Aut. Oh, that's the cafe of the fhepherd's fon; hang him, he'll be made an example.

Clo. Comfort, good comfort; we muft to the King, and fhew our strange fights; he muft know, 'tis none of your daughter, nor my fifter; we are gone else. Sir, I will give you as much as this old man does, when the bufinefs is perform'd; and remain, as he says, your Pawn 'till it be brought you.

Aut. I will truft you, walk before toward the feafide, go on the right hand; I will but look upon the hedge, and follow you.

Clo. We are blefs'd in this man, as I may fay, even blefs'd.

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 honeft, I fee, Fortune would not fuffer me; the drops booties in my mouth. I am courted now with a double occafion: gold, and a means to do the Prince my mafter 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 fhoar 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 fhame elfe belongs to't: to him will I prefent them, there may be matter in it.

[Exit.

VOL. III.

L

АСТ.

ACT V.

SCENE changes to Sicilia.

Enter Leontes, Cleomines, Dion, Paulina, and Servants.

S'

CLEOMINES..

IR, you have done enough, and have perform'd A faint-like forrow: no fault could you make, Which you have not redeem'd; indeed, paid down More penitence, than done trefpafs. At the laft, Do as the heavens have done, forget your evil; With them, forgive your self.

Leo. Whilft I remember

Her and her virtues, I cannot forget

My blemishes in them, and so still think of
The wrong I did my felf, which was fo much,
That heir-less it hath made my Kingdom; and
Destroy'd the sweet'ft companion, that e'er man (30)
Bred his hopes out of.

Pau. True, too true, my lord;

If one by one you wedded all the world,

Or, from the All that are, took fomething good,
To make a perfect woman; fhe, you kill'd,

Would be unparallel'd.

Leo. I think fo.

Kill'd?

Kill'd? the I kill'd?. I did fo, but thou ftrik'st me
Sorely, to fay I did, it is as bitter

(30) Destroy'd the fweet'ft Companion, that e'er Man

Bred his hopes out of, true.

Pau Too true, my Lord.] A very flight Examination will convince ev'ry intelligent Reader, that, true, here has jump'd out of its place in all the Editions. What the King would fay, is abfolutely complete without it and the placing it, where the printed Copies have done, is an Embarrassment to the Senfe. These two Reasons, I hope, will be fufficient to juftify my Tranfpofition.

Upon

Upon thy tongue, as in my thought. Now, good now, Say fo but feldom.

Cleo. Not at all, good lady;

You might have spoke a thousand things, that would
Have done the time more benefit, and grac'd
Your kindness better.

Pau. You are one of those,
Would have him wed again.
Dio. If you would not so,

You pity not the State, nor the remembrance
Of his moft fovereign Name; confider 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 blefs the bed of Majefty again
With a fweet fellow to't?

Pau. There is none worthy,

Respecting her that's gone; befides, the Gods
Will have fulfill'd their fecret purposes:
For has not the divine Apollo faid,

Is't not the tenor of his Oracle,

That King Leontes fhall not have an heir,

'Till his loft Child be found? which, that it fhall, Is all as monftrous 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 fhould to the heav'ns be contrary;
Oppofe against their wills.

Care not for iffue;

[To the King.

The Crown will find an heir. Great Alexander
Left his to th' Worthieft; so his Succeffor

Was like to be the best.

Leo. Good Paulina,

Who haft the memory of Hermione,

I know, in honour: O, that ever I

Had fquar'd me to thy counfel! then, even now

I might have look'd upon my Queen's full eyes,
Have taken treasure from her lips!

Pau. And left them

More rich, for what they yielded.

Lee. Thou fpeak'st truth:

No more fuch wives, therefore no wife; one worfe,
And better us'd, would make her fainted Spirit (31)
Again poffefs her corps; and on this stage,
(Where we offend Her now) appear foul-vext,
And begin, Why to me?-

Pau. Had the fuch power,

She had just fuch caufe.

Leo. She had, and would incense me To murther her I married,

Pau. I fhould fo:

Were I the Ghoft that walk'd, I'd bid you mark
Her eye, and tell me, for what dull part in't

You chofe her; then I'd fhriek, that even your ears
Shou'd rift to hear me, and the words that follow'd
Should be, Remember mine.

Leo. Stars, ftars,

And all eyes elfe, dead coals: fear thou no wife :
I'll have no wife, Paulina.

Pau. Will you swear

Never to marry, but by my free leave?

Leo. Never, Paulina; fo be bless'd my Spirit!
Pau. Then, good my lords, bear witness to his oath.
Cleo. You tempt him over-much.

Pau. Unless another,

As like Hermione as is her picture,

Affront his eye.

Cleo. Good Madam, pray, have done.

(31)

would make her fainted Spirit

Again poffefs her Corps, and on this Stage

(Where we Offenders now appear) foul--vext,

And begin, &c.] 'Tis obvious, that the Grammar is defective; and the Senfe confequently wants fupporting. The flight Change I have made cures Both: and, furely, 'tis an Improvement to the Sentiment for the King to fay, that Paulina and He offended his dead Wife's Ghoft with the Subject of a fecond Match; rather than in general Terms to call themselves Offenders, Sinners.

Pau.

Pau. Yet, if my lord will marry; if
you will, Sir;
No remedy, but you will; give me the office
To chufe you a Queen; fhe fhall not be so young
As was your former; but fhe fhall be fuch,

As, walk'd your first Queen's Ghost, it should take joy
To fee her in your arms.

Leo. My true Paulina,

We shall not marry, 'till thou bid'ft us.
Pau. 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,
Son of Pelixenes, with his Princess (fhe,

The fairest I have yet beheld) defires access
To your high presence.

Leo. What with him? he comes not

Like to his father's Greatnefs; his approach,
So out of circumftance and fudden, tells us,
'Tis not a Vifitation fram'd, but forc'd

By need and accident. What train?

Gent. But few,

And those but mean,

Leo. His Princess, fay you, with him?

Gent. Yes; the most peerless piece of earth, I think, That e'er the Sun fhone bright on.

Pau. Oh Hermione,

As every present time doth boast it felf

Above a better, gone; fo muft thy Grave

Give way to what's feen now. Sir, you your felf
Have faid, and writ fo; but your writing now
Is colder than that Theme; fhe had not been,
Nor was fhe to be equall'd; thus your verse
Flow'd with her beauty once; 'tis fhrewdly ebb'd,
To fay, you've feen a better.

Gent. Pardon, Madam;

The one I have almoft forgot, (your pardon)
The other, when she has obtain'd your eye,
Will have your tongue too
your tongue too This is a creature,

L 3

Would