The Winter’s Tale

1 Enter Antigonus with the Child and a Mariner.
2 ANTIGONUS.
3 Thou art perfect, then, our ship hath touch’d upon
4 The deserts of Bohemia?
5 MARINER.
6 Ay, my lord, and fear
7 We have landed in ill time: the skies look grimly,
8 And threaten present blusters. In my conscience,
9 The heavens with that we have in hand are angry,
10 And frown upon ’s.
11 ANTIGONUS.
12 Their sacred wills be done! Go, get aboard;
13 Look to thy bark: I’ll not be long before
14 I call upon thee.
15 MARINER.
16 Make your best haste, and go not
17 Too far i’ th’ land: ’tis like to be loud weather;
18 Besides, this place is famous for the creatures
19 Of prey that keep upon ’t.
20 ANTIGONUS.
21 Go thou away:
22 I’ll follow instantly.
23 MARINER.
24 I am glad at heart
25 To be so rid o’ th’ business.
26 [_Exit._]
27 ANTIGONUS.
28 Come, poor babe.
29 I have heard, but not believ’d, the spirits of the dead
30 May walk again: if such thing be, thy mother
31 Appear’d to me last night; for ne’er was dream
32 So like a waking. To me comes a creature,
33 Sometimes her head on one side, some another.
34 I never saw a vessel of like sorrow,
35 So fill’d and so becoming: in pure white robes,
36 Like very sanctity, she did approach
37 My cabin where I lay: thrice bow’d before me,
38 And, gasping to begin some speech, her eyes
39 Became two spouts. The fury spent, anon
40 Did this break from her: “Good Antigonus,
41 Since fate, against thy better disposition,
42 Hath made thy person for the thrower-out
43 Of my poor babe, according to thine oath,
44 Places remote enough are in Bohemia,
45 There weep, and leave it crying. And, for the babe
46 Is counted lost for ever, Perdita
47 I prithee call’t. For this ungentle business,
48 Put on thee by my lord, thou ne’er shalt see
49 Thy wife Paulina more.” And so, with shrieks,
50 She melted into air. Affrighted much,
51 I did in time collect myself and thought
52 This was so, and no slumber. Dreams are toys,
53 Yet for this once, yea, superstitiously,
54 I will be squar’d by this. I do believe
55 Hermione hath suffer’d death, and that
56 Apollo would, this being indeed the issue
57 Of King Polixenes, it should here be laid,
58 Either for life or death, upon the earth
59 Of its right father. Blossom, speed thee well! There lie; and there thy
60 character: there these;
61 [_Laying down the child and a bundle._]
62 Which may if fortune please, both breed thee, pretty,
63 And still rest thine. The storm begins: poor wretch,
64 That for thy mother’s fault art thus expos’d
65 To loss and what may follow! Weep I cannot,
66 But my heart bleeds, and most accurs’d am I
67 To be by oath enjoin’d to this. Farewell!
68 The day frowns more and more. Thou’rt like to have
69 A lullaby too rough. I never saw
70 The heavens so dim by day. A savage clamour!
71 Well may I get aboard! This is the chase:
72 I am gone for ever.
73 [_Exit, pursued by a bear._]
74 Enter an old Shepherd.
75 SHEPHERD.
76 I would there were no age between ten and three-and-twenty, or that
77 youth would sleep out the rest; for there is nothing in the between but
78 getting wenches with child, wronging the ancientry, stealing,
79 fighting—Hark you now! Would any but these boiled brains of nineteen
80 and two-and-twenty hunt this weather? They have scared away two of my
81 best sheep, which I fear the wolf will sooner find than the master: if
82 anywhere I have them, ’tis by the sea-side, browsing of ivy. Good luck,
83 an ’t be thy will, what have we here?
84 [_Taking up the child._]
85 Mercy on ’s, a bairn! A very pretty bairn! A boy or a child, I wonder?
86 A pretty one; a very pretty one. Sure, some scape. Though I am not
87 bookish, yet I can read waiting-gentlewoman in the scape. This has
88 been some stair-work, some trunk-work, some behind-door-work. They
89 were warmer that got this than the poor thing is here. I’ll take it up
90 for pity: yet I’ll tarry till my son come; he halloed but even now.
91 Whoa-ho-hoa!
92 Enter Clown.
93 CLOWN.
94 Hilloa, loa!
95 SHEPHERD.
96 What, art so near? If thou’lt see a thing to talk on when thou art dead
97 and rotten, come hither. What ail’st thou, man?
98 CLOWN.
99 I have seen two such sights, by sea and by land! But I am not to say it
100 is a sea, for it is now the sky: betwixt the firmament and it, you
101 cannot thrust a bodkin’s point.
102 SHEPHERD.
103 Why, boy, how is it?
104 CLOWN.
105 I would you did but see how it chafes, how it rages, how it takes up
106 the shore! But that’s not to the point. O, the most piteous cry of the
107 poor souls! sometimes to see ’em, and not to see ’em. Now the ship
108 boring the moon with her mainmast, and anon swallowed with yest and
109 froth, as you’d thrust a cork into a hogshead. And then for the land
110 service, to see how the bear tore out his shoulder-bone, how he cried
111 to me for help, and said his name was Antigonus, a nobleman. But to
112 make an end of the ship, to see how the sea flap-dragon’d it: but
113 first, how the poor souls roared, and the sea mocked them, and how the
114 poor gentleman roared, and the bear mocked him, both roaring louder
115 than the sea or weather.
116 SHEPHERD.
117 Name of mercy, when was this, boy?
118 CLOWN.
119 Now, now. I have not winked since I saw these sights: the men are not
120 yet cold under water, nor the bear half dined on the gentleman. He’s at
121 it now.
122 SHEPHERD.
123 Would I had been by to have helped the old man!
124 CLOWN.
125 I would you had been by the ship side, to have helped her: there your
126 charity would have lacked footing.
127 SHEPHERD.
128 Heavy matters, heavy matters! But look thee here, boy. Now bless
129 thyself: thou met’st with things dying, I with things new-born. Here’s
130 a sight for thee. Look thee, a bearing-cloth for a squire’s child! Look
131 thee here; take up, take up, boy; open’t. So, let’s see. It was told me
132 I should be rich by the fairies. This is some changeling: open’t.
133 What’s within, boy?
134 CLOWN.
135 You’re a made old man. If the sins of your youth are forgiven you,
136 you’re well to live. Gold! all gold!
137 SHEPHERD.
138 This is fairy gold, boy, and ’twill prove so. Up with it, keep it
139 close: home, home, the next way. We are lucky, boy, and to be so still
140 requires nothing but secrecy. Let my sheep go: come, good boy, the next
141 way home.
142 CLOWN.
143 Go you the next way with your findings. I’ll go see if the bear be gone
144 from the gentleman, and how much he hath eaten. They are never curst
145 but when they are hungry: if there be any of him left, I’ll bury it.
146 SHEPHERD.
147 That’s a good deed. If thou mayest discern by that which is left of him
148 what he is, fetch me to th’ sight of him.
149 CLOWN.
150 Marry, will I; and you shall help to put him i’ th’ ground.
151 SHEPHERD.
152 ’Tis a lucky day, boy, and we’ll do good deeds on ’t.
153 [_Exeunt._]