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.

As like Hermione as is her picture,

Affront his eye a;—

CLEO.

Good madam, I have done.
PAUL. Yet, if my lord will marry,—if you will,
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
To see her in your arms.

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.

What with him? he comes not
Like to his father's greatness: his approach,
So out of circumstance and sudden, tells us
"T is not a visitation fram'd, but forc'd
By need and accident. What train?
GENT.

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.

O Hermione,

PAUL.
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

"I have

a The vehemence of Paulina overbears the interruption of Cleomenes, and he says done." The modern editors give "I have done" to Paulina; when she is evidently going on, perfectly regardless of any opposition.

Yourself, assisted with your honour'd friends,

Bring them to our embracement.—Still 't is strange,

He thus should steal upon us.

[Exeunt CLEOMENES, Lords, and Gentleman.

PAUL.
Had our prince
(Jewel of children) seen this hour, he had pair'd
Well with this lord; there was not full a month
Between their births.

Prithee, no more; cease; thou know'st,

LEON.
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, and Attendants.

Your mother was most true to wedlock, prince;

For she did print your royal father off,
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!
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,
Amity too, of your brave father; whom,

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 times) hath something seiz'd
His wish'd ability, he had himself

The lands and waters 'twixt your throne and his
Measur❜d to look upon you; whom he loves
(He bade me say so) more than all the sceptres,
And those that bear them, living.

LEON.

FLO.

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
Expos'd this paragon to the fearful usage
(At least, ungentle) of the dreadful Neptune,
To greet a man not worth her pains; much less
The adventure of her person?

She came from Libya.

LEON.

Good my lord,

Where the warlike Smalus,
That noble honour'd lord, is fear'd and lov'd?

FLO. Most royal sir, from thence; from him, whose daughter
His tears proclaim'd his, parting with her: thence

(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
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 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!

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 your a 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; Whose honour, and whose honesty, till now, Endur'd all weathers.

LORD.

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. 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.

a Your. This is changed to the, in modern editions, without explanation.

LEON. That once, I see, by your good father's speed,

FLO.

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.

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 ow'd 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.

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.

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 notable passion of wonder appeared in them but the wisest beholder,

COMEDIES.-VOL. II.

M M