Puslapio vaizdai
PDF
„ePub“

The

WINTER'S

TALE.

Perfons represented.

Leontes, King of Sicilia:
Mamillius, a young Boy, his Son.
Camillo,

Antigonus, Lords:
Dion, and
Cleomenes,

two other Lords; Gentlemen and
Attendants upon the King, four;
three other Gentlemen; a Mariner,
Prison-keeper, and Officer of a
Court of Justice,

Sicilians.

Polixenes, King of Bohemia:
Florizel, his Son.

Archidamus, a Nobleman:

Autolicus, a Rogue:

an old Shepherd; Clown, his Son;
Servant of the Shepherd's, Bohemians.
Time, as Chorus.

Hermione, Queen to Leontes:

Perdita, their Daughter.

Paulina, Wife to Antigonus.

Emilia, and

two other Ladies, attending the Queen.

Mopfa, and Dorcas, country Wenches.

Lords, Ladies, and divers other Attendants; Satyrs in a Dance; Shepherds, Shepherdeffes, Guards, &c.

Scene, difperf'd; in Sicilia, and Bohemia.

The WINTER'S TALE.

ACT I.

SCENE I. Sicilia.

An Anti-room in Leontes' Palace.
Enter ARCHIDAMUS, and CAMILLO.

ARC. If you fhall chance, Camillo, to visit Bohemia, on the like occasion whereon my fervices are now on foot, you fhall fee, as I have faid, great difference betwixt our Bohemia and your Sicilia.

CAM. I think, this coming fummer, the king of Sicilia means to pay Bohemia the visitation which he justly owes him.

ARC. Wherein our entertainment shall shame us, we will be justify'd in our loves: for, indeed,

CAM. Befeech you,—

ARC. Verily, I fpeak it in the freedom of my knowledge: we cannot with fuch magnificence-in fo rareI know not what to fay. We will give you fleepy drinks; that your fenfes, unintelligent of our infufficience, may, though they cannot praise us, as little

accuse us.

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

ARC. Believe me, I fpeak as my understanding inftructs me, and as mine honefty puts it to utter

ance.

CAM. Sicilia cannot fhew himself over-kind to Bohemia. They were train'd 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 neceffities, made feparation of their fociety, their encounters, though not perfonal, have been royally attorney'd, with enterchange of gifts, letters, loving embaffies: that they have feem'd to be together, though absent; fhook hands, as over a vast sea; and embrac'd, as it were, from the ends of opposed winds. The heavens continue their loves!

ARC. 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, physicks the fubject, makes old hearts fresh: they, that went on crutches ere he was born, desire yet their life, to see him a man.

ARC. Would they else be content to dye?

CAM. Yes; if there were no other excufe, why they fhould desire to live.

ARC. If the king had no fon, they would desire to live on crutches 'till he had one.

.

[Exeunt.

« AnkstesnisTęsti »