Perʹdita

Daughter of Leontēs and Hermiʹonē of Sicily. She was born when her mother was imprisoned by Leontes out of causeless jealousy. Paulina, a noble lady, hoping to soften the king’s heart, took the infant and laid it at its father’s feet; but Leontes ordered it to be put to sea, under the expectation that it would drift to some desert island. The vessel drifted to Bohemia, where the infant was discovered by a shepherd, who brought it up as his own daughter. In time Florizel, the son and heir of the Bohemian king Polixenes, fell in love with the supposed shepherdess. The match was forbidden by Polixenes, and the young lovers fied, under the charge of Camillo, to Sicily. Here the story is cleared up, Polixenes and Leontes are reconciled, and the young lovers married. (Shakespeare: Winter’s Tale.) Polixĕnes (4 syl.), Leontes (3 syl.)

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