But when I came to man's estate, With hey, ho, the wind and the rain, 'Gainst knaves and thieves men shut their gate, For the rain it raineth every day. But when I came, alas! to wive, But when I came unto my bed, With hey, ho, the wind and the rain, A great while ago the world begun, Lords, Ladies, and Attendants; Satyrs, Shepherds, Shepherdesses, Guards, &c. SCENE, sometimes in Sicilia, sometimes in Bohemia. ACT I. SCENE I. Sicilia. An Antechamber in LEONTES' Palace. Enter CAMILLO and ARCHIDAMUS. Arch. If you shall chance, Camillo, to visit Bohemia, on the like occasion whereon my services are now on foot, you shall see, as I have said, great difference betwixt our Bohemia and your Sicilia. Cam. I think, this coming summer, the king of Sicilia means to pay Bohemia the visitation which he justly owes him. Arch. Wherein our entertainment shall shame us, we will be justified in our loves: for, indeed, Arch. Verily, I speak it in the freedom of my knowledge: we cannot with such magnificence — in so rare - I know not what to say. We will give you sleepy drinks, that your senses, unintelligent of our insufficience, may, though they cannot praise us, as little accuse us. Cam. You pay a great deal too dear for what's given freely. Arch. Believe me, I speak as my understanding instructs me, and as mine honesty puts it to utterance. Cam. Sicilia cannot show himself over-kind to Bohemia. They were trained together in their childhoods; and there rooted betwixt them then such an affection, which cannot choose but branch now. Since their more mature dignities, and royal necessities, made separation of their society, their encounters, though not personal, have been royally attorney'd, with interchange of gifts, letters, loving embassies, that they have seemed to be together, though absent, shook hands, as over a vast, and embraced, as it were, from the ends of opposed winds. The heavens continue their loves! Arch. I think, matter, to alter it. there is not in the world either malice, or You have an unspeakable comfort of your young prince Mamillius: it is a gentleman of the greatest promise that ever came into my note. Cam. I very well agree with you in the hopes of him. It is a gallant child; one that, indeed, physics the subject, makes old hearts fresh: they, that went on crutches ere he was born, desire yet their life to see him a man. Arch. Would they else be content to die? Cam. Yes; if there were no other excuse why they should desire to live. Arch. If the king had no son they would deshire to live on crutches till he had one. [Exeunt. SCENE II. The Same. A Room of State in the Palace. Enter LEONTES, POLIXENES, HERMIONE, MAMILLIUS, Pol. Nine changes of the watery star have been Would be fill'd up, my brother, with our thanks; Go hence in debt: and therefore, like á cipher, With one we-thank-you many thousands more Leon. Stay your thanks awhile, Sir, that's to-morrow. And pay them when you part. Pol. I am question'd by my fears, of what may chance, No sneaping winds at home, to make us say, "This is put forth too truly." Besides, I have stay'd To tire your royalty. Leon. We'll part the time between's then; and in that I'll no gain-saying. Pol. Press me not, beseech you, so. There is no tongue that moves, none, none i' the world, 'T were needful I denied it. My affairs which to hinder, Do even drag me homeward; CA |