Another Sicilian Lord.

ROGERO, a Sicilian Gentleman.

An Attendant on the young Prince Mamillius.
Officers of a Court of Judicature.

POLIXENES, King of Bohemia.
FLORIZEL, his Son.

ARCHIDAMUS, a Bohemian Lord.
A Mariner.

Jailer.

An old Shepherd, reputed Father of Perdita.
Clown, his Son.

Servant to the old Shepherd.

AUTOLYCUS, a Rogue.

Time, as Chorus.

HERMIONE, Queen to Leontes.

PERDITA, Daughter to Leontes and Hermione.

PAULINA, Wife to Antigonus.

EMILIA, a Lady,

Two other Ladies,

MOPSA,

DORCAS,

} attending the Queen.

Shepherdesses.

Lords, Ladies, and Attendants; Satyrs for a Dance; Shepherds, Shepherdesses, Guards, &c.

SCENE, sometimes in Sicilia, sometimes in Bohemia.

SCENE I. Sicilia. An Antichamber in Leontes' Palace.

F

Archidamus.

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,

Cam. 'Beseech you,

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 attornied1, with interchange of gifts, letters, loving embassies; that they have seemed to be together, though absent; shook hands, as over a vast2; and embraced, as it were, from the ends of opposed winds. The heavens continue their loves!

Arch. I think, there is not in the world either malice, or matter, to alter it. 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, physicks the subject3, 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 desire to live on crutches till he had one. [Exeunt.

1 Royally attornied. Nobly supplied by substitution of embassies.

2 Over a vast, i. e. over a wide intervening space. See note on Hamlet, Act i. Sc. 2, and The Tempest, Act i. Sc. note 38.

3 Physicks the subject. Affords a cordial to the state; has the

SCENE II. The same. A Room of State in the Palace.

Enter LEONTES, POLIXENES, HERMIONE, MAMILLIUS, CAMILLO, and Attendants.

Pol. Nine changes of the wat'ry star have been The shepherd's note, since we have left our throne Without a burden: time as long again

Would be fill'd up, my brother, with our thanks :
And yet we should, for perpetuity,

Go hence in debt: And therefore, like a cipher,
Yet standing in rich place, I multiply,

With one we-thank-you, many thousands more
That go before it.

Leon.

Stay your thanks awhile;

And pay them when you part.

Pol.

Sir, that's to-morrow.

I am question'd by my fears, of what may chance,
Or breed upon our absence, that1 may blow
No sneaping winds at home, to make us say,
This is put forth too truly3! Besides, I have stay'd
To tire your royalty.

power of assuaging the sense of misery. Medicine is used in the same sense in Cymbeline, Act iv. Sc. 2:—

"Great griefs I see medicine the less."

1 I follow the punctuation of the old copies, which had been altered, certainly not to the elucidation of the passage.

2 Sneaping, i. e. nipping.

3 This is put forth too truly, refers to what Polixenes had just said, "I am questioned by my fears," which make me doubtful of what may happen in my absence from home. Oh that nothing sinister may occur to make me say—“ I had too good reason for my fears."

Leon. We'll part the time between's then: and in that I'll no gain-saying.

Pol. There is no tongue that moves, none, none i'the world, So soon as yours, could win me: so it should now, Were there necessity in your request, although "Twere needful I denied it. My affairs

Press me not, 'beseech you, so;

Do even drag me homeward: which to hinder
Were, in your love, a whip to me; my stay,
To you a charge and trouble: to save both,
Farewell, our brother.

Leon.

Tongue-tied, our queen? speak you.
Her. I had thought, sir, to have held my peace, until
You had drawn oaths from him, not to stay. You, sir,
Charge him too coldly: Tell him, you are sure,
All in Bohemia's well: this satisfaction

The by-gone day proclaim'd; say this to him,
He's beat from his best ward.

Leon.

Well said, Hermione.

Her. To tell, he longs to see his son, were strong:

But let him say so then, and let him go;

But let him swear so, and he shall not stay,

We'll thwack him hence with distaffs.

Yet of your royal presence [To POLIXENES] I'll adventure

The borrow of a week. When at Bohemia

You take my lord, I'll give him my commission,
To let him there a month, behind the gest*
Prefix'd for's parting: yet, good deeds, Leontes,

4 To let had for its synonymes to stay or stop; to let him there is to stay him there. Gests were scrolls in which were marked the stages or places of rest in a progress or journey, especially a royal one. Strype says that Cranmer entreated Cecil "To let him have the new resolved upon gests, from that time to the end, that he might from time to time know where the king was." It is supposed to be derived from the old French word giste. Good deed is used

5 Good deed, i. e. indeed, in very deed, in troth.