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 seaside; 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 Shepherd 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 shame else belongs to't. To him will I present them; there may be matter in it. [Exit. ACT V. 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 performed A saintlike sorrow; no fault could you make, Do, as the Heavens have done; forget your evil: Leon. Whilst I remember My blemishes in them; and so still think of Paul. Leon. I think so. . Killed! She I killed! 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 now, Say so but seldom. Cleo. Not at all, good lady. You might have spoken a thousand things that would Have done the time more benefit, and graced Your kindness better. Paril. You are one of those, Would have him wed again. If you would not so, Dion. With a sweet fellow to't? Paul. There is none worthy Respecting her that's gone. Besides, the gods 1 1. e. at rest, dead. Will have fulfilled their secret purposes; That king Leontes shall not have an heir, Till his lost child be found? which, that it shall, [To LEONTES. Leon. Good Paulina, Who hast the memory of Hermione, I know, in honor,—Ö, that ever I Had squared me to thy counsel !-Then, even now, I might have looked upon my queen's full eyes; Have taken treasure from her lips, Paul. More rich for what they yielded. Leon. And left them Thou speak'st truth. One worse, No more such wives; therefore no wife. Had she such power, She had; and would incense 2 me To murder her I married. Paul. I should so. Were I the ghost that walked, I'd bid you mark 1 The old copy reads, " And begin, Why to me?" The transposition of and was made by Steevens. 2 Incense, to instigate or stimulate, was the ancient sense of this word: it is rendered in the Latin dictionaries by dare stimulo. You chose her: then I'd shriek, that even your ears Should rift1 to hear me; and the words that followed Should be, Remember mine. Leon. Stars, stars, And all eyes else dead coals!-Fear thou no wife ; Paul. Will you swear Never to marry but by my free leave? Leon. Never, Paulina; so be blessed my spirit! Paul. Then, good my lords, bear witness to his oath. Yet, if my lord will marry,-if you will, sir, As, walked your first queen's ghost, it should take joy To see her in your arms. Leon. My true Paulina, We shall not marry, till thou bidd'st us. Paul. That Shall be, when your first queen's again in breath; Enter a Gentleman. Gent. One that gives out himself prince Florizel, Son of Polixenes, with his princess, (she The fairest I have yet beheld,) desires access To your high presence. Leon. 1 i. e. split. What with him? He comes not 2 i. e. meet his eye, or encounter it—affrontare (Ital.). Shakspeare uses tnis word with the same meaning again in Hamlet, Act iii. Sc. 1: "That he, as 'twere by accident, may here Affront Ophelia.' Like to his father's greatness. His approach, By need and accident. What train? And those but mean. Leon. But few, 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. 1. O Hermione, Gent. 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. Go, Cleomenes; Yourself, assisted with your honored friends, Bring them to our embracement.-Still 'tis strange [Exeunt CLEOMENES, Lords, and Gentlemen. He thus should steal upon us. Paul. Had our prince (Jewel of children) seen this hour, he had paired 1 i. e. thy beauties which are buried in the grave. 2 So relates not to what precedes, but to what follows; that she had not been equalled. 3 i. e. than the corse of Hermione, the subject of your writing. |