Leon. And left them Were I the ghost that walk'd, I'd bid you mark ears 50 Paul. She had just cause. Leon. Paul, I should so: Paul. O Hermione! Paul. | worse, Gent. And better us'd, would make her sainted spirit Had she such power, 60 Enter a Gentleman. Gent. One that gives out himself Prince Florizel, Leon. But few, And those but mean. His princess, say you, with him? Gent. Ay, the most peerless piece of carth, I think, That e'er the sun shone bright on. Pardon, madam: Paul. woman 113 Your mother was most true to wedlock, prince; Flo. By his command Have I here touch'd Sicilia; and from him Give you all greetings that a king, at friend, 140 Can send his brother: and, but infirmity Which waits upon worn times, hath something seiz'd His wish'd ability, he had himself The lands and waters 'twixt your throne and his Leon. O my brother! Good gentleman, the wrongs I have done thee stir Afresh within me, and these thy offices, 150 Of my behind-hand slackness. Welcome hither, Flo. Good my lord, She came from Libya. His tears proclaim'd his, parting with her: thence, 160 A prosperous south-wind friendly, we have cross'd, To execute the charge my father gave me For visiting your highness: my best train I have from your Sicilian shores dismiss'd; Who for Bohemia bend, to signify Leon. The blessed gods Purge all infection from our air whilst you Do climate here! You have a holy father, A graceful gentleman; against whose person, So sacred as it is, I have done sin : For which the heavens, taking angry note, Have left me issueless; and your father's bless'd, As he from heaven merits it, with you Worthy his goodness. What might I have been, Might I a son and daughter now have look'd on, Such goodly things as you! Enter a Lord. Lord. Most noble sir, That which I shall report will bear no credit, Were not the proof so nigh. Please you, great sir, 180 170 Bohemia greets you from himself by me; Leon. Where's Bohemia ? speak. Lord. Here in your city; I now came from him: I speak amazedly, and it becomes 190 My marvel and my message. To your court Flo. Camillo has betray'd me; Whose honour and whose honesty till now Endur'd all weathers. Lord. Lay't so to his charge: He's with the king your father. Leon. Who? Camillo ? Lord. Camillo, sir: I spake with him, who now Has these poor men in question. Never saw I Wretches so quake: they kneel, they kiss the earth, Forswear themselves as often as they speak: 200 Bohemia stops his ears, and threatens them With divers deaths in death. 46 65 Hath she to changé our loves. Beseech you, sir, semblance of the mother, the affection of noble- Third Gent. Then you have lost a sight, which Which he counts but a trifle. was to be seen, cannot be spoken of. There Paul. Sir, my liege, might you have beheld one joy crown another, Your eye hath too much youth in't: not a month so and in such manner that it seemed sorrow Fore your queen died, she was more worth such wept to take leave of them, for their joy waded gazes in tears. There was casting up of eyes, holding Than what you look on now. up of hands, with countenances of such distracLeon. I thought of her, tion that they were to be known by garment, Even in these looks I made. To FLORIZEL. not by favour. Our king, being ready to leap But your petition out of himself for joy of his found daughter, as Is yet unanswer'd. I will to your father : if that joy were now become a loss, cries, ‘0! Your honour not o'erthrown by your desires, 230 thy mother, thy mother :' then asks Bohemia I am friend to them and you ; upon which errand forgiveness ; then embraces his son-in-law; then I now go toward him. Therefore follow me, again worries he his daughter with clipping her; And mark what way I make: come, good my now he thanks the old shepherd, which stands lord. Exeunt. by like a weather-bitten conduit of many kings' reigns. I never heard of such another encounter, SCENE II.— The same. Before the Palace. which lames report to follow it and undoes de. scription to do it. Enter AUTOLYCUS and a Gentleman. Second Gent. What, pray you, became of Aut. Beseech you, sir, were you present at this Antigonus that carried hence the child ? relation ? Third Gent. Like an old tale still, which will Gent. I was by at the opening of the fardel, have matter to rehearse, though credit be asleep heard the old shepherd deliver the manner how and not an ear open. He was torn to pieces with he found it : wherenpon, after a little amazed a bear : this avouches the shepherd's son, who ness, we were all commanded out of the chamber; has not only his innocence, which seems much, only this methought I heard the shepherd say, to justify him, but a handkerchief and rings of he found the child. his that Paulina knows. Aut. I would most gladly know the issue of it. First Gent. What became of his bark and his Gent. I make a broken delivery of the business ; followers ? but the changes I perceived in the king and Third Gent. Wrecked the same instant of their Camillo were very notes of admiration : they master's death, and in the view of the shepherd: seemed almost, with staring on one another, to so that all the instruments which aided to expose tear the cases of their eyes ; there was speech the child were even then lost when it was found. in their dumbness, language in their very ges. But 0! the noble combat that 'twixt joy and ture; they looked as they had heard of a world sorrow was fought in Paulina. She had one ese ransomed, or one destroyed : a notable passion declined for the loss of her husband, another of wonder appeared in them ; but the wisest elevated that the oracle was fulfilled : she lifted beholder, that knew no more but seeing, could the princess from the earth, and so locks her in not say if the importance were joy or sorrow; embracing, as if she would pin her to her heart but in the extremity of the one it must needs that she might no more be in danger of losing: be. First Gent. The dignity of this act was worth Enter another Gentleman. the audience of kings and princes, for by such Here comes a gentleman that haply knows more. was it acted. The news, Rogero ? Third Genit. One of the prettiest touches of Second Gent. Nothing but bonfires. The oracle all, and that which angled for mine eyes, caught is fulfilled ; the king's daughter is found: such the water though not the fish, was when, at the a deal of wonder is broken out within this hour relation of the queen's death, with the manner that ballad-makers cannot be able to express it. how she came to't bravely confessed and Here comes the Lady Paulina's steward : he can lamented by the king, howattentiveness wounded deliver you more. his daughter ; till, from one sign of dolonr to another, she did, with an alas!' I would fain Enter a third Gentleman. say, bleed tears, for I am sure my heart wept How goes it now, sir ? this news which is called blood. Who was most marble there changed true is so like an old tale, that the verity of it colour ; some swooned, all sorrowed : if all the is in strong suspicion : has the king found his world could bave seen 't, the woe had been heir ? universal. Third Gent. Most true, if ever truth were First Gent. Are they returned to the court! pregnant by circumstance: that which you hear Third Gent. No; the princess hearing of her you 'll swear you see, there is such unity in the mother's statue, which is in the keeping of proofs. The mantle of Queen Hermione, her jewel Paulina--a piece many years in doing, and now about the neck of it, the letters of Antigonus newly performed by that rare Italian master, found with it, which they know to be his Julio Romano; who, had he himself eternity and character; the majesty of the creature in re- could put breath into his work, would beguile 777 $1 30 104 190 141 Nature of her custom, so perfectly he is her ape: Shep. You may say it, but not swear it. he so near to Hermione hath done Hermione that Clo. Not swear it now I am a gentleman ? they say one would speak to her and stand in hope Let boors and franklins say it, I 'll swear it. 181 of answer: thither with all greediness of affec- Shep. How if it be false, son ? tion are they gone, and there they intend to sup. Clo. If it be ne'er so false, a true gentleman Second Gent. I thought she had some great may swear it in the behalf of his friend : and matter there in hand, for she hath privately, I'll swear to the prince thou art a tall fellow of twice or thrice a day, ever since the death of thy hands and that thou wilt not be drunk; but Hermione, visited that removed house. Shall I know thou art no tall fellow of thy hands and we thither and with our company piece the that thou wilt be drunk: but I'll swear it, and rejoicing ? 122 I would thou would'st be a tall fellow of thy First Gent. Who would be thence that has the hands. benefit of access? every wink of an eye some Aut. I will prove so, sir, to my power. new grace will be born : our absence makes us Clo. Ay, by any means prove a tall fellow : if unthrifty to our knowledge. Let 's along. I do not wonder how thou darest venture to be Excunt Gentlemen. drunk, not being a tall fellow, trust me not. Aut. Now, had I not the dash of my former Hark! the kings and the princes, our kindred, life in me, would preferment drop on my head. are going to see the queen's picture. Come, I brought the old man and his son aboard the follow us : we'll be thy good masters. Exeunt. prince; told him I heard them talk of a fardel and I know not what; but he at that time, overfond of the shepherd's daughter, so he then took SCENE III.-- The Same. A Chapel in her to be, who began to be much sea-sick, and PAULINA's House. himself little better, extremity of weather con Enter LEONTES, POLIXENES, FLORIZEL, PERtinuing, this mystery remained undiscovered. But 'tis all one to me; for had I been the DITA, CAMILLO, PAULINA, Lords, and Atten dants. finder-out of this secret, it would not have relished among my other discredits. Here come Lcon. O grave and good Paulina, the great those I have done good to against my will, and comfort already appearing in the blossoms of their That I have had of thee! fortune. Paul. What, sovereign sir, Enter Shepherd and Clown. I did not well I meant well. All my services You have paid home; but that you have vouchShep. Come, boy ; I am past more children, but saf'd, thy sons and daughters will be all gentlemen With your crown'd brother and these your con. born. tracted Clo. You are well met, sir. You denied to Heirs of your kingdoms, my poor house to visit, fight with me this other day, because I was no It is a surplus of your grace, which never gentleman born : see you these clothes ? say you My life may last to answer. see them not and think me still no gentleman Leon. O Paulina! born: you were best say these robes are not We honour you with trouble: but we came gentlemen born. Give me the lie, do, and try to see the statue of our queen: your gallery 10 whether I am not now a gentleman born. 151 Have we pass'd through, not without much Aut. I know you are now, sir, a gentleman content born. In many singularities, but we saw not Clo. Ay, and have been so any time these four | That which my daughter came to look upon, hours, The statue of her mother. Shep. And so have I, boy. Paul. As she liv'd peerless, Clo. So you have: but I was a gentleman born So her dead likeness, I do well believe, before my father; for the king's son took me by Excels whatever yet you look'd upon the hand and called me brother; and then the Or hand of man hath done ; therefore I keep it two kings called my father brother; and then Lonely, apart. But here it is : prepare the prince my brother and the princess my sister To see the life as lively mock'd as ever called my father father; and so we wept : and Still sleep mock'd death : behold! and say 'tis there was the first gentleman-like tears that well. ever we shed. PAULINA draws a curtain, and discovers Shep. We may live, son, to shed many more. HERMIONE as a statue. Clo. Ay; or else 'twere hard luck, being in so I like your silence: it the more shows off preposterous estate as we are. Your wonder; but yet speak : first you, my liege. Au. I humbly beseech you, sir, to pardon me Comes it not something near ? all the faults I have committed your worship, Lcon. Her natural posture ! and to give me your good report to the prince Chide me, dear stone, that I may say indeed s master. 171 Thou art Hermione ; or, rather, thou art she Shep. Prithee, son, do; for we must be gentle, In thy not chiding, for she was as tender now we are gentlemen. As infancy and grace. But yet, Paulina, Clo. Thou wilt amend thy life? Hermione was not so much wrinkled ; nothing Aut. Ay, an it like your good worship. So aged as this scems. Clo. Give me thy hand : I will swear to the Pol. 01 not by much. prince thou art as honest a true fellow as any Paul. So much the more our carver's excelis in Bohemia, lence; 20 164 30 Which lets go by some sixteen years and makes her As she liv'd now. Per. Lady, Paul. 50 Cam. My lord, your sorrow was too sore laid on, Stand by, a looker-on. Leon. 40 What you can make her do, 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. Do not draw the curtain. Paul. No longer shall you gaze on't, lest your fancy 60 May think anon it moves. Leon. Let be, let be! Would I were dead, but that, methinks, alreadyWhat 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 art. 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 So long could I Leon. No, not these twenty years. Per. 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. Paul. Good my lord, forbear. The ruddiness upon her lip is wet: You'll mar it if you kiss it; stain your own With oily painting. Shall I draw the curtain ? Paul. It is requir'd You do awake your faith. Then all stand still; Or those that think it is unlawful business I am about, let them depart. Leon. No foot shall stir. Paul. Proceed: Music, awake her; strike! Pol. Pol. Ay; and make it manifest where she Or how stol'n from the dead. 199 Our Perdita is found. 70 Her. 90 113 Thy father's court? for thou shalt hear that I, Paul. 80 Will wing me to some wither'd bough, and there Leon. O! peace, Paulina. Thou should'st a husband take by my consent, |
