ACT 4
Scene 4

...in a mile-a.
Enter Florizell and Perdita.
These your unusual weeds to each part of you
Does give a life—no shepherdess, but Flora
Peering in April’s front. This your sheep-shearing
Is as a meeting of the petty gods,
And you the queen on ’t.

...myself a glass.
I bless the time
When my good falcon made her flight across
Thy father’s ground.

...of his presence?
Apprehend
Nothing but jollity. The gods themselves,
Humbling their deities to love, have taken
The shapes of beasts upon them. Jupiter
Became a bull, and bellowed; the green Neptune
A ram, and bleated; and the fire-robed god,
Golden Apollo, a poor humble swain,
As I seem now. Their transformations
Were never for a piece of beauty rarer,
Nor in a way so chaste, since my desires
Run not before mine honor, nor my lusts
Burn hotter than my faith.

...I my life.
Thou dear’st Perdita,
With these forced thoughts I prithee darken not
The mirth o’ th’ feast. Or I’ll be thine, my fair,
Or not my father’s. For I cannot be
Mine own, nor anything to any, if
I be not thine. To this I am most constant,
Though destiny say no. Be merry, gentle.
Strangle such thoughts as these with anything
That you behold the while. Your guests are coming.
Lift up your countenance as it were the day
Of celebration of that nuptial which
We two have sworn shall come.

...Stand you auspicious!
See, your guests approach.
Address yourself to entertain them sprightly,
And let’s be red with mirth.

...o’er and o’er.
What, like a corse?

...change my disposition.
What you do
Still betters what is done. When you speak, sweet,
I’d have you do it ever. When you sing,
I’d have you buy and sell so, so give alms,
Pray so; and for the ord’ring your affairs,
To sing them too. When you do dance, I wish you
A wave o’ th’ sea, that you might ever do
Nothing but that, move still, still so,
And own no other function. Each your doing,
So singular in each particular,
Crowns what you are doing in the present deeds,
That all your acts are queens.

...the false way.
I think you have
As little skill to fear as I have purpose
To put you to ’t. But come, our dance, I pray.
Your hand, my Perdita. So turtles pair
That never mean to part.

...happy holding her.
Old sir, I know
She prizes not such trifles as these are.
The gifts she looks from me are packed and locked
Up in my heart, which I have given already,
But not delivered. To Perdita.
O, hear me breathe my life
Before this ancient sir, who, it should seem,
Hath sometime loved. I take thy hand, this hand
As soft as dove’s down and as white as it,
Or Ethiopian’s tooth, or the fanned snow that’s bolted
By th’ northern blasts twice o’er.

...What you profess.
Do, and be witness to ’t.

...my neighbor too?
And he, and more
Than he, and men—the Earth, the heavens, and all—
That were I crowned the most imperial monarch,
Thereof most worthy, were I the fairest youth
That ever made eye swerve, had force and knowledge
More than was ever man’s, I would not prize them
Without her love; for her employ them all,
Commend them and condemn them to her service
Or to their own perdition.

...portion equal his.
O, that must be
I’ th’ virtue of your daughter. One being dead,
I shall have more than you can dream of yet,
Enough then for your wonder. But come on,
Contract us fore these witnesses.

...you a father?
I have, but what of him?

...he of this?
He neither does nor shall.

...did being childish?
No, good sir.
He has his health and ampler strength indeed
Than most have of his age.

...such a business.
I yield all this;
But for some other reasons, my grave sir,
Which ’tis not fit you know, I not acquaint
My father of this business.

...him know ’t.
He shall not.

...Prithee let him.
No, he must not.

...of thy choice.
Come, come, he must not.
Mark our contract.

...when I desire.
to Perdita
Why look you so upon me?
I am but sorry, not afeard; delayed,
But nothing altered. What I was, I am,
More straining on for plucking back, not following
My leash unwillingly.

...not before him.
I not purpose it.
I think Camillo?

...till ’twere known?
It cannot fail but by
The violation of my faith; and then
Let nature crush the sides o’ th’ Earth together
And mar the seeds within. Lift up thy looks.
From my succession wipe me, father. I
Am heir to my affection.

... Be advised.
I am, and by my fancy. If my reason
Will thereto be obedient, I have reason.
If not, my senses, better pleased with madness,
Do bid it welcome.

...is desperate, sir.
So call it; but it does fulfill my vow.
I needs must think it honesty. Camillo,
Not for Bohemia nor the pomp that may
Be thereat gleaned, for all the sun sees or
The close earth wombs or the profound seas hides
In unknown fathoms, will I break my oath
To this my fair beloved. Therefore, I pray you,
As you have ever been my father’s honored friend,
When he shall miss me, as in faith I mean not
To see him anymore, cast your good counsels
Upon his passion. Let myself and fortune
Tug for the time to come. This you may know
And so deliver: I am put to sea
With her who here I cannot hold on shore.
And most opportune to our need I have
A vessel rides fast by, but not prepared
For this design. What course I mean to hold
Shall nothing benefit your knowledge, nor
Concern me the reporting.

...for your need.
Hark, Perdita.—
I’ll hear you by and by.
Florizell and Perdita walk aside.

...thirst to see.
coming forward
Now, good Camillo,
I am so fraught with curious business that
I leave out ceremony.

...borne your father?
Very nobly
Have you deserved. It is my father’s music
To speak your deeds, not little of his care
To have them recompensed as thought on.

...up to liking.
How, Camillo,
May this, almost a miracle, be done,
That I may call thee something more than man,
And after that trust to thee?

...whereto you’ll go?
Not any yet.
But as th’ unthought-on accident is guilty
To what we wildly do, so we profess
Ourselves to be the slaves of chance, and flies
Of every wind that blows.

...thought or time.
Worthy Camillo,
What color for my visitation shall I
Hold up before him?

...his very heart.
I am bound to you.
There is some sap in this.

...born another such.
My good Camillo,
She’s as forward of her breeding as she is
I’ th’ rear our birth.

...blush you thanks.
My prettiest Perdita.
But O, the thorns we stand upon!—Camillo,
Preserver of my father, now of me,
The medicine of our house, how shall we do?
We are not furnished like Bohemia’s son,
Nor shall appear in Sicilia.

...want, one word.
They step aside and talk.

...the whole army.
Camillo, Florizell, and Perdita come forward.

...clear that doubt.
And those that you’ll procure from King Leontes—

...trick on ’t.
Dispatch, I prithee.

...it. Unbuckle, unbuckle.
Florizell and Autolycus exchange garments.

...you done there?
Should I now meet my father,
He would not call me son.

... Adieu, sir.
O Perdita, what have we twain forgot?
Pray you, a word.
They talk aside.

...a woman’s longing.
Fortune speed us!—
Thus we set on, Camillo, to th’ seaside.

...speed the better.
Camillo, Florizell, and Perdita exit.

ACT 5
Scene 1

...They are come.
Enter Florizell, Perdita, Cleomenes, and others.

...look on him.
By his command
Have I here touched Sicilia, and from him
Give you all greetings that a king, at friend,
Can send his brother. And but infirmity,
Which waits upon worn times, hath something seized
His wished ability, he had himself
The lands and waters ’twixt your throne and his
Measured to look upon you, whom he loves—
He bade me say so—more than all the scepters
And those that bear them living.

...of her person?
Good my lord,
She came from Libya.

...feared and loved?
Most royal sir, from thence, from him, whose daughter
His tears proclaimed his, parting with her. Thence,
A prosperous south wind friendly, we have crossed
To execute the charge my father gave me
For visiting your Highness. My best train
I have from your Sicilian shores dismissed,
Who for Bohemia bend, to signify
Not only my success in Libya, sir,
But my arrival and my wife’s in safety
Here where we are.

...this young prince.
Camillo has betrayed me,
Whose honor and whose honesty till now
Endured all weathers.

...You are married?
We are not, sir, nor are we like to be.
The stars, I see, will kiss the valleys first.
The odds for high and low’s alike.

...of a king?
She is
When once she is my wife.

...well enjoy her.
to Perdita
Dear, look up.
Though Fortune, visible an enemy,
Should chase us with my father, power no jot
Hath she to change our loves.—Beseech you, sir,
Remember since you owed no more to time
Than I do now. With thought of such affections,
Step forth mine advocate. At your request,
My father will grant precious things as trifles.

...good my lord.
They exit.

Scene 3

...thy good masters.
Enter Leontes, Polixenes, Florizell, Perdita, Camillo, Paulina, and Lords.

...Hastily lead away.
They exit.