Click on any scene below for a side-by-side translation from the original Shakespeare into modern English.
Act 1, Scene 1
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 Lo...
Act 1, Scene 2
Polixenes, who has been at Leontes’s court for nine whole months, thanks
his old pal for the hospitality but says it’s time for him to be
getting back home – the kingdom of Bohemia’s not...
Act 2, Scene 1
Meanwhile, Hermione hangs out with her Ladies in waiting and her young son, Mamillius.Hermione asks her Ladies to entertain her precocious boy (he’s really cute but also a little out of control,...
Act 2, Scene 2
Paulina (Antigonus’s wife and a good friend of Hermione) shows up at the prison where Hermione is being held and demands to see the queen.The Jailer says gee, he feels really bad and all, but he...
Act 2, Scene 3
Back at the Sicilian palace, Leontes paces around muttering about how his “adultress” wife should be burned at the stake.
Act 3, Scene 1
On a road in Sicily, Cleomenes and Dion reminisce about what an amazing time they just had during their trip to see the Oracle. The island of “Delphos” is just beautiful this time of year a...
Act 3, Scene 2
Meanwhile, in a courtroom in Sicily, Leontes makes a big speech about
how he’s merely seeking “justice” by putting his wife on trial.
Act 3, Scene 3
Meanwhile, Antigonus (Paulina’s husband and the guy Leontes's ordered to get rid of the unwanted baby) and a Mariner arrive on the “coast” of Bohemia (what is now called the Czech Republi...
Act 4, Scene 1
A character with wings and an hourglass appears on the stage and identifies himself as “Time.” Time announces to the audience that sixteen years have passed (since the last scene) and as...
Act 4, Scene 2
At the Bohemian palace, Camillo tells Polixenes that he’s homesick and
wants to return to his hometown, Sicily, which should be a safe thing to
do since Leontes has apparently repented for his...
Act 4, Scene 3
Act 4, Scene 4
At the festival, Perdita (who is dressed up as the Queen of the Feast) and Florizel (dressed up as a young shepherd named “Doricles”) bat their eyelashes and flirt with one another. (FYI –cos...
Act 5, Scene 1
At Leontes's palace in Sicily, Cleomenes begs Leontes to stop punishing himself for his past sins and to forgive himself. (Apparently, Leontes has been quite penitent for the past sixteen years.)Le...
Act 5, Scene 2
Somewhere in Leontes's castle, Autolycus speaks with some gentlemen of the court. It seems that, off-stage, the Old Shepherd managed to have a conference with King Leontes, where the shepherd revea...
Act 5, Scene 3
Paulina welcomes Leontes and his friends and family to her home for the big unveiling of the Hermione statue.Paulina, who has invited a huge crowd too see the statue of Hermione, proclaims that the...