The Winter’s Tale
ACT V SCENE II | Before Leontes’ palace. | |
[Enter AUTOLYCUS and a Gentleman] | ||
AUTOLYCUS | Beseech you, sir, were you present at this relation? | |
First Gentleman | I was by at the opening of the fardel, heard the old | |
shepherd deliver the manner how he found it: | ||
whereupon, after a little amazedness, we were all | ||
commanded out of the chamber; only this methought I | 5 | |
heard the shepherd say, he found the child. | ||
AUTOLYCUS | I would most gladly know the issue of it. | |
First Gentleman | I make a broken delivery of the business; but the | |
changes I perceived in the king and Camillo were | ||
very notes of admiration: they seemed almost, with | 10 | |
staring on one another, to tear the cases of their | ||
eyes; there was speech in their dumbness, language | ||
in their very gesture; they looked as they had heard | ||
of a world ransomed, or one destroyed: a notable | ||
passion of wonder appeared in them; but the wisest | 15 | |
beholder, that knew no more but seeing, could not | ||
say if the importance were joy or sorrow; but in the | ||
extremity of the one, it must needs be. | ||
[Enter another Gentleman] | ||
Here comes a gentleman that haply knows more. | ||
The news, Rogero? | 20 | |
Second Gentleman | Nothing but bonfires: the oracle is fulfilled; the | |
king’s daughter is found: such a deal of wonder is | ||
broken out within this hour that ballad-makers | ||
cannot be able to express it. | ||
[Enter a third Gentleman] | ||
Here comes the Lady Paulina’s steward: he can | 25 | |
deliver you more. How goes it now, sir? this news | ||
which is called true is so like an old tale, that | ||
the verity of it is in strong suspicion: has the king | ||
found his heir? | ||
Third Gentleman | Most true, if ever truth were pregnant by | 30 |
circumstance: that which you hear you’ll swear you | ||
see, there is such unity in the proofs. The mantle | ||
of Queen Hermione’s, her jewel about the neck of it, | ||
the letters of Antigonus found with it which they | ||
know to be his character, the majesty of the | 35 | |
creature in resemblance of the mother, the affection | ||
of nobleness which nature shows above her breeding, | ||
and many other evidences proclaim her with all | ||
certainty to be the king’s daughter. Did you see | ||
the meeting of the two kings? | 40 | |
Second Gentleman | No. | |
Third Gentleman | Then have you lost a sight, which was to be seen, | |
cannot be spoken of. There might you have beheld one | ||
joy crown another, so and in such manner that it | ||
seemed sorrow wept to take leave of them, for their | 45 | |
joy waded in tears. There was casting up of eyes, | ||
holding up of hands, with countenances of such | ||
distraction that they were to be known by garment, | ||
not by favour. Our king, being ready to leap out of | ||
himself for joy of his found daughter, as if that | 50 | |
joy were now become a loss, cries ‘O, thy mother, | ||
thy mother!’ then asks Bohemia forgiveness; then | ||
embraces his son-in-law; then again worries he his | ||
daughter with clipping her; now he thanks the old | ||
shepherd, which stands by like a weather-bitten | 55 | |
conduit of many kings’ reigns. I never heard of such | ||
another encounter, which lames report to follow it | ||
and undoes description to do it. | ||
Second Gentleman | What, pray you, became of Antigonus, that carried | |
hence the child? | 60 | |
Third Gentleman | Like an old tale still, which will have matter to | |
rehearse, though credit be asleep and not an ear | ||
open. He was torn to pieces with a bear: this | ||
avouches the shepherd’s son; who has not only his | ||
innocence, which seems much, to justify him, but a | 65 | |
handkerchief and rings of his that Paulina knows. | ||
First Gentleman | What became of his bark and his followers? | |
Third Gentleman | Wrecked the same instant of their master’s death and | |
in the view of the shepherd: so that all the | ||
instruments which aided to expose the child were | 70 | |
even then lost when it was found. But O, the noble | ||
combat that ‘twixt joy and sorrow was fought in | ||
Paulina! She had one eye declined for the loss of | ||
her husband, another elevated that the oracle was | ||
fulfilled: she lifted the princess from the earth, | 75 | |
and so locks her in embracing, as if she would pin | ||
her to her heart that she might no more be in danger | ||
of losing. | ||
First Gentleman | The dignity of this act was worth the audience of | |
kings and princes; for by such was it acted. | 80 | |
Third Gentleman | One of the prettiest touches of all and that which | |
angled for mine eyes, caught the water though not | ||
the fish, was when, at the relation of the queen’s | ||
death, with the manner how she came to’t bravely | ||
confessed and lamented by the king, how | 85 | |
attentiveness wounded his daughter; till, from one | ||
sign of dolour to another, she did, with an ‘Alas,’ | ||
I would fain say, bleed tears, for I am sure my | ||
heart wept blood. Who was most marble there changed | ||
colour; some swooned, all sorrowed: if all the world | 90 | |
could have seen ‘t, the woe had been universal. | ||
First Gentleman | Are they returned to the court? | |
Third Gentleman | No: the princess hearing of her mother’s statue, | |
which is in the keeping of Paulina,–a piece many | ||
years in doing and now newly performed by that rare | 95 | |
Italian master, Julio Romano, who, had he himself | ||
eternity and could put breath into his work, would | ||
beguile Nature of her custom, so perfectly he is her | ||
ape: he so near to Hermione hath done Hermione that | ||
they say one would speak to her and stand in hope of | 100 | |
answer: thither with all greediness of affection | ||
are they gone, and there they intend to sup. | ||
Second Gentleman | I thought she had some great matter there in hand; | |
for she hath privately twice or thrice a day, ever | ||
since the death of Hermione, visited that removed | 105 | |
house. Shall we thither and with our company piece | ||
the rejoicing? | ||
First Gentleman | Who would be thence that has the benefit of access? | |
every wink of an eye some new grace will be born: | ||
our absence makes us unthrifty to our knowledge. | 110 | |
Let’s along. | ||
[Exeunt Gentlemen] | ||
AUTOLYCUS | Now, had I not the dash of my former life in me, | |
would preferment drop on my head. I brought the old | ||
man and his son aboard the prince: told him I heard | ||
them talk of a fardel and I know not what: but he | 115 | |
at that time, overfond of the shepherd’s daughter, | ||
so he then took her to be, who began to be much | ||
sea-sick, and himself little better, extremity of | ||
weather continuing, this mystery remained | ||
undiscovered. But ’tis all one to me; for had I | 120 | |
been the finder out of this secret, it would not | ||
have relished among my other discredits. | ||
[Enter Shepherd and Clown] | ||
Here come those I have done good to against my will, | ||
and already appearing in the blossoms of their fortune. | ||
Shepherd | Come, boy; I am past moe children, but thy sons and | 125 |
daughters will be all gentlemen born. | ||
Clown | You are well met, sir. You denied to fight with me | |
this other day, because I was no gentleman born. | ||
See you these clothes? say you see them not and | ||
think me still no gentleman born: you were best say | 130 | |
these robes are not gentlemen born: give me the | ||
lie, do, and try whether I am not now a gentleman born. | ||
AUTOLYCUS | I know you are now, sir, a gentleman born. | |
Clown | Ay, and have been so any time these four hours. | |
Shepherd | And so have I, boy. | 135 |
Clown | So you have: but I was a gentleman born before my | |
father; for the king’s son took me by the hand, and | ||
called me brother; and then the two kings called my | ||
father brother; and then the prince my brother and | ||
the princess my sister called my father father; and | 140 | |
so we wept, and there was the first gentleman-like | ||
tears that ever we shed. | ||
Shepherd | We may live, son, to shed many more. | |
Clown | Ay; or else ’twere hard luck, being in so | |
preposterous estate as we are. | 145 | |
AUTOLYCUS | I humbly beseech you, sir, to pardon me all the | |
faults I have committed to your worship and to give | ||
me your good report to the prince my master. | ||
Shepherd | Prithee, son, do; for we must be gentle, now we are | |
gentlemen. | 150 | |
Clown | Thou wilt amend thy life? | |
AUTOLYCUS | Ay, an it like your good worship. | |
Clown | Give me thy hand: I will swear to the prince thou | |
art as honest a true fellow as any is in Bohemia. | ||
Shepherd | You may say it, but not swear it. | 155 |
Clown | Not swear it, now I am a gentleman? Let boors and | |
franklins say it, I’ll swear it. | ||
Shepherd | How if it be false, son? | |
Clown | If it be ne’er so false, a true gentleman may swear | |
it in the behalf of his friend: and I’ll swear to | 160 | |
the prince thou art a tall fellow of thy hands and | ||
that thou wilt not be drunk; but I know thou art no | ||
tall fellow of thy hands and that thou wilt be | ||
drunk: but I’ll swear it, and I would thou wouldst | ||
be a tall fellow of thy hands. | 165 | |
AUTOLYCUS | I will prove so, sir, to my power. | |
Clown | Ay, by any means prove a tall fellow: if I do not | |
wonder how thou darest venture to be drunk, not | ||
being a tall fellow, trust me not. Hark! the kings | ||
and the princes, our kindred, are going to see the | 170 | |
queen’s picture. Come, follow us: we’ll be thy | ||
good masters. | ||
[Exeunt] |
Next: The Winter’s Tale, Act 5, Scene 3