PRIESTS, JUDGES, LORDS, LADIES, PAGES, OF

FICERS, GUARDS, SHEPHERDS and SHEPHERD

ESSES.

SCENE-In the End of the Third Act, and during the Fourth, lies in Bohemia;-through the rest of the Play in Sicilia.

THE

WINTER'S TALE.

ACT THE FIRST.

SCENE I.

Sicilia.

A Square before the Palace of LEONTES.

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

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 whats 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 Bo hemia: They were train'd together in their childhoods: and there rooted betwixt them then such an affection, which cannot chuse but branch now. Since their more mature dignities, and royal necessi ties, 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, 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.

[Trumpets sound.]

Cam. Come, my lord.

[Exeunt.

SCENE II.

A Room of State in the Palace.

Trumpets sound.

LEONTES, HERMIONE, MAMILLIUS, POLIXENES,
ANTIGONUS, CAMILLO, ARCHIDAMUS, CLEO-
MENES, DION, PHOCION, THASIUS, PAULINA,
EMILIA, LAMIA, HERO and ATTENDANTS, dis-
covered.

Pol. Nine changes of the watery star hath 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 cypher,
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'm question'd by my fears, of what may chance

Or breed upon our absence:

Besides, I have stay'd

To tire your royalty.

Leon. We are tougher, brother,

Than you can put us to't.

Pol. No longer stay.

Leon. One seven-night longer.

Pol. Very sooth, to-morrow.