sea-sick, and himself little better, extremity of weather continuing, this mystery remained undiscover'd. But 'tis all one to me: for had I been the finder-out of this secret, it would not have relish'd among my other discredits.

Enter Shepherd and Clown.

Here come those I have done good to against my will, and already appearing in the blossoms of their fortune. Shep. Come, boy; I am past more children; but thy sons and daughters will be all gentlemen born.

Clo. You are well met, sir: You denied to fight with me this other day, because I was no gentleman born: See you these clothes? say, you see them not, and think me still no gentleman born: you were best say, these robes are not gentleman born. Give me the lie; do; and try whether I am not now a gentleman born.

Aut. I know, you are now, sir, a gentleman born. Clo. Ay, and have been so any time these four hours. Shep. And so have I, boy.

Clo. So you have ::-but I was a gentleman born before my father: for the king's son took me by the hand, and call'd me, brother; and then the two kings call'd my father, brother; and then the prince, my brother, and the princess, my sister, call'd my father, father; and so we wept: and there was the first gentlemanlike tears that ever we shed.

Shep. We may live, son, to shed many more.

Clo. Ay; or else 'twere hard luck, being in so preposterous estate as we are.

Aut. I humbly beseech you, sir, to pardon me all the faults I have committed to your worship, and to give me your good report to the prince my master.

Shep. 'Pr'ythee, son, do; for we must be gentle, now we are gentlemen.

Clo. Thou wilt amend thy life?

Aut. Ay, an it like your good worship.

Clo. Give me thy hand: I will swear to the prince, thou art as honest a true fellow as any is in Bohemia. Shep. You may say it, but not swear it.

Clo. Not swear it, now I am a gentleman? Let boors and franklins say it, I'll swear it.

Shep. How if it be false, son?

Clo. If it be ne'er so false, a true gentleman may swear it, in the behalf of his friend :— And I'll swear to the prince, thou art a tall 1o fellow of thy hands, and that thou wilt not be drunk; but I know, thou art no tall fellow of thy hands, and that thou wilt be drunk; but I'll swear it: and I would, thou would'st be a tall fellow of thy hands.

Aut. I will prove so, sir, to my power.

Clo. Ay, by any means prove a tall fellow: If I do not wonder how thou darest venture to be drunk, not being a tall fellow, trust me not.-Hark! the kings and the princes, our kindred, are going to see the queen's picture 11. Come, follow us: we'll be thy good masters 12. [Exeunt.

SCENE III. The same. A Room in Paulina s House.

Enter LEONTES, POLIXENES, FLORIZEL, PERDITA, CAMILLO, PAULINA, Lords, and Attendants.

Leon. O grave and good Paulina, the great comfort That I have had of thee!

Paul.

What, sovereign sir,

10 A tall fellow, i. e. a bold, courageous fellow. See The Merry Wives of Windsor, Act i. Sc. 4, note 5. Autolycus chooses to understand the phrase in one of its senses, which was that of nimble handed, working with his hands, a fellow skilled in thievery.

"The words picture and statue were sometimes used indiscriminately. See Two Gentlemen of Verona, Act iv. Sc. 4, note 13. 12 Good masters. It was a common petitionary phrase to ask a superior to be good lord or good master to the supplicant.

I did not well, I meant well: All my services,

You have paid home: but that you have vouchsaf'd
With your
crown'd brother, and these your contracted
Heirs of your kingdoms, my poor house to visit,

It is a surplus of your grace, which never
My life may last to answer.

O Paulina,

Leon.
We honour you with trouble: But we came
To see the statue of our queen: your gallery
Have we pass'd through, not without much content
In many singularities; but we saw not

That which my daughter came to look upon,
The statue of her mother.

Paul.

As she liv'd peerless,

So her dead likeness, I do well believe,
Excels whatever yet you look'd upon,

Or hand of man hath done; therefore I keep it
Lonely1, apart: But here it is: prepare

To see the life as lively mock'd, as ever

Still sleep mock'd death: behold; and say, 'tis well. [PAUL. undraws a Curtain and discovers a Statue.

I like your silence, it the more shows off

Your wonder: But yet speak ;-first, you, my liege, Comes it not something near?

Leon. Her natural posture !— Chide me, dear stone; that I may say, indeed, Thou art Hermione: or, rather, thou art she, In thy not chiding; for she was as tender As infancy and grace.-But yet, Paulina, Hermione was not so much wrinkled, nothing So aged, as this seems.

Pol.

O, not by much.

Paul. So much the more our carver's excellence; Which lets go by some sixteen years, and makes her As she liv'd now.

1 The folio 1623 misprints this lovely.

Leon.

As now she might have done.

So much to my good comfort, as it is

Now piercing to my soul. O, thus she stood,
Even with such life of majesty (warm life,

As now it coldly stands), when first I woo'd her!
I am asham'd: Does not the stone rebuke me,
For being more stone than it ?—O, royal piece!
There's magic in thy majesty; which has
My evils conjured to remembrance; and
From thy admiring daughter took the spirits,
Standing like stone with thee!

Per.

And give me leave;

And do not say, 'tis superstition, that

I kneel, and then implore her blessing.-Lady,
Dear queen, that ended when I but began,

Give me that hand of yours, to kiss.

Paul.

O, patience!

The statue is but newly fix'd, the colour's

Not dry.

Cam. My lord, your sorrow was too sore laid on ; Which sixteen winters cannot blow away,

So many summers, dry: scarce any joy

Did ever so long live; no sorrow,

But kill'd itself much sooner.

Pol.

Dear my brother,

Let him, that was the cause of this, have power
To take off so much grief from you, as he

Will piece up in himself.

Paul.

Indeed, my lord,

If I had thought, the sight of my poor image

Would thus have wrought

I'd not have show'd it.

Leon.

you (for the stone is mine),

Do not draw the curtain.

Paul. No longer shall you gaze on't; lest your fancy May think anon it moves.

Leon.

Let be, let be!

2 i. e. Worked, agitated.

'Would I were dead, but that, methinks, already3—— What was he, that did make it?—See, my lord, Would you not deem it breath'd? and that those veins Did verily bear blood?

Pol.

Masterly done: The very life seems warm upon her lip.

Leon. The fixure of her eye has motion in't*, As we are mock'd with art5.

Paul.

I'll draw the curtain;

My lord's almost so far transported, that
He'll think anon it lives.

Leon.
O sweet Paulina,
Make me to think so twenty years together;
No settled senses of the world can match
The pleasure of that madness. Let't alone.

Paul. I am sorry, sir, I have thus far stirr'd you: but I could afflict you further.

Leon.

Do, Paulina ;

For this affliction has a taste as sweet

As any cordial comfort. Still, methinks,

There is an air comes from her: What fine chisel Could ever yet cut breath? Let no man mock me, For I will kiss her.

3 The sentence is thus left imperfect in the old copies, which Warburton says, "if completed, it would be-but that methinks already I converse with the dead." The corrector of Mr. Collier's second folio has tried his hand unsuccessfully to supply a line thus: "but that methinks already I am but dead stone, looking upon stone." Although in the next breath Leontes says, "Would you not deem it breath'd? and that those veins did verily bear blood?" Mr. Dyce has shown that the line is constructed out of a previous speech of Leontes, and that the poet would not so soon have repeated himself. A much better line has been proposed, should one be thought necessary, thus:

"But that methinks already

I'm in heaven, and looking on an angel."

4 i. e. Though her eye be fixed, it seems to have motion in it. 5 As, must be und stood in the sense of so that; no uncommon substitution in old phraseology. Malone and Mason interpret it by as if, which still leaves the sense imperfect.