The Winter's Tale by William Shakespeare
Act 3 - Scene 3
Bohemia. A desert country near the sea.
Antigonus : Thou art perfect then, our ship hath touch'd upon
[p]The deserts of
Bohemia?
Mariner : Ay, my lord: and fear
[p]We have landed in ill time: the skies look
grimly
[p]And threaten present blusters. In my conscience,
[p]The
heavens with that we have in hand are angry
[p]And frown upon 's.
Antigonus : Their sacred wills be done! Go, get aboard;
[p]Look to thy bark: I'll
not be long before
[p]I call upon thee.
Mariner : Make your best haste, and go not
[p]Too far i' the land: 'tis like to
be loud weather;
[p]Besides, this place is famous for the
creatures
[p]Of prey that keep upon't.
Antigonus : Go thou away:
[p]I'll follow instantly.
Mariner : I am glad at heart
[p]To be so rid o' the business.
Antigonus : Come, poor babe:
[p]I have heard, but not believed,
[p]the spirits o'
the dead
[p]May walk again: if such thing be, thy mother
[p]Appear'd
to me last night, for ne'er was dream
[p]So like a waking. To me comes
a creature,
[p]Sometimes her head on one side, some another;
[p]I
never saw a vessel of like sorrow,
[p]So fill'd and so becoming: in
pure white robes,
[p]Like very sanctity, she did approach
[p]My cabin
where I lay; thrice bow'd before me,
[p]And gasping to begin some
speech, her eyes
[p]Became two spouts: the fury spent, anon
[p]Did
this break-from her: 'Good Antigonus,
[p]Since fate, against thy
better disposition,
[p]Hath made thy person for the thrower-out
[p]Of
my poor babe, according to thine oath,
[p]Places remote enough are in
Bohemia,
[p]There weep and leave it crying; and, for the babe
[p]Is
counted lost for ever, Perdita,
[p]I prithee, call't. For this
ungentle business
[p]Put on thee by my lord, thou ne'er shalt
see
[p]Thy wife Paulina more.' And so, with shrieks
[p]She melted into
air. Affrighted much,
[p]I did in time collect myself and
thought
[p]This was so and no slumber. Dreams are toys:
[p]Yet for
this once, yea, superstitiously,
[p]I will be squared by this. I do
believe
[p]Hermione hath suffer'd death, and that
[p]Apollo would,
this being indeed the issue
[p]Of King Polixenes, it should here be
laid,
[p]Either for life or death, upon the earth
[p]Of its right
father. Blossom, speed thee well!
[p]There lie, and there thy
character: there these;
[p]Which may, if fortune please, both breed
thee, pretty,
[p]And still rest thine. The storm begins; poor
wretch,
[p]That for thy mother's fault art thus exposed
[p]To loss and
what may follow! Weep I cannot,
[p]But my heart bleeds; and most
accursed am I
[p]To be by oath enjoin'd to this. Farewell!
[p]The day
frowns more and more: thou'rt like to have
[p]A lullaby too rough: I
never saw
[p]The heavens so dim by day. A savage clamour!
[p]Well may
I get aboard! This is the chase:
[p]I am gone for ever.
Old Shepherd : I would there were no age between sixteen and
[p]three-and-twenty, or
that youth would sleep out the
[p]rest; for there is nothing in the
between but
[p]getting wenches with child, wronging the
ancientry,
[p]stealing, fighting--Hark you now! Would any but
[p]these
boiled brains of nineteen and two-and-twenty
[p]hunt this weather?
They have scared away two of my
[p]best sheep, which I fear the wolf
will sooner find
[p]than the master: if any where I have them, 'tis
by
[p]the seaside, browsing of ivy. Good luck, an't be thy
[p]will
what have we here! Mercy on 's, a barne a very
[p]pretty barne! A boy
or a child, I wonder? A
[p]pretty one; a very pretty one: sure, some
'scape:
[p]though I am not bookish, yet I can
read
[p]waiting-gentlewoman in the 'scape. This has been
[p]some
stair-work, some trunk-work, some
[p]behind-door-work: they were
warmer that got this
[p]than the poor thing is here. I'll take it up
for
[p]pity: yet I'll tarry till my son come; he hallooed
[p]but even
now. Whoa, ho, hoa!
Clown : Hilloa, loa!
Old Shepherd : What, art so near? If thou'lt see a thing to talk
[p]on when thou art
dead and rotten, come hither. What
[p]ailest thou, man?
Clown : I have seen two such sights, by sea and by land!
[p]but I am not to
say it is a sea, for it is now the
[p]sky: betwixt the firmament and
it you cannot thrust
[p]a bodkin's point.
Old Shepherd : Why, boy, how is it?
Clown : I would you did but see how it chafes, how it rages,
[p]how it takes
up the shore! but that's not the
[p]point. O, the most piteous cry of
the poor souls!
[p]sometimes to see 'em, and not to see 'em; now
the
[p]ship boring the moon with her main-mast, and anon
[p]swallowed
with yest and froth, as you'ld thrust a
[p]cork into a hogshead. And
then for the
[p]land-service, to see how the bear tore out
his
[p]shoulder-bone; how he cried to me for help and said
[p]his name
was Antigonus, a nobleman. But to make an
[p]end of the ship, to see
how the sea flap-dragoned
[p]it: but, first, how the poor souls
roared, and the
[p]sea mocked them; and how the poor gentleman
roared
[p]and the bear mocked him, both roaring louder than
[p]the sea
or weather.
Old Shepherd : Name of mercy, when was this, boy?
Clown : Now, now: I have not winked since I saw these
[p]sights: the men are
not yet cold under water, nor
[p]the bear half dined on the gentleman:
he's at it
[p]now.
Old Shepherd : Would I had been by, to have helped the old man!
Clown : I would you had been by the ship side, to have
[p]helped her: there
your charity would have lacked footing.
Old Shepherd : Heavy matters! heavy matters! but look thee here,
[p]boy. Now bless
thyself: thou mettest with things
[p]dying, I with things newborn.
Here's a sight for
[p]thee; look thee, a bearing-cloth for a
squire's
[p]child! look thee here; take up, take up, boy;
[p]open't.
So, let's see: it was told me I should be
[p]rich by the fairies. This
is some changeling:
[p]open't. What's within, boy?
Clown : You're a made old man: if the sins of your youth
[p]are forgiven you,
you're well to live. Gold! all gold!
Old Shepherd : This is fairy gold, boy, and 'twill prove so: up
[p]with't, keep it
close: home, home, the next way.
[p]We are lucky, boy; and to be so
still requires
[p]nothing but secrecy. Let my sheep go: come,
good
[p]boy, the next way home.
Clown : Go you the next way with your findings. I'll go see
[p]if the bear be
gone from the gentleman and how much
[p]he hath eaten: they are never
curst but when they
[p]are hungry: if there be any of him left, I'll
bury
[p]it.
Old Shepherd : That's a good deed. If thou mayest discern by that
[p]which is left of
him what he is, fetch me to the
[p]sight of him.
Clown : Marry, will I; and you shall help to put him i' the ground.
Old Shepherd : 'Tis a lucky day, boy, and we'll do good deeds on't.
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Next: Act 4 - Scene 1
