Cleo. Not at all, good lady;

You might have spoke a thousand things that would
Have done the time more benefit, and grac'd
Your kindness better.

Pau. You are one of those

Would have him wed again.

Dion. If you would not,

You pity not the state, nor the remembrance
Of his most sovereign name; confider 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? This will.
What holier, than for royalty's repair,
For prefent comfort, and for future good,
To blefs the bed of majesty again
With a fweet fellow to't?

Pau. There is none worthy,

Respecting her that's gone; befides, the gods
Will have fulfill'd their fecret purposes:

For has not the divine Apollo faid,

Is't not the tenour of his oracle,

That king Leontes fhall not have an heir,

Till his loft child be found? which, that it fhall,
Is all as monftrous 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 fhould to the heav'ns be contrary,
Oppofe against their wills. Care not for iffue;
The crown will find an heir: great Alexander
Left his to th' worthieft; fo his fucceffor
Was like to be the best.

Leo. Ah! good Paulina,

Who haft the memory of Hermione,
I know, in honour: o, that ever I

[to.the king.

Had

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

Pau. And left them

More rich, for what they yielded.

Leo. Thou speak'st truth:

No more fuch wives, therefore no wife; one worse
And better us'd would make her fainted spirit
Again poffefs her corps, and on this stage,
(Where we offended anew) appear foul-vex'd,
And begin, why to me?

Pau. Had fhe fuch power,

She had just cause.

Leo. She had, and would incense me To murder her I married.

Pau. I fhould fo:

Were I the ghost that walk'd, I'd bid you mark
Her eye, and tell me for what dull part in't

You chofe her; then I'd fhriek, that even your ears
Should rift to hear me, and the words that follow'd
Should be, remember mine.

Leo. Stars, very stars;

And all eyes elfe, dead coals: fear thou no wife :
I'll have no wife, Paulina.

Pau. Will you fwear

Never to marry, but by my free leave?

Leo. Never, Paulina, fo be bless'd my spirit!

Pau. Then, good my lords, bear witness to his oath.
Cleo. You tempt him over-much.

Paul. Unless another,

As like Hermione as is her picture,

Affront his eye.

Cleo. Good madam, pray have done.

Pau. Yet if my lord will marry; if you will, fir;
No remedy, but you will; give me the office
To choose you a queen: the fhall not be so young

As

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.

Leo. My true Paulina,

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

Pau. That

Shall be, when your first queen's again in breath:

Never till then.

SCENE II.

Enter a Gentleman.

Gent. One that gives himself out prince Florizel, Son of Polixenes, with his princefs (the

The fairest I have yet beheld) defires access

To

your high presence.

Leo. What with him? he comes not

Like to his father's greatness; his approach,

So out of circumftance, and fudden, tells us, 'Tis not a visitation fram'd, but forc'd

By need and accident. What train?

Gent. But few,

And those but mean.

Leo. His princess, say you, with him?

Gent. Yes; the most peerless piece of earth, I think, That e'er the fun fhone bright on.

Pau. O Hermione,

As every present time doth boast itself

Above a better, gone; so must thy graces

Give way to what's feen now. Sir, you yourself
Have faid, and writ fo, that your writing now
Is colder on that theme; he had not been
Nor was he to be equall'd; thus your verfe
Flow'd with her beauty once, 'tis fhrewdly ebb'd,
To fay, you've seen a better.

Gent. Pardon, madam;

VOL. II.

Eeee

The

The one I have almost forgot, (your pardon)
The other, when she has obtain'd your eye,
Will have your tongue too. This is fuch a creature,
Would the begin a fect, might quench the zeal
Of all profeffors elfe, make profelytes

Of whom she but bid follow.

Pau. How? not women?

Gent. Women will love her, that she is a woman
More worth than any man: men, that she is
The rareft of all women.

Leo. Go, Cleomines;

Yourself, affifted with your honour'd friends,

Bring them to our embracement. Still 'tis ftrange
He thus fhould steal upon us.

Pau. Had our prince

[Exit Cleomines.

(Jewel of children) feen this hour, he had pair'd
Well with this lord; there was not a full month
Between their births.

Leo. Pr'ythee, no more; thou know'ft,
He dies to me again, when talk'd of: fure,
When I shall fee this gentleman, thy fpeeches
Will bring me to confider that which may
Unfurnish me of reason. They are come.

Enter Florizel, Perdita, Cleomines, and others.

Your mother was most true to wedlock, prince,
For fhe 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. Moft dearly welcome,
And your fair princefs: goddefs, o, alas!
I loft a couple, that 'twixt heav'n and earth

Might thus have stood begetting wonder, as
You, gracious couple, do; and then I loft
(All mine own folly) the fociety,

Amity too, of your brave father; whom
(Though bearing mifery) I defire my life
Once more to look on.

Flo. Sir, by his command

Have I here touch'd Sicilia, and from him
Give you all greetings, that a king, as friend,
Can fend his brother; and but infirmity,

Which waits upon worn times, 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 bad me fay fo, more than all the fceptres
And those that bear them living.

Leo. 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 flackness. Welcome hither,
As is the spring to th' earth. And hath he too
Expos'd this paragon to th' fearful ufage

(At least ungentle) of the dreadful Neptune,
To greet a man, not worth her pains; much lefs
Th' adventure of her perfon?

Flo. Good my lord,

She came from Lybia.

Leo. Where the warlike Smalus,

That noble honour'd lord, is fear'd, and lov'd?

Flo. Moft royal fir, from thence, from him whose daughter His tears proclaim'd his, parting with her; thence

(A profperous fouth-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 fhores dismiss'd,