Act 2
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A room in LEONTES’ palace.
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A room in LEONTES’s palace.
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Enter HERMIONE, MAMILLIUS, and Ladies
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HERMIONE, MAMILLIUS, and Ladies enter.
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HERMIONE Take the boy to you: he so troubles me,
‘Tis past enduring.
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HERMIONE Take the boy. He is such a pest I can’t take it anymore.
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FIRST LADY Come, my gracious lord,
Shall I be your playfellow?
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FIRST LADY Come with me, my gracious lord. Shall I play with you?
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MAMILLIUS
5No, I’ll none of you.
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MAMILLIUS No, I don’t want anything to do with you.
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FIRST LADY Why, my sweet lord?
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FIRST LADY Why, my sweet lord?
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MAMILLIUS You’ll kiss me hard and speak to me as if
I were a baby still. I love you better.
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MAMILLIUS You’ll kiss me too hard and talk baby talk to me. (to Second Lady) I love you better.
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SECOND LADY And why so, my lord?
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SECOND LADY Why is that, my lord?
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MAMILLIUS
10Not for because
Your brows are blacker; yet black brows, they say,
Become some women best, so that there be not
Too much hair there, but in a semicircle
Or a half-moon made with a pen.
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MAMILLIUS Not because your eyebrows are blacker, though they say that black eyebrows suit some women best, as long as there isn’t too much hair and they are shaped like a semicircle, or drawn like a half-moon.
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SECOND LADY
15Who taught you this?
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SECOND LADY Who taught you that?
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MAMILLIUS I learnt it out of women’s faces. Pray now
What colour are your eyebrows?
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MAMILLIUS I learned it from looking at women’s faces. Tell me, what color are your eyebrows?
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FIRST LADY Blue, my lord.
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FIRST LADY Blue, my lord.
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MAMILLIUS Nay, that’s a mock: I have seen a lady’s nose
20That has been blue, but not her eyebrows.
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MAMILLIUS No, you’re joking. I’ve seen a lady’s nose that was blue, but not her eyebrows.
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FIRST LADY Hark ye;
The queen your mother rounds apace: we shall
Present our services to a fine new prince
One of these days; and then you’ld wanton with us,
25If we would have you.
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FIRST LADY Listen: your mother the queen is getting rounder by the day. We’ll be serving a fine new prince one day soon, and then you’ll want to play with us, if we’ll let you.
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