| 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] |
The Winter's Tale: Plot Summary