Original: To your own bents dispose you: you’ll be found,
Modern: Go do whatever you want: you can be tracked down,

Original: Be you beneath the sky. I am angling now,
Modern: Wherever you are under the sky. I am fishing now,

Original: Though you perceive me not how I give line.
Modern: Even though you don’t notice how I’m letting out the line.

Original: Go to, go to!
Modern: Go on, go on!

Original: How she holds up the neb, the bill to him!
Modern: Look how she lifts her face, her mouth to him!

Original: And arms her with the boldness of a wife
Modern: And she acts with the confidence of a wife

Original: To her allowing husband!
Modern: Toward her permissive husband!

Original: Gone already!
Modern: They’ve left already!

Original: Inch-thick, knee-deep, o’er head and ears a fork’d one!
Modern: Completely, totally, thoroughly a man with horns (a cheated husband)!

Original: Go, play, boy, play: thy mother plays, and I
Modern: Go play, boy, play: your mother is playing games, and I

Original: Play too, but so disgraced a part, whose issue
Modern: Am playing too, but such a shameful role, whose outcome

Original: Will hiss me to my grave: contempt and clamour
Modern: Will have people booing me to my death: scorn and outrage

Original: Will be my knell. Go, play, boy, play. There have been,
Modern: Will be my death bell. Go play, boy, play. There have been,

Original: Or I am much deceived, cuckolds ere now;
Modern: Unless I’m very wrong, cheated husbands before now;

Original: And many a man there is, even at this present,
Modern: And there are many men, even at this very moment,

Original: Now while I speak this, holds his wife by the arm,
Modern: Right now while I’m speaking, who holds his wife by the arm,

Original: That little thinks she has been sluiced in’s absence
Modern: Who has no idea she’s been unfaithful during his absence

Original: And his pond fish’d by his next neighbour, by
Modern: And his territory invaded by his next-door neighbor, by

Original: Sir Smile, his neighbour: nay, there’s comfort in’t
Modern: Mr. Friendly, his neighbor: well, there’s some comfort in it

Original: Whiles other men have gates and those gates open’d,
Modern: Since other men have gates and those gates have been opened,

Original: As mine, against their will. Should all despair
Modern: Like mine, against their will. If all men should give up hope

Original: That have revolted wives, the tenth of mankind
Modern: Who have cheating wives, one out of every ten men

Original: Would hang themselves. Physic for’t there is none;
Modern: Would kill themselves. There’s no medicine for it;

Original: It is a bawdy planet, that will strike
Modern: It’s a lustful force in the stars that will strike

Original: Where ‘tis predominant; and ‘tis powerful, think it,
Modern: Wherever it’s strongest; and it’s powerful, believe me,

Original: From east, west, north and south: be it concluded,
Modern: From east, west, north, and south: let it be concluded,

Original: No barricado for a belly; know’t;
Modern: There’s no defense against a pregnant belly; understand this;

Original: It will let in and out the enemy
Modern: It will allow the enemy in and out

Original: With bag and baggage: many thousand on’s
Modern: With all his belongings: many thousands of us

Original: Have the disease, and feel’t not. How now, boy!
Modern: Have this condition and don’t even know it. What’s up, boy!

In Act I, Scene 2, Line 215 and the surrounding action of “The Winter’s Tale,” King Leontes of Sicilia has become consumed with sudden, irrational jealousy regarding his pregnant wife Hermione and his childhood friend Polixenes, King of Bohemia. At this point in the scene, Leontes has unsuccessfully tried to convince his loyal lord Camillo that Hermione has been unfaithful with Polixenes. Camillo initially resists and defends the queen’s honor, but Leontes persists in his accusations, interpreting innocent gestures and conversations as proof of adultery. The king’s mind has become completely fixed on this imagined betrayal, and he sees conspiracy and cuckolding in every interaction between his wife and his guest.

Leontes then commands Camillo to poison Polixenes, threatening consequences if he refuses. Camillo, horrified by this order but fearing for his own safety, appears to agree to the king’s murderous plan. However, when left alone with Polixenes, Camillo instead reveals Leontes’ jealous plot and warns the Bohemian king that his life is in danger. Shocked by this revelation of his friend’s sudden and baseless hatred, Polixenes agrees to flee Sicilia immediately. Camillo, recognizing that he cannot remain in Leontes’ service after defying this order, decides to abandon his homeland and accompany Polixenes back to Bohemia, where he will enter the Bohemian king’s service.

The Winter’s Tale begins in Sicilia, where King Leontes hosts his childhood friend Polixenes, King of Bohemia. When Leontes asks his pregnant wife Hermione to persuade Polixenes to extend his visit, her success in convincing him to stay triggers Leontes’ sudden and violent jealousy. He becomes convinced that Hermione and Polixenes are having an affair and that her unborn child is illegitimate. Despite protests from his courtiers, Leontes orders Polixenes’ death, but Camillo, the lord commanded to poison Polixenes, instead warns him and they both flee to Bohemia.

Leontes publicly accuses Hermione of adultery and imprisons her. She gives birth to a daughter in prison, and Leontes orders the baby to be abandoned in the wilderness. When Hermione is brought to trial, the Oracle of Delphi declares her innocent, but Leontes rejects this divine judgment. Immediately after, news arrives that their young son Mamillius has died from grief, and Hermione collapses and is reported dead. Stricken with remorse, Leontes vows to spend his life repenting. Meanwhile, the baby is abandoned on the coast of Bohemia, where a shepherd finds and raises her, naming her Perdita.

Sixteen years pass. Perdita, now a beautiful young shepherdess unaware of her royal birth, falls in love with Prince Florizel, son of King Polixenes. Polixenes, disguised with Camillo, discovers his son’s romance with a shepherd’s daughter and angrily forbids the match. The young lovers flee to Sicilia with Camillo’s help, accompanied by the shepherd and his son, who carry the tokens that were left with Perdita as a baby. In Sicilia, these tokens reveal Perdita’s true identity as Leontes’ lost daughter, leading to joyful reunions and Polixenes’ forgiveness when he arrives in pursuit of his son. The play concludes when Paulina, Hermione’s loyal friend, reveals that she has kept a statue of the dead queen. In a miraculous moment, the statue comes to life—Hermione has been hidden away for sixteen years, waiting for her daughter’s return. The royal family is reunited, Florizel and Perdita are betrothed with both fathers’ blessings, and Leontes encourages Paulina to marry Camillo.