(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.'

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.

7

Leon.

whose daughter

The blessed gods

His tears proclaim'd his, parting with her:] This is very ungrammatical and obscure. We may better read:

whose daughter

His tears proclaim'd her parting with her.

The prince first tells that the lady came from Libya; the King, interrupting him, says, from Smalus? from him, says the Prince, whose tears, at parting, showed her to be his daughter. Johnson. The obscurity arises from want of proper punctuation. By placing a comma after his, I think the sense is cleared. Steevens.

8 The blessed gods-] Unless both the words here and where were employed in the preceding line as dissyllables, the metre is defective. We might read-The ever-blessed gods;-but whether there was any omission, is very doubtful, for the reason already assigned. Malone.

I must confess that in this present dissyllabic pronunciation I have not the smallest degree of faith. Such violent attempts to produce metre should at least be countenanced by the shadow of examples. Sir T. Hanmer reads

Here, where we happily are. Steevens.

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:

9

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 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,
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.1 Never saw I Wretches so quake: they kneel, they kiss the earth;

9 A graceful gentleman;] i. e. full of grace and virtue.

1

M. Mason.

in question.] i. e. conversation. So, in As you Like it: "I met the Duke yesterday, and had much question with him."

Steevens,

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.2

Leon.

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 worth as beauty,3
That you might well enjoy her.

Flo.

Though fortune, visible an enemy,

Dear, look up:

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 mis-
tress,

2 The odds for high and low's alike,] A quibble upon the false dice so called. See note in The Merry Wives of Windsor, Vol. III. p. 37, n. 9. Douce.

3 Your choice is not so rich in worth as beauty,] Worth signifies any kind of worthiness, and among others that of high descent. The King means that he is sorry the Prince's choice is not in other respects as worthy of him as in beauty. Johnson.

Our author often uses worth for wealth; which may also, together with high birth, be here in contemplation. Malone. So, in Twelfth Night:

"But where my worth as is my conscience firm," &c.

Steevens

4 Remember since you ow'd no more to time &c.] Recollect the period when you were of my age. Malone.

Sir, my liege,

Which he counts but a trifle.

Paul.

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.

Leon.
I thought of her,
Even in these looks I made.—But your petition

[To FLO.

Is yet unanswer'd: I will to your father;
Your honour not o'erthrown by your desires,
I am a 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.

Enter AUTOLYCUS and a Gentleman.

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, that knew no more but seeing, could not say, if the importance were joy, or sorrow:5 but in the extremity of the one, it must needs be.

Enter another Gentleman.

Here comes a gentleman, that, happily, knows more:

5 if the importance were joy, or sorrow;] Importance here means, the thing imported. M. Mason.

The news, Rogero?

2 Gent. Nothing but bonfires: The oracle is fulfilled; 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 called true, is so like an old tale, that the verity of it is in strong suspicion: Has the king found his heir?

3 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 Hermione:-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 her, with all certainty, to be the king's daughter. Did you see the meeting of the two kings?

2 Gent. No.

3 Gent. Then have you lost a sight, which was to be seen, cannot be spoken of. There might you have beheld one joy crown another; so, and in such manner;7 that, it seemed, sorrow wept to take leave of them; for their joy waded in tears. There was casting up of eyes,

6 the affection of nobleness,] Affection here perhaps means disposition or quality. The word seems to be used nearly in the same sense in the following title: "The first set of Italian Madrigalls Englished, not to the sense of the original ditty, but to the affection of the noate," &c. By Thomas Watson, quarto, 1590. Affection is used in Hamlet for affectation, but that can hardly be the meaning here.

Perhaps both here and in King Henry IV, affection is used for propensity:

7

66

-in speech, in gait,

"In diet, in affections of delight,

"In military exercises, humours of blood,

"He was the mark and glass," &c. Malone.

so, and in such manner,] Our author seems to have picked up this little piece of tautology in his clerkship. It is the technical language of conveyancers. Ritson.