What, sovereign sir, I did not well, I meant well. All my services, You have paid home; but that you have vouchsafd
Ay, and have been so any time these four hours. With your crown'd brother, and these your con
We may live, son, to shed many more.
tracted Heirs of your kingdoms, my poor house to visit, It is a surplus of your grace, which never My life may last to answer.
O Paulina! We honour you with trouble. But we came To see the statue of our queen: your gallery Have we pass'd through, not without much In many singularities, but we saw not [content That which my daughter came to look upon, The statue of her mother.
As she liv'd peerless, So her dead likeness, I do well believe, Ay; or else 'twere hard luck, being in so pre Excels whatever yet you looked upon, posterous estate as we are.
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
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
Comes it not something near?
[liege.
As now she might have done, So much to my good comfort, as it is Now piercing to my soul. O! thus she stood, Even with such life of majesty, (warm life, As now it coldly stands) when first I woo'd her. I am asham'd: does not the stone rebuke me, For being more stone than it ?-O, 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.
Indeed, my lord,
If I had thought, the sight of my poor image
Would thus have wrought you, (for the stone is
I'd not have show'd it.
[mine)
Leontes.
Do not draw the curtain.
'Tis time; descend; be stone no more: ap-
proach;
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 descends from the pedestal.
No longer shall you gaze on't, lest your fancy Start not: her actions shall be holy, as
May think anon it moves.
No, not these twenty years.
Perdita.
You hear my spell is lawful: do not shun her,
Until you see her die again, for then
You kill her double. Nay, present your hand:
When she was young you woo'd her; now, in
Is she become the suitor ?
[age,
O! she's warm. [Embracing her.
If this be magic, let it be an art
She hangs about his neck.
If she pertain to life, let her speak too.
and make it manifest where she has liv'd, Or how stol'n from the dead ?
Paulina.
That she is living,
Were it but told you, should be hooted at
Like an old tale; but it appears she lives,
Though yet she speak not. Mark a little
while.-
Please you to interpose, fair madam: kneel,
And pray your mother's blessing.-Turn, good
Our Perdita is found.
[lady,
[Perdita kneels to Hermione.
Hermione.
You gods, look down,
And from your sacred vials pour your graces
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.
There's time enough for that,
Lest they desire upon this push to trouble
Your joys with like relation.-Go together,
So long could I You precious winners all: your exultation
Partake to every one. 1, an old turtle,
Will wing me to some wither'd bough, and there
My mate, that's never to be found again,
Lament till I am lost.
Leon peace, Paulina!
Thou should'st a husband take by my consent,
As I by thine, a wife: this is a match,
And made between's by vows. Thou hast found
mine;
But how is to be question'd, for I saw her,
As I thought, dead; and have in vain said many
A prayer upon her grave: I'll not seek far
(For him, I partly know his mind) to find thee
An honourable husband.-Come, Camillo,
And take her by the hand, whose worth, and
Is richly noted, and here justified [honesty,
By us, a pair of kings.-Let's from this place.
What! Look upon my brother:-both your
pardons,
That e'er I put between your holy looks
My ill suspicion. This your son-in-law,
And son unto the king, (whom heavens directing)
Is troth-plight to your daughter. Good Paulina,
Lead us from hence, where we may leisurely
Perform'd in this wide gap of time, since first
Each one demand, and answer to his part
We were dissever'd. Hastily lead away.
SCENE 1. Northampton.
in the Palace.
Enter King John, Queen Elinor, Pembroke,
Essez, Salisbury, and others, with Chatillon.
King John.
Philip of France, in right and true behalf
A Room of State Of thy deceased brother Geffrey's son,
Arthur Plantagenet, lays most lawful claim
To this fair island, and the territories,
To Ireland, Poictiers, Anjou, Touraine, Maine;
Desiring thee to lay aside the sword
Which sways usurpingly these several titles,
And put the same into young Arthur's hand,
Thy nephew, and right royal sovereign.
King John.
NOW, say, Chatillon, what would France with
Thus, after greeting, speaks the king of France,
In my behaviour, to the majesty,
The borrow'd majesty, of England here.
What follows, if we disallow of this?
Chatillon.
The proud control of fierce and bloody war,
To enforce these rights so forcibly withheld.
King John.
1 Here have we war for war, and blood for blood, Controlment for controlment: so answer France. Chatillon.
My liege, here is the strangest controversy,
Come from the country to be judg'd by you,
That e'er I heard: shall I produce the men?
King John.
Let them approach.
Exit Sheriff
Our abbeys, and our priories shall pay
Re-enter Sheriff, with Robert Faulconbridge, and
Philip, his bastard Brother.
This expedition's charge. What men are you?
Your faithful subject I; a gentleman
Born in Northamptonshire, and eldest son,
As I suppose, to Robert Faulconbridge,
A soldier, by the honour-giving hand
Of Caur-de-lion knighted in the field.
I know not why, except to get the land.
But once he slander'd me with bastardy:
But whe'r I be as true begot, or no,
That still I lay upon my mother's head;
But, that I am as well begot, my liege,
(Fair fall the bones that took the pains for me!)
Compare our faces, and be judge yourself.
If old sir Robert did beget us both,
And were our father, and this son like him,
O old sir Robert, father, on my knee
I give heaven thanks, I was not like to thee.
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To Germany, there, with the emperor,
And once despatch'd him in an embassy
To treat of high affairs touching that time.
The advantage of his absence took the king,
And in the mean time sojourn'd at my father's;
Where how he did prevail I shame to speak,
But truth is truth: large lengths of seas and
Between my father and my mother lay, [shores
As I have heard my father speak himself,
When this same lusty gentleman was got.
Upon his death-bed he by will bequeath'd
The son and heir to that same Faulconbridge. His lands to me; and took it, on his death,
That this, my mother's son, was none of his :
And, if he were, he came into the world
Full fourteen weeks before the course of time.
Then, good my liege, let me have what is mine,
My father's land, as was my father's will.
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