Aut. If I had a mind to be honest, I see Fortune would not suffer me: she drops booties in my mouth. I am courted now with a double occasion, gold and a means to do the prince my master good; which who knows how that may turn back to my advancement? I will bring these two moles, these blind ones, aboard him if he think it fit to shore them again and that the complaint they have to the king concerns him nothing, 870 let him call me rogue for being so far officious; for I am proof against that title and what shame else belongs to 't. To him will I present them : there may be matter in it.

[Exit.

SCENE I.

ACT V.

A room in LEONTES' palace.

Enter LEONTES, CLEOMENES, DION, PAULINA,
and Servants.

Cleo. Sir, you have done enough, and have
perform'd

A saint-like sorrow: no fault could you make, Which you have not redeem'd; indeed, paid down More penitence than done trespass at the last, Do as the heavens have done, forget your evil; With them forgive yourself.

Leon.

Whilst I remember

Her and her virtues, I cannot forget

872. I am proof against that title. He may be called a rogue by way of abuse, but is secure

against legal arrest and punishment as a 'rogue and vaga. bond.'

My blemishes in them, and so still think of
The wrong I did myself; which was so much,
That heirless it hath made my kingdom and
Destroy'd the sweet'st companion that e'er man
Bred his hopes out of.

Paul.
True, too true, my lord:
If, one by one, you wedded all the world,
Or from the all that are took something good,
To make a perfect woman, she you kill'd
Would be unparallel'd.

Leon.

She I kill'd!

I did so but thou strikest me

Sorely, to say I did; it is as bitter

Upon thy tongue as in my thought: now, good now, Say so but seldom.

If you would not so,

Would have him wed again.

Dion.
You pity not the state, nor the remembrance
Of his most sovereign name; 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.

29. Incertain lookers on, irresolute counsellors who have

There is none worthy

ΣΟ

20

30

foreseen the danger without guarding against it.

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 tenour 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. [To Leontes.] Care
not for issue;

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, O, 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.

More rich for what they yielded.

Leon.

And left them

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,

35. Respecting, in comparison with.

59. Where we offenders now. This differs from Ff only in ending the subordinate sentence at now, 'appear' being understood with it as well as with the principal. The ellipsis is harsh,

40

50

we

however, even for Shakespeare's
later style, and many alterations
have been proposed, the most
plausible being, ('Where
offenders now appear, soul-vex'd)
begin "And why to
(Capell); (Where we offenders
move) appear and begin' (Delius
conj.)

me?"

Were I the ghost that walk'd, I'ld bid you mark
Her eye, and tell me for what dull part in 't
You chose her; then I'ld shriek, that even your

ears

Should rift to hear me ; and the words that follow'd
Should be 'Remember mine.'.

Never to marry but by my free leave?

Leon. Never, Paulina; so be blest my spirit! Paul. Then, good my lords, bear witness to his oath.

Cleo. You tempt him over-much.

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

60. Why to me?' sc. this humiliation. The Camb. edds. compare the opening of Jonson's Execration upon Vulcan :

70

80

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 framed, but forced 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
Is colder than that theme, '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.

84. a Gentleman. Theobald's alteration for Ff a Servant; the context (v. 98 f) implying a higher rank.

90

100

90. out of circumstance, without ceremony.

100. that theme, Hermione.