Sicilia. A Room of State in the Palace.
 Enter LEONTES, HERMIONE, MAMILLIUS, POLIXENES, and CAMILLO.

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 filled 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 questioned 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 stayed
	To tire your royalty.

Leontes							We are tougher, brother,
	Than you can put us to't.

Polixenes									No longer stay.

Leontes	One sennight 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'th' 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
	Prefixed for's parting; yet, good deed, Leontes,
	I love thee not a jar o'th' 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 t'unsphere the stars with oaths,
	Should yet say 'Sir, no going'. Verily,
	You shall not go. A lady's 'verily' 's
	As potent as a lord's. Will you 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.

Polixenes									Your guest then, madam.
	To be your prisoner should import offending;
	Which is for me less easy to commit
	Than you to punish.

Hermione						Not your gaoler then,
	But your kind hostess. Come, I'll question you
	Of my lord's tricks and yours when you were boys.
	You were pretty lordings then?

Polixenes										We were, fair queen,
	Two lads that thought there was no more behind
	But such a day tomorrow as today,
	And to be boy eternal.

Hermione	Was not my lord the verier wag o'th 'two?

Polixenes	We were as twinned lambs that did frisk i'th' sun
	And bleat the one at th' other. What we changed
	Was innocence for innocence. We knew not
	The doctrine of ill-doing, nor dreamed
	That any did. Had we pursued that life,
	And our weak spirits ne'er been higher reared
	With stronger blood, we should have answered heaven
	Boldly 'Not guilty', the imposition cleared
	Hereditary ours.

Hermione						By this we gather
	You have tripped since.

Polixenes									O my most sacred lady,
	Temptations have since then been born to's, for
	In those unfledged days was my wife a girl;
	Your precious self had then not crossed the eyes
	Of my young playfellow.

Hermione								Grace to boot!
	Of this make no conclusion, lest you say
	Your queen and I are devils. Yet go on;
	Th' offences we have made you do we'll answer,
	If you first sinned with us, and that with us
	You did continue fault, and that you slipped not
	With any but with us.

Leontes								Is he won yet?

Hermione	He'll stay, my lord.

Leontes							At my request he would not.
	Hermione, my dearest, thou never spok'st
	To better purpose.

Hermione						Never?

Leontes									Never but once.

Hermione	What, have I twice said well? When was't before,
	I prithee tell me? Cram's with praise, and make's
	As fat as tame things. One good deed dying tongueless
	Slaughters a thousand waiting upon that.
	Our praises are our wages; you may ride's
	With one soft kiss a thousand furlongs ere
	With spur we heat an acre. But to th' goal:
	My last good deed was to entreat his stay;
	What was my first? It has an elder sister,
	Or I mistake you. O, would her name were Grace!
	But once before I spoke to th' purpose? When?
	Nay, let me have't; I long.

Leontes										Why, that was when
	Three crabbd months had soured themselves to death,
	Ere I could make thee open thy white hand
	And clap thyself my love. Then didst thou utter
	"I am yours for ever".

Hermione								'Tis grace indeed.
	Why, lo you now, I have spoke to th' purpose twice:
	The one for ever earned a royal husband,
	The other for some while a friend.
											[Gives her hand to POLIXENES.

Leontes										[Aside.] Too hot, too hot!
	To mingle friendship far is mingling bloods.
	I have tremor cordis on me; my heart dances,
	But not for joy, not joy. This entertainment
	May a free face put on, derive a liberty
	From heartiness, from bounty, fertile bosom,
	And well become the agent - 't may, I grant.
	But to be paddling palms and pinching fingers,
	As now they are, and making practised smiles
	As in a looking-glass; and then to sigh, as 'twere
	The mort o'th' deer. - O, that is entertainment
	My bosom likes not, nor my brows! Mamillius,
	Art thou my boy?

Mamillius						Ay, my good lord.

Leontes											I'fecks!
	Why, that's my bawcock. What, hast smutched thy nose?
	They say it is a copy out of mine. Come, Captain,
	We must be neat - not neat, but cleanly, Captain.
	And yet the steer, the heifer, and the calf,
	Are all called neat. Still virginalling
	Upon his palm? How now, you wanton calf;
	Art thou my calf?

Mamillius						Yes, if you will, my lord.

Leontes	Thou want'st a rough pash and the shoots that I have,
	To be full like me. Yet they say we are
	Almost as like as eggs. Women say so,
	That will say anything. But were they false
	As o'erdyed blacks, as wind, as waters; false
	As dice are to be wished by one that fixes
	No bourn 'twixt his and mine, yet were it true
	To say this boy were like me. Come, sir page,
	Look on me with your welkin eye. Sweet villain!
	Most dear'st! My collop! Can thy dam? - May't be?
	Affection, thy intention stabs the centre.
	Thou dost make possible things not so held,
	Communicat'st with dreams - How can this be?-
	With what's unreal thou coactive art,
	And fellow'st nothing. Then 'tis very credent
	Thou mayst co-join with something - and thou dost;
	And that beyond commission - and I find it,
	And that, to the infection of my brains
	And hard'ning of my brows.

Polixenes									What means Sicilia?

Hermione	He something seems unsettled.

Polixenes									How, my lord!
	What cheer? How is't with you, best brother?

Hermione											You look
	As if you held a brow of much distraction.
	Are you moved, my lord?

Leontes								No, in good earnest.
	How sometimes nature will betray its folly,
	Its tenderness, and make itself a pastime
	To harder bosoms! Looking on the lines
	Of my boy's face methoughts I did recoil
	Twenty-three years, and saw myself unbreeched,
	In my green velvet coat; my dagger muzzled
	Lest it should bite its master, and so prove,
	As ornaments oft do, too dangerous.
	How like methought I then was to this kernel,
	This squash, this gentleman. Mine honest friend,
	Will you take eggs for money?

Mamillius									No, my lord, I'll fight.

Leontes	You will? Why, happy man be's dole! My brother,
	Are you so fond of your young prince as we
	Do seem to be of ours?

Polixenes								If at home, sir,
	He's all my exercise, my mirth, my matter;
	Now my sworn friend, and then mine enemy;
	My parasite, my soldier, statesman, all.
	He makes a July's day short as December,
	And with his varying childness cures in me
	Thoughts that would thick my blood.

Leontes											So stands this squire
	Officed with me. We two will walk, my lord,
	And leave you to your graver steps. Hermione,
	How thou lov'st us show in our brother's welcome;
	Let what is dear in Sicily be cheap:
	Next to thyself and my young rover, he's
	Apparent to my heart.

Hermione								If you would seek us,
	We are yours i'th' garden. Shall's attend you there?

Leontes	To your own bents dispose you; you'll be found,
	Be you beneath the sky. [Aside.] I am angling now,
	Though you perceive me not how I give line.
	Go to, go to!
	How she holds up the neb, the bill to him,
	And arms her with the boldness of a wife
	To her allowing husband!
										[Exeunt POLIXENES and HERMIONE.

									Gone already?
	Inch-thick, knee-deep, o'er head and ears a forked one!
	Go play, boy, play. Thy mother plays, and I
	Play too; but so disgraced a part, whose issue
	Will hiss me to my grave. Contempt and clamour
	Will be my knell. Go play, boy, play. There have been,
	Or I am much deceived, cuckolds ere now,
	And many a man there is even at this present,
	Now, while I speak this, holds his wife by th' arm,
	That little thinks she has been sluiced in's absence,
	And his pond fished by his next neighbour - by
	Sir Smile, his neighbour. Nay, there's comfort in't
	Whiles other men have gates, and those gates opened,
	As mine, against their will. Should all despair
	That have revolted wives, the tenth of mankind
	Would hang themselves. Physic for't there's none;
	It is a bawdy planet, that will strike
	Where 'tis predominant - and 'tis powerful, think it,
	From east, west, north, and south. Be it concluded,
	No barricado for a belly. Know't,
	It will let in and out the enemy
	With bag and baggage. Many thousand on's
	Have the disease and feel't not. How now, boy!

Mamillius	I am like you, they say.

Leontes								Why, that's some comfort.
	What! Camillo there?

Camillo							Ay, my good lord.

Leontes	Go play, Mamillius; thou'rt an honest man.
													[Exit MAMILLIUS.
	Camillo, this great sir will yet stay longer.

Camillo	You had much ado to make his anchor hold;
	When you cast out, it still came home.

Leontes											Didst note it?

Camillo	He would not stay at your petitions; made
	His business more material.

Leontes									Didst perceive it?
	[Aside.] They're here with me already, whisp'ring, rounding,
	"Sicilia is a so-forth". 'Tis far gone
	When I shall gust it last. - How came't, Camillo,
	That he did stay?

Camillo						At the good queen's entreaty.

Leontes	At the queen's be't. 'Good' should be pertinent;
	But so it is, it is not. Was this taken
	By any understanding pate but thine?
	For thy conceit is soaking, will draw in
	More than the common blocks. Not noted, is't,
	But of the finer natures? By some severals
	Of head-piece extraordinary? Lower messes
	Perchance are to this business purblind? Say.

Camillo	Business, my lord? I think most understand
	Bohemia stays here longer.

Leontes									Ha?

Camillo											Stays here longer.

Leontes	Ay, but why?

Camillo	To satisfy your highness, and the entreaties
	Of our most gracious mistress.

Leontes										Satisfy
	Th' entreaties of your mistress? Satisfy?
	Let that suffice. I have trusted thee, Camillo,
	With all the nearest things to my heart, as well
	My chamber-counsels, wherein, priest-like, thou
	Hast cleansed my bosom - I from thee departed
	Thy penitent reformed. But we have been
	Deceived in thy integrity, deceived
	In that which seems so.

Camillo								Be it forbid, my lord.

Leontes	To bide upon't: thou art not honest; or,
	If thou inclin'st that way, thou art a coward,
	Which hoxes honesty behind, restraining
	From course required; or else thou must be counted
	A servant grafted in my serious trust,
	And therein negligent; or else a fool
	That seest a game played home, the rich stake drawn,
	And tak'st it all for jest.

Camillo										My gracious lord,
	I may be negligent, foolish, and fearful;
	In every one of these no man is free
	But that his negligence, his folly, fear,
	Among the infinite doings of the world
	Sometime puts forth. In your affairs, my lord,
	If ever I were wilful-negligent,
	It was my folly; if industriously
	I played the fool, it was my negligence,
	Not weighing well the end; if ever fearful
	To do a thing where I the issue doubted,
	Whereof the execution did cry out
	Against the non-performance, 'twas a fear
	Which oft infects the wisest. These, my lord,
	Are such allowed infirmities that honesty
	Is never free of. But, beseech your grace,
	Be plainer with me; let me know my trespass
	By its own visage. If I then deny it,
	'Tis none of mine.

Leontes						Ha' not you seen, Camillo-
	But that's past doubt; you have, or your eyeglass
	Is thicker than a cuckold's horn - or heard-
	For to a vision so apparent rumour
	Cannot be mute - or thought - for cogitation
	Resides not in that man that does not think-
	My wife is slippery? If thou wilt confess-
	Or else be impudently negative
	To have nor eyes, nor ears, nor thought - then say
	My wife's a hobby-horse, deserves a name
	As rank as any flax-wench that puts to
	Before her troth-plight. Say't and justify't.

Camillo	I would not be a stander-by to hear
	My sovereign mistress clouded so, without
	My present vengeance taken. 'Shrew my heart,
	You never spoke what did become you less
	Than this; which to reiterate were sin
	As deep as that, though true.

Leontes										Is whispering nothing?
	Is leaning cheek to cheek? Is meeting noses?
	Kissing with inside lip? Stopping the career
	Of laughter with a sigh? - a note infallible
	Of breaking honesty. Horsing foot on foot?
	Skulking in corners? Wishing clocks more swift;
	Hours minutes, noon midnight? And all eyes
	Blind with the pin and web but theirs, theirs only,
	That would unseen be wicked? Is this nothing?
	Why, then the world and all that's in't is nothing;
	The covering sky is nothing, Bohemia nothing,
	My wife is nothing; nor nothing have these nothings
	If this be nothing.

Camillo						Good my lord, be cured
	Of this diseased opinion, and betimes;
	For 'tis most dangerous.

Leontes									Say it be, 'tis true.

Camillo	No, no, my lord!

Leontes						It is; you lie, you lie.
	I say thou liest, Camillo, and I hate thee,
	Pronounce thee a gross lout, a mindless slave,
	Or else a hovering temporizer, that
	Canst with thine eyes at once see good and evil,
	Inclining to them both. Were my wife's liver
	Infected as her life, she would not live
	The running of one glass.

Camillo									Who does infect her?

Leontes	Why, he that wears her like her medal, hanging
	About his neck, Bohemia; who, if I
	Had servants true about me, that bare eyes
	To see alike mine honour as their profits,
	Their own particular thrifts, they would do that
	Which should undo more doing. Ay, and thou
	His cupbearer - whom I from meaner form
	Have benched and reared to worship, who mayst see,
	Plainly as heaven sees earth and earth sees heaven,
	How I am galled - mightst bespice a cup
	To give mine enemy a lasting wink;
	Which draught to me were cordial.

Camillo											Sir, my lord,
	I could do this; and that with no rash potion,
	But with a ling'ring dram that should not work
	Maliciously like poison. But I cannot
	Believe this crack to be in my dread mistress,
	So sovereignly being honourable.
	I have loved thee-

Leontes							Make that thy question, and go rot!
	Dost think I am so muddy, so unsettled,
	To appoint myself in this vexation; sully
	The purity and whiteness of my sheets-
	Which to preserve is sleep, which being spotted
	Is goads, thorns, nettles, tails of wasps-
	Give scandal to the blood o'th' prince my son,
	Who I do think is mine and love as mine,
	Without ripe moving to't? Would I do this?
	Could man so blench?

Camillo							I must believe you, sir.
	I do, and will fetch off Bohemia for't;
	Provided that when he's removed your highness
	Will take again your queen as yours at first,
	Even for your son's sake, and thereby for sealing
	The injury of tongues in courts and kingdoms
	Known and allied to yours.

Leontes									Thou dost advise me
	Even so as I mine own course have set down.
	I'll give no blemish to her honour, none.

Camillo	My lord, go then; and with a countenance as clear
	As friendship wears at feasts, keep with Bohemia
	And with your queen. I am his cupbearer;
	If from me he have wholesome beverage,
	Account me not your servant.

Leontes									This is all.
	Do't, and thou hast the one half of my heart;
	Do't not, thou splitt'st thine own.

Camillo											I'll do't, my lord.

Leontes	I will seem friendly, as thou hast advised me.
													[Exit.

Camillo	O miserable lady! But, for me,
	What case stand I in? I must be the poisoner
	Of good Polixenes, and my ground to do't
	Is the obedience to a master; one
	Who, in rebellion with himself, will have
	All that are his so too. To do this deed,
	Promotion follows. If I could find example
	Of thousands that had struck anointed kings
	And flourished after, I'd not do't; but since
	Nor brass nor stone nor parchment bears not one,
	Let villainy itself forswear't. I must
	Forsake the court: to do't, or no, is certain
	To me a break-neck. Happy star reign now!

                           Re-enter POLIXENES.

	Here comes Bohemia.

Polixenes							This is strange. Methinks
	My favour here begins to warp. Not speak?
	Good day, Camillo.

Camillo						Hail, most royal sir!

Polixenes	What is the news i'th' court?

Camillo										None rare, my lord.

Polixenes	The king hath on him such a countenance
	As he had lost some province, and a region
	Loved as he loves himself. Even now I met him
	With customary compliment, when he,
	Wafting his eyes to th' contrary, and falling
	A lip of much contempt, speeds from me, and
	So leaves me to consider what is breeding
	That changes thus his manners.

Camillo										I dare not know, my lord.

Polixenes	How, dare not? Do not? Do you know, and dare not
	Be intelligent to me? 'Tis thereabouts;
	For to yourself what you do know, you must,
	And cannot say you dare not. Good Camillo,
	Your changed complexions are to me a mirror
	Which shows me mine changed too; for I must be
	A party in this alteration, finding
	Myself thus altered with't.

Camillo										There is a sickness
	Which puts some of us in distemper, but
	I cannot name the disease; and it is caught
	Of you, that yet are well.

Polixenes									How caught of me?
	Make me not sighted like the basilisk.
	I have looked on thousands who have sped the better
	By my regard, but killed none so. Camillo-
	As you are certainly a gentleman, thereto
	Clerk-like experienced, which no less adorns
	Our gentry than our parents' noble names,
	In whose success we are gentle - I beseech you,
	If you know aught which does behove my knowledge
	Thereof to be informed, imprison't not
	In ignorant concealment.

Camillo								I may not answer.

Polixenes	A sickness caught of me, and yet I well?
	I must be answered. Dost thou hear, Camillo?
	I conjure thee, by all the parts of man
	Which honour does acknowledge, whereof the least
	Is not this suit of mine, that thou declare
	What incidency thou dost guess of harm
	Is creeping toward me; how far off, how near,
	Which way to be prevented, if to be;
	If not, how best to bear it.

Camillo										Sir, I will tell you,
	Since I am charged in honour, and by him
	That I think honourable. Therefore mark my counsel,
	Which must be e'en as swiftly followed as
	I mean to utter it, or both yourself and me
	Cry lost, and so good night.

Polixenes										On, good Camillo.

Camillo	I am appointed him to murder you.

Polixenes	By whom, Camillo?

Camillo						By the king.

Polixenes										For what?

Camillo	He thinks, nay, with all confidence he swears,
	As he had seen't or been an instrument
	To vice you to't, that you have touched his queen
	Forbiddenly.

Polixenes				O, then my best blood turn
	To an infected jelly, and my name
	Be yoked with his that did betray the Best!
	Turn then my freshest reputation to
	A savour that may strike the dullest nostril
	Where I arrive, and my approach be shunned,
	Nay, hated too, worse that the great'st infection
	That e'er was heard or read!

Camillo										Swear his thought over
	By each particular star in heaven and
	By all their influences, you may as well
	Forbid the sea for to obey the moon
	As or by oath remove or counsel shake
	The fabric of his folly, whose foundation
	Is piled upon his faith, and will continue
	The standing of his body.

Polixenes								How should this grow?

Camillo	I know not; but I am sure 'tis safer to
	Avoid what's grown than question how 'tis born.
	If therefore you dare trust my honesty,
	That lies enclosd in this trunk, which you
	Shall bear along impawned, away tonight!
	Your followers I will whisper to the business,
	And will by twos and threes, at several posterns,
	Clear them o'th' city. For myself, I'll put
	My fortunes to your service, which are here
	By this discovery lost. Be not uncertain,
	For, by the honour of my parents, I
	Have uttered truth, which if you seek to prove,
	I dare not stand by; nor shall you be safer
	Than one condemned by the king's own mouth, thereon
	His execution sworn.

Polixenes							I do believe thee;
	I saw his heart in's face. Give me thy hand.
	Be pilot to me, and thy places shall
	Still neighbour mine. My ships are ready, and
	My people did expect my hence departure
	Two days ago. This jealousy
	Is for a precious creature - as she's rare
	Must it be great; and as his person's mighty
	Must it be violent; and as he does conceive
	He is dishonoured by a man which ever
	Professed to him, why, his revenges must
	In that be made more bitter. Fear o'ershades me.
	Good expedition be my friend, and comfort
	The gracious queen, part of his theme but nothing
	Of his ill-ta'en suspicion. Come, Camillo,
	I will respect thee as a father if
	Thou bear'st my life off. Hence, let us avoid!

Camillo	It is in mine authority to command
	The keys of all the posterns. Please your highness
	To take the urgent hour. Come, sir, away!
													[Exeunt.
