Besides the ripe comedy, characteristic of Shakespeare at his latest, which indeed harmonizes admirably with the idyl of love to which it serves as background, there is also a harsh exhibition, in Leontes, of the meanest of the passions, an insane jealousy, petty and violent as the man who nurses it. For sheer realism, for absolute insight into the most cobwebbed corners of our nature, Shakespeare has rarely surpassed this brief study, which, in its total effect, does but throw out in brightier relief the noble qualities of the other actors beside him, the pleasant qualities of the play they make by their acting. SYMONS: Henry Irving Shakespeare.

HERMIONE, queen to Leontes.

PERDITA, daughter to Leontes and Hermione.

PAULINA, wife to Antigonus.

EMILIA, a lady attending on Hermione.

Other Lords and Gentlemen, Ladies, Officers, and

Servants, Shepherds, and Shepherdesses.

Time, as Chorus.

SCENE: Partly in Sicilia, and partly in Bohemia.

THE WINTER'S TALE.

ACT FIRST.

Scene I.

Antechamber in Leontes' palace.

Enter Camillo and Archidamus.

Arch. If you shall chance, Camillo, to visit Bohemia,
on the like occasion whereon my services are
now on foot, you shall see, as I have said, great
difference betwixt our Bohemia and your Sicilia.
Cam. I think, this coming summer, the King of
Sicilia means to pay Bohemia the visitation
which he justly owes him.

Arch. Wherein our entertainment shall shame us we
will be justified in our loves; for indeed-
Cam. Beseech you,-

Arch. Verily, I speak it in the freedom of my know-
ledge: we cannot with such magnificence-in so
rare-I know not what to say. We will give
you sleepy drinks, that your senses, unintelli-
gent of our insufficience, may, though they can-
not praise us, as little accuse us.

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

Arch. Believe me, I speak as my understanding

ΙΟ

instructs me, and as mine honesty puts it to 20 utterance.

Cam. Sicilia cannot show himself over-kind to Bohemia.

now.

They were trained together in their child-
hoods; and there rooted betwixt them then such
an affection, which cannot choose but branch
Since their more mature dignities and
royal necessities made separation of their so-
ciety, their encounters, though not personal,
have been royally attorneyed with interchange of
gifts, letters, loving embassies; that they have 30
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!

Arch. 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 40 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.

Arch. Would they else be content to die?

Cam. Yes; if there were no other excuse why they

should desire to live.

Arch. If the king had no son, they would desire to live on crutches till he had one.

[Exeunt.

Scene II.

A room of state in the same.

Enter Leontes, Hermione, Mamillius, Polixenes, Camillo, and Attendants.

Pol. Nine changes of the watery star hath been
The shepherd's note since we have left our throne
Without a burthen: 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 moe
That go before it.

Leon.

Pol.

Stay your thanks a while;

And pay them when you part.

Sir, that's to-morrow.

I am question'd by my fears, of what may chance
Or breed upon our absence; that may blow

Leon.

Pol.

No sneaping winds at home, to make us say

This is put forth too truly': besides, I have stay'd To tire your royalty.

We are tougher, brother,

Than you can put us to 't.

Leon. One seven-night longer.

Pol.

No longer stay.

Very sooth, to-morrow.

Leon. We'll part the time between 's, then and in that I'll no gainsaying.

Pol.

ΙΟ

Press me not, beseech you, so.

There is no tongue that moves, none, none i̇' the

world,

20