The Arden Shakespeare Complete Works

Home > Fiction > The Arden Shakespeare Complete Works > Page 568
The Arden Shakespeare Complete Works Page 568

by William Shakespeare


  ANTIGONUS

  Thou art perfect, then, our ship hath touch’d upon

  The deserts of Bohemia?

  MARINER Ay, my lord, and fear

  We have landed in ill time: the skies look grimly,

  And threaten present blusters. In my conscience,

  The heavens with that we have in hand are angry,

  5

  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

  10

  Too far i’th’ 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:

  15

  I have heard, but not believ’d, the spirits o’th’ 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;

  20

  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

  25

  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,

  30

  Places remote enough are in Bohemia,

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

  Is counted lost for ever, Perdita,

  I prithee, call’t. For this ungentle business,

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

  35

  Thy wife Paulina more.’ And 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,

  40

  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

  45

  Of its right father. Blossom, speed thee well!

  There lie, and there thy character: there these,

  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

  50

  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

  55

  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 a Shepherd.

  SHEPHERD I would there were no age between ten and

  three-and-twenty, or that youth would sleep out the

  60

  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,

  65

  which I fear the wolf will sooner find than the

  master: if anywhere I have them, ’tis by the sea-side,

  browzing of ivy. [seeing the babe] Good luck, and’t be

  thy will, what have we here? Mercy on’s, a barne! A

  very pretty barne! A boy or a child, I wonder? A pretty

  70

  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

  75

  pity: yet I’ll tarry till my son come; he hallooed but

  even now. Whoa-ho-hoa!

  Enter Clown.

  CLOWN Hilloa, loa!

  SHEPHERD What, art so near? If thou’lt see a thing to

  talk on when thou art dead and rotten, come hither.

  80

  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.

  85

  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

  90

  boring the moon with her main-mast, and anon

  swallowed with yest and froth, as you’d thrust a cork

  into a hogs-head. 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

  95

  nobleman. But to make an end of the ship, to see how

  the sea flap-dragoned 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.

  100

  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

  105

  man!

  CLOWN I would you had been by the ship side, to have

  helped her: there your charity would have lacked

  footing.

  SHEPHERD Heavy matters! heavy matters! But look thee

  110

  here, boy. Now bless thyself: thou met’st with things

  dying, I with things new-born. 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

  115

  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 This is fairy gold, boy, and ’twill prove so;

  up with’t, keep it close: home, home, the next way. We

  120

  are lucky, boy; and to be so still requires nothing but

  secrecy. Let my sheep go: come, good boy, the next

  way home.

  CLOWN Go you the next way with your findings. I’ll go

  see if the bear be gone from the ge
ntleman, and how

  125

  much he hath eaten; they are never curst but when

  they are hungry: if there be any of him left, I’ll bury it.

  SHEPHERD That’s a good deed. If thou mayest discern

  by that which is left of him what he is, fetch me to th’

  sight of him.

  130

  CLOWN Marry, will I; and you shall help to put him i’th’

  ground.

  SHEPHERD ’Tis a lucky day, boy, and we’ll do good

  deeds on’t. Exeunt.

  4.1 Enter TIME, the Chorus.

  TIME I that please some, try all: both joy and terror

  Of good and bad, that makes and unfolds error,

  Now take upon me, in the name of Time,

  To use my wings. Impute it not a crime

  To me, or my swift passage, that I slide

  5

  O’er sixteen years, and leave the growth untried

  Of that wide gap, since it is in my power

  To o’erthrow law, and in one self-born hour

  To plant and o’erwhelm custom. Let me pass

  The same I am, ere ancient’st order was,

  10

  Or what is now receiv’d. I witness to

  The times that brought them in; so shall I do

  To th’ freshest things now reigning, and make stale

  The glistering of this present, as my tale

  Now seems to it. Your patience this allowing,

  15

  I turn my glass, and give my scene such growing

  As you had slept between: Leontes leaving,

  Th’effects of his fond jealousies so grieving

  That he shuts up himself, imagine me,

  Gentle spectators, that I now may be

  20

  In fair Bohemia, and remember well

  I mentioned a son o’th’ king’s, which Florizel

  I now name to you; and with speed so pace

  To speak of Perdita, now grown in grace

  Equal with wond’ring. What of her ensues

  25

  I list not prophesy; but let Time’s news

  Be known when ’tis brought forth. A shepherd’s daughter,

  And what to her adheres, which follows after,

  Is th’argument of Time. Of this allow,

  If ever you have spent time worse ere now;

  30

  If never, yet that Time himself doth say,

  He wishes earnestly you never may. Exit.

  4.2 Enter POLIXENES and CAMILLO.

  POLIXENES I pray thee, good Camillo, be no more

  importunate: ’tis a sickness denying thee anything; a

  death to grant this.

  CAMILLO It is fifteen years since I saw my country:

  though I have, for the most part, been aired abroad, I

  5

  desire to lay my bones there. Besides, the penitent

  king, my master, hath sent for me; to whose feeling

  sorrows I might be some allay (or I o’erween to think

  so), which is another spur to my departure.

  POLIXENES As thou lov’st me, Camillo, wipe not out the

  10

  rest of thy services by leaving me now: the need I have

  of thee, thine own goodness hath made; better not to

  have had thee than thus to want thee. Thou, having

  made me businesses, which none without thee can

  sufficiently manage, must either stay to execute them

  15

  thyself, or take away with thee the very services thou

  hast done: which if I have not enough considered (as

  too much I cannot), to be more thankful to thee shall

  be my study; and my profit therein, the heaping

  friendships. Of that fatal country, Sicilia, prithee

  20

  speak no more; whose very naming punishes me with

  the remembrance of that penitent (as thou call’st him)

  and reconciled king, my brother; whose loss of his

  most precious queen and children are even now to be

  afresh lamented. Say to me, when sawest thou the

  25

  Prince Florizel, my son? Kings are no less unhappy,

  their issue not being gracious, than they are in losing

  them when they have approved their virtues.

  CAMILLO Sir, it is three days since I saw the prince.

  What his happier affairs may be, are to me unknown:

  30

  but I have (missingly) noted, he is of late much retired

  from court, and is less frequent to his princely

  exercises than formerly he hath appeared.

  POLIXENES I have considered so much, Camillo, and

  with some care; so far that I have eyes under my

  35

  service which look upon his removedness; from whom

  I have this intelligence, that he is seldom from the

  house of a most homely shepherd; a man, they say, that

  from very nothing, and beyond the imagination of his

  neighbours, is grown into an unspeakable estate.

 

‹ Prev