The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Winter's Tale, by William Shakespeare

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Title: The Winter's Tale
[Collins Edition]

Author: William Shakespeare

Release Date: November, 1998 [eBook #1539]
[Most recently updated: July 24, 2005]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)

***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WINTER'S TALE***

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THE WINTER'S TALE

by William Shakespeare

Dramatis Personae

LEONTES, King of Sicilia
MAMILLIUS, his son
CAMILLO, Sicilian Lord
ANTIGONUS, Sicilian Lord
CLEOMENES, Sicilian Lord
DION, Sicilian Lord
POLIXENES, King of Bohemia
FLORIZEL, his son
ARCHIDAMUS, a Bohemian Lord
An Old Shepherd, reputed father of Perdita
CLOWN, his son
AUTOLYCUS, a rogue
A Mariner
Gaoler
Servant to the Old Shepherd
Other Sicilian Lords
Sicilian Gentlemen
Officers of a Court of Judicature

HERMIONE, Queen to Leontes
PERDITA, daughter to Leontes and Hermione
PAULINA, wife to Antigonus
EMILIA, a lady attending on the Queen
MOPSA, shepherdess
DORCAS, shepherdess
Other Ladies, attending on the Queen

Lords, Ladies, and Attendants; Satyrs for a Dance; Shepherds,
Shepherdesses, Guards, &c.

TIME, as Chorus

SCENE: Sometimes in Sicilia; sometimes in Bohemia.

ACT I.

SCENE I. Sicilia. An Antechamber in LEONTES' Palace.

[Enter CAMILLO and ARCHIDAMUS]

ARCHIDAMUS.
If you shall chance, Camillo, to visit Bohemia, on the
like occasion whereon my services are now on foot, you shall see,
as I have said, great difference betwixt our Bohemia and your
Sicilia.

CAMILLO.
I think this coming summer the King of Sicilia means to
pay Bohemia the visitation which he justly owes him.

ARCHIDAMUS.
Wherein our entertainment shall shame us we will be
justified in our loves; for indeed,--

CAMILLO.
Beseech you,--

ARCHIDAMUS.
Verily, I speak it in the freedom of my knowledge: we
cannot with such magnificence--in so rare--I know not what to
say.--We will give you sleepy drinks, that your senses,
unintelligent of our insufficience, may, though they cannot
pr