| ACT IV 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 |
| 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 lovest me, Camillo, wipe not out the rest of | 10 |
| 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 | 15 |
| 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 |
| therein the heaping friendships. Of that fatal | 20 |
| 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 |
| and children are even now to be afresh lamented. | 25 |
| 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 | Sir, it is three days since I saw the prince. What | 30 |
| 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 | I have considered so much, Camillo, and with some | 35 |
| 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 |
| very nothing, and beyond the imagination of his | 40 |
| 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 | That's likewise part of my intelligence; but, I | 45 |
| 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 |
| uneasy to get the cause of my son's resort thither. | 50 |
| 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] |
The Winter's Tale: Plot Summary