I have done. Paul. 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 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; Never till then. 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 Leon. 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 graves Give way to what's seen now. Sir, you yourself Have said, and writ so (but your writing now Is colder than that themes), She had not been Nor was not to be equall'd;-thus your verse 6 i. e thy beauties which are buried in the grave. So relates not to what precedes, but to what follows; that she had not been equall'd. 9 i. e. than the corse of Hermione, the subject of your writing. 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 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. Go, Cleomenes; Yourself, assisted with your honour'd 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 pair'd Well with this lord; there was not full a month Between their births. Leon. Pr'ythee, no more; thou know'st9, 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 Your mother was most true to wedlock, prince; His very air, that I should call you brother, 9 The old copy reads, 'Pr'ythee, no more; cease; thou know'st, &c. Steevens made the omission of the redundant word, which he considers a mere marginal gloss or explanation of no more. By us perform'd before. Most dearly welcome! Amity too, of your brave father; whom, Flo. (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. 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? Flo. She came from Libya. Good my lord, Leon. Where the warlike Smalus, That noble honour'd lord, is fear'd, and lov'd? 10 Steevens altered this to look upon, but there are many instances of similar construction in Shakspeare, incorrect as they may now appear. 11 i. e. at amity, as we now say. Malone, contrary to his usual custom, would here desert the old reading; and says he has met with no example of similar phraseology! He surely must have read very inattentively. Flo. Most royal sir, from thence; from him, whose daughter His tears proclaim'd his, parting with her: thence But my arrival, and my wife's, in safety, Leon. The blessed gods For which the heavens, taking angry note, Lord. Enter a Lord. Most noble sir, That, which I shall report, will bear no credit, Fled from his father, from his hopes, and with 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, 12 i. e. full of grace and virtue. Vol. IV. 5+ Of this fair couple,), meets he on the way Her brother, having both their country quitted Flo. Whose honour, and whose honesty, till now Endur'd all weathers. Lord. Camillo has betray'd me; 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 question13. 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. 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; The stars, I see, will kiss the valleys first:The odds for high and low's alike. Leon. Is this the daughter of a king? When once she is my wife. My lord, She is, Leon. That once, I see, by your good father's speed, 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 worth14 as beauty, That you might well enjoy her. Flo. 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, 13 i. e. conversation. 14 Worth for descent or wealth. |