WINTER'S TALE. ACT I. SCENE I. Sicilia. An Antechamber in Leontes' Palace. Enter CAMILLO and ARCHIDAMUS. Archidamus. 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 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 g 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 attorneyed,' with interchange of gifts, letters, loving embassies; that they have seemed to be together, though absent; shook hands, as over a vast; 2 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, 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 desire to live on crutches till he had one. SCENE II. The same. [Exeunt. A Room of State in the Palace. Enter LEONTES, POLIXENES, HERMIONE, MAMILLIUS, Pol. Nine changes of the watery star have been Would be filled up, my brother, with our thanks; 1 "Royally attorneyed." Nobly supplied by substitution of embassies. 2 i. e. over a wide, intervening space. 3 Physics the subject." Affords a cordial to the state; has the power of assuaging the sense of misery. And yet we should, for perpetuity, Go hence in debt. And therefore, like a cipher, With one we-thank-you, many thousands more Leon. Stay your thanks awhile; And pay them when you part. Sir, that's to-morrow. there I am questioned 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 staid "ay To tire your royalty. Leon. We are tougher, Than you can put us to't. Pol. brother, No longer stay. Very sooth, to-morrow. Leon. One sevennight longer. Pol. Leon. We'll part the time between 's then; and in that I'll no gainsaying. Pol. Press me not, 'beseech you, so. There is no tongue that moves, none, none i'the world, 'Twere needful I denied it. My affairs Do even drag me homeward; which to hinder 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 1 That for Oh that! is not uncommon in old writers. 2 Sneaping, nipping. Collyer 3 i. e. to make me say, I had too good reason for my fears concerning what may happen in my absence from home. The by-gone day proclaimed; say this to him, 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 POL.] I'll adventure Should What lady she her lord.-You'll stay? Pol. Her. Nay, but you will? Her. Verily! No, madam. You put me off with limber vows; but I, Though you would seek to unsphere the stars with oaths, Should yet say, Sir, no going. Verily, As potent as a lord's. Will you go yet? Force me to keep you as a prisoner, Not like a guest: so you shall pay your fees, When you depart, and save your thanks. How say My prisoner, or my guest? By your dread verily, Pol. Your guest, then, madam : To be your prisoner, should import offending; Than you to punish. Her. Not your jailer, then, 1 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. 2 i. e. indeed, in very deed, in troth. Good deed is used in the same sense by the earl of Surrey, sir John Hayward, and Gascoigne. But your kind hostess. Come, I'll question you We were, fair queen, Pol. And to be boy eternal. Her. Was not my lord the verier wag o' the two? Pol. We were as twinned lambs, that did frisk i'the sun, And bleat the one at the other. What we changed, Was innocence for innocence; we knew not The doctrine of ill doing, nor dreamed That any did. Had we pursued that life, Hereditary ours. Her. By this we gather, You have tripped since. O, my most sacred lady, Pol. Her. Grace to boot! 2 Of this make no conclusion; lest you say, Your queen and I are devils. Yet, go on; Leon. Is he won yet? lord. At my request he would not. Hermione, my dearest, thou never spok'st To better purpose. 1 i. e. setting aside the original sin, bating the imposition from the offence of our first parents, we might have boldly protested our innocence. 2 "Grace to boot:" an exclamation equivalent to give us grace. |