are such
allow'd infirmities that honesty [p]Is never free of. But, beseech
your grace, [p]Be plainer with me; let me know my trespass [p]By its
own visage: if I then deny it, [p]'Tis none of mine.

Leontes : Ha' not you seen, Camillo,-- [p]But that's past doubt, you have, or
your eye-glass [p]Is thicker than a cuckold's horn,--or
heard,-- [p]For to a vision so apparent rumour [p]Cannot be mute,--or
thought,--for cogitation [p]Resides not in that man that does not
think,-- [p]My wife is slippery? If thou wilt confess, [p]Or else be
impudently negative, [p]To have nor eyes nor ears nor thought, then
say [p]My wife's a hobby-horse, deserves a name [p]As rank as any
flax-wench that puts to [p]Before her troth-plight: say't and
justify't.

Camillo : I would not be a stander-by to hear [p]My sovereign mistress clouded
so, without [p]My present vengeance taken: 'shrew my heart, [p]You
never spoke what did become you less [p]Than this; which to reiterate
were sin [p]As deep as that, though true.

Leontes : Is whispering nothing? [p]Is leaning cheek to cheek? is meeting
noses? [p]Kissing with inside lip? stopping the career [p]Of laughing
with a sigh?--a note infallible [p]Of breaking honesty--horsing foot
on foot? [p]Skulking in corners? wishing clocks more swift? [p]Hours,
minutes? noon, midnight? and all eyes [p]Blind with the pin and web
but theirs, theirs only, [p]That would unseen be wicked? is this
nothing? [p]Why, then the world and all that's in't is nothing; [p]The
covering sky is nothing; Bohemia nothing; [p]My wife is nothing; nor
nothing have these nothings, [p]If this be nothing.

Camillo : Good my lord, be cured [p]Of this diseased opinion, and
betimes; [p]For 'tis most dangerous.

Leontes : Say it be, 'tis true.

Camillo : No, no, my lord.

Leontes : It is; you lie, you lie: [p]I say thou liest, Camillo, and I hate
thee, [p]Pronounce thee a gross lout, a mindless slave, [p]Or else a
hovering temporizer, that [p]Canst with thine eyes at once see good
and evil, [p]Inclining to them both: were my wife's liver [p]Infected
as her life, she would not live [p]The running of one glass.

Camillo : Who does infect her?

Leontes : Why, he that wears her like a medal, hanging [p]About his neck,
Bohemia: who, if I [p]Had servants true about me, that bare eyes [p]To
see alike mine honour as their profits, [p]Their own particular
thrifts, they would do that [p]Which should undo more doing: ay, and
thou, [p]His cupbearer,--whom I from meaner form [p]Have benched and
reared to worship, who mayst see [p]Plainly as heaven sees earth and
earth sees heaven, [p]How I am galled,--mightst bespice a cup, [p]To
give mine enemy a lasting wink; [p]Which draught to me were cordial.

Camillo : Sir, my lord, [p]I could do this, and that with no rash potion, [p]But
with a lingering dram that should not work [p]Maliciously like poison:
but I cannot [p]Believe this crack to be in my dread mistress, [p]So
sovereignly being honourable. [p]I have loved thee,--

Leontes : Make that thy question, and go rot! [p]Dost think I am so muddy, so
unsettled, [p]To appoint myself in this vexation, sully [p]The purity
and whiteness of my sheets, [p]Which to preserve is sleep, which being
spotted [p]Is goads, thorns, nettles, tails of wasps, [p]Give scandal
to the blood o' the prince my son, [p]Who I do think is mine and love
as mine, [p]Without ripe moving to't? Would I do this? [p]Could man so
blench?

Camillo : I must believe you, sir: [p]I do; and will fetch off Bohemia
for't; [p]Provided that, when he's removed, your highness [p]Will take
again your queen as yours at first, [p]Even for your son's sake; and
thereby for sealing [p]The injury of tongues in courts and
kingdoms [p]Known and allied to yours.

Leontes : Thou dost advise me [p]Even so as I mine own course have set
down: [p]I'll give no blemish to her honour, none.

Camillo : My lord, [p]Go then; and with a countenance as clear [p]As friendship
wears at feasts, keep with Bohemia [p]And with your queen. I am his
cupbearer: [p]If from me he have wholesome beverage, [p]Account me not
your servant.

Leontes : This is all: [p]Do't and thou hast the one half of my heart; [p]Do't
not, thou split'st thine own.

Camillo : I'll do't, my lord.

Leontes : I will seem friendly, as thou hast advised me.

Camillo : O miserable lady! But, for me, [p]What case stand I in? I must be the
poisoner [p]Of good Polixenes; and my ground to do't [p]Is the
obedience to a master, one [p]Who in rebellion with himself will
have [p]All that are his so too. To do this deed, [p]Promotion
follows. If I could find example [p]Of thousands that had struck
anointed kings [p]And flourish'd after, I'ld not do't; but
since [p]Nor brass nor stone nor parchment bears not one, [p]Let
villany itself forswear't. I must [p]Forsake the court: to do't, or
no, is certain [p]To me a break-neck. Happy star, reign now! [p]Here
comes Bohemia.

Polixenes : This is strange: methinks [p]My favour here begins to warp. Not
speak? [p]Good day, Camillo.

Camillo : Hail, most royal sir!

Polixenes : What is the news i' the court?

Camillo : None rare, my lord.

Polixenes : The king hath on him such a countenance [p]As he had lost some
province and a region [p]Loved as he loves himself: even now I met
him [p]With customary compliment; when he, [p]Wafting his eyes to the
contrary and falling [p]A lip of much contempt, speeds from me
and [p]So leaves me to consider what is breeding [p]That changeth thus
his manners.

Camillo : I dare not know, my lord.

Polixenes : How! dare not! do not. Do you know, and dare not? [p]Be intelligent to
me: 'tis thereabouts; [p]For, to yourself, what you do know, you
must. [p]And cannot say, you dare not. Good Camillo, [p]Your changed
complexions are to me a mirror [p]Which shows me mine changed too; for
I must be [p]A party in this alteration, finding [p]Myself thus
alter'd with 't.

Camillo : There is a sickness [p]Which puts some of us in distemper, but [p]I
cannot name the disease; and it is caught [p]Of you that yet are
well.

Polixenes : How! caught of me! [p]Make me not sighted like the basilisk: [p]I have
look'd on thousands, who have sped the better [p]By my regard, but
kill'd none so. Camillo,-- [p]As you are certainly a gentleman,
thereto [p]Clerk-like experienced, which no less adorns [p]Our gentry
than our parents' noble names, [p]In whose success we are gentle,--I
beseech you, [p]If you know aught which does behove my
knowledge [p]Thereof to be inform'd, imprison't not [p]In ignorant
concealment.

Camillo : I may not answer.

Polixenes : A sickness caught of me, and yet I well! [p]I must be answer'd. Dost
thou hear, Camillo, [p]I conjure thee, by all the parts of
man [p]Which honour does acknowledge, whereof the least [p]Is not this
suit of mine, that thou declare [p]What incidency thou dost guess of
harm [p]Is creeping toward me; how far off, how near; [p]Which way to
be prevented, if to be; [p]If not, how best to bear it.

Camillo : Sir, I will tell you; [p]Since I am charged in honour and by
him [p]That I think honourable: therefore mark my counsel, [p]Which
must be even as swiftly follow'd as [p]I mean to utter it, or both
yourself and me [p]Cry lost, and so good night!

Polixenes : On, good Camillo.

Camillo : I am appointed him to murder you.

Polixenes : By whom, Camillo?

Camillo : By the king.

Polixenes : For what?

Camillo : He thinks, nay, with all confidence he swears, [p]As he had seen't or
been an instrument [p]To vice you to't, that you have touch'd his
queen [p]Forbiddenly.

Polixenes : O, then my best blood turn [p]To an infected jelly and my name [p]Be
yoked with his that did betray the Best! [p]Turn then my freshest
reputation to [p]A savour that may strike the dullest nostril [p]Where
I arrive, and my approach be shunn'd, [p]Nay, hated too, worse than
the great'st infection [p]That e'er was heard or read!

Camillo : Swear his thought over [p]By each particular star in heaven and [p]By
all their influences, you may as well [p]Forbid the sea for to obey
the moon [p]As or by oath remove or counsel shake [p]The fabric of his
folly, whose foundation [p]Is piled upon his faith and will
continue [p]The standing of his body.

Polixenes : How should this grow?

Camillo : I know not: but I am sure 'tis safer to [p]Avoid what's grown than
question how 'tis born. [p]If therefore you dare trust my
honesty, [p]That lies enclosed in this trunk which you [p]Shall bear
along impawn'd, away to-night! [p]Your followers I will whisper to the
business, [p]And will by twos and threes at several posterns [p]Clear
them o' the city. For myself, I'll put [p]My fortunes to your service,
which are here [p]By this discovery lost. Be not uncertain; [p]For, by
the honour of my parents, I [p]Have utter'd truth: which if you seek
to prove, [p]I dare not stand by; nor shall you be safer [p]Than one
condemn'd by the king's own mouth, thereon [p]His execution sworn.

Polixenes : I do believe thee: [p]I saw his heart in 's face. Give me thy
hand: [p]Be pilot to me and thy places shall [p]Still neighbour mine.
My ships are ready and [p]My people did expect my hence
departure [p]Two days ago. This jealousy [p]Is for a precious
creature: as she's rare, [p]Must it be great, and as his person's
mighty, [p]Must it be violent, and as he does conceive [p]He is
dishonour'd by a man which ever [p]Profess'd to him, why, his revenges
must [p]In that be made more bitter. Fear o'ershades me: [p]Good
expedition be my friend, and comfort [p]The gracious queen, part of
his theme, but nothing [p]Of his ill-ta'en suspicion! Come,
Camillo; [p]I will respect thee as a father if [p]Thou bear'st my life
off hence: let us avoid.

Camillo : It is in mine authority to command [p]The keys of all the posterns:
please your highness [p]To take the urgent hour. Come, sir, away.

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Next: Act 2 - Scene 1

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