The Winter's Tale (3 page)

MAJOR PARTS
(
with percentages of lines/number of speeches/scenes on stage
): Leontes (20%/125/6), Paulina (10%/59/5), Camillo (9%/72/5), Autolycus (9%/67/3), Polixenes (8%/57/4), Florizel (6%/45/2), Hermione (6%/35/4), Clown (5%/64/4), Shepherd (4%/42/3), Perdita (4%/25/3), Antigonus (3%/19/3). An unusually large number of named parts have 20–30 lines, less than 1% of the text: Archidamus, Cleomenes, Dion, the boy Mamillius, Emilia, Dorcas, and Mopsa.

LINGUISTIC MEDIUM:
75% verse, 25% prose.

DATE:
1611. Performed at the Globe May 1611; dance of satyrs apparently borrows from a court entertainment of January 1611; performed at court November 1611 and again for royal wedding celebrations in early 1613. Some scholars argue for 1609–10 on assumption that the satyrs' dance is a later interpolation, but theaters were closed because of plague for many months of these earlier years.

SOURCES:
A dramatization of Robert Greene's prose romance
Pandosto: The Triumph of Time
(1588, also known as
The History of Dorastus and Fawnia
). The survival and revival of the queen is a Shakespearean innovation, influenced by the story in Ovid's
Metamorphoses
(book ten) in which Pygmalion's statue comes to life.

TEXT:
First Folio of 1623 is only early printed text. Typeset from a transcription by Ralph Crane, professional scribe to the King's Men, it is very well printed, with remarkably few textual problems.

Location: Sicilia (now Sicily)

Enter Camillo and Archidamus

ARCHIDAMUS
     If you shall chance, Camillo, to visit
Bohemia
¹
,
      
on the like occasion
²
whereon my services are now
on foot
,
       you shall see, as I have said, great difference betwixt our
       Bohemia and your Sicilia.

CAMILLO
     I think this coming summer the King of Sicilia
       means to pay
Bohemia
⁶
the visitation which he justly owes
       him.

ARCHIDAMUS
    
Wherein our entertainment shall shame us, we
       will be justified in our loves
⁸
, for indeed—

CAMILLO
     Beseech you—

ARCHIDAMUS
    
Verily
¹¹
, I speak it in the freedom of my
knowledge
¹¹
:
       we cannot with such magnificence — in so
rare
¹²
— I know
       not what to say. We will give you
sleepy
¹³
drinks, that your
       senses, unintelligent of our
insufficience
¹⁴
, may, though they
       cannot praise us, as little accuse us.

CAMILLO
     You pay a great deal too dear for what's given freely.

ARCHIDAMUS
     Believe me, I speak as my understanding instructs
       me and as mine honesty puts it to utterance.

CAMILLO
    
Sicilia
¹⁹
cannot show himself over-kind to Bohemia.
       They were
trained
²⁰
together in their childhoods and there
       rooted betwixt them then such an affection which cannot
       choose but
branch
²²
now. Since their more mature dignities
       and royal
necessities
²³
made separation of their society,
       their encounters, though not personal, have been royally
      
attorneyed
²⁵
with interchange of gifts, letters, loving
embassies
,
       that they have seemed to be together, though absent, shook
      
hands, as over a
vast
²⁷
, and embraced, as it were, from the
      
ends of opposed winds
²⁸
. The heavens continue their loves.

ARCHIDAMUS
     I think there is not in the world either malice or
       matter to alter it. You have an
unspeakable
³⁰
comfort
of
your
       young prince Mamillius: it is a gentleman of the greatest
       promise that ever came into my
note
³²
.

CAMILLO
     I very well agree with you in the hopes of him: it is a
       gallant child; one that indeed
physics the subject
³⁴
, makes old
       hearts fresh. They that went on crutches
ere
³⁵
he was born
      
desire yet their life
³⁶
to see him a man.

ARCHIDAMUS
     Would they
else
³⁷
be content to die?

CAMILLO
     Yes; if there were no other excuse why they should
       desire to live.

ARCHIDAMUS
     If the king had no son, they would desire to live on
       crutches till he had one.
Exeunt

Enter Leontes, Hermione, Mamillius, Polixenes, Camillo
[
and Attendants
]

POLIXENES
     Nine changes of the
wat'ry star
¹
hath been
       The shepherd's
note
²
since we have left our throne
       Without a
burden
³
. Time as long again
       Would be filled up, my brother, with our thanks.
       And yet we should, for
perpetuity
⁵
,
       Go hence in debt: and therefore, like a
cipher
⁶
,
       Yet standing in rich place, I multiply
       With one ‘We thank you' many thousands
moe
⁸
       That go before it.

LEONTES
    
Stay
¹⁰
your thanks a while,
       And pay them when you part.

POLIXENES
     Sir, that's tomorrow.
       I am
questioned 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'
¹³
. Besides, I have stayed
       To tire your royalty.

LEONTES
     We are tougher, brother,
       Than you can
put us to't
¹⁹
.

POLIXENES
     No longer stay.

LEONTES
     One
sev'nnight
²¹
longer.

POLIXENES
    
Very sooth
²²
, tomorrow.

LEONTES
     We'll part the time
between's
²³
then, and in that
       I'll
no gainsaying
²⁴
.

POLIXENES
     Press me not, beseech you, so.
       There is no tongue that moves, none, none i'th'world
       So soon as yours could win me. So it should now,
       Were there necessity in your request, although
       'Twere
needful
²⁹
I denied it. My affairs
       Do even drag me homeward, which to hinder
      
Were in your love a whip to me
³¹
, my stay
       To you a
charge
³²
and trouble. To save both,
       Farewell, our brother.

LEONTES
     Tongue-tied, our queen? Speak you.

HERMIONE
     I had thought, sir, to have held my peace until
       You had drawn oaths from him not to stay. You, sir,
      
Charge
³⁷
him too coldly. Tell him you are sure
       All in Bohemia's well:
this satisfaction
       The bygone day
³⁸
proclaimed.
Say
³⁹
this to him,
       He's beat from his best
ward
⁴⁰
.

LEONTES
     Well said, Hermione.

HERMIONE
     To
tell
⁴²
, he longs to see his son, were
strong
.
      
But
⁴³
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
⁴⁵
.—
       Yet of your royal presence I'll
adventure
⁴⁶
To Polixenes

       The borrow of a week. When at Bohemia
       You
take
⁴⁸
my lord, I'll give him my commission
       To let him there a month
behind the gest
       Prefixed for's parting
⁴⁹
.— Yet,
good deed
⁵⁰
, Leontes,
       I love thee not a
jar
⁵¹
o'th'clock
behind
       What lady she
her lord.— You'll stay?

POLIXENES
     No, madam.

HERMIONE
     Nay, but you will?

POLIXENES
     I may not, verily.

HERMIONE
     Verily?
       You put me off with
limber vows
⁵⁷
. But I,
       Though you would seek
t'unsphere the stars
⁵⁸
with oaths,
       Should yet say ‘Sir, no going.' Verily,
       You shall not go; a lady's ‘Verily' is
       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
⁶³
, and save your thanks. How say you?
       My prisoner? Or my guest? By your
dread
⁶⁵
‘Verily',
       One of them you shall be.

POLIXENES
     Your guest, then, madam.
       To be your prisoner should
import offending
⁶⁸
,
       Which is for me less easy to commit
       Than you to punish.

HERMIONE
     Not your jailer, then,
       But your kind hostess. Come, I'll question you
      
Of
⁷³
my lord's tricks and yours when you were boys.
       You were
pretty lordings
⁷⁴
then?

POLIXENES
     We were, fair queen,
       Two lads that thought there was no more
behind
⁷⁶
       But such a day tomorrow as today,
       And to be boy eternal.

HERMIONE
     Was not my lord
       The
verier wag
⁸⁰
o'th'two?

POLIXENES
     We were as twinned lambs that did frisk i'th'sun,
       And bleat the one at th'other. What we
changed
⁸²
       Was innocence for innocence. We knew not
       The doctrine of ill-doing, nor dreamed
       That any did. Had we pursued that life,
       And our
weak spirits ne'er been higher reared
       With stronger blood
⁸⁶
, we should have answered heaven
       Boldly ‘Not guilty',
the imposition cleared
       Hereditary ours
⁸⁸
.

HERMIONE
     By this we gather
       You have
tripped
⁹¹
since.

POLIXENES
     O, my most sacred lady,
       Temptations have since then been born
to's
⁹³
. For
       In those
unfledged
⁹⁴
days was my wife a girl;
       Your precious self had then not crossed the eyes
       Of my young
play-fellow
⁹⁶
.

HERMIONE
    
Grace to boot!
⁹⁷
      
Of this make no conclusion
⁹⁸
, lest you say
       Your queen and I are devils. Yet go on.
       Th'offences we have made you do we'll
answer
¹⁰⁰
,
     If you first
sinned with us
¹⁰¹
, and that with us
       You did continue fault, and that you slipped not
       With any but with us.

LEONTES
     Is he won yet?

HERMIONE
     He'll stay, my lord.

LEONTES
     At my request he would not.—
Aside?
       Hermione, my dearest, thou never spok'st
       To better purpose.

HERMIONE
     Never?

LEONTES
     Never, but once.

HERMIONE
     What? Have I twice said well? When was't before?
       I prithee tell me.
Cram's
¹¹²
with praise, and make's
       As fat as
tame things
¹¹³
. One good deed dying
tongueless
      
Slaughters a thousand waiting upon that
¹¹⁴
.
       Our praises are our wages. You may
ride's
¹¹⁵
       With one soft kiss a thousand
furlongs
¹¹⁶
ere
       With spur we heat an acre
. But to th'goal:
       My last good deed was to entreat his stay:
       What was my first? It has an elder
sister
¹¹⁹
,
       Or I mistake you — O,
would
¹²⁰
her name were
Grace
! —
       But once before I spoke to th'purpose: when?
       Nay, let me have't: I long.

LEONTES
     Why, that was when
       Three
crabbèd
¹²⁴
months had soured themselves to death,
       Ere I could make thee open thy white hand
       And
clap
¹²⁶
thyself my love; then didst thou utter
       ‘I am yours for ever.'