THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY

ASTOR, LENOX

TILDEN FOUNDATION

Shep. 'Prithee, son, do; for we must be gentle, now we are gentlemen.

Clown. Thou wilt amend thy life?

Aut. Ay, an it like your good worship.

Clown. Give me thy hand; I will swear to the prince thou art as honest a true fellow as any is in Bohemia.

Shep. You may say it, but not swear it.

Clown. Not swear it, now I am a gentleman? Let boors and franklins say it, I'll swear it.

Shep. How if it be false, son?

Clown. If it be ne'er so false, a true gentleman may swear it in the behalf of his friend. And I'll swear to the prince thou art a tall fellow of thy hands, and that thou wilt not be drunk; but I know thou art no tall fellow of thy hands, and that thou wilt be drunk; but I'll swear it; and I would, and would'st be a tall fellow of thy hands.

Aut. I will prove so, sir, to my power.

Clown. Ay, by any means prove a tall fellow. If I do not wonder how thou darest venture to be drunk, not being a tall fellow, trust me not.-Hark! the kings and the princes, our kindred, are going to see the queen's picture. Come, follow us; we'll be thy good masters. [Exeunt.

SCENE III.-Enter LEONTES, POLIXENES, FLORIZEL, PERDITA, CAMILLÓ, PAULINA, Lords, and Attendants.

Leon. Oh, grave and good Paulina, the great comfort

That I have had of thee!

Paul.

What, sovereign sir,

I did not well, I meant well. All my services

You have paid home; but that you have vouchsafed With your crowned brother, and these your contracted Heirs of your kingdoms, my poor house to visit,

It is a surplus of your grace, which never

My life

Leon.

may last to answer.

Oh, Paulina,

with trouble. But we came

We honour you with trouble.

To see the statue of our queen. Your gallery
Have we pass'd through, not without much content
In many singularities; but we saw not

That which my daughter came to look upon,

The statue of her mother.

Paul.

As she lived peerless,

So her dead likeness, I do well believe,

Excels whatever yet you look'd upon,

Or hand of man hath done; therefore I keep it
Lonely, apart. But here it is. Prepare

To see the life as lively mock'd as ever

Still sleep mock'd death. Behold, and say 'tis well. [PAULINA draws back a curtain and discovers

a statue.

I like your silence, it the more shows off

Your wonder. But yet speak; first, you, my liege.
Comes it not something near?

Her natural posture !—

Leon.
Chide me, dear stone, that I may say, indeed,
Thou art Hermione; or, rather, thou art she
In thy not chiding; for she was as tender
As infancy and grace.-But yet, Paulina,
Hermione was not so much wrinkled, nothing
So aged as this seems.

Pol.

Oh, not by much.

Paul. So much the more our carver's excellence, Which lets go by some sixteen years, and makes her As she lived now.

Leon.

As now she might have done.
So much to my good comfort, as it is

Now piercing to my soul. Oh, thus she stood
Even with such life of majesty (warm life

As now it coldly stands), when first I woo'd her!
I am ashamed. Does not the stone rebuke me
For being more stone than it ?-Oh, royal piece,
There's magic in thy majesty; which has
My evils conjured to remembrance; and
From thy admiring daughter took the spirits,
Standing like stone with thee.