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WINTER'S TALE.

VOL. IV.

B

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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.

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HERMIONE, Queen to Leontes.

PERDITA, daughter to Leontes and Hermione.

PAULINA, wife to Antigonus.

Two other Ladies,} attending the Queen.

MOPSA,

DORCAS,} Shepherdesses.

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

SCENE, sometimes in Sicilia, sometimes in Bohemia.

WINTER'S TALE.

ACT THE FIRST.

1

SCENE I.

Sicilia. An Antechamber in Leontes' Palace.

Enter CAMILLO and ARCHIDAMUS.

F

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, 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 utter

ance.

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 attornied', 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, 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.

1 Supplied by substitution of embassies.

[Exeunt.

2 Wide waste of country. 3 Affords a cordial to the state.

SCENE II.

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

Woul'd 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.

Sir, that's to-morrow.

Pol. I am question'd by my fears, of what may chance, Or breed upon our absence: That may blow 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 are tougher, brother,

Than you can put us to't.
Pol.

Leon. One seven-night longer.

Pol.

No longer stay.

Very sooth, to-morrow.

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,

So soon as yours, could win me: so it should now,

4 Nipping.

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