Chapter 4 of The Winter's Tale is here in full — 145 sentences across 29 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
A keeper or guardian of historical records and memories.
Chapter IV
Chapter 4 of The Winter's Tale is here in full — 145 sentences across 29 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
Pau. Well: be't so: prethee. Heere's such adoe, to make no staine, a staine, As passes colouring. Deare Gentlewoman, How fares our gracious Lady? Emil.
Chapter 4 of The Winter's Tale is here in full — 145 sentences across 29 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
Reading 1/29 · 5 reading units · Lines 1–5
These definitions explain words found in the current reading and keep every example grounded in its original sentence.
Oxford-style entry order: headword, part of speech, US IPA, concise definition, contextual example, and audio.
a digestible substance used to give color to food
From this reading “Heere's such adoe, to make no staine, a staine, As passes colouring.”
plural of “fare” — an agenda of things to do
From this reading “Deare Gentlewoman, How fares our gracious Lady?”
a woman of refinement
From this reading “Deare Gentlewoman, How fares our gracious Lady?”
characterized by charm, good taste, and generosity of spirit
From this reading “Deare Gentlewoman, How fares our gracious Lady?”
a polite name for any woman
From this reading “Deare Gentlewoman, How fares our gracious Lady?”
engage in
From this reading “Heere's such adoe, to make no staine, a staine, As passes colouring.”
plural of “pass” — (baseball) an advance to first base by a batter who receives four balls
From this reading “Heere's such adoe, to make no staine, a staine, As passes colouring.”
(often used as a combining form) in a good or proper or satisfactory manner or to a high standard (“good” is a nonstandard dialectal variant for “well”)
From this reading “Well: be't so: prethee.”
Every word in these five lines is listed here, and every one of them can be played on its own.
Dictionary details are shown only when verified; these are not licensed Oxford entries.
used before a singular noun to mean one of a group, when it is not a particular one
From this reading Heere's such adoe, to make no staine, a staine, As passes colouring.
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading Heere's such adoe, to make no staine, a staine, As passes colouring.
at the same time that; because; in the way that
From this reading Heere's such adoe, to make no staine, a staine, As passes colouring.
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading Well: be't so: prethee.
a digestible substance used to give color to food
From this reading Heere's such adoe, to make no staine, a staine, As passes colouring.
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading Deare Gentlewoman, How fares our gracious Lady?
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading Emil.
plural of “fare” — an agenda of things to do
From this reading Deare Gentlewoman, How fares our gracious Lady?
a woman of refinement
From this reading Deare Gentlewoman, How fares our gracious Lady?
characterized by charm, good taste, and generosity of spirit
From this reading Deare Gentlewoman, How fares our gracious Lady?
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading Heere's such adoe, to make no staine, a staine, As passes colouring.
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading Deare Gentlewoman, How fares our gracious Lady?
a polite name for any woman
From this reading Deare Gentlewoman, How fares our gracious Lady?
engage in
From this reading Heere's such adoe, to make no staine, a staine, As passes colouring.
not any; not one
From this reading Heere's such adoe, to make no staine, a staine, As passes colouring.
belonging to the speaker and others
From this reading Deare Gentlewoman, How fares our gracious Lady?
plural of “pass” — (baseball) an advance to first base by a batter who receives four balls
From this reading Heere's such adoe, to make no staine, a staine, As passes colouring.
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading Pau.
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading Well: be't so: prethee.
for that reason; with the result that
From this reading Well: be't so: prethee.
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading Heere's such adoe, to make no staine, a staine, As passes colouring.
of the kind already mentioned
From this reading Heere's such adoe, to make no staine, a staine, As passes colouring.
used before the base form of a verb to make the infinitive
From this reading Heere's such adoe, to make no staine, a staine, As passes colouring.
(often used as a combining form) in a good or proper or satisfactory manner or to a high standard (“good” is a nonstandard dialectal variant for “well”)
From this reading Well: be't so: prethee.
Chapter 4 of The Winter's Tale by William Shakespeare holds 145 sentences, grouped into 29 reading sections of at most 5 sentences. The text is the public-domain source, unabridged, and the chapter records which sentences cover which part of the work so that nothing is dropped. Every word can be tapped for its pronunciation and dictionary entry.
Chapter 4 holds 145 sentences of The Winter's Tale, unabridged, divided into 29 reading sections.
This page carries chapter 4 of The Winter's Tale by William Shakespeare exactly as it stands in the public-domain source edition, without abridgement. It runs to 145 sentences, grouped into 29 sections of at most 5 sentences so that a reader can take the chapter in steady, finishable pieces. The chapter also stores a coverage record mapping every one of its sentences to a part of the work, which is how the edition demonstrates that no line was dropped.
Work through the 29 sections in order, replaying any sentence and tapping unfamiliar words for their entries.
Each of the 29 sections in this chapter is short enough to read once, hear once, and then re-read with the vocabulary in view. Tapping a word plays it alone and opens its dictionary entry with IPA, part of speech and meaning, so the reader is never forced to guess a pronunciation from spelling. Working section by section keeps a long chapter from becoming an undifferentiated wall of text, which is the usual reason a reader abandons a work of this period.
Yes — every sentence and every individual word in chapter 4 can be played aloud in United States English.
Audio covers the whole chapter: any sentence can be played, and any single word within it can be played on its own. The voice uses United States English. For a work of this period that matters, because spelling is an unreliable guide to pronunciation for vocabulary that has fallen out of daily use, and a learner who guesses wrong tends to keep the error. Hearing the word in its own sentence, and then alone, settles it.
Common questions about reading The Winter's Tale by William Shakespeare on this page, its source edition and its audio.
Yes. All 1568 sentences of Project Gutenberg eBook #1134 are kept, with a record of which sentences cover which part.
Project Gutenberg eBook #1134, a public-domain edition. The Project Gutenberg header, footer and licence are removed.
About 130 minutes of reading across 314 sections of 5 sentences each, at an unhurried pace.
How to work through The Winter's Tale section by section, using the audio and the tap-to-define vocabulary.
Choose one of the 11 chapters of The Winter's Tale to begin.
Each section holds 5 sentences; read it once through.
Play the section aloud, then tap any unfamiliar word for its entry.
Words and structures a reader meets early in The Winter's Tale, each tappable for pronunciation and meaning.
