THE WINTER'S TALE. Sidney Lee

The heavens with that we have in hand are angry,

       And frown upon ‘s.

       ANTIGONUS

       Their sacred wills be done!—Go, get aboard;

       Look to thy bark: I’ll not be long before

       I call upon thee.

       MARINER

       Make your best haste; and go not

       Too far i’ the land: ‘tis like to be loud weather;

       Besides, this place is famous for the creatures

       Of prey that keep upon’t.

       ANTIGONUS

       Go thou away:

       I’ll follow instantly.

       MARINER

       I am glad at heart

       To be so rid o’ th’ business.

       [Exit.]

       ANTIGONUS

       Come, poor babe:—

       I have heard (but not believ’d) the spirits of the dead

       May walk again: if such thing be, thy mother

       Appear’d to me last night; for ne’er was dream

       So like a waking. To me comes a creature,

       Sometimes her head on one side, some another:

       I never saw a vessel of like sorrow,

       So fill’d and so becoming: in pure white robes,

       Like very sanctity, she did approach

       My cabin where I lay: thrice bow’d before me;

       And, gasping to begin some speech, her eyes

       Became two spouts: the fury spent, anon

       Did this break from her: ‘Good Antigonus,

       Since fate, against thy better disposition,

       Hath made thy person for the thrower-out

       Of my poor babe, according to thine oath,—

       Places remote enough are in Bohemia,

       There weep, and leave it crying; and, for the babe

       Is counted lost for ever, Perdita

       I pr’ythee call’t. For this ungentle business,

       Put on thee by my lord, thou ne’er shalt see

       Thy wife Paulina more’: so, with shrieks,

       She melted into air. Affrighted much,

       I did in time collect myself; and thought

       This was so, and no slumber. Dreams are toys;

       Yet, for this once, yea, superstitiously,

       I will be squar’d by this. I do believe

       Hermione hath suffer’d death, and that

       Apollo would, this being indeed the issue

       Of King Polixenes, it should here be laid,

       Either for life or death, upon the earth

       Of its right father. Blossom, speed thee well!

       [Laying down the child.]

       There lie; and there thy character: there these;

       [Laying down a bundle.]

       Which may if fortune please, both breed thee, pretty,

       And still rest thine.—The storm begins:—poor wretch,

       That for thy mother’s fault art thus expos’d

       To loss and what may follow!—Weep I cannot,

       But my heart bleeds: and most accurs’d am I

       To be by oath enjoin’d to this.—Farewell!

       The day frowns more and more:—thou’rt like to have

       A lullaby too rough:—I never saw

       The heavens so dim by day. A savage clamour!—

       Well may I get aboard!—This is the chase:

       I am gone for ever.

       [Exit, pursued by a bear.]

       [Enter an old SHEPHERD.]

       SHEPHERD

       I would there were no age between ten and three-and-twenty, or that youth would sleep out the rest; for there is nothing in the between but getting wenches with child, wronging the ancientry, stealing, fighting.—Hark you now! Would any but these boiled brains of nineteen and two-and-twenty hunt this weather? They have scared away two of my best sheep, which I fear the wolf will sooner find than the master: if anywhere I have them, ‘tis by the seaside, browsing of ivy.—Good luck, an’t be thy will! what have we here?

       [Taking up the child.]

       Mercy on’s, a bairn: A very pretty bairn! A boy or a child, I wonder? A pretty one; a very pretty one: sure, some scape: though I am not bookish, yet I can read waiting-gentlewoman in the scape. This has been some stair-work, some trunk-work, some behind-door-work; they were warmer that got this than the poor thing is here. I’ll take it up for pity: yet I’ll tarry till my son comes; he hallaed but even now.—Whoa, ho hoa!

       CLOWN

       [Within.] Hilloa, loa!

       SHEPHERD

       What, art so near? If thou’lt see a thing to talk on when thou art dead and rotten, come hither.

       [Enter CLOWN.]

       What ail’st thou, man?

       CLOWN

       I have seen two such sights, by sea and by land!— but I am not to say it is a sea, for it is now the sky: betwixt the firmament and it, you cannot thrust a bodkin’s point.

       SHEPHERD

       Why, boy, how is it?

       CLOWN

       I would you did but see how it chafes, how it rages, how it takes up the shore! But that’s not to the point. O, the most piteous cry of the poor souls! sometimes to see ‘em, and not to see ‘em; now the ship boring the moon with her mainmast, and anon swallowed with yest and froth, as you’d thrust a cork into a hogshead. And then for the land service,—to see how the bear tore out his shoulder-bone; how he cried to me for help, and said his name was Antigonus, a nobleman.—But to make an end of the ship,—to see how the sea flap-dragon’d it:—but first, how the poor souls roared, and the sea mocked them;—and how the poor gentleman roared, and the bear mocked him,—both roaring louder than the sea or weather.

       SHEPHERD

       Name of mercy! when was this, boy?

       CLOWN

       Now, now; I have not winked since I saw these sights: the men are not yet cold under water, nor the bear half dined on the gentleman; he’s at it now.

       SHEPHERD

       Would I had been by 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.

       SHEPHERD

       [Aside.] Heavy matters, heavy matters! But look thee here, boy. Now bless thyself: thou mettest with things dying, I with things newborn. Here’s a sight for thee; look thee, a bearing-cloth for a squire’s child! look thee here; take up, take up, boy; open’t. So, let’s see:—it was told me I should be rich by the fairies: this is some changeling:—open’t. What’s within, boy?

       CLOWN

       You’re a made old man; if the sins of your youth are forgiven you, you’re well to live. Gold! all gold!

       SHEPHERD