ACT I.

SCENE I.-Sicilia. An Antechamber in Leontes' palace. Enter Camillo and Archidanius.

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 magnificencein 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 ;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 (1) Nobly supplied by substitution of embassies. (2) Wide waste of country.

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,3 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. [Exeunt.

SCENE II. The same. 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
Would 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 a while;

And pay them when you part.

Pol.

Sir, that's to-morrow. I am question'd by my fears, of what may chance, Or breed upon our absence: That may blow No sneaping4 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, No longer stay. longer.

Leon. One seven-night

Pol.

Very sooth, to-morro ". Leon. We'll part the time between's then: and in that

(3) Affords a cordial to the state. (4) Nipping.

With stronger blood, we should have answer'd
heaven
Boldly, Not guilty; the imposition clear'd,
Hereditary ours.6
Her.
By this we gather,

You have tripp'd since.

Pol.

O my most sacred lady, Temptations have since then been born to us: for In those unfledg'd days was my wife a girl; Your precious self had then not cross'd the eyes Of my young play-fellow. Her.

Grace to boot! Of this make no conclusion; lest you say, Your queen and I are devils: Yet, go on; The offences we have made you do, we'll answer: If you first sinn'd with us, and that with us You did continue fault, and that you slipp'd not With any but with us. Leon.

Is he won yet?

Her. He'll stay, my lord.

Leon.

At my request, he would not.

Hermione, my dearest, thou never spok'st
To better purpose.
Her.

Leon.

Never?

Never, but once.

Her. What? have I twice said well? when was't before?

You take my lord, I'll give him my commission, To let him there a month, behind the gestl Prefix'd for his parting: yet, good deed, 2 Leontes, I love thee not a jar o' the clock behind

What lady she her lord. - You'll stay?

Pol.

No, madam.

I may not, verily.

Her. Verily!

Slaughters a thousand, waiting upon that.
Our praises are our wages: You may ride us,
With one soft kiss, a thousand furlongs, ere
With spur we heat an acre. But to the goal;-
My last good was, to entreat his stay;
What was my first? it has an elder sister,

You put me off with limber vows: But I,

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

Her. Was not my lord the verier wag o'the two? Pol. We were as twinn'd lambs, that did frisk i'the sun,

And bleat the one at the other: what we chang'd,
Was innocence for innocence; we knew not
The doctrine of ill-doing, no, nor dream'd
That any did: Had we pursued that life,

And our weak spirits ne'er been higher rear'd

(1) Gests were the names of the stages where

the king appointed to lie, during a roval progress.

[Giving her hand to Polixenes.
Too hot, too hot: [Aside.

To mingle friendship far, is mingling bloods.
I have tremor cordis on me: my heart dances;
But not for joy,-not joy. -This entertainment
May a free face put on; derive a liberty

From heartiness, from bounty, fertile bosom,
And well become the agent: it may, I grant:
But to be paddling palms, and pinching fingers,
As now they are; and making practis'd smiles,
As in a looking-glass; and then to sigh, as 'twere
The mort o'the deer; O, that is entertainment
My bosom likes not, nor my brows.-Mamillius,
Art thou my boy?