Did perish with the infant. "Tis your counsel, Give way to what's seen now. Sir, you yourself Leon. Good Paulina, Who hast the memory of Hermione, Would she begin a sect, might quench the zeal More rich, for what they yielded. And better us'd, would make her sainted spirit| Paul. Paul. I have done. Yet, if my lord will marry,-if you will, sir, No remedy, but you will: give me the office To choose 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 To see her in your arms. [take joy Leon. My true Paulina, We shall not marry, till thou bidd'st us. Paul. Shall be, when your first queen's again in Never till then. That breath; Enter a Gentleman. [rizel, Gent. One that gives out himself prince FloSon of Polixenes, which his princess (she The fairest I have yet beheld), desires access To your high presence. Leon. 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. And those but mean. But few, Leon. His princess, say you, with him? Gent. Ay; the most peerless piece of earth, That e'er the sun shone bright on. [I think, Paul. O Hermione, As every present time doth boast itself Above a better, gone; so must thy grave Leon. Go, Cleomenes; Yourself, assisted with your honour'd friends, Bring them to our embracement.-Still 'tis strange, [Exeunt CLEOMENES, Lords, and Gentlemen. 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. Pry'thee, no more; thou know'st, Your mother was most true to wedlock, prince; 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 His wish'd ability, he had himself [seiz'd The land and waters twixt your throne and his Measur'd, to look upon you; whom he loves |(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, Good, my lord, Where the warlike Smalus, That noble honour'd lord, is fear'd, and lov'd? Leon. Flo. Most royal sir, from thence; from him, | Should chase us with my father; power no jot whose daughter Hath she, to change our loves.-'Beseech you, sir, ilis tears proclaim'd his parting with her: [cross'd, Here where we are. Leon. The blessed gods For which the heavens, taking angry note, Enter a Lord. Lord. Where's Bohemia? speak. My marvel, and my message. To your court Lord. Lay't so to his charge; He's with the king your father. now Remember since you ow'd no more to time Paul. Your eye hath too much youth in't: not a month 'Fore your queen died, she was more worth such Than what you look on now. [gazes Is yet unanswer'd; I will to your father: errand I now go toward him; therefore, follow me, And mark what way I make: Come, good my [Exeunt. lord. SCENE II. The same. Before the Palace. 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? Has these poor men in question. Never saw I Forswear themselves as often as they speak; Per. Leon. You are married? Flo. We are not, sir, nor are we like to be; Is this the daughter of a king? Flo. My lord, She is, When once she is my wife. Will come on very slowly. I am sorry, Dear, look up: 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 ballad-makers 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 which is called true, is so like an old tale, news, that the verity of it is in strong suspicion: Has the king found his heir? 3 Gent. Most true; if ever truth were pregnant by circumstance: that, which you hear, you'll swear you see, there is such unity in the proofs. The mantle of queen Hermione:-her jewel about the neck of it: The letters of Antigonus, found with it, which they know to be his character:--the majesty of the creature, in resemblance of the mother;-the affection of nobleness, which nature shows above her breeding, -and many other evidences, proclaim her, with all certainty, to be the king's daughter. Did you see the meeting of the two kings? 2 Gent. No. 3 Gent. Then have you lost a sight, which was to be seen, cannot be spoken of. There might you have beheld one joy crown another; so, benefit of access? every wink of an eye, some and in such manner, that it seemed, sorrow wept new grace will be born: our absence makes us to take leave of them; for their joy waded in unthrifty to our knowledge. Let's along. tears. There was casting up of eyes, holding up [Exeunt Gentlemen. of hands; with countenance of such distraction, Aut. Now, had I not the dash of my former that they were to be known by garment not by life in me, would preferment drop on my head. favour. Our king, being ready to leap out of I brought the old man and his son aboard the himself for joy of his found daughter; as if that prince; told him, I heard them talk of a fardel, joy were now become a loss, cries, 0, thy mother, and I know not what: but he at that time, thy mother! then asks Bohemia forgiveness: then over-fond of the shepherd's daughter (so he then embraces his son-in-law; then again worries he took her to be), who began to be much sea-sick, his daughter, with clipping her; now he thanks and himself little better, extremity of weather the old shepherd, which stands by, like a wea- continuing, this mystery remained undiscoverther-bitten conduit of many kings' reigns. I ed. But 'tis all one to me: for had I been the never heard of such another encounter, which finder-out of this secret, it would not have relames report to follow it, and undoes description lished among my other discredits. to do it. Enter Shepherd and Clown. 2 Gent. What, pray you, became of Antigo-Here come those I have done good to against nus, that carried hence the child? my will, and already appearing in the blossoms of their fortune. 3 Gent. Like an old tale still: which will have matter to rehearse, though credit be asleep, and not an ear open: He was torn to pieces with a bear; this avouches the shepherd's son; who has not only his innocence (which seems much) to justify him, but a handkerchief, and rings of his, that Paulina knows. 1 Gent. What became of his bark, and his fol lowers? 3 Gent. Wrecked, the same instant of their master's death: and in the view of the shepherd: so that all the instruments, which aided to expose the child, were even then lost, when it was found. But, O, the noble combat, that, 'twixt joy and sorrow, was fought in Paulina! She had one eye declined for the loss of her husband; another elevated that the oracle was fulfilled: She lifted the princess from the earth; and so locks her in embracing, as if she would pin her to her heart, that she might no more be in danger of losing. 1 Gent. The dignity of this act was worth the audience of kings and princes; for by such was it acted. 3 Gent. One of the prettiest touches of all, and that which angled for mine eyes (caught the water, though not the fish) was, when at the relation of the queen's death, with the manner how she came to it (bravely confessed, and lamented by the king,) how attentiveness wounded his daughter: till, from one sign of dolour to another, she did, with an alas! I would fain say, bleed tears; for, I am sure, my heart wept blood. Who was most marble there changed colour: some swooned, all sorrowed: if all the world could have seen it, the woe had been universal. 1 Gent. Are they returned to the court? 3 Gent. No: the princess, bearing of her mother's statue, which is in the keeping of Paulina, a piece many years in doing, and now newly performed by that rare Italian master, Julio Romano; who had he himself eternity, and could put breath into his work would be guile nature of her custom, so perfectly he is her ape: he so near to Hermione hath done Hermione, that, they say, one would speak to her, and stand in hope of answer: thither with all greediness of affection, are they gone; and there they intend to sup. 2 Gent. I thought, she had some great matter there in hand; for she hath privately, twice or thrice a day, ever since the death of Hermione, visited that removed house. Shall we thither, and with our company piece the rejoicing? 1 Gent. Who would be thence, that has the Shep. Come, boy; I am past more children; but thy sons and daughters will be all gentlemen born. Clo. You are well met, sir: Yon denied to fight with me this other day, because I was no gentleman born: See you these clothes? say, you see them not, and think me still no gentleman born: you were best say, these robes are not gentlemen born. Give me the lie; do; and try whether I am not now a gentleman born. Aut. I know you are now, sir, a gentleman born. Clo. Ay, and have been so any time these four hours. Shep. And so have I, boy. Clo. So you have:-but I was a gentleman born before my father: for the king's son took me by the hand, and called me, brother; and then the two kings called my father, brother; and then the prince, my brother, and the prin cess, my sister, called my father, father: and so we wept: and there was the first gentlemanlike tears that ever we shed. Shep. We may live, son, to shed many more. Clo. Ay; or else 'twere hard luck, being in so preposterous estate as we are. Aut. I humbly beseech you, sir, to pardon me all the faults I have committed to your worship, and to give me your good report to the prince my master. Shep. 'Pr'ythee, son, do; for we must be gentle now we are gentlemen. Clo. Thou wilt amend thy life? Aut. Ay, an it like your good worship. Clo. 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. Clo. 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? Clo. 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, thou would'st be a tall fellow of thy hands. Aut. I will prove so, sir, to my power. Clo. Ay, by any means prove a tall fellow: If I do not wender, 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. The same. A Room in Paulina's House. O Paulina, We honour you with trouble: But we came In many singularities; but we saw not Paul. [PAUL. undraws a curtain, and discovers a Statue. O, not by much. Pol. Leon. Pol. Indeed, my lord, Paul. What was he, that did make it ?-See, my lord, Leon. Paul. So long could I Leon. What you can make her do, Paul. Proceed; Musick; awake her: strike- Pol. She embraces him. T If she pertain to life, let her speak too. Her. Thy father's court? for thou shalt hear, that I,- Paul. There's time enough for that; My mate, that's never to be found again, Thou shouldst a husband take by my consent, But how is to be question'd: for I saw her, That e'er I put between your holy looks Comedy of Errors. Persons Represented. SCENE-Ephesus. SCENE I. A Hall in the Duke's Palace. Egeon. PROCEED, Solinus, to procure my fall, Excludes all pity from our threatening looks. If any, born at Ephesus, be seen Come to the bay of Ephesus, he dies, His goods confiscate to the duke's dispose, My woes end likewise with the evening sun. Duke. Well, Syracusan, say, in brief, the cause Why thou departed'st from thy native home; And for what cause thou cam'st to Ephesus. Ege. A heavier task could not have been imposed, Than I to speak my griefs unspeakable: |