The Winter’s Tale

(to Leontes) Sir, you have done enough and have shown the sorrow and piety of a saint. You have redeemed every mistake you might have made, and have paid more penance than you have done wrong. At last, forgive your sins as Heaven has forgiven it, and forgive yourself.

As long as I remember her and her virtue, I can’t forget how I attacked them, and I still think of the wrong I did. My misbehavior was so terrible that it has left my kingdom without an heir and destroyed the sweetest companion that a man could hope would bear his children.

It is too true, my lord. Even if you wedded every woman in the world one by one, or took the best quality from each and made the perfect woman, the woman you killed couldn’t be matched.

I think so, too. Killed! The woman I killed! I did, but you wound me deeply to say it so bluntly. You say it as bitterly as I think it. Now, please, don’t say it often.

Never say that, good lady. There are a thousand other things you could have said that would have been of greater benefit and would have made you seem kinder.

You are one of the people who want him to marry again.

If you wouldn’t have him marry again, you don’t care anything for the state, or for the continuance of his royal name. Think about what dangers might befall his kingdom, and how anxious citizens might suffer, if he doesn’t have a son. What is more virtuous than to rejoice that the former queen is in heaven? What would be holier than the king producing a child to restore the royal family and to make the realm safe and happy for the present and the future?

There is no one worthy to take the place of the queen who is gone. Besides, the gods are fulfilling their intentions. Didn’t divine Apollo say, through the words of his oracle, that King Leontes should not have an heir until his lost child is found? And that seems as unlikely as the notion that my Antigonus, whom I am sure died along with my infant, will rise from his grave and return to me. Your advice is that my lord should go against the heavens and oppose their wills.

Don’t worry about a son. The crown will find an heir. Great Alexander left his kingdom to the worthiest of his followers, so that his successor would be the best leader possible.

Good Paulina, I know you honor the memory of Hermione. I wish that I had listened to you! Then I would now be able to look into my queen’s eyes and kiss her treasured lips—

And been the richer for having done so.

You speak the truth. No wife such as that exists, so there will be no wife. For me to take a wife less perfect, and to treat her better, would make Hermione’s ghost arise again, and she’d appear here to me and say, “Why insult me like this?”

If she were able to, she’d be justified.

She would be, and she’d drive me to murder the woman I married in her place.

I should think so. If I were Hermione’s ghost, I’d tell you to look at that new woman’s eyes and tell me what about their dullness attracted you. Then I’d shriek, and your ears would hurt to hear me. And then I’d say, “Remember my eyes.”

They were like stars, and next to them all other eyes look like dead coals! Don’t fear, Paulina, I won’t take another wife.

Will you swear to never marry unless I give you my permission?

Never, Paulina, on my life!

Then, my good lords, witness his oath.

You test him too much .

Unless he sees another woman who looks as much like Hermione as her picture—

Good madam—

I’m done. Yet, if my lord decides to marry despite everything, let me choose your queen. She won’t be as young as your former wife, but she’ll be someone who even your first queen would rejoice to see in your arms.

My faithful Paulina, I won’t marry until you tell me to.

That will be when your first queen is alive again, not until then.

A man who calls himself Prince Florizel, son of Polixenes, asks to see you. With him is his princess, who is the fairest lady I have ever seen.

What is this? He arrives without the ceremony someone of his station requires. That he appears so suddenly and unexpectedly tells me that it wasn’t a planned visit, but one forced by circumstances. How many does he have with him?

Only a few, and those of rather low rank.

You say his princess is with him?

Yes, and she is the most incomparable woman that the sun has ever shone upon.

Oh, Hermione, just as every era thinks it’s better than the one past, so must you make way for a new woman. Sir, you yourself have said and written that she was never, and never would be, equaled in beauty, but now you change your mind. Your poetry was once filled with reports of her beauty, but it must have declined since you say that you have seen someone more beautiful.

Pardon, madam. I’m sorry to say I’ve almost forgotten Hermione. When you see this other woman, you’ll be speechless, too. If she started her own religion, it would put an end to the zeal of any other and make followers of anyone she called.

What? Not women, though?

Women will love her because she is a woman more worthy than any man. Men will love her because she is the most exceptional of women.

Go, Cleomenes. With the help of your friends, bring them back here for my welcome.

Still, it is strange that he comes to us so suddenly.

If your prince, the most prized of children, were alive to see this, he would have gotten along well with this lord. They were born less than a month apart.

Please, no more. Stop. You know it’s like he dies again for me when you talk about him. When I see this gentleman, your words will make me think of that which makes me go mad. They are here.

Your mother was a faithful wife, prince, because in bearing you she has produced a copy of your royal father. You look and act so much like your father that if I were twenty-one, I’d call you brother just like I called him, and speak of some wild escapade we’d gotten into. You are very welcome here, and your fair princess, like a goddess! Oh, alas, I’ve lost two who might have stood there, too, in wonderment, as you do. And then through my own folly I lost the company and friendship of your brave father, whom I wish I could see once more in this lifetime, even if it caused me sadness.

I’ve come to Sicilia at his command, and I bring from him all the greetings that a king and a friend can send to his brother. If it weren’t for the infirmity of age that somewhat hinders him, he would travel here himself to greet you. He told me to tell you that he loves you, more than all the other kings alive.

Oh, my brother, good gentleman! I feel the wrongs I’ve done to him all over again. And your exceptional kindness shows me how slow I’ve been in greeting you. You are as welcome here as the spring is to the earth. And has he sent this most lovely woman here, too, across the dangerous and rough sea, to greet an unworthy man?

My lord, she came from Libya.

Where the fierce Smalus, that honorable lord, is both feared and loved?

Most royal sir, from there, and from her father, who cried at her departure. From there, with a good south wind, we have crossed the sea to carry out my father’s request to visit you. I have sent the best men of my entourage back to Bohemia, to let my father know both that my trip to Libya was successful and that my wife and I arrived here safely.

May the gods keep the air fresh and healthy while you are here! You have a great and graceful father, against whom I have committed a sin. In return, the angry heavens have left me childless, while your father is blessed by heaven with you, as he deserves. What might my life have been like if I had a son and daughter as lovely as you two to look at!

Most noble sir, if I didn’t have such firm proof you wouldn’t believe what I’m about to tell you. Sir, Polixenes himself greets you through me. He asks you to hold his son, who has abandoned his royal status and responsibilities, and who has fled from his father and his hope of the throne with a shepherd’s daughter.

Where is Polixenes? Tell me.

Here in your city. I just came from him. I’m astonished, as suits my message. It seems that while he was hurrying here to your court in pursuit of this fair couple, he met the father and brother of the lady, who had both left their country with the prince.

Camillo has betrayed me, though his honor and honesty had been steadfast until now.

You may charge him with that yourself. He’s with the king, your father.

Who? Camillo?

Camillo, sir. I spoke with him, and he now has the poor men in question. I’ve never seen anyone tremble as they do. They kneel, and kiss the earth, and take back what they’ve said every time they speak. Polixenes refuses to listen and threatens them with various tortures.

Oh, my poor father! The heavens set spies on us and refuse to let us celebrate our vows.

You are married?

We aren’t, sir, and it seems impossible that we will be. I see that the stars will fall to the earth first. Chance works equally for the high- and the lowborn.

My lord, is this the daughter of a king?

She will be, once she is my wife.

I think that “once” will not be soon, given your father’s speed in coming here. I am very sorry that you have gone against his wishes and your duty, and as sorry that your lady isn’t as rich in rank as she is in beauty, so that you could marry her.

Dear, cheer up. Even if Fate, which is apparently our enemy, has chased us with my father, she has no power to change our love for each other. Please, sir, remember when you were my age. Thinking of such love, come forward in my defense. If you request it, my father will grant precious things as though they were nothing.

I’d beg your precious mistress’ pardon if he counted her as nothing.

My lord, you are too dazzled by youth. Your queen deserved those admiring glances more than this woman only a month before she died.

I thought of her, even as I looked upon this woman.

But I haven’t answered your request. I will tell your father that you haven’t let your desire to marry this girl overwhelm your honor. I support both you and your wish. I’ll go to him now on this errand. Follow me, and watch where I go. Come, my lord.