Beautiful Stories from ShakespeareShakespeare, William
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Beautiful Stories from Shakespeare
Shakespeare, William
Children's literature; Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616 -- Stories, plots, etc. -- Juvenile literature
Then Rosalind and Celia went out, and Rosalind put on her pretty woman's
clothes again, and after a while came back.
She turned to her father--“I give myself to you, for I am yours.” “If
there be truth in sight,” he said, “you are my daughter.”
Then she said to Orlando, “I give myself to you, for I am yours.” “If
there be truth in sight,” he said, “you are my Rosalind.”
“I will have no father if you be not he,” she said to the Duke, and to
Orlando, “I will have no husband if you be not he.”
So Orlando and Rosalind were married, and Oliver and Celia, and they
lived happy ever after, returning with the Duke to the kingdom. For
Frederick had been shown by a holy hermit the wickedness of his ways,
and so gave back the dukedom of his brother, and himself went into a
monastery to pray for forgiveness.
The wedding was a merry one, in the mossy glades of the forest. A
shepherd and shepherdess who had been friends with Rosalind, when she
was herself disguised as a shepherd, were married on the same day, and
all with such pretty feastings and merrymakings as could be nowhere
within four walls, but only in the beautiful green wood.
THE WINTER'S TALE
Leontes was the King of Sicily, and his dearest friend was Polixenes,
King of Bohemia. They had been brought up together, and only separated
when they reached man's estate and each had to go and rule over
his kingdom. After many years, when each was married and had a son,
Polixenes came to stay with Leontes in Sicily.
Leontes was a violent-tempered man and rather silly, and he took it into
his stupid head that his wife, Hermione, liked Polixenes better than
she did him, her own husband. When once he had got this into his head,
nothing could put it out; and he ordered one of his lords, Camillo, to
put a poison in Polixenes' wine. Camillo tried to dissuade him from this
wicked action, but finding he was not to be moved, pretended to consent.
He then told Polixenes what was proposed against him, and they fled from
the Court of Sicily that night, and returned to Bohemia, where Camillo
lived on as Polixenes' friend and counselor.
Leontes threw the Queen into prison; and her son, the heir to the
throne, died of sorrow to see his mother so unjustly and cruelly
treated.
While the Queen was in prison she had a little baby, and a friend of
hers, named Paulina, had the baby dressed in its best, and took it to
show the King, thinking that the sight of his helpless little daughter
would soften his heart towards his dear Queen, who had never done him
any wrong, and who loved him a great deal more than he deserved; but the
King would not look at the baby, and ordered Paulina's husband to take
it away in a ship, and leave it in the most desert and dreadful place
he could find, which Paulina's husband, very much against his will, was
obliged to do.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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