Back to main page
The Winter’s Tale - Act 4, scene 1
Cite
Download The Winter’s Tale
Last updated: Thu, Apr 21, 2016
- PDF Download as PDF
- DOC (for MS Word, Apple Pages, Open Office, etc.) without line numbers Download as DOC (for MS Word, Apple Pages, Open Office, etc.) without line numbers
- DOC (for MS Word, Apple Pages, Open Office, etc.) with line numbers Download as DOC (for MS Word, Apple Pages, Open Office, etc.) with line numbers
- HTML Download as HTML
- TXT Download as TXT
- XML Download as XML
- TEISimple XML (annotated with MorphAdorner for part-of-speech analysis) Download as TEISimple XML (annotated with MorphAdorner for part-of-speech analysis)
Navigate this work
The Winter’s Tale - Act 4, scene 1Act 4, scene 1
Scene 1
Synopsis:
Father Time appears and bridges the sixteen-year gap following the abandonment of Perdita in Bohemia.
Enter Time, the Chorus.TIME
1616 I, that please some, try all—both joy and terror
1617 Of good and bad, that makes and unfolds error—
1618 Now take upon me, in the name of Time,
1619 To use my wings. Impute it not a crime
1620 5 To me or my swift passage that I slide
1621 O’er sixteen years, and leave the growth untried
1622 Of that wide gap, since it is in my power
1623 To o’erthrow law and in one self-born hour
1624 To plant and o’erwhelm custom. Let me pass
1625 10 The same I am ere ancient’st order was
1626 Or what is now received. I witness to
1627 The times that brought them in. So shall I do
1628 To th’ freshest things now reigning, and make stale
1629 The glistering of this present, as my tale
1630 15 Now seems to it. Your patience this allowing,
1631 I turn my glass and give my scene such growing
1632 As you had slept between. Leontes leaving,
1633 Th’ effects of his fond jealousies so grieving
1634 That he shuts up himself, imagine me,
1635 20 Gentle spectators, that I now may be
1636 In fair Bohemia. And remember well
1637 I mentioned a son o’ th’ King’s, which Florizell
1638 I now name to you, and with speed so pace
p.
121
1639
To speak of Perdita, now grown in grace1640 25 Equal with wond’ring. What of her ensues
1641 I list not prophesy; but let Time’s news
1642 Be known when ’tis brought forth. A shepherd’s
1643 daughter
1644 And what to her adheres, which follows after,
1645 30 Is th’ argument of Time. Of this allow,
1646 If ever you have spent time worse ere now.
1647 If never, yet that Time himself doth say
1648 He wishes earnestly you never may.
He exits.