The Winter's Tale Quotes

“Why, that’s my bawcock. What, hast smutch’d thy nose? They say it is a copy out of mine. Come, captain, We must be neat; not neat, but cleanly, captain: And yet the steer, the heifer and the calf Are all call’d neat.--Still virginalling Upon his palm!--How now, you wanton calf! Art thou my calf?”

“Thou want’st a rough pash and the shoots that I have, To be full like me: yet they say we are Almost as like as eggs; women say so, That will say anything but were they false As o’er-dyed blacks, as wind, as waters, false As dice are to be wish’d by one that fixes No bourn ‘twixt his and mine, yet were it true To say this boy were like me. Come, sir page, Look on me with your welkin eye: sweet villain!”

“The blessed gods Purge all infection from our air whilst you Do climate here!

“Too hot, too hot! To mingle friendship far is mingling bloods. I have tremor cordis on me: my heart dances; But not for joy; not joy. [...] But to be paddling palms and pinching fingers, As now they are, and making practised smiles,[...] My bosom likes not, nor my brows! Mamillius, Art thou my boy?”

″ 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.”

“Your mother was most true to wedlock, prince; For she did print your royal father off, Conceiving you: were I but twenty-one, Your father’s image is so hit in you, His very air, that I should call you brother”

“The crown and comfort of my life, your favour, I do give lost; for I do feel it gone, But know not how it went. My second joy And first-fruits of my body, from his presence I am barr’d, like one infectious.”

“The gifts she looks from me are pack’d and lock’d Up in my heart; which I have given already, But not deliver’d. O, hear me breathe my life Before this ancient sir, who, it should seem, Hath sometime loved!”

“My wife’s a hobby-horse, deserves a name As rank as any flax-wench that puts to Before her troth-plight: say’t and justify’t.”

“We were as twinn’d lambs that did frisk i’ the sun, And bleat the one at the other: what we changed Was innocence for innocence;”

“LEONTES My brother, Are you so fond of your young prince as we Do seem to be of ours? POLIXENES If at home, sir, He’s all my exercise, my mirth, my matter,”

“Let me be punish’d, that have minded you Of what you should forget. Now, good my liege Sir, royal sir, forgive a foolish woman: The love I bore your queen--lo, fool again!-- I’ll speak of her no more, nor of your children; I’ll not remember you of my own lord, Who is lost too: take your patience to you, And I’ll say nothing. ”

“CAMILLO The heavens continue their loves! ARCHIDAMUS I think there is not in the world either malice or matter to alter it.”

“HERMIONE If you would seek us, We are yours i’ the garden: shall’s attend you there? LEONTES To your own bents dispose you: you’ll be found, Be you beneath the sky. Aside I am angling now, Though you perceive me not how I give line. Go to, go to! How she holds up the neb, the bill to him! And arms her with the boldness of a wife To her allowing husband! ”

“Good my lord, be cured Of this diseased opinion, and betimes; For ‘tis most dangerous.”

“O, then my best blood turn To an infected jelly and my name Be yoked with his that did betray the Best! Turn then my freshest reputation to A savour that may strike the dullest nostril Where I arrive, and my approach be shunn’d, Nay, hated too, worse than the great’st infection That e’er was heard or read!”

“LEONTES You will! why, happy man be’s dole! My brother, Are you so fond of your young prince as we Do seem to be of ours? POLIXENES If at home, sir, He’s all my exercise, my mirth, my matter, Now my sworn friend and then mine enemy, My parasite, my soldier, statesman, all: He makes a July’s day short as December, And with his varying childness cures in me Thoughts that would thick my blood.”

“It is yours; And, might we lay the old proverb to your charge, So like you, ‘tis the worse. Behold, my lords, Although the print be little, the whole matter And copy of the father, eye, nose, lip, The trick of’s frown, his forehead, nay, the valley, The pretty dimples of his chin and cheek, His smiles”

“Sir, you have done enough, and have perform’d A saint-like sorrow: no fault could you make, Which you have not redeem’d; indeed, paid down More penitence than done trespass: at the last, Do as the heavens have done, forget your evil; With them forgive yourself.”

“PAULINA Good queen, my lord, Good queen; I say good queen; And would by combat make her good, so were I A man, the worst about you.”

“Heavy matters! heavy matters! but look thee here, boy. Now bless thyself: thou mettest with things dying, I with things newborn.”

“Give me the boy: I am glad you did not nurse him: Though he does bear some signs of me, yet you Have too much blood in him.”

“Looking on the lines Of my boy’s face, methoughts I did recoil Twenty-three years, and saw myself unbreech’d, In my green velvet coat, my dagger muzzled, Lest it should bite its master, and so prove, As ornaments oft do, too dangerous”

“My third comfort Starr’d most unluckily, is from my breast, The innocent milk in its most innocent mouth, Haled out to murder: myself on every post Proclaimed a strumpet: with immodest hatred The child-bed privilege denied, which ‘longs To women of all fashion; lastly, hurried Here to this place, i’ the open air, before I have got strength of limit.”

“Nothing but bonfires: the oracle is fulfilled; the king’s daughter is found: such a deal of wonder is broken out within this hour that ballad-makers cannot be able to express it.”