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 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 110
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 and others.
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. Prithee, no more ; cease ; 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.

120

Re-enter CLEOMENES and others, with

FLORIZEL and PERDITA.
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 perform'd before. Most dearly welcome!
And your fair princess,-goddess !—0, alas !

130

140

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 on him.
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 times hath something seized
His wish'd ability, he had himself
The lands and waters 'twixt your throne and his
Measured to look upon you; whom he loves-
He bade me say so—more than all the sceptr
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
Exposed 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.

Good my lord,
She came from Libya.
Leon.

Where the warlike Smalus,
That noble honour'd lord, is fear'd and loved ?
Flo. Most royal sir, from thence; from him,

whose daughter

150

138. him, an idiomatic repeti. 140. at friend, as being on tion of the object already ex friendly terms, in friendship. pressed in the relative 'whom.'

His tears proclaim'd his, parting with her : thence, 160
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.
Leon.

The blessed gods
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 :
For which the heavens, taking angry note,
Have left me issueless; and your father's blest,
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 !

170

Enter a Lord. Lord.

Most noble sir, That which I shall report will bear no credit, Were not the proof so nigh. Please you, great sir, 180 Bohemia greets you from himself by me; Desires you to attach his son, who has His dignity and duty both cast offFled from his father, from his hopes, and with A shepherd's daughter. Leon.

Where's Bohemia ? speak. 170. climate, sojourn under good gifts. our skies (properly : under the 172. sacred, i.e. in virtue of particular · climate' or region of his royalty, the epithet being the heavens which is above this currently applied to all sovereigas place).

as such, 171. graceful, graced with all

attach arrest.

18

190

Lord. Here in your city ; I now came from him :
I speak amazedly; and it becomes
My marvel and my message. To your court
While he was hastening, 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
Endured all weathers.
Lord.

Lay't so to his charge :
He's with the king your father.
Leon.

Who? Camillo? Lord. Camillo, sir; I spake with him ; who now Has these poor men in question. Never saw I Wretches so quake : they kneel, they kiss the

earth;
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.
Leon.

My lord,
Is this the daughter of a king?
Flo.

She is,
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,

187. amazedly, confusedly.

200

210

220

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 owed 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'ld beg your precious

mistress, Which he counts but a trifle. Paul.

Sir, my liege, 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. [To Florizel.] But

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

230

SCENE II. Before LEONTES' palace.

Enter AUTOLYCUS and a Gentleman.

Aut. Beseech you, sir, were you present at this relation ?