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Paul.
There is none worthy,
Respecting her that's gone. Besides, the gods
Will have fulfilled their secret purposes:
For has not the divine Apollo said,
Is't not the tenor of his oracle,

That king Leontes shall not have an heir,

Till his lost child be found? which, that it shall,
Is all as monstrous 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 should to the heavens be contrary,
Oppose against their wills.-Care not for issue;
[TO LEONTES.
The crown will find an heir: Great Alexander
Left his to the worthiest; so his successor
Was like to be the best.
Leon.

Good Paulina,—

Who hast the memory of Hermione,
I know in honor,-0, that ever I

Had squared me to thy counsel!-then, even now,
I might have look'd upon my queen's full eyes;
Have taken treasure from her lips,-
Paul.

And left them
More rich, from what they yielded.
Leon.
Thou speak'st truth.
No more such wives; therefore, no wife: one worse,
And better used, would make her sainted spirit
Again possess her corpse; and, on this stage,
(Where we offenders now appear,) soul-vex'd,
Begin, And why to me?

Paul.

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Had she such power,
and would incense me
I should so:
Were I the ghost that walk'd, I'd bid you mark
Her eye; and tell me, for what dull part in't
You chose her: then I'd shriek that even your ears
Should rifts to hear me; and the words that follow'd
Should be, Remember mine.

Leon.

Stars, very stars,
And all eyes else dead coals!-fear thou no wife,
I'll have no wife, Paulina.

Paul.

Will you swear

Never to marry, but 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.
Paul.

As like Hermione as is her picture,
Affront his eye.

Cleo. Paul.

Good Madam,

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How? not women!

Paul.
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 honor'd friends,
Bring them to our embracement.-Still, 'tis strange,
[Exeunt CLEOMENES, Lords, and Gentleman.
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.

Prythee, no more; thou know'st,
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 performi'd before. Most dearly welcome!
And your fair princess, goddess!-0, 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,
Though bearing misery, I desire my life
Once more to look upon.
Flo.

By his command
Unless another, 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

I have done.
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 hier in your arms.

Leon.

My true Paulina,

We shall not marry, till thou bid'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
To your high presence.
Leon.

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?

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What with him? he comes not That noble honor'd lord, is fear'd, and lov'd?
Flo. Most royal sir, from thence: from him, whose

Like to his father's greatness: his approach,
So out of circumstance, and sudden, tells us,
'Tis not a visitation framed, but forced
By need, and accident. What train?
Gent.

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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 pince.

Flo.
Camillo has betray'd me;
Whose honor, and whose honesty, till now,
Endured all weathers.

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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: but in the extremity of the one, it must needs be.

Enter another Gentleman.

Here comes a gentleman, that happily, knows more: 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 balladmakers 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 you see, there is such unity in the proofs. The by circumstance; that which you hear, you'll swear 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 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?

O, my poor father!-of The heaven sets spies upon us, will not have Our contract celebrated.

Leon.

You are married?

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When once she is my wife.
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,
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
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.

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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 FLORIZEL.

Is yet unanswer'd: I will to your father;
Your honor 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.

SCENE II.-Before the Palace.

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 1 Seize, arrest. 2 Conversation,

A quibble on the false dice so called.

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 of them; for their joy waded in tears. There was manner, that it seemed, sorrow wept to take leave casting up of eyes, holding up of hands; with countenance of such distraction, that they were to be known by garment, not by favor.s Our king, being ready to leap out of himself for joy of his found daughter; as if that joy were now become a loss, cries. O, thy mother, thy mother! then asks Bohemia forgiveness; then embraces his son-in-law; then again worries he his daughter, with clipping her; now he thanks the old shepherd, which stands by, like a weather-beaten conduit of many kings' reigns. I never heard of such another encounter, which lames report to follow it, and undoes description to do it.

2 Gent. What, pray you, became of Antigonus, that carried hence the child?

3 Gent. Like an old tale still; which will have matter to rehearse, though credit be asleep, and not an ear open: He was torn to pieces with a bear, this avouches the shepherd's son; who has not only his innocence (which seems much) to justify him, but a handkerchief, and rings, of his, that Paulina knows.

1 Gent. What became of his bark, and his followers?

3 Gent. Wreck'd, the same instant of their master's death; and in the view of the shepherd: so that all the instruments, which aided to expose the child, were even then lost, when it was found. But, O, the noble combat, that, 'twixt joy and sorrow, was fought in Paulina! She had one eye declined for the loss of her husband; another elevated that the oracle was fulfilled: She lifted the princess from the earth: and so locks her in embracing, as if she would pin her to her heart, that she might no more be in danger of losing.

1 Gent. The dignity of this act was worth the audience of kings and princes; for by such was it acted.

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3 Geat. One of the prettiest touches of all, and that which angled for mine eyes, (caught the water, though not the fish,) was, when at the relation of the queen's death, with the manner how she came to it, (bravely confessed, and lamented by the king,) how attentiveness wounded his daughter: tall, from one sign of dolor to another, she did with an alas! I would fain say, bleed tears; for, I am sure, my heart wept blood. Who was most marble there, changed color; some swooned, all sorrowed: if all the world could have seen it, the woe had been universal.

1 Gent. Are they returned to the court?

3 Gent. No: the princess hearing of her mother's statue, which is in the keeping of Paulina-a piece many years in doing, and now nearly performed by that rare Italian master, Julio Romano; who, had he himself eternity, and could put breath into his work, would beguile nature of her custom, so perfectly is he her ape: he so near to Hermione hath done Hermione, that, they say, one would speak to her, and stand in hope of answer: thither with all greediness of affection, are they gone; and there they intend to sup.

2 Gent. I thought, she had some great matter there in hand; for, she hath privately, twice or thrice a day, ever since the death of Hermione, visited that removed house. Shall we thither, and with our company piece the rejoicing?

1 Gent. Who would be thence, that has the bene. fit of access? every wink of an eye, some new grace will be born: our absence makes us unthrifty to our knowledge. Let's along.

[Exeunt Gentlemen. Aut. Now, had I not the dash of my former life in me, would preferment drop on my head. brought the old man and his son aboard the prince; told him I heard him talk of a fardel, and I know not what but he at that time, over-fond of the shepherd's daughter, (so he then took her to be,) who began to be much sea-sick, and himself little better, extremity of weather continuing, this mystery remained undiscovered. But tis all one to me: for had I been the finder-out of this secret, it would not have relished among my other discredits.

Enter Shepherd and Clown.

Here come those I have done good to against my will, and already appearing in the blossoms of their fortune.

Shep. Come, boy; I am past more children; but thy sons and daughters will be all gentlemen born.

Clo. You are well met, sir; You denied to fight with me this other day, because I was no gentleman born: See you these clothes? say, you see them not, and think me still no gentleman born: you were best say, these robes are not gentlemen born. Give me the lie; do; and try whether I am not now a gentleman born.

Aut. I know you are now, sir, a gentleman born. Clo. Ay, and have been so any time these four hours.

Shep. And so have I, boy.

Clo. So you have:-but I was a gentleman born before my father: for the king's son took me by the hand, and called me, brother: and then the two kings called my father, brother; and then the prince, my brother, and the princess, my sister. called my father, father; and so we wept: and there was the first gentleman-like tears that ever we shed.

Shep. We may live, son, to shed many more. Clo. Ay; or else 'twere hard luck, being in so preposterous estate as we are.

Aut. I humbly beseech you, sir, to pardon me all the faults I have committed to your worship, and to give me your good report to the prince my master.

Shep. Prythee, son, do; for we must be gentle, now we are gentlemen.

Clo. Thou wilt amend thy life?

Ant. Ay, an it like your good worship.

Clo. Give me thy hand: I will swear to the prince thou art as honest a true fellow as any is in Bohemia.

Shep. How if it be false, son?

Clo. If it be ne'er so false, a true gentleman may swear it in the behalf of his friend:-And I'il swear to the prince, thou art a tall fellow of thy hands, and that thou wilt not be drunk; but I know, thou art no tall fellow of thy hands, and that thou wilt be drunk; but I'll swear it: and I would, thou wouldst be a tall fellow of thy hands. Aut. I will prove so, sir, to my power.

Clo. Ay, by any means prove a tall fellow: if I do not wonder, how thou darest venture to be drunk, not being a tall fellow, trust me not.-Hark! the kings and the princes, our kindred, are going to see the queen's picture. Come, follow us: we'll be thy good masters. [Exeunt.

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Heirs of your kingdoms, my poor house to visit,
It is a surplus of your grace which never
My life may last to answer.
Leon.

O Paulina,
We honor you with trouble: But we came
To see the statue of our queen: your gallery
Have we passed through, not without much content
In many singularities; but we saw not
That which my daughter came to look upon,
The statue of her mother.
Paul.

As she liv'd peerless,

So her dead likeness, I do well believe,
Excels whatever yet you look'd upon,
Or hand of man hath done; therefore I keep it
Lonely, apart: But here it is: prepare
To see the life as lively mock'd, as ever
Still sleep mock'd death: behold; and say, 'tis well.
[PAULINA undraws a Curtain, and discovers a
Statue.

I like your silence, it the more shows off
Your wonder: but yet speak;-first, you my liege,
Comes it not something near?
Leon.
Her natural posture!-
Chide me, dear stone; that I may say, indeed,
Thou art Hermione: or, rather, thou art she,
In thy not chiding; for she was as tender,
As infancy and grace.-But yet, Paulina,
Hermione was not so much wrinkled; nothing
So aged, as this seems.

Pol.
O, not by much.
Paul. So much the more our carver's excellence;
Which lets go by some sixteen years, and makes her
As she liv'd now.
Leon.
As now she might have done,
So much to my good comfort, as it is
Now piercing to my soul. G. thus she stood,
Even with such life of majesty, (warm life,
As now it coldly stands.) when first I woo'd her!
I am ashamed: Does not the stone rebuke me,
For being more stone than it ?-0), royal piece
There's magic in thy majesty; which has
My evils conjur'd to remembrance; and
From thy admiring daughter took the spirits,
Standing like stone with thee!

Per.

And give me leave: And do not say 'tis superstition, that I kneel, and then implore her blessing.-Lady, Dear queen, that ended when I but began, Give me that hand of yours, to kiss. Paul.

O, patience;

The statue is but newly fix'd, the colors
Not dry.
Cam. My lord, your sorrow was too sore laid on:
Which sixteen winters cannot blow away,
So many suminers, dry: scarce any joy
Did ever so long live; no sorrow,
But kill'd itself much sooner.

Pol.

Dear my brother, Shep. You may say it, but not swear it. Let him, that was the cause of this, have power Clo. Not swear it, now I am a gentleman? Let To take off so much grief from you, as he boors and franklins say it, I'll swear it. Will piece up in himself.

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Paul.

Indeed, my lord,

If I had thought the sight of my poor image
Would thus have wrought you, (for the stone is Until you see her die agam; fo. then

mine.)

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Make me to think so twenty years together; No settled senses of the world can match The pleasure of that madness. Let't alone.

Start not: her actions shall be holy, as.
You hear, my spell is lawful: do not shun her,
You kill her double: Nay, present your hand:
When she was young, you woo'd her; now, in

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[Presenting PERDITA, who kneels to HERMIONE.

You gods, look down,

Paul. I am sorry, sir, I have thus far stirr'd yo1: And from your sacred vials pour your graces

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Quit presently the chapel; or resolve you
For more amazement: If you can behold it,
I'll make the statue move; indeed, descend,
And take you by the hand: but then you'll think,
(Which I protest against,) I am assisted
By wicked powers.

Leun.

Upon my daughter's head!--Tell me, mine own, Where hast thou been preserv'd? where liv'd? how

found

Thy father's court? for thou shalt hear that I,-
Knowing by Paulina, that the oracle
Gave hope thou wast in being,-have preserv'd
Myself to see the issue.
Paul.
There's time enough for that;
Lest they desire, upon this push, to trouble
Your joys with like relation.--Go together,
You precious winners all: your exultation
Partake to every one. I, an old tu. tie,
Will wing me to some wither'd bough; and there
My mate, that's never to be found again,
Lament till I am lost.

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But how, is it to be question'd; for I saw her,
As I thought, dead; and have, in vain, said many

What you can make her do, A prayer upon her grave: I'll not seek far

I am content to look on: what to speak I am content to hear for 'tis as easy To make her speak, as move.

Paul.

It is required

You do awake your faith: Then, all stand still; Or those, that think it is unlawful business

I am about, let them depart.

Leon.

No foot shall stir.

Proceed;

Music.

Paul. Music; awake her: strike. 'Tis time; descend; be stone no more: approach, Strike all that look upon with marvel. Come: I'll fill your grave up; stir; nay, come away; Bequeath to death your numbness, for from him Dear life redeems you.-You perceive she stirs: [HERMIONE comes down from the Pedestal.

• As if.

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SCENE I-A Hall in the Duke's Palace. Enter DUKE, ÆGEON, Gaoler, Officers, and other Attendants.

And soon, and safe, arrived where I was.
There she had not been long, but she became
A joyful mother of two goodly sons;
And which was strange, the one so like the other,
As could not be distinguish'd but by names.
That very hour, and in the self-same inn,

A poor mean woman was delivered
Of such a burden, male twins, both alike:
Those, for their parents were exceeding poor,
I bought, and brought up to attend my sons.
My wife, not meanly proud of two such boys,
Made daily motions for our home return:
bloods,-Unwilling I agreed; alas, too soon.
We came aboard:

Ege. Proceed, Solinus, to procure my fall,
And by the doom of death, end woes and all.
Duke. Merchant of Syracusa, plead no more;
I am not partial to infringe our laws:
The enmity and discord, which of late
Sprung from the rancorous outrage of your duke
To merchants, our well-dealing countrymen,—
Who, wanting gilders' to redeem their lives,
Have seal'd his rig 'rous statutes with their
Excludes all pity from our threat ning looks,
For, since the mortal and intestine jars
Twixt thy seditious countrymen and us,
It hath in solemn synods been decreed,
Both by the Syracusans and ourselves,
To admit no traffic to our adverse towns:
Nay, more,

If any born at Ephesus, be seen
At any Syracusan marts and fairs;
Again, If any Syracusan born,
Come to the bay of Ephesus, he dies,

His goods confiscate to the duke's dispose;
Unless a thousand marks be levied,

To quit the penalty, and to ransome him.
Thy substance valued at the highest rate,
Cannot amount unto a hundred marks;
Therefore, by law thou art condemn'd to die.
Age. Yet this my comfort; when your words

are done,

My woes end likewise with the evening sun.
Duke. Well, Syracusan, say, in brief, the cause
Why thou departedst from thy native home;
And for what cause thou cam`st to Ephesus.
Age. A heavier task could not have been impos'd
Than I to speak my griefs unspeakable:
Yet, that the world may witness, that my end
Was wrought by nature, not by vile offence,
I'll utter what my sorrow gives me leave.
In Syracusa was I born; and wed
Unto a woman, happy but for me,
And by me too, had not our hap been bad.
With her I liv'd in joy; our wealth increased,
By prosperous voyages I of en made
To Epidamnum, till my factor's death;
And he (great care of goods at random left)
Drew me from kind embracements of my spouse:
From whom my absence was not six months old,
Before herself (almost at fainting under
The pleasing punishment that women bear)
Had made provision for her following me,

1 Name of a coin.
252

A league from Epidamnum had we sailed,
Before the always-wind-obeying deep
Gave any tragic instance of our harm:
But longer did we not retain much hope;
For what obscured light the heavens did grant
Did but convey unto our fearful minds

A doubtful warrant of immediate death;
Which, though myself would gladly have embraced,
Yet the incessant weepings of my wife,
Weeping before for what she saw must come,
And piteous plainings of the pretty babes,
That mourn'd for fashion, ignorant what to fear,
Forced me to seek delays for them and me,
And this it was,-for other means was none.-
The sailors sought for safety by our boat,
And left the ship, then sinking-ripe, to us:
My wife, more careful for the elder born.
Had fasten'd him unto a small spare mast,
Such as sea-faring men provide for storms;
To him one of the other twins was bound,
Whilst I had been like heedful of the other.
The children thus dispos'd, my wife and I,
Fixing our eyes on whom our care was fix'd,
Fasten'd ourselves at either end the mast;
And floating straight, obedient to the stream,
Were carried towards Corinth, as we thought.
At length the sun, gazing upon the earth,
Dispers'd those vapors that offended us;
And, by the benefit of his wish'd light,
The seas wax'd calm, and we discovered
Two ships from far making amain to us,
Of Corinth that, of Epidaurus this:
But ere they came,-, let me say no more!
Gather the sequel by that went before.

For we may pity, though not pardon thee.
Duke. Nay, forward, old man, do not break off so;

Ege. O, had the gods done so, I had not now
Worthily term'd them merciless to us!

For, ere the ships could meet by twice five leagues,
We were encounter'd by a mighty rock;
Which being violently borne upon,

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