THE WINTER'S TALE. Sidney Lee

I think this coming summer the King of Sicilia means to pay Bohemia the visitation which he justly owes him.

       ARCHIDAMUS

       Wherein our entertainment shall shame us we will be justified in our loves; for indeed,—

       CAMILLO

       Beseech you,—

       ARCHIDAMUS

       Verily, I speak it in the freedom of my knowledge: we cannot with such magnificence—in 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.

       CAMILLO

       You pay a great deal too dear for what’s given freely.

       ARCHIDAMUS

       Believe me, I speak as my understanding instructs me and as mine honesty puts it to utterance.

       CAMILLO

       Sicilia cannot show himself overkind 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 attorneyed with interchange of gifts, letters, loving embassies; that they have seemed to be together, though absent; shook hands, as over a vast; and embraced as it were from the ends of opposed winds. The heavens continue their loves!

       ARCHIDAMUS

       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.

       CAMILLO

       I very well agree with you in the hopes of him. It is a gallant child; one that indeed physics the subject, makes old hearts fresh: they that went on crutches ere he was born desire yet their life to see him a man.

       ARCHIDAMUS

       Would they else be content to die?

       CAMILLO

       Yes, if there were no other excuse why they should desire to live.

       ARCHIDAMUS

       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.]

       POLIXENES

       Nine changes of the watery star hath 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.

       LEONTES

       Stay your thanks a while,

       And pay them when you part.

       POLIXENES

       Sir, that’s tomorrow.

       I am question’d by my fears, of what may chance

       Or breed upon our absence; that may blow

       No sneaping winds at home, to make us say,

       ‘This is put forth too truly.’ Besides, I have stay’d

       To tire your royalty.

       LEONTES

       We are tougher, brother,

       Than you can put us to’t.

       POLIXENES

       No longer stay.

       LEONTES

       One seven-night longer.

       POLIXENES

       Very sooth, tomorrow.

       LEONTES

       We’ll part the time between ‘s then: and in that

       I’ll no gainsaying.

       POLIXENES

       Press me not, beseech you, so,

       There is no tongue that moves, none, none i’ the world,

       So soon as yours, could win me: so it should now,

       Were there necessity in your request, although

       ‘Twere needful I denied it. My affairs

       Do even drag me homeward: which to hinder,

       Were, in your love a whip to me; my stay

       To you a charge and trouble: to save both,

       Farewell, our brother.

       LEONTES

       Tongue-tied, our queen? Speak you.

       HERMIONE

       I had thought, sir, to have held my peace until

       You had drawn oaths from him not to stay. You, sir,

       Charge him too coldly. Tell him you are sure

       All in Bohemia’s well: this satisfaction

       The by-gone day proclaimed: say this to him,

       He’s beat from his best ward.

       LEONTES

       Well said, Hermione.

       HERMIONE

       To tell he longs to see his son were strong:

       But let him say so then, and let him go;

       But let him swear so, and he shall not stay,

       We’ll thwack him hence with distaffs.—

       [To POLIXENES]

       Yet of your royal presence I’ll adventure

       The borrow of a week. When at Bohemia

       You take my lord, I’ll give him my commission

       To let him there a month behind the gest

       Prefix’d for’s parting:—yet, good deed, Leontes,

       I love thee not a jar of the clock behind

       What lady she her lord.—You’ll stay?

       POLIXENES

       No, madam.

       HERMIONE

       Nay, but you will?

       POLIXENES

       I may not, verily.

       HERMIONE

       Verily!

       You put me off with limber vows; but I,

       Though you would seek to unsphere the stars with oaths,

       Should yet say ‘Sir, no going.’ Verily,

       You shall not go; a lady’s verily is

       As potent as a lord’s. Will go yet?

       Force me to keep you as a prisoner,

       Not like a guest: so you shall pay your fees

       When you depart, and save your thanks. How say you?

       My prisoner or my guest? by your dread ‘verily,’

       One of them you shall be.