The Winter's Tale: ACT IV
Introduction ACT I ACT II ACT III ACT IV SCENE I SCENE II. Bohemia. The palace of POLIXENES. SCENE III. A road near the Shepherd's cottage. SCENE IV. The Shepherd's cottage. ACT V About the Play Feedback			Search: All the plays Hamlet Coriolanus Julius Caesar King Lear Macbeth Othello Romeo and Juliet Richard II Richard III Titus Andronicus Antony and Cleopatra Timon of Athens Henry IV Part 1 Henry IV Part 2 Henry the Fifth Henry VI Part 1 Henry VI Part 2 Henry VI Part 3 Henry VIII King John Pericles Troilus and Cressida All's Well... As You Like It The Comedy of Errors Cymbeline A Midsummer... Love's Labour's Lost Measure for Measure The Merry Wives... Much Ado about Nothing The Merchant of Venice Twelfth Night The Taming of... The Tempest The Two Gentlemen... The Winter's Tale    for: SCENE II. Bohemia. The palace of POLIXENES. Enter POLIXENES and CAMILLO POLIXENES       I pray thee, good Camillo, be no more importunate:       'tis a sickness denying thee any thing; a death to       grant this. CAMILLO       It is fifteen years since I saw my country: though 5     I have for the most part been aired abroad, I       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 10    As thou lovest me, Camillo, wipe not out the 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 15    sufficiently manage, must either stay to execute       them 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 20    therein the heaping friendships. Of that fatal       country, Sicilia, prithee speak no more; whose very       naming punishes me with the remembrance of that       penitent, as thou callest him, and reconciled king,       my brother; whose loss of his most precious queen 25    and children are even now to be afresh lamented.       Say to me, when sawest thou the 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 30    Sir, it is three days since I saw the prince. What       his happier affairs may be, are to me unknown: 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 35    I have considered so much, Camillo, and with some       care; so far that I have eyes under my 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 40    very nothing, and beyond the imagination of his       neighbours, is grown into an unspeakable estate. CAMILLO       I have heard, sir, of such a man, who hath a       daughter of most rare note: the report of her is       extended more than can be thought to begin from such a cottage. POLIXENES 45    That's likewise part of my intelligence; but, I       fear, the angle that plucks our son thither. Thou       shalt accompany us to the place; where we will, not       appearing what we are, have some question with the       shepherd; from whose simplicity I think it not 50    uneasy to get the cause of my son's resort thither.       Prithee, be my present partner in this business, and       lay aside the thoughts of Sicilia. CAMILLO       I willingly obey your command. POLIXENES       My best Camillo! We must disguise ourselves. Exeunt Return to top of page ... or ... Go to next scene