The Winter’s Tale: Act 1, Scene 1 Translation

A side-by-side translation of Act 1, Scene 1 of The Winter’s Tale from the original Shakespeare into modern English.

Original Text	Translated Text
Source: Folger Shakespeare Library
Enter Camillo and Archidamus. ARCHIDAMUS If you shall chance, Camillo, to visit Bohemia on the like occasion whereon my services are now on foot, you shall see, as I have said, great difference betwixt our Bohemia and your Sicilia. CAMILLO I think this coming summer the King of 5 Sicilia means to pay Bohemia the visitation which he justly owes him. ARCHIDAMUS Wherein our entertainment shall shame us; we will be justified in our loves. For indeed— CAMILLO Beseech you— 10 ARCHIDAMUS Verily, I speak it in the freedom of my knowledge. We cannot with such magnificence—in so rare—I know not what to say. We will give you sleepy drinks, that your senses, unintelligent of our insufficience, may, though they cannot praise us, as 15 little accuse us. CAMILLO You pay a great deal too dear for what’s given freely. ARCHIDAMUS Believe me, I speak as my understanding instructs me and as mine honesty puts it to 20 utterance.	The play opens in a Sicilian palace where Polixenes, the King of Bohemia, has been visiting his childhood friend, Leontes, the King of Sicily. Archidamus (a Bohemian Lord) and Camillo (a Sicilian Lord) chat it up about what a great time everybody’s been having at Leontes's court, the Sicilians being such awesome hosts and all. When Camillo mentions that Leontes is planning to visit Polixenes on Bohemian turf next summer, Archidamus gets all self-deprecating and says the Bohemians aren’t as awesome at entertaining guests as the Sicilians. The Bohemians will probably have to sneak some sleeping pills into the Sicilians’ drinks so the Sicilians won’t realize what a lousy time they’re having in Bohemia.
CAMILLO Sicilia cannot show himself over-kind to Bohemia. They were trained together in their childhoods, and there rooted betwixt them then such an affection which cannot choose but branch now. 25 Since their more mature dignities and royal necessities made separation of their society, their encounters, though not personal, hath been royally attorneyed with interchange of gifts, letters, loving embassies, that they have seemed to be together 30 though absent, shook hands as over a vast, and embraced as it were from the ends of opposed winds. The heavens continue their loves. ARCHIDAMUS I think there is not in the world either malice or matter to alter it. You have an unspeakable 35 comfort of your young Prince Mamillius. It is a gentleman of the greatest promise that ever came into my note.	Archidamus and Camillo also discuss the intimate history of the two kings – back in the day, Leontes and Polixenes were super-close. So close, in fact, it was almost impossible to tell them apart. It doesn’t seem like anything could possibly come between these two BFFs.
CAMILLO I very well agree with you in the hopes of him. It is a gallant child—one that indeed physics 40 the subject, makes old hearts fresh. They that went on crutches ere he was born desire yet their life to see him a man. ARCHIDAMUS Would they else be content to die? CAMILLO Yes, if there were no other excuse why they 45 should desire to live. ARCHIDAMUS If the King had no son, they would desire to live on crutches till he had one. They exit.	Then the conversation, which is already a little awkward, gets pretty uncomfortable. When Archidamus compliments the young prince of Sicily (that would be Mamillius), Camillo says something kind of weird like, “Yeah Mamillius is such a neat kid that he makes all the old people in our kingdom not want to die because they want to live long enough to see him grow up. If it weren’t for Mamillius, there’d be no reason for all the old folks to live.”