Well with this lord; there was not full a month
Between their births.

Leon.
Pr'ythee, no more; thou know'st1
He dies to me again, when talked 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.

Re-enter CLEOMENES, with FLORIZEL, PERdita, and
Attendants.

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 performed before. Most dearly welcome!
And your fair princess, goddess!-O, alas!
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.2

Flo.

By his command

Have I here touched Sicilia; and from him

Give you all greetings, that a king, at friend,3

Can send his brother: and, but infirmity

(Which waits upon worn times) hath something seized His wished ability, he had himself

The lands and waters 'twixt your throne and his
Measured, to look upon you; whom he loves

1 The old copy reads, "Pr'ythee, no more: cease; thou know'st," &c. Steevens made the omission of the redundant word, which he considers a mere marginal gloss or explanation of no more.

2 Steevens altered this to look upon, but there are many instances of similar construction, in Shakspeare, incorrect as they may now appear. 3 i. e. at amity, as we now say.

(He bade me say so) more than all the sceptres, 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.

She came from Libya.

Leon.

Good my lord,

Where the warlike Smalus,

That noble, honored lord, is feared and loved?

Flo. Most royal sir, from thence; from him, whose daughter

His tears proclaimed his, parting with her; thence
(A prosperous south wind friendly) we have crossed,
To execute the charge my father gave me,
For visiting your highness. My best train
I have from your Sicilian shores dismissed;
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 graceful1 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 blessed
(As he from Heaven merits it) with you,
Worthy his goodness. What might I have been,
Might I a son and daughter now have looked on,
Such goodly things as you?

1 i. e. full of grace and virtue.

Lord.

Enter a Lord.

Most noble sir,

That which I shall report, will bear no credit,

Were not the proof so nigh. Please you, great sir, Bohemia greets you from himself, by me;

Desires you to attach his son; who has
(His dignity and duty both cast off)

Fled from his father, from his hopes, and with
A shepherd's daughter.

Leon.

Where's Bohemia? speak.

Lord. Here in the city; I now came from him. I speak amazedly; and it becomes

My marvel, and my message. To your court
Whiles 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.

Whose honor, and whose honesty, till now

Endured all weathers.

Lord.

Camillo has betrayed me;

Lay't so to his charge;

Who? Camillo ?

He's with the king your father.

Leon.

Lord. Camillo, sir; I spake with him; who now Has these poor men in question.1 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.

1 i. e. conversation.

Leon.

My lord,

She is,

Is this the daughter of a king? ●Flo.

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,

Most sorry, you have broken from his liking, .
Where you were tied in duty; and as sorry,
Your choice is not so rich in worth1 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 jo
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'd 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.-But your petition

[TO FLORIZEL.

Is yet unanswered; I will to your father;
Your honor not o'erthrown by your desires,
I am a friend to them, and you; upon which errand
I now go toward him; therefore, follow me,

And mark what way I make.

VOL. III.

Come, good my lord

1 Worth, for descent or wealth.

13

SCENE II. The same. Before the Palace.

Enter AUTOLYCUS and a Gentleman

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

1 Gent. I was by at the opening of the fardel, heard the old shepherd deliver the manner how he found it; whereupon, after a little amazedness, we were all commanded out of the chamber; only this, methought, I heard the shepherd say, he found the child.

Aut. I would most gladly know the issue of it.

1 Gent. I make a broken delivery of the business. -But the changes I perceived in the king, and Camillo, were very notes of admiration: they seemed almost, with staring on one another, to tear the cases of their eyes; there was speech in their dumbness, language in their very gesture; they looked as they had heard of a world ransomed, or one destroyed. A notable passion of wonder appeared in them; but the wisest beholder, that knew no more but seeing, could not say, if the importance' were joy, or sorrow; but in the extremity of the one, it must needs be.

Enter another Gentleman.

Here comes a gentleman, that, happily, knows more. The news, Rogero?

2 Gent. Nothing but bonfires. The oracle is fulfilled; the king's daughter is found; such a deal of wonder is broken out within this hour, that balladmakers cannot be able to express it.

Enter a third Gentleman.

Here comes the lady Paulina's steward; he can deliver you more.-How goes it now, sir? This news, which

1 i. e. import, the thing imported.