Clo. We are bless'd in this man, as I may say, even bless'd.
Shep. Let's before, as he bids us; he was provided to do us good. [Exeunt Shepherd and Clozon. Aut. If I had a mind to be honest, I Ice Fortune would not fuffer me; she drops booties in my mouth. I am courted now with a double occafion: 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 shoar them again, and that the complaint they have to the King concerns him nothing, 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.
ACT V. SCËNË I.
Changes to Sicilia.
Enter Leontes, Cleomines, Dion, Paulina, and Servants.
Cle.
IR, you have done enough, and have perform'd
A faint-like forrow: 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 your felf.
Leo. Whilst I remember
Her and her virtues, I cannot forget
My blemishes in them, and so still think of
The wrong I did my self; which was so much
That heir-less it hath made my Kingdom, and
Deftroy'd the sweet'st companion that e'er mari
Bred his hopes out of.
Pau. 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.
Leo. I think fo. 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 now,
Say fo but feldom.
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; 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? This will,
What holier, than for royalty's repair,
For préfent comfort, and for future good,
To bless the bed of Majefty again
With a sweet fellow to't?
Pau. 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 tenour of his Oracle,
That King Leontes shall not have an heir,
'Till his loft child be found? which, that it shall,
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 should to the heav'ns be contrary,
Oppose againft their wills. Care not for issue; [To the King.
The crown will find an heir. Great Alexander
Left his to th' worthiest, so his fucceffor
Was like to be the best.
Leo. Ah! good Paulina,
Who hast the memory of Hermione,
I know, in honour: O, that ever I
Had squar'd me to thy counsel; then, even now
I might have look'd upon my Queen's full eyes,
Have taken treafsure from her lips!
Pau. And left them
More rich, for what they yielded.
Leo. 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 corps, and on this stage,
(Where we offended anew) appear soul-vext,
And begin, why to me?
Pau. Had she such power,
She had just cause.
Leo. She had, and would incense me
To murther her I married.
Pau. 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 rift to hear me, and the words that follow'd
Should be, Remember mine.
And all eyes else, dead coals: fear thou no wife :
I'll have no wife, Paulina.
Pau. Will you swear
Never to marry, but by my free leave?
Leo, Never, Paulina, so be bless'd my spirit!
Pau. Then, good my Lords, bear witness to his oathe
Cleo. You tempt him over-much.
Pau. Unless another,
As like Hermione as is her picture,
Cleo. Good Madam, pray have done.
Pau. Yet if my Lord will marry; if you will, Sir;
No remedy, but you will; give me the office
To chuse 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...
Leo. My true Paulina,
We shall not marry, 'till thou bidd'st us..
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 Princess (she
The fairest I have yet beheld) defires access
To your high prefence.
Leo. 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. 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 shone bright on.
Pau. Oh Hermione,
As every present time doth boast it self
Above a better, gone; so muft thy graces
Give way to what's feen now. Sir, you your felf
Have said, and writ so, that your writing now
Is colder on that theme; she had not been
Nor was she to be equall'd; thus your verse
Flow'd with her beauty once, 'tis shrewdly ebb'd,
To say you've seen a better.
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 the begin a sect, might quench the zeal
Of all profeffors else, make proselytes
Of whom the but bid follow.
Pau. How? not women?
Gent. Women will love her, that she is a woman
More worth than any man: men, that the is
The rarest of all women.
Leo. Go, Cleomines;
Your felf (affifted with your honour'd friends)
Bring them to our embracement. Still 'tis strange
He thus should steal upon us.
Pau. Had our Prince
(Jewel of children) seen 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'st
He dies to me again, when talk'd of: sure
When I fhall see this gentleman, thy speeches
Will bring me to confider that which may
Unfurnish me of reason. They are come.
SCENE III.
Enter Florizel, Perdita, Cleomines, and others.
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, oh! 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 society,
Amity too of your brave father, whom
(Tho' 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 wifh'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 say so, more than all the scepters
And those that bear them living.
Good gentleman, the wrongs I have done thee ftir
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