me (for you seem to be honest plain men,) what you have to the king: being something gently con sidered, I'll bring you where he is aboard, tender your persons to his presence, whisper him in your behalf's; and, if it be in man, besides the king to Clo. Your worship had like to have given us one, if you had not taken yourself with the manner.1 Shep. Are you a courtier, an't like you, sir? Aut. Whether it like me, or no, I am a courtier. See'st thou not the air of the court, in these enfoldings? hath not my gait in it the measure of the effect your suits, here is man shall do it. court? receives not thy nose court-odour from Clo. He seems to be of great authority; close me? reflect I not on thy baseness, court-contempt? with him, give him gold; and though authority be Think'st thou, for that I insinuate, or toze3 from a stubborn bear, yet he is oft led by the nose with thee thy business, I am therefore no courtier? I am gold: show the inside of your purse to the outside courtier, cap-a-pé; and one that will either push of his hand, and no more ado: R member stoned, on, or pluck back, thy business there: whereupon and flayed alive. I command thee to open thy affair. Shep. My business, sir, is to the king. Clo. Advocate's the court-word for a pheasant; say, you have none. Shep. None, sir; I have no pheasant, cock nor hen. Aut. How bless'd are we, that are not simple men! Yet nature might have made me as these are, Clo. This cannot be but a great courtier. Shep. His garments are rich, but he wears them not handsomely. Clo. He seems to be the more noble in being fantastical; a great man, I'll warrant; I know by the picking on's teeth. Aut. The fardel there? what's i'the fardel? Wherefore that box? Shep. Sir, there lies such secrets in this fardel, and box, which none must know but the king; and which he shall know within this hour, if I may come to the speech of him. Aut. Are, thou hast lost thy labour. Aut. The king is not at the palace; he is gone aboard a new ship to purge melancholy, and air himself: For, if thou be'st capable of things serious, thou must know, the king is full of grief. Shep. So 'tis said, sir; about his son, that should have married a shepherd's daughter. Aut. If that shepherd be not in hand-fast, let him fly; the curses he shall have, the tortures he shall feel, will break the back of man, the heart of monster. Clo. Think you so, sir? Aut. Not he alone shall suffer what wit can make heavy, and vengeance bitter; but those that are germane to him, though removed fifty times, shall all come under the hangman: which though it be great pity, yet it is necessary. An old sheep-whistling rogue, a ram-tender, to offer to have his daughter come into grace! Some say, he shall be stoned; but that death is too soft for him, say I: Draw our throne into a sheep-cote! all deaths are too few, the sharpest too casy. Clo. Has the old man e'er a son, sir, do you hear, an't like you, sir? Shep. An't please you, sir, to undertake the bu siness for us, here is that gold I have: I'll make it as much more; and leave this young man in pawn, till I bring it you. Aut. After I have done what I promised? Aut. Well, give me the moiety :-Are you a party in this business? Cio. In some sort, sir: but though my case be a pitiful one, I hope I shall not be flayed out of it. Aut. O, that's the case of the shepherd's son:Hang him, he'll be made an example. Clo. Comfort, good comfort: we must to the king, and show our strange sights; he must know, 'tis none of your daughter, nor my sister; we are gone else. Sir, I will give you as much as this old man does, when the business is performed; and remain, as he says, your pawn, till it be brought you. Aut. I will trust you. Walk before toward the sea-side; go on the right hand; I will but look upon the hedge, and follow you. Clo. We are blessed in this man, as I may say, even blessed. Shep. Let's before, as he bids us: he was provided to do us good. [Exeunt Shep. and Clown. Aut. If I had a mind to be honest, I see, fortune would not suffer me; she drops booties in my mouth. I am courted now with a double occasion; gold, and a means to do the prince my master good; which, who knows how that may turn back to my advancement? I will bring these two moles, these blind ones, aboard him: if he think it fit to shore them again, and that the complaint they have to the king concerns him nothing, let him call me rogue, for being so far officious; for I am proof against that title, and what else shame belongs to't: To him will I present them, there may be matter in it. ACT V. [Exit. SCENE I-Sicilia. A room in the palace of Leontes. Enter Leontes, Cleomenes, Dion, Paulina, and others. Cleo. Sir, you have done enough, and have perform'd A saint-like sorrow no fault could you make, Aut. He has a son, who shall be flayed alive; Which you have not redeem'd; indeed, paid down then, 'nointed over with honey, set on the head of More penitence, than done trespass: At the last, a wasp's nest; then stand, till he be three-quarters Do, as the heavens have done; forget your evil;" and a dram dead: then recovered again with aqua- With them, forgive yourself. vitæ, or some other hot infusion: then, raw as he Leon. Whilst I remember is, and in the hottest day prognostication proclaims, Her, and her virtues, I cannot forget shall be set against a brick wall, the sun looking My blemishes in them; and so still think of with a southward eye upon him; where he is to be- The wrong I did myself: which was so much, hold him, with flies blown to death. But what talk That heirless it hath made my kingdom; and we of these traitorly rascals, whose miseries are to Destroy'd the sweet'st companion, that e'er man be smiled at, their offences being so capital? Tell Bred his hopes out of. (1) In the fact. (2) The stately tread of courtiers. (3) Cajole or force. (4) Related. (5) The hottest day foretold in the almanac. (6) Being handsomely bribed. Paul. True, too true, my lord: |And all eyes else dead coals!-fear tnou no wife, I'll have no wife, Paulina. If, one by one, you wedded all the world, I think so. Kill'd? Leon. She I kill'd? I did so: but thou strik'st me Sorely, to say I did; it is as bitter Upon thy tongue, as in my thought: Now, good Would have him wed again. Dion. If you would not so, You pity not the state, nor the remembrance Of his most sovereign dame; consider little, What dangers, by his highness' fail of issue, May drop upon his kingdom, and devour Incertain lookers-on. What were more holy, Than to rejoice, the former queen is well?'" What holier, than,-for royalty's repair, For present comfort and for future good,To bless the bed of majesty again With a sweet fellow to't? Paul. There is none worthy, Respecting her that's gone. Besides, the gods Will have fulfill'd their secret purposes: For has not the divine Apollo said, Is't not the tenor of his oracle, That king Leontes shall not have an heir, Till his lost child be found? which, that it shall, Good Paulina,- And left them More rich, for what they yielded. Paul. Had she such power, She had; and would incense2 me To murder her I married. Paul. I should so: Were I the ghost that walk'd, I'd bid you mark Her eye; and tell me, for what dull part in't You chose her: then I'd shriek, that even your ears Should rift to hear me; and the words that follow'd Should be, Remember mine. Leon. (1) At rest, dead. (8) Split. Stars, very stars, (2) Instigate. (4) Meet. Paul. Will your swear Never to marry, but by my free leave? Leon. Never, Paulina; so be bless'd my spirit! Paul. Then, good my lords, bear witness to his oath. Cleo. You tempt him over-much. Paul. As like Hermione as is her picture, Affront his eye. Cleo. Paul. Good madam, Unless another, I have done. Yet, if my lord will marry,-if you will, sir, To see her in your arms. Leon. My true Paulina, We shall not marry, till thou bidd'st us. Paul. That O Hermione, As every present time doth boast itself Above a better, gone; so must thy grave Give way to what's seen now. Sir, you yourself Have said, and writ so, (but your writing now Is colder than that theme,') She had not been, Nor was not to be equall'd;-thus your verse Flow'd with her beauty once; 'tis shrewdly ebb'd, To say, you have seen a better. Gent. Pardon, madam: The one I have almost forgot; (your pardon,) The other, when she has obtain'd your eye, Will have your tongue too. This is such a creature, Would she begin a sect, might quench the zeal Of all professors else; make proselytes Of who she but bid follow. Paul. How? not women? Gent. Women will love her, that she is a woman More worth than any man; men, that she is The rarest of all women. Leon. Pr'ythee, no more; thou know'st He dies to me again, when talk'd of: sure, When I shall see this gentleman, thy speeches Will bring me to consider that, which may Unfurnish me of reason.-They are come. Re-enter Cleomenes, with Florizel, Perdita, attendants. Your mother was most true to wedlock, prince; 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, Bohemia greets you from himself, by me: and 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. His very air, that I should call you brother, By his command Flo. Have I here touch'd Sicilia; and from him Give you all greetings, that a king, at friend, Can send his brother: and, but infirmity (Which waits upon worn time,) 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, Of my behind-hand slackness !--Welcome hither, Good my lord, She came from Libya. His tears proclaim'd his, parting with her: thence Leon. The blessed gods Purge all infection from our air, whilst you (1) Full of grace and virtue. 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 hast'ning (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. Camillo has betray'd me; And mark what way I make: Come, good my encounter, which lames report to follow it, and unlord. [Exeuni. does description to do it. 2 Gent. What, pray you, became of Antigonus, SCENE II.-The same. Before the palace. En- that carried hence the child? ter Autolycus and a Gentleman. 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. 3 Gent. Like an old tale still; which will have matter to rehearse, though credit be asleep, and not an ear open: He was torn to pieces with a not only his innocence (which seems much,) to jus bear: this avouches the shepherd's son; who has tify him, but a handkerchief, and rings, of his, that Paulina knows. 1 Gent. What became of his bark, and his followers? Aut. I would most gladly know the issue of it. master's death; and in the view of the shepherd: 3 Gent. Wrecked, the same instant of their 1 Gent. I make a broken delivery of the business; so that all the instruments, which aided to expose -But the changes I perceived in the king, and the child, were even then lost, when it was found. Camillo, were very notes of admiration: they But, O, the noble combat, that, 'twixt joy and sorseemed almost, with staring on one another, to tear the cases of their eyes; there was speech in their row, was fought in Paulina! She had one eye declined for the loss of her husband; another elevated dumbness, language in their very gesture; they that the oracle was fulfilled: She lifted the prinlooked, as they had heard of a world ransomed, or cess from the earth; and so locks her in embracing, one destroyed: A notable passion of wonder appeared in them but the wisest beholder, that knew as if she would pin her to her heart, that she might no more be in danger of losing. no more but seeing, could not say, if the importance1 1 Gent. The dignity of this act was worth the were joy, or sorrow: but in the extremity of the audience of kings and princes; for by such was it one, it must needs be. Enter another Gentleman. Here comes a gentleman, that, happily, knows more: acted. 3 Gent. One of the prettiest touches of all, and that which angled for mine eyes (caught the water, though not the fish,) was, when at the relation of the queen's death, with the manner how she came 2 Gent. Nothing but bonfires: The oracle is ful- to it, (bravely confessed, and lamented by the king,) filled; the king's daughter is found: such a deal how attentiveness wounded his daughter: till, fron of wonder is broken out within this hour, that bal-one sign of dolour to another, she did, with an lad-makers cannot be able to express it. Enter a third Gentleman. alas! I would fain say, bleed tears; for, I am sure, my heart wept blood. "Who was most marble there, changed colour; some swooned, all sorrowed: if Here comes the lady Paulina's steward; he can all the world could have seen it, the wo had been deliver you more.-How goes it now, sir? this universal. news, which is called true, is so like an old tale, 1 Gent. Are they returned to the court? that the verity of it is in strong suspicion: Has 3 Gent. No: the princess hearing of her mother's the king found his heir? statue, which is in the keeping of Paulina,―a piece 3 Gent. Most true; if ever truth were pregnant many years in doing, and now newly performed by by circumstance: that, which you hear, you'll that rare Italian master, Julio Romano; who, had swear you see, there is such unity in the proofs. he himself eternity, and could put breath into his The mantle of queen Hermione:-her jewel about work, would beguile Nature of her custom, so perthe neck of it-the letters of Antigonus, found fectly he is her ape: he so near to Hermione hath with it, which they know to be his character:--the done Hermione, that, they say, one would speak to majesty of the creature, in resemblance of the her, and stand in hope of answer: thither, with all mother; the affection of nobleness, which nature greediness of affection, are they gone; and there shows above her breeding,-and many other evi- they intend to sup. dences, proclaim her, with all certainty, to be the king's daughter. Did you see the meeting of the two kings? 2 Gent. No. 2 Gent. I thought, she had some great matter there in hand; for she hath privately, twice or thrice a day, ever since the death of Hermione, visited that removed house. Shall we thither, and with our company piece the rejoicing? 3 Gent. Then have you lost a sight, which was to be seen, cannot be spoken of. There might you 1 Gent. Who would be thence, that has the benehave beheld one joy crown another; so, and in fit of access? every wink of an eye, some new such manner, that, it seemed, sorrow wept to take grace will be born: our absence makes us unthrifty leave of them; for their joy waded in tears. There to our knowledge. Let's along. was casting up of eyes, holding up of hands; with [Exeunt Gentlemen. countenance of such distraction, that they were to Aut. Now, had I not the dash of my former life be known by garment, not by favour. Our king, in me, would preferment drop on my head. I being ready to leap out of himself for joy of his brought the old man and his son aboard the prince; found daughter; as if that joy were now become told him, I heard him talk of a fardel, and I know a loss, cries, O, thy mother, thy mother! then asks not what: but he at that time, over-fond of the Bohemia forgiveness; then embraces his son-in- shepherd's daughter, (so he then took her to be,) law; then again worries he his daughter, with who began to be much sea-sick, and himself little clipping her; now he thanks the old shepherd, better, extremity of weather continuing, this myswhich stands by, like a weather-beaten conduit of tery remained undiscovered. But 'tis all one to many kings' reigns. I never heard of such another me: for had I been the finder-out of this secret, it (1) The thing imported. (3) Countenance, features. (4) Embracing. (5) Most petrified with wonder. (6) Remote. would not have relished among my other discredits. It is a surplus of your grace, which never My life may last to answer. Enter Shepherd and Clown. Leon. O Paulina, Here come those I have done good to against my We honour you with trouble: But we came will, and already appearing in the blossoms of their To see the statue of our queen: your gallery fortune. Have we pass'd through, not without much content Shep. Come, boy; I am past more children; but In many singularities; but we saw not thy sons and daughters will be all gentlemen born. That which my daughter came to look upon, Clo. You are well met, sir: You denied to fight The statue of her mother. with me this other day, because I was no gentle- Paul. As she liv'd peerless, man born: See you these clothes? say, you see So her dead likeness, I do well believe, them not, and think me still no gentleman born: Excels whatever yet you look'd upon, you were best say, these robes are not gentlemen Or hand of man hath done; therefore I keep it born. Give me the lie; do; and try whether I am Lonely, apart: But here it is: prepare not now a gentleman born. To see the life as lively mock'd, as ever Still sleep mock'd death: behold; and say, 'tis well. [Paulina undraws a curtain, and discovers a statue. 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. Leon. I like your silence, it the more shows off Clo. So you have:-but I was a gentleman born Your wonder: But yet speak ;-first, you, my liege. before my father: for the king's son took me by the Comes it not something near? hand, and called me, brother; and then the two Her natural posture!kings called my father, brother; and then the Chide me, dear stone; that I may say, indeed, prince, my brother, and the princess, my sister, Thou art Hermione: or, rather, thou art she, called my father, father; and so we wept: and In thy not chiding; for she was as tender, there was the first gentleman-like 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 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, O, not by much. As infancy, and grace.-But yet, Paulina, Shep. You may say it, but not swear it. 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 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. I Per. And give me leave; And do not say, 'tis superstition, that O, patience, Cam. My lord, your sorrow was too sore laid on: Aut. I will prove so, sir, to my power. Which sixteen winters cannot blow away, Clo. Ay, by any means prove a tall fellow: if ISo many summers, dry: scarce any joy do not wonder, how thou darest venture to be Did ever so long live; no sorrow, drunk, not being a tall fellow, trust me not.-Hark! But kill'd itself much sooner. the kings and the princes, our kindred, are going Pol. to see the queen's picture. Come, follow us: we'll Let him, that was the cause of this, have power be thy good masters. [Exeunt. To take off so much grief from you, as he Will piece up in himself. 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 Paul. Dear my brother, Indeed, my lord, Leon. 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. Would I were dead, but that methinks alreadyWhat was he, that did make it ?—See, my lord, (3) Worked, agitated, |