The Winter's Tale (17 page)

SHEPHERD
     Sir, there lies such secrets in this fardel and box,
       which none must know but the king, and which he shall
       know within this hour, if I may come to th'speech of him.

AUTOLYCUS
    
Age
⁸³⁰
, thou hast lost thy labour.

SHEPHERD
     Why, sir?

AUTOLYCUS
     The king is not at the palace. He is gone aboard a
       new ship to purge melancholy and air himself, for, if thou
      
be'st capable of things serious
⁸³⁴
, thou must know the king is
       full of grief.

SHEPHERD
     So 'tis said, sir, about his son, that should have
       married a shepherd's daughter.

AUTOLYCUS
     If that shepherd be not in
hand-fast
⁸³⁸
, let him
fly
; the
       curses he shall have, the tortures he shall feel, will break the
       back of man, the heart of monster.

CLOWN
     Think you so, sir?

AUTOLYCUS
     Not he alone shall suffer what
wit can make heavy
⁸⁴²
       and vengeance bitter, but those that are
germane
⁸⁴³
to him,
       though removed fifty times, shall all come under the
       hangman, which though it be great pity, yet it is necessary.
       An old
sheep-whistling rogue
⁸⁴⁶
a
ram-tender
, to
offer
to have
       his daughter come into
grace
⁸⁴⁷
! Some say he shall be stoned,
     but that death is too soft for him, say I. Draw our throne
       into a
sheep-cote
⁸⁴⁹
? All deaths are too few, the sharpest too
       easy.

CLOWN
     Has the old man e'er a son, sir, do you hear, an't like
       you, sir?

AUTOLYCUS
     He has a son, who shall be flayed alive, then
      
'nointed
⁸⁵⁴
over with honey, set on the head of a wasp's nest,
       then stand till he be three quarters and a
dram
⁸⁵⁵
dead, then
       recovered again with
aqua-vitae
⁸⁵⁶
or some other hot infusion,
       then, raw as he is, and in the hottest day
prognostication
       proclaims
⁸⁵⁷
, shall he be set against a brick wall, the sun
       looking with a southward eye upon him, where he is to
       behold him with flies
blown
⁸⁶⁰
to death. But what talk we of
       these traitorly rascals, whose miseries are to be smiled at,
       their offences being so
capital
⁸⁶²
? Tell me, for you seem to
       be honest plain men, what you have
to
⁸⁶³
the king.
Being
       something gently considered
, I'll bring you where he is
       aboard,
tender
⁸⁶⁵
your persons to his presence, whisper
him
in
       your behalfs; and if it be in
man
⁸⁶⁶
besides the king to effect
       your suits, here is man shall do it.

CLOWN
     He seems to be of great authority.
Close
⁸⁶⁸
To Shepherd
       with him, give him gold; and though authority be a stubborn
       bear, yet he is oft led by the nose with gold. Show the inside of
       your purse to the outside of his hand, and no more ado.

       Remember ‘stoned' and ‘flayed alive'.

SHEPHERD
     An't please you, sir, to undertake the business for
       us, here is
that
⁸⁷⁴
gold I have. I'll make it as much
Offers gold
       more and leave this young man
in pawn
⁸⁷⁵
till I bring it you.

AUTOLYCUS
     After I have done what I promised?

SHEPHERD
     Ay, sir.

Takes gold/To Clown

AUTOLYCUS
     Well, give me the
moiety
⁸⁷⁸
.— Are you a
       party in this business?

CLOWN
     In some sort, sir. But though my
case
⁸⁸⁰
be a pitiful
       one, I hope I shall not be flayed out of it.

AUTOLYCUS
     O, that's the case of the shepherd's son. Hang him,
       he'll be made an example.

CLOWN
     Comfort, good comfort! We must to the
To Shepherd
       king and show our strange sights. He must know 'tis none of
       your daughter nor my sister. We are
gone else
⁸⁸⁶
. Sir, I will give
       you as much as this old man does when the business is
       performed, and remain, as he says, your pawn till it be
       brought you.

AUTOLYCUS
     I will trust you. Walk
before
⁸⁹⁰
toward the seaside. Go
       on the right hand, I will but
look upon the hedge
⁸⁹¹
and follow
       you.

CLOWN
     We are blest in this man, as I may say, even blest.

SHEPHERD
     Let's before as he bids us. He was provided to do
       us good.

[
Exeunt Shepherd and Clown
]

AUTOLYCUS
     If I had a mind to be honest, I see fortune would
       not
suffer
⁸⁹⁷
me. She drops
booties
in my mouth. I am
courted
       now with a double
occasion
⁸⁹⁸
: gold and a means to do the
       prince my master good; which who knows how that may
       turn back to my advancement? I will bring these two
       moles, these blind ones, aboard
him
⁹⁰¹
. If he think it fit to
      
shore them
⁹⁰²
again and that the complaint they have to the
       king concerns him nothing, let him call me rogue for being
       so far
officious
⁹⁰⁴
, for I am
proof against
that title and what
       shame else belongs to't. To him will I present them. There
       may be
matter
⁹⁰⁶
in it.
Exit

Location: Sicilia

Enter Leontes, Cleomenes, Dion, Paulina
[
and
]
Servants

CLEOMENES
     Sir, you have done enough, and have performed
       A saint-like
sorrow
²
. No fault could you make,
       Which you have not redeemed; indeed,
paid down
       More penitence than done trespass
³
. At the last,
       Do as the heavens have done, forget your evil.
       With them forgive yourself.

LEONTES
     Whilst I remember
       Her and her virtues, I cannot forget
       My blemishes
in them
⁹
, and so still think of
       The wrong I did myself, which was so much
       That heirless it hath made my kingdom and
       Destroyed the sweet'st companion that e'er man
       Bred his hopes out of. True?

PAULINA
     Too true, my lord.
       If, one by one, you wedded all the world,
       Or from
the all that are
¹⁶
took something good
       To make a perfect woman, she you killed
       Would be unparalleled.

LEONTES
     I think so. Killed?
       She I killed? I did so: but thou strik'st me
       Sorely, to say I did. It is as bitter
       Upon thy tongue as in my thought. Now,
good now
²²
,
       Say so but seldom.

CLEOMENES
     Not at all, good lady.
       You might have spoken a thousand things that would
       Have
done the time more benefit
²⁶
and graced
       Your kindness better.

PAULINA
     You are one of those
       Would have him wed again.

DION
     If you would not so,
     You pity not the state, nor the remembrance
       Of his most
sovereign name
³²
, consider little
       What dangers by his highness'
fail of issue
³³
       May drop upon his kingdom and devour
      
Incertain lookers on
³⁵
. What were more holy
       Than to rejoice the former queen is
well
³⁶
?
       What holier than, for royalty's repair,
       For present comfort and for future good,
       To bless the bed of majesty again
       With a sweet fellow to't?

PAULINA
     There is none worthy,
      
Respecting
⁴²
her that's gone. Besides, the gods
       Will have fulfilled their secret purposes.
       For has not the divine Apollo said?
       Is't not the
tenor
⁴⁵
of his oracle,
       That King Leontes shall not have an heir
       Till his lost child be found? Which that it shall
       Is all as
monstrous
⁴⁸
to our human reason
       As my Antigonus to break his grave
       And come again to me, who,
on my life
⁵⁰
,
       Did perish with the infant. 'Tis your
counsel
⁵¹
       My lord should to the heavens be contrary,
       Oppose against their wills.— Care not for issue.
To Leontes
       The crown will find an heir.
Great Alexander
       Left his to th'worthiest
⁵⁴
, so his successor
       Was like to be the best.

LEONTES
     Good Paulina,
       Who hast the memory of Hermione,
       I know, in honour — O, that ever I
       Had
squared me
⁶⁰
to thy counsel! Then, even now,
     I might have looked upon my queen's
full
⁶¹
eyes,
       Have taken treasure from her lips—

PAULINA
     And left them
       More rich for what they yielded.

LEONTES
     Thou speak'st truth.
       No more such wives: therefore, no wife.
One worse,
       And better used
⁶⁶
, would make her sainted spirit
       Again possess her corpse,
and
⁶⁸
on this stage —
       Where we offenders
now
⁶⁹
— appear
soul-vexed
,
       And begin, ‘
Why
⁷⁰
to me?'

PAULINA
     Had she such power,
       She
had
⁷²
just such cause.

LEONTES
     She had, and would incense me
       To murder her I married.

PAULINA
     I
should so
⁷⁵
.
       Were I the ghost that walked, I'd bid you
mark
⁷⁶
       Her eye, and tell me for what dull part in't
       You chose her. Then I'd shriek, that even your ears
       Should
rift
⁷⁹
to hear me and the words that followed
       Should be ‘Remember
mine
⁸⁰
.'

LEONTES
     Stars, stars,
       And all
eyes else
⁸²
dead coals! Fear thou no wife;
       I'll have no wife, Paulina.

PAULINA
     Will you swear
       Never to marry but by my free
leave
⁸⁵
?

LEONTES
     Never, Paulina, so be blest my spirit!

PAULINA
     Then, good my lords, bear witness to his oath.

CLEOMENES
     You
tempt
⁸⁸
him over-much.

PAULINA
     Unless another,
       As like Hermione as is her picture,
      
Affront
⁹¹
his eye.

CLEOMENES
     Good madam—

PAULINA
     I have done.
       Yet, if my lord will marry — if you will, sir,
       No remedy, but you will — give me the
office
⁹⁵
       To choose you a queen. She shall not be so young
       As was your former, but she shall be such
       As,
walked your first queen's ghost
⁹⁸
, it should take joy
       To see her in your arms.

LEONTES
     My true Paulina,
       We shall not marry till thou bid'st us.

PAULINA
     That
       Shall be when your first queen's again in breath.
       Never till then.

Enter a
Servant
¹⁰⁴

SERVANT
     One that
gives out himself
¹⁰⁵
Prince Florizel,
       Son of Polixenes, with his princess, she
       The fairest I have yet beheld, desires access
       To your high presence.