SCENE II. Bohemia. The palace of POLIXENES. Winter's Tale  Shakespeare homepage  |  Winter's Tale  | Act 4, Scene 2 

 Previous scene  |  Next scene  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 

 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 

 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 

 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 

 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. 

 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 

 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 

 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 

 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 

 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. 

 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  Shakespeare homepage  |  Winter's Tale  | Act 4, Scene 2 

 Previous scene  |  Next scene 