Part 34

_Paul._ There is none worthy, Respecting her that's gone. Besides, the gods 35 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, 40 Is all as monstrous to our human reason As my Antigonus to break his grave And come again to me; who, on my life, Did perish with the infant. 'Tis your counsel My lord should to the heavens be contrary, 45 Oppose against their wills. [_To Leontes._] Care not for issue; The crown will find an heir: great Alexander Left his to the worthiest; so his successor Was like to be the best.

_Leon._ Good Paulina, Who hast the memory of Hermione, 50 I know, in honour, O, that ever I Had squared me to thy counsel!--then, even now, I might have look'd upon my queen's full eyes; Have taken treasure from her lips,--

_Paul_ And left them More rich for what they yielded.

_Leon._ Thou speak'st truth. 55 No more such wives; therefore, no wife: one worse, And better used, would make her sainted spirit Again possess her corpse, and on this stage, Where we offenders now, appear soul-vex'd, And begin, 'Why to me?'

_Paul._ Had she such power, 60 She had just cause.

_Leon._ She had; and would incense me To murder her I married.

_Paul._ I should so. Were I the ghost that walk'd, I'ld bid you mark Her eye, and tell me for what dull part in't You chose her; then I'ld shriek, that even your ears 65 Should rift to hear me; and the words that follow'd Should be 'Remember mine.'

_Leon._ Stars, stars, And all eyes else dead coals! Fear thou no wife; I'll have no wife, Paulina.

_Paul._ Will you swear Never to marry but by my free leave? 70

_Leon._ Never, Paulina; so be blest my spirit!

_Paul._ Then, good my lords, bear witness to his oath.

_Cleo._ You tempt him over-much.

_Paul._ Unless another, As like Hermione as is her picture, Affront his eye.

_Cleo._ Good madam,--

_Paul._ I have done. 75 Yet, if my lord will marry,--if you will, sir, No remedy, but you will,--give me the office To choose you a queen: she shall not be so young As was your former; but she shall be such As, walk'd your first queen's ghost, it should take joy 80 To see her in your arms.

_Leon._ My true Paulina, We shall not marry till thou bid'st us.

_Paul._ That Shall be when your first queen's again in breath; Never till then.

_Enter a_ Gentleman.

_Gent._ One that gives out himself Prince Florizel, 85 Son of Polixenes, with his princess, she The fairest I have yet beheld, desires access To your high presence.

_Leon._ What with him? he comes not Like to his father's greatness: his approach, So out of circumstance and sudden, tells us 90 'Tis not a visitation framed, but forced By need and accident. What train?

_Gent._ But few, And those but mean.

_Leon._ His princess, say you, with him?

_Gent._ Ay, the most peerless piece of earth, I think, That e'er the sun shone bright on.

_Paul._ O Hermione, 95 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, 100 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, 105 Will have your tongue too. This is 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 110 More worth than any man; men, that she is The rarest of all women.

_Leon._ Go, Cleomenes; Yourself, assisted with your honour'd friends, Bring them to our embracement. Still, 'tis strange [_Exeunt Cleomenes and others._

He thus should steal upon us.

_Paul._ Had our prince, 115 Jewel of children, seen this hour, he had pair'd Well with this lord: there was not full a month Between their births.

_Leon._ Prithee, no more; cease; thou know'st He dies to me again when talk'd of: sure, 120 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 _and others, with_ FLORIZEL _and_ PERDITA.

Your mother was most true to wedlock, prince; For she did print your royal father off, 125 Conceiving you: were I but twenty one, Your father's image is so hit in you, His very air, that I should call you brother, As I did him, and speak of something wildly By us perform'd before. Most dearly welcome! 130 And your fair princess,--goddess!--O, alas! I lost a couple, that 'twixt heaven and earth Might thus have stood begetting wonder, as You, gracious couple, do: and then I lost, All mine own folly, the society, 135 Amity too, of your brave father, whom, Though bearing misery, I desire my life Once more to look on him.

_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 seized His wish'd ability, he had himself The lands and waters 'twixt your throne and his Measured to look upon you; whom he loves, 145 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 150 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, To greet a man not worth her pains, much less 155 The adventure of her person?

_Flo._ Good my Lord, She came from Libya.

_Leon._ Where the warlike Smalus, That noble honour'd lord, is fear'd and loved?

_Flo._ Most royal sir, from thence; from him, whose daughter 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 165 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, 170 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 blest, As he from heaven merits it, with you 175 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 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. 185

_Lord._ Here in your 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 190 The father of this seeming lady and Her brother, having both their country quitted With this young prince.

_Flo._ Camillo has betray'd me; Whose honour and whose honesty till now Endured all weathers.

_Lord._ Lay't so to his charge: 195 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.

_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; 205 The stars, I see, will kiss the valleys first: The odds for high and low's alike.

_Leon._ My lord, Is this the daughter of a king?

_Flo._ She is, When once she is my wife.

_Leon._ That 'once,' I see by your good father's speed, 210 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: 215 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, 220 Step forth mine advocate; at your request My father will grant precious things as trifles.

_Leon._ Would he do so, I'ld 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 225 '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. [_To Florizel._] But your petition Is yet unanswer'd. I will to your father: Your honour not o'erthrown by your desires, 230 I am friend to them and you: upon which errand I now go toward him; therefore follow me And mark what way I make: come, good my lord. [_Exeunt._

LINENOTES:

## SCENE I. A room....] Capell.

Enter....] Rowe. Enter L., C., D., P., Servants: Florizel, Perdita. Ff.

[12] Paul. _True, too true_] Theobald. _true_. Paul. _Too true_. Ff. Paul. _'Tis true, too true_ Long MS.

[17] _She I kill'd!_] _kill'd?--She I kill'd?_ Theobald.

[21] _spoken_] _spoke_ Pope.

[24] _so_] om. Hanmer.

[26] _name_] _dame_ Reed (1803).

_little_] _a little_ Heath conj.

[30] _queen is well?_] _queen? This will._ Hanmer (Warburton).

[36] _fulfill'd_] _fulfill'n_ F2.

[37] _said,_] F4. _said?_ F1 F2 F3.

[42] _Antigonus_] _Antigomus_ F2.

[45] _contrary_] _contray_ F2.

[46] [To L.] To the King. Theobald.

[49] _Good_] _Ah! good_ Hanmer. _Thou good_ Capell. _My good_ Keightley conj.

[54] _lips,_--] Capell. _lips_. Ff. _lips!_ Pope.

[58, 59] _stage ... appear_] _stage, (Where we offenders now) appear,_ Knight. _stage (Where we offenders now appeare)_ Ff (_appear_ F3 F4). _stage, (Where ... now) appear_ Theobald. _stage, (Where we offended anew) appear_ Hanmer. _stage, Were we offenders now--appear_ Heath conj. _stage (Where we offenders now appear, soul-vex'd)_ Steevens conj. _stage (Where we offended,) now appear_ Jackson conj. _stage (Where we offend her) new appear_ Spedding conj. _stage, (Where we offenders move) appear_ Delius conj. _stage, Where we're offenders now, appear_ Anon conj.

[60] _And begin, 'Why to me?'_] _And begin, why to me?_ F1. _And begin, why to me;_ F2 F3. _And begin, why to me._ F4. _Begin, 'And why to me?'_ Capell. _And begin, Why? to me._ Rann (Mason conj.). See note (XXII).

[61] _cause_] F3 F4. _such cause_ F1 F2.

[63] _walk'd_] _wak'd_ Rowe (ed.2). Servant post. Collier MS.

[67] _Stars, stars_] _Stars, very stars_ Hanmer.

[71] _blest_] _bless'd_ Ff.

[75] Cleo. _Good madam,--_ Paul. _I have done_] Capell. Cleo. _Good madam, I have done_ Ff. Cleo. _Good madam, pray have done_ Rowe.

[78] _you a_] _your_ Anon. conj.

[84] Enter a Gentleman.] Theobald. Enter a Servant. Ff. Enter a Servant-post. Collier MS.

[85] SCENE II. Pope.

Gent.] Ser. Ff (and throughout the scene).

_out himself_] _himself out_ Pope.

[87] _fairest I have_] Ff. _fair'st I've_ S. Walker conj.

[94] _Ay,_] _I:_ Ff. _Yes;_ Rowe.

[97] _grave_] _grace_ Collier (Egerton MS.).

[100] _than_] _on_ Hanmer.

[103] _you have_] _you've_ Pope.

[106] _This is_] _This is such_ Hanmer. _This'_ S. Walker conj.

_creature_] _creature, who_ Keightley conj.

[109] _who_] _whom_ Hanmer.

_bid_] _did_ Collier (ed. 1).

[114] Exeunt C....] Exeunt C., Lords, and Gentlemen. Capell. Exit. Ff.

[117] _full a_] F1 F2. _a full_ F3 F4.

[119] _Prithee_] _Pray_ S. Walker conj. _cease_] om. Hanmer.

[123] Re-enter C....] Re-enter Cleomenes, &c. with Florizel and Perdita. Capell. Enter Florizell, Perdita, Cleomenes, and others. Ff.

[124] SCENE III. Pope.

[131] _your_] _you_ Boswell.

_princess,--goddess_] _princesse (goddese)_ F1 F2. _princess (goddess)_ F3 F4. _princess-goddess_ S. Walker conj.

[136] _whom,_] _whom,--_ Malone.

[138] _on him_] _on_ Theobald. _upon_ Steevens.

_By_] _Sir, by_ Theobald.

[140] _at friend_] F1. _as friend_ F2 F3 F4. _a friend_ Steevens conj. _and friend_ Harness (Malone conj.). _at friends_ Seymour conj.

[157, 166] _Libya_] _Libia_ F1 F2. _Lybia_ F3 F4. _Lydia_ or _Lycia_ Douce conj.

[159] _Most ... daughter_] Hanmer. As two lines in Ff, ending _Sir ... daughter._

[160] _his, parting_] Hanmer. _his parting_ Ff. _her parting_ Thirlby conj. _at parting_ Heath conj.

[168] _we are_] _we happily are_ Hanmer.

_The blessed_] _Oh! may the blessed_ or _And may the blessed_ Mitford conj. _The ever-blessed Anon._ apud Halliwell conj.

[170] _holy_] _noble_ Collier MS.

[174] _blest_] _bless'd_ Ff.

[178] SCENE IV. Pope.

[186] _your_] _the_ Reed (1803).

[189] _Whiles_] _Whilst_ Rowe.

[203] _sets spies upon_] _which sets spies on_ Hanmer.

[214] _worth_] _birth_ Hanmer (Warburton).

[216] _Fortune, visible_] _Fortune visible,_ Hanmer.

[220] _affections,_] Ff. _affections._ Warburton.

[228] [To Florizel.] Theobald.

[231] _I am_] _I'm_ Pope.

_friend_] _a friend_ Reed (1803).

## SCENE II. _Before_ LEONTES' _palace_.

_Enter_ AUTOLYCUS _and a_ Gentleman.

_Aut._ Beseech you, sir, were you present at this relation?

_First 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 5 the shepherd say, he found the child.

_Aut._ I would most gladly know the issue of it.

_First 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 10 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 notable passion of wonder appeared in them; but the wisest beholder, that knew no more but seeing, 15 could not say if the importance were joy or sorrow; but in the extremity of the one, it must needs be.

_Enter another_ Gentleman.

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

_Sec. Gent._ Nothing but bonfires: the oracle is fulfilled; 20 the king's daughter is found: such a deal of wonder is broken out within this hour, that ballad-makers 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 is 25 called true is so like an old tale, that the verity of it is in strong suspicion: has the king found his heir?

_Third 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 30 Hermione's, 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 35 her with all certainty to be the king's daughter. Did you see the meeting of the two kings?

_Sec. Gent._ No.

_Third Gent._ Then have you lost a sight, which was to be seen, cannot be spoken of. There might you have beheld 40 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 favour. Our king, 45 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 50 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.

_Sec. Gent._ What, pray you, became of Antigonus, that carried hence the child? 55

_Third 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 bear: this avouches the shepherd's son; who has not only his innocence, which seems much, to justify him, but a handkerchief and rings 60 of his that Paulina knows.

_First Gent._ What became of his bark and his followers?

_Third Gent._ Wrecked the same instant of their master's death and in the view of the shepherd: so that all the instruments which aided to expose the child were even then 65 lost when it was found. But O, the noble combat that 'twixt joy and sorrow was fought in Paulina! She had one eye declined for the loss of her husband, another elevated that the oracle was fulfilled: she lifted the princess from the earth, and so locks her in embracing, as if she would pin her 70 to her heart that she might no more be in danger of losing.

_First Gent._ The dignity of this act was worth the audience of kings and princes; for by such was it acted.

_Third Gent._ One of the prettiest touches of all and that which angled for mine eyes, caught the water though not 75 the fish, was when, at the relation of the queen's death, with the manner how she came to 't bravely confessed and lamented by the king, how attentiveness wounded his daughter; till, from one sign of dolour to another, she did, with an 'Alas,' I would fain say, bleed tears, for I am sure my 80 heart wept blood. Who was most marble there changed colour; some swooned, all sorrowed: if all the world could have seen 't, the woe had been universal.

_First Gent._ Are they returned to the court?

_Third Gent._ No: the princess hearing of her mother's 85 statue, which is in the keeping of Paulina,--a piece many years in doing and now newly performed by that rare Italian master, Julio Romano, who, had he himself eternity and could put breath into his work, would beguile Nature of her custom, so perfectly he is her ape: he so near to Hermione 90 hath done Hermione, that they say one would speak to her and stand in hope of answer:--thither with all greediness of affection are they gone, and there they intend to sup.

_Sec. Gent._ I thought she had some great matter there in hand; for she hath privately twice or thrice a day, ever 95 since the death of Hermione, visited that removed house. Shall we thither and with our company piece the rejoicing?

_First Gent._ Who would be thence that has the benefit of access? every wink of an eye, some new grace will be born: our absence makes us unthrifty to our knowledge. 100 Let's along. [_Exeunt Gentlemen._

_Aut._ Now, had I not the dash of my former life in me, would preferment drop on my head. I brought the old man and his son aboard the prince; told him I heard them talk of a fardel and I know not what: but he at that time, 105 overfond of the shepherd's daughter, so he then took her to be, who began to be much sea-sick, and himself little better, extremity of weather continuing, this mystery remained undiscovered. But 'tis all one to me; for had I been the finder out of this secret, it would not have relished 110 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 moe children, but thy sons and daughters will be all gentlemen born. 115

_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 gentlemen born: give me the lie, do, and try whether 120 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 125 my father; for the king's son took me by the hand, and called me brother; and then the two kings called my father brother; and then the prince my brother and the princess my sister called my father father; and so we wept, and there was the first gentleman-like tears that ever we shed. 130

_Shep._ We may live, son, to shed many more.

_Clo._ Ay; or else 'twere hard luck, being in so pre-posterous 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 135 your good report to the prince my master.

_Shep._ Prithee, 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. 140

_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. 145

_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 fellow of thy hands and that thou wilt not be drunk; but I know thou art no tall fellow of thy hands 150 and that thou wilt be drunk: but I'll swear it, and I would thou wouldst 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 155 tall fellow, trust me not. Hark! the kings and the princes, our kindred, are going to see the queen's picture. Come, follow us: we'll be thy good masters. [_Exeunt._

LINENOTES:

## SCENE II.] SCENE V. Pope.

Before ...] The same. Before the Palace. Capell. Near the court in Sicily. Theobald.

[2] First Gent.] Gent. 1. Ff.

[12] _very_] _every_ Anon. conj.