Authors: William Shakespeare
The Winter's Tale (11 page)
SHEPHERD
    Would I had been
by
104
, to have helped the old man!
CLOWN
    I would you had been by the ship side, to have
      helped her; there
your charity would have lacked footing
106
.
SHEPHERD
   Â
Heavy
107
matters, heavy matters! But look thee here,
      boy. Now bless thyself. Thou
met'st
108
with things dying, I with
      things newborn. Here's a sight for thee: look thee, a
bearing-cloth
109
      for a
squire's
110
child. Look thee here. Take up, take up,
      boy. Open't. So, let's see â it was told me I should be rich by
      the fairies â this is some
changeling
112
. Open't. What's within,
      boy?
CLOWN
    You're a made old man. If the sins of
Opens the box
      your youth are forgiven you,
you're well to live
115
. Gold, all gold!
SHEPHERD
    This is
fairy gold
116
, boy, and 'twill prove so. Up with't,
      keep it
close
117
. Home, home, the
next
way. We are lucky, boy,
      and to be so
still
118
requires nothing but secrecy. Let my sheep
      go. Come, good boy, the next way home.
CLOWN
    Go you the next way with your findings. I'll go see if
      the bear be gone from the gentleman and how much he hath
      eaten. They are never
curst
122
but when they are hungry. If
      there be any of him left, I'll bury it.
SHEPHERD
    That's a good deed. If thou mayst discern by that
      which is left of him
what
125
he is, fetch me to th'sight of him.
CLOWN
   Â
Marry
126
, will I. And you shall help to put him
      i'th'ground.
SHEPHERD
    'Tis a lucky day, boy, and we'll do good deeds on't.
Exeunt
running scene 8
Location: the theater
Enter Time, the Chorus
TIME
    I, that please some,
try
1
all,
both joy and terror
      Of
good and bad, that makes and
unfolds
2
error,
      Now take upon me, in the name of Time,
      To use my
wings
4
. Impute it not a crime
      To me or my swift passage, that I slide
      O'er sixteen years and leave the
growth untried
6
      Of that wide gap, since it is in my power
      To o'erthrow law and in one
self-born
8
hour
      To
plant and o'erwhelm
9
custom. Let me pass
      The same I am,
ere ancient'st order was
      Or what is now received
10
. I
witness
11
to
      The times that brought
them
12
in, so shall I
do
      To th'freshest things now reigning and make
stale
      The glistering of this present
13
, as my tale
      Now
seems to it
15
. Your patience this allowing,
        I turn my
glass
16
and give my scene such growing
     Â
As
17
you had slept between.
Leontes leaving â
      Th'effects of his fond jealousies so grieving
      That he shuts up himself
â imagine me,
     Â
Gentle
20
spectators, that I now may be
      In fair Bohemia, and remember well,
      I mentioned a son o'th'
king's
22
, which Florizel
      I now name to you, and with speed so
pace
23
      To speak of Perdita, now grown in grace
     Â
Equal with wond'ring
25
. What of her ensues
      I
list not prophesy
26
, but let Time's news
      Be known when 'tis brought forth. A shepherd's daughter
      And what to her
adheres
28
, which follows after,
      Is th'
argument
29
of Time. Of this allow,
      If ever you have spent time worse ere now.
      If never,
yet
31
that Time himself doth say
      He wishes earnestly you never may.
Exit
running scene 9
Location: Bohemia (court)
Enter Polixenes and Camillo
POLIXENES
    I pray thee, good Camillo, be no more
importunate
1
:
     Â
'Tis a sickness denying
2
thee anything, a death to grant this.
CAMILLO
    It is
fifteen
3
years since I saw my country. Though I
      have for the most part
been aired
4
abroad, I desire to lay my
      bones there. Besides, the penitent king, my master, hath sent
      for me, to whose
feeling
6
sorrows I might be some
allay
, or I
     Â
o'erween
7
to think so, which is another spur to my departure.
POLIXENES
    As thou lovest me, Camillo, wipe not out the rest of
      thy services by leaving me now: the need I have of thee thine
      own goodness hath made: better not to have had thee than
      thus to
want
11
thee. Thou, having
made me businesses
which
      none without thee can sufficiently manage, must either stay
      to execute them thyself or take away with thee the very
      services thou hast done, which if I have not enough
     Â
considered
15
, as too much I cannot, to be more thankful to
      thee shall be my study, and my profit therein the
heaping
      friendships
16
. Of that
fatal
17
country, Sicilia, prithee speak
      no more, whose very naming punishes me with the
      remembrance of that penitent, as thou call'st him, and
     Â
reconciled
20
king, my brother, whose loss of his most precious
      queen and children are even now to be afresh lamented. Say
      to me, when sawest thou the Prince Florizel, my son? Kings
      are no less
unhappy
23
, their issue not being
gracious
, than
      they are in losing them when they have
approved
24
their
      virtues.
CAMILLO
    Sir, it is three days since I saw the prince. What his
      happier affairs may be, are to me unknown. But I have
     Â
missingly noted
28
, he is of late much
retired
from court and is
      less frequent to his princely
exercises
29
than formerly he hath
      appeared.
POLIXENES
    I have considered so much, Camillo, and with some
      care â so far that I have
eyes under my service
32
which look
      upon his
removedness
33
, from whom I have this intelligence,
      that he is seldom from the house of a most homely shepherd:
      a man, they say, that from very nothing, and beyond
      the imagination of his neighbours, is grown into an
     Â
unspeakable estate
37
.
CAMILLO
    I have heard, sir, of such a man, who hath a
      daughter of most
rare note
39
. The report of her is extended
      more than can be thought to
begin
40
from such a cottage.
POLIXENES
    That's likewise part of my intelligence: but, I fear,
      the
angle
42
that plucks our son thither. Thou shalt accompany
      us to the place where we will, not appearing what we are,
      have some
question
44
with the shepherd, from whose
      simplicity I think it not
uneasy
45
to get the cause of my son's
      resort thither. Prithee be my
present
46
partner in this business,
      and lay aside the thoughts of Sicilia.
CAMILLO
    I willingly obey your command.
POLIXENES
    My best Camillo, we must disguise ourselves.
Exeunt
running scene 10
Location: Bohemia (rural)
Enter
Autolycus
singing
AUTOLYCUS
    When daffodils begin to
peer
1
,
          With hey, the
doxy
2
over the dale,
          Why then comes in the
sweet o'
3
the year,
          For the red blood reigns in the winter's
pale
4
.
          The white
sheet bleaching on the hedge
5
,
          With hey, the sweet birds, O, how they sing!
          Doth
set my pugging tooth an edge
7
.
          For a quart of ale is a dish for a king.
          The lark, that tirra-lirra chants,
          With hey, the thrush and the jay,
     Â
    Are summer songs for me and my
aunts
11
,
          While we lie
tumbling
12
in the hay.
    I have served Prince Florizel and in my time wore
three-pile
13
,
          but now I am
out of service
14
.
          But shall I go mourn for that, my dear?
          The pale moon shines by night,
          And when I wander here and there,
          I then do most go right.
          If
tinkers
19
may have
leave to live
,
          And bear the
sow-skin budget
20
,
          Then my account I well may give,
          And
in the
stocks
avouch it
22
.
   My
traffic
23
is sheets. When the
kite builds, look to lesser linen
.
      My father named me Autolycus, who being, as I am,
littered
      under
24
Mercury
25
, was likewise a snapper-up of
unconsidered
      trifles. With
die
26
and
drab
I purchased this
caparison
, and my
      revenue is the
silly cheat
27
.
Gallows and knock
are too
      powerful on the highway. Beating and hanging are terrors to
      me.
For the life to come
29
, I sleep out the thought of it. A prize,
      a prize!
He sees the Clown approaching
Enter Clown
CLOWN
    Let me see, every
'leven wether tods
31
, every tod yields
      pound and
odd
32
shilling. Fifteen hundred shorn, what comes
      the wool to?
AUTOLYCUS
    If the
springe
34
hold, the
cock
's mine.
Aside
CLOWN
    I cannot do't without
counters
35
. Let me see, what am
      I to buy for our
sheep-shearing feast
36
? Three pound of sugar,
      five pound of currants, rice â what will this sister of mine
      do with rice? But my father hath made her mistress of the
      feast, and she
lays it on
39
. She hath
made me
four-and-twenty
     Â
nosegays
40
for the shearers â
three-man-song-men
all, and
      very good ones â but they are most of them
means
41
and
      basses; but one
puritan
42
amongst them, and he sings psalms
      to
hornpipes
43
. I must have saffron to colour the
warden pies
.
     Â
Mace
44
, dates? â none, that's
out of my note
. Nutmegs,
      seven; a
race
45
or two of ginger, but that I may beg. Four
      pound of prunes, and as many of raisins
o'th'sun
46
.