(He bade me say so) more than all the sceptres, And those that bear them, living.

Leon.

O, my brother, (Good gentleman!) the wrongs I have done thee, stir Afresh within me; and these thy offices,

So rarely kind, are as interpreters

Of my

behind-hand slackness!-Welcome hither, As is the spring to the earth. And hath he too Exposed this paragon to the fearful usage

(At least, ungentle) of the dreadful Neptune, greet a man not worth her pains; much less The adventure of her person?

Το

Flo.

She came from Libya.

Leon.

Good my lord,

Where the warlike Smalus,

That noble, honored lord, is feared and loved?

Flo. Most royal sir, from thence; from him, whose daughter

His tears proclaimed his, parting with her; thence
(A prosperous south wind friendly) we have crossed,
To execute the charge my father gave me,
For visiting your highness. My best train
I have from your Sicilian shores dismissed;
Who for Bohemia bend, to signify
Not only my success in Libya, sir,
But my arrival, and my wife's, in safety,
Here, where we are.

Leon.
The blessed gods
Purge all infection from our air, whilst you
Do climate here! You have a holy father,
A graceful1 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 blessed
(As he from Heaven merits it) with you,

Worthy his goodness. What might I have been,
Might I a son and daughter now have looked on,
Such goodly things as you?

1 i. e. full of grace and virtue.

Lord.

Enter a Lord.

Most noble sir,

That which I shall report, will bear no credit,
Were not the proof so nigh. Please you, great sir,
Bohemia greets you from himself, by me;
Desires you to attach his son; who has.
His dignity and duty both cast off)

Fled from his father, from his hopes, and with
A shepherd's daughter.

Leon.

Where's Bohemia ? speak. Lord. Here in the city; I now came from him. I speak amazedly; and it becomes

My marvel, and my message.

To your court

Whiles he was hastening, (in the chase, it seems,
Of this fair couple,) meets he on the way
The father of this seeming lady, and

Her brother, having both their country quitted
With this young prince.

Flo.

Whose honor, and whose honesty, till now

Endured all weathers.

Lord.

Camillo has betrayed me;

Lay't so to his charge;

Who? Camillo ?

He's with the king your father.

Leon.

Lord. Camillo, sir; I spake with him; who now Has these poor men in question.1 Never saw I Wretches so quake; they kneel, they kiss the earth; Forswear themselves as often as they speak;

Bohemia stops his ears, and threatens them
With divers deaths in death.

Per.

O, my poor father!— The Heaven sets spies upon us, will not have Our contract celebrated.

Leon.

You are married?

Flo. We are not, sir, nor are we like to be; The stars, I see, will kiss the valleys first.The odds for high and low's alike.

1 i. e. conversation.

When once she is my wife.

My lord,

She is,

Leon. That once, I see, by your good father's speed, Will come on very slowly. I am sorry, Most sorry, you have broken from his liking, Where you were tied in duty; and as sorry, Your choice is not so rich in worth' as beauty, That you might well enjoy her.

Flo.

Dear, look up.
Though fortune, visible an enemy,

Should chase us with my father, power no jot
Hath she to change our loves.-'Beseech you, sir,
Remember since you owed no more to time
Than I do now. With thought of such affections,
Step forth mine advocate; at your request,
My father will grant precious things as trifles.

Leon. Would he do so, I'd beg your precious mistress,

Which he counts but a trifle.

Paul.

Sir, my liege,
Your eye hath too much youth in't. Not a month
'Fore your queen died, she was more worth such gazes
Than what you look on now.

Leon.
I thought of her,
Even in these looks I made.-But your petition

[TO FLORIZEL.

Is yet unanswered; I will to your father;
Your honor not o'erthrown by your desires,
I am a friend to them, and you; upon which errand
I now go toward him; therefore, follow me,

And mark what way I make.

VOL. III.

Come, good my lord.

1 Worth, for descent or wealth.

13

SCENE II. The same. Before the Palace.

Enter AUTOLYCUS and a Gentleman

Aut. 'Beseech you, sir, were you present at this relation?

1 Gent. I was by at the opening of the fardel, heard the old shepherd deliver the manner how he found it; whereupon, after a little amazedness, we were all commanded out of the chamber; only this, methought, I heard the shepherd say, he found the child.

Aut. I would most gladly know the issue of it.

1 Gent. I make a broken delivery of the business. -But the changes I perceived in the king, and Camillo, were very notes of admiration: they seemed almost, with staring on one another, to tear the cases of their eyes; there was speech in their dumbness, language in their very gesture; they looked as they had heard of a world ransomed, or one destroyed. A Α notable passion of wonder appeared in them; but the wisest beholder, that knew no more but seeing, could not say, if the importance1 were joy, or sorrow; but in the extremity of the one, it must needs be.

Enter another Gentleman.

Here comes a gentleman, that, happily, knows more. The news, Rogero?

2 Gent. Nothing but bonfires. The oracle is fulfilled; the king's daughter is found; such a deal of wonder is broken out within this hour, that balladmakers cannot be able to express it.

Enter a third Gentleman.

Here comes the lady Paulina's steward; he can deliver you more. How goes it now, sir? This news, which

1 i. e. import, the thing imported.

is called true, is so like an old tale, that the verity of it is in strong suspicion. Has the king found his heir?

3 Gent. Most true; if ever truth were pregnant by circumstance. That which you hear, you'll swear you see, there is such unity in the proofs. The mantle of queen Hermione; her jewel about the neck of it; the letters of Antigonus, found with it, which they know to be his character; the majesty of the creature, in resemblance of the mother; the affection of nobleness, which nature shows above her breeding,-and many other evidences, proclaim her, with all certainty, to be the king's daughter. Did you see the meeting of the two kings?

2 Gent. No.

3 Gent. Then have you lost a sight, which was to be seen, cannot be spoken of. There might you have beheld one joy crown another; so, and in such manner, that, it seemed, sorrow wept to take leave of them; for their joy waded in tears. There was casting up of eyes, holding up of hands; with countenance of such distraction, that they were to be known by garment, not by favor. Our king, being ready to leap out of himself for joy of his found daughter; as if that joy were now become a loss, cries, O thy mother, thy mother! then asks Bohemia forgiveness; then embraces his son-in-law; then again worries he his daughter, with clipping her; now he thanks the old shepherd, which stands by, like a weather-bitten conduit of many kings' reigns. I never heard of such another encounter, which lames report to follow it, and undoes description to do it.

2 Gent. What, pray you, became of Antigonus, that carried hence the child?

3 Gent. Like an old tale still; which will have matter to rehearse, though credit be asleep, and not an

1 In Shakspeare's time, to affect a thing meant, to have a tendency or disposition to it. The affections were the dispositions-appetitus animi. 2 Favor here stands for mien, feature.

3 i. e. embracing.

4 Conduits or fountains were frequently representations of the human figure.

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