The Winter's Tale by William Shakespeare
Act 4 - Scene 2
Bohemia. The palace of POLIXENES.
Polixenes : I pray thee, good Camillo, be no more importunate:
[p]'tis a sickness
denying thee any thing; a death to
[p]grant this.
Camillo : It is fifteen years since I saw my country: though
[p]I have for the
most part been aired abroad, I
[p]desire to lay my bones there.
Besides, the penitent
[p]king, my master, hath sent for me; to whose
feeling
[p]sorrows I might be some allay, or I o'erween to
[p]think
so, which is another spur to my departure.
Polixenes : As thou lovest me, Camillo, wipe not out the rest of
[p]thy services
by leaving me now: the need I have of
[p]thee thine own goodness hath
made; better not to
[p]have had thee than thus to want thee: thou,
having
[p]made me businesses which none without thee
can
[p]sufficiently manage, must either stay to execute
[p]them
thyself or take away with thee the very
[p]services thou hast done;
which if I have not enough
[p]considered, as too much I cannot, to be
more
[p]thankful to thee shall be my study, and my profit
[p]therein
the heaping friendships. Of that fatal
[p]country, Sicilia, prithee
speak no more; whose very
[p]naming punishes me with the remembrance
of that
[p]penitent, as thou callest him, and reconciled king,
[p]my
brother; whose loss of his most precious queen
[p]and children are
even now to be afresh lamented.
[p]Say to me, when sawest thou the
Prince Florizel, my
[p]son? Kings are no less unhappy, their issue
not
[p]being gracious, than they are in losing them when
[p]they have
approved their virtues.
Camillo : Sir, it is three days since I saw the prince. What
[p]his happier
affairs may be, are to me unknown: but I
[p]have missingly noted, he
is of late much retired
[p]from court and is less frequent to his
princely
[p]exercises than formerly he hath appeared.
Polixenes : I have considered so much, Camillo, and with some
[p]care; so far that
I have eyes under my service which
[p]look upon his removedness; from
whom I have this
[p]intelligence, that he is seldom from the house of
a
[p]most homely shepherd; a man, they say, that from
[p]very nothing,
and beyond the imagination of his
[p]neighbours, is grown into an
unspeakable estate.
Camillo : I have heard, sir, of such a man, who hath a
[p]daughter of most rare
note: the report of her is
[p]extended more than can be thought to
begin from such a cottage.
Polixenes : That's likewise part of my intelligence; but, I
[p]fear, the angle
that plucks our son thither. Thou
[p]shalt accompany us to the place;
where we will, not
[p]appearing what we are, have some question with
the
[p]shepherd; from whose simplicity I think it not
[p]uneasy to get
the cause of my son's resort thither.
[p]Prithee, be my present
partner in this business, and
[p]lay aside the thoughts of Sicilia.
Camillo : I willingly obey your command.
Polixenes : My best Camillo! We must disguise ourselves.
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Next: Act 4 - Scene 3
