Leon.

I think so. Kill'd?

She I kill'd? I did so: but thou strik'st me
Sorely, to say I did; it is as bitter

Upon thy tongue, as in my thought: Now, good

You are one of those,

Would have him wed again.
Dion.
If you would not so,
You pity not the state, nor the remembrance
Of his most sovereign dame; consider 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 bless the bed of majesty again
With a sweet fellow to't?

Paul.

There is none worthy, Respecting her that's gone. Besides, the gods Will have fulfill'd 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 will.-

-Care not for issue;
[To Leontes.

(1) At rest, dead.

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 honour,-Ŏ, that ever I

Had squar'd me to thy counsel!-then, even now, my queen's full eyes;

I might have look'd um her lips,

Have taken treasure

Paul.

More rich, for what they yielded.

And left them

Leon. Thou speak'st truth. No more such wives; therefore, no wife: one worse, And better us'd, 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.

Had she such power,

She had; and would incense! me

To murder her I married.

Paul.

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 rift2 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 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.

Paul.

As like Hermione as is her picture,

(1) Instigate.

Unless another,

(2) Split.

Good madam,

Affront! his eye.

Cleo.

Paul.

Yet, if

my

I have done.

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,

That

We shall not marry, till thou bidd'st us.

Paul.

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. What with him? he comes not Like to his father's greatness: his approach, So out of circumstance, and sudden, tells us, 'Tis 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.

Paul.

O Hermione,

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

(1) Meet.

Is colder than that theme,1) She had not been, Nor was not to be equall'd;-thus your verse 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 such 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'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,

(1) i. e. Than the corse of Hermione, the sub ject of your writing.

VOL. III.

S

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,
Though bearing misery, I desire my life
Once more to look upon.

Flo.

By his command

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 time,) 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.

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

Mis tears proclaim'd his, parting with her: thence (A prosperous south-wind friendly,) we have cross'd,