Original Text |
Translated Text |
| Source: Folger Shakespeare Library |
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Enter Antigonus carrying the babe, and a Mariner. ANTIGONUS
Thou art perfect, then, our ship hath touched upon
The deserts of Bohemia? MARINER Ay, my lord, and fear
We have landed in ill time. The skies look grimly
And threaten present blusters. In my conscience, 5
The heavens with that we have in hand are angry
And frown upon ’s. | Meanwhile, Antigonus (Paulina’s husband and the guy Leontes's ordered to get rid of the unwanted baby) and a Mariner arrive on the “coast” of Bohemia (what is now called the Czech Republic). (Yeah, yeah. We all know that Bohemia is totally landlocked and has no coast, but Shakespeare either didn’t know or didn’t care.) The Mariner looks up at the stormy skies and says the gods seem pretty angry, which is code for “the weather’s pretty lousy.” |
ANTIGONUS
Their sacred wills be done. Go, get aboard.
Look to thy bark. I’ll not be long before
I call upon thee. 10 MARINER Make your best haste, and go not
Too far i’ th’ land. ’Tis like to be loud weather.
Besides, this place is famous for the creatures
Of prey that keep upon ’t. ANTIGONUS Go thou away. 15
I’ll follow instantly. MARINER I am glad at heart
To be so rid o’ th’ business. He exits. | Antigonus tells him to get back on the boat because, after he gets rid of the kid, he wants to get home, ASAP. The Mariner tells Antigonus to hurry up and ditch the kid because the weather’s getting even worse. Plus, Bohemia is famous for its dangerous wild animals. |
ANTIGONUS Come, poor babe.
I have heard, but not believed, the spirits o’ th’ dead 20
May walk again. If such thing be, thy mother
Appeared to me last night, for ne’er was dream
So like a waking. To me comes a creature,
Sometimes her head on one side, some another.
I never saw a vessel of like sorrow, 25
So filled and so becoming. In pure white robes,
Like very sanctity, she did approach
My cabin where I lay, thrice bowed before me,
And, gasping to begin some speech, her eyes
Became two spouts. The fury spent, anon 30
Did this break from her: “Good Antigonus,
Since fate, against thy better disposition,
Hath made thy person for the thrower-out
Of my poor babe, according to thine oath,
Places remote enough are in Bohemia. 35
There weep, and leave it crying. And, for the babe
Is counted lost forever, Perdita
I prithee call ’t. For this ungentle business
Put on thee by my lord, thou ne’er shalt see
Thy wife Paulina more.” And so, with shrieks, 40
She melted into air. Affrighted much,
I did in time collect myself and thought
This was so and no slumber. Dreams are toys,
Yet for this once, yea, superstitiously,
I will be squared by this. I do believe 45
Hermione hath suffered death, and that
Apollo would, this being indeed the issue
Of King Polixenes, it should here be laid,
Either for life or death, upon the earth
Of its right father.—Blossom, speed thee well. 50
There lie, and there thy character; there these,
He lays down the baby, a bundle, and a box.
Which may, if fortune please, both breed thee, pretty,
And still rest thine. Thunder. The storm begins.
Poor wretch,
That for thy mother’s fault art thus exposed 55
To loss and what may follow. Weep I cannot,
But my heart bleeds, and most accurst am I
To be by oath enjoined to this. Farewell.
The day frowns more and more. Thou ’rt like to have
A lullaby too rough. I never saw 60
The heavens so dim by day.
Thunder, and sounds of hunting.
A savage clamor!
Well may I get aboard! This is the chase.
I am gone forever! He exits, pursued by a bear. | Antigonus talks sweetly to the baby he’s about to abandon and says he had a dream about Hermione, who appeared to him wearing a white robe and asked him to name her baby “Perdita” (which means “lost one” in Latin) since she’s going to abandoned in a strange land. Antigonus puts the baby on the ground along with a scroll (a long roll of paper) that details Perdita’s lineage and history. He also leaves a box full of gold. Antigonus announces that he believes Hermione must be dead and then he tries to convince himself that the god Apollo must surely want him to abandon the baby in Bohemia and that Polixenes, the king of Bohemia, is likely the father. Antigonus says his “heart bleeds” for the kid, but it’s getting late and he’s got to get back home.
Antigonus, who seems ready to deliver a very loooong speech, is interrupted by the appearance of…a bear! Antigonus says something like “holy smokes” and runs off toward shore while the bear gives chase.
FYI: What alerts us readers to the bear chase is one of the most famous stage directions in the history of English literature. |
Enter Shepherd. SHEPHERD I would there were no age between ten and 65
three-and-twenty, or that youth would sleep out the
rest, for there is nothing in the between but getting
wenches with child, wronging the ancientry, stealing,
fighting—Hark you now. Would any but these
boiled brains of nineteen and two-and-twenty hunt 70
this weather? They have scared away two of my best
sheep, which I fear the wolf will sooner find than
the master. If anywhere I have them, ’tis by the
seaside, browsing of ivy. Good luck, an ’t be thy will,
what have we here? Mercy on ’s, a bairn! A very 75
pretty bairn. A boy or a child, I wonder? A pretty
one, a very pretty one. Sure some scape. Though I
am not bookish, yet I can read waiting-gentlewoman
in the scape. This has been some stair-work,
some trunk-work, some behind-door work. They 80
were warmer that got this than the poor thing is
here. I’ll take it up for pity. Yet I’ll tarry till my son
come. He halloed but even now.—Whoa-ho-ho! | Then an Old Shepherd rambles onto the stage complaining about some teenage hooligans who scared off some of his sheep. Then he spots baby Perdita, who, thankfully, wasn’t eaten by the wild bear. The Old Shepherd muses that the unwanted baby must have been conceived in some dark stairwell by a naughty unmarried couple – why else, he muses, would someone abandon such a pretty baby? |
Enter Shepherd’s Son. SHEPHERD’S SON Hilloa, loa! SHEPHERD What, art so near? If thou ’lt see a thing to 85
talk on when thou art dead and rotten, come hither.
What ail’st thou, man? SHEPHERD’S SON I have seen two such sights, by sea
and by land—but I am not to say it is a sea, for it is
now the sky; betwixt the firmament and it, you 90
cannot thrust a bodkin’s point. SHEPHERD Why, boy, how is it? SHEPHERD’S SON I would you did but see how it chafes,
how it rages, how it takes up the shore. But that’s
not to the point. O, the most piteous cry of the poor 95
souls! Sometimes to see ’em, and not to see ’em.
Now the ship boring the moon with her mainmast,
and anon swallowed with yeast and froth, as you’d
thrust a cork into a hogshead. And then for the land
service, to see how the bear tore out his shoulder-bone, 100
how he cried to me for help, and said his
name was Antigonus, a nobleman. But to make an
end of the ship: to see how the sea flap-dragoned it.
But, first, how the poor souls roared and the sea
mocked them, and how the poor gentleman roared 105
and the bear mocked him, both roaring louder than
the sea or weather. | The Old Shepherd’s son, a Clown (sort of a country bumpkin), shows up and tells his dad he’s not going to believe what he, the Clown, just saw. The Clown just came from the shore, where he witnessed a shipwreck (the ship Antigonus and the Mariner arrived on) and a gruesome bear attack. The Clown elaborates: While the bear was tearing off some poor guy’s shoulder, the guy yelled out his name, “Antigonus,” and cried for help. Sadly, there was nothing the Clown could do to help him. What’s worse, the bear is still snacking on its victim at this very moment. |
SHEPHERD Name of mercy, when was this, boy? SHEPHERD’S SON Now, now. I have not winked since I
saw these sights. The men are not yet cold under 110
water, nor the bear half dined on the gentleman.
He’s at it now. SHEPHERD Would I had been by to have helped the old
man. SHEPHERD’S SON I would you had been by the ship side, 115
to have helped her. There your charity would have
lacked footing. SHEPHERD Heavy matters, heavy matters. But look
thee here, boy. Now bless thyself. Thou met’st with
things dying, I with things newborn. Here’s a sight 120
for thee. Look thee, a bearing cloth for a squire’s
child. Look thee here. Take up, take up, boy. Open
’t. So, let’s see. It was told me I should be rich by
the fairies. This is some changeling. Open ’t. What’s
within, boy? 125 | The Old Shepherd and the Clown feel sort of bad about not being able to
help the ship-wreck victims or Antigonus, but they decide to go ahead
and check out a box of goodies that was left behind with the abandoned
baby. The Old Shepherd announces that the baby must be a “changeling.” (If you’ve read A Midsummer Night’s Dream,
you know that a “changeling” is a child that’s been secretly switched
with another, usually by mischievous fairies. We know what you’re
thinking. Why does the Old Shepherd think this when he’s got access to
the documents that detail the baby’s true heritage? Our best guess? The
Old Shepherd and his son probably can’t read, being uneducated peasants
and all.) |
SHEPHERD’S SON, opening the box You’re a made old
man. If the sins of your youth are forgiven you,
you’re well to live. Gold, all gold. SHEPHERD This is fairy gold, boy, and ’twill prove so.
Up with ’t, keep it close. Home, home, the next way. 130
We are lucky, boy, and to be so still requires
nothing but secrecy. Let my sheep go. Come, good
boy, the next way home. SHEPHERD’S SON Go you the next way with your
findings. I’ll go see if the bear be gone from the 135
gentleman and how much he hath eaten. They are
never curst but when they are hungry. If there be
any of him left, I’ll bury it. SHEPHERD That’s a good deed. If thou mayest discern
by that which is left of him what he is, fetch me to 140
th’ sight of him. SHEPHERD’S SON Marry, will I, and you shall help to
put him i’ th’ ground. SHEPHERD ’Tis a lucky day, boy, and we’ll do good
deeds on ’t. 145 They exit. | The Old Shepherd is pleased as punch when he finds a bunch of gold in the box – he says the fairies must have left it for him. Since the Old Shepherd’s so thankful for his good fortune, he wants to perform some kind of good deed. He and the Clown will bury whatever’s left of Antigonus’ body – after the bear is done feasting on him that is. |