Did perish with the infant. "Tis your counsel, Give way to what's seen now. Sir, you yourself
My lord should to the heavens be contrary, Have said, and writ so (but your writing now
Oppose against their wills.-Care not for issue: Is colder than that theme), She had not been,
[To LEONTES. Nor was not to be equalled; thus your verse
The crown will find an heir: Great Alexander Flow'd with her beauty once; 'tis shrewdly
Left his to the worthiest; so his successor To say, you have seen a better. [ebb'd,
Was like to be the best.
Gent.
Pardon, madam:
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 crea-
ture;

Would she begin a sect, might quench the zeal
Of all professors else: make proselytes
And left them Of who she but bid follow.
Paul.
How? not women?
Gent. Women will love her, that she is a woman
More worth than any man; men, that she is
The rarest of all women.

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:
thence

[cross'd,
A prosperous south-wind friendly) we have
To execute the charge my father gave me,
For visiting your highness: My best train
I have from your Sicilian shores dismiss'd;
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 graceful 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 bless'd
(As he from heaven merits it) with you,
Worthy his goodness. What might I have been,
Might I a son and daughter now have look'd on,
Such goodly things as you?

Enter a Lord.

Lord.
Most noble sir,
That, which I shall report, will bear no credit,
Were not the proof so nigh. Please you, great
Bohemia greets you from himself, by me; [sir,
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 hast'ning (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.
Camillo has betray'd me;
Whose honour, and whose honesty, till now
Endur'd all weathers.

Lord.

Lay't so to his charge;

He's with the king your father.
Leon.
Who? Camillo
Lord. Camillo, sir; I spake with him: who

now

Remember since you ow'd 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
Which he counts but a trifle. [mistress,
Sir, my liege,

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
Leon.
I thought of her,
Even in these looks I made.-But your petition
[TO FLORIZEL.

Is yet unanswer'd; I will to your father:
Your honour 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: Come, good my [Exeunt.

lord.

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?

Has these poor men in question. 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.
Leon.

Is this the daughter of a king?

Flo.

My lord,

She is,

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 worth as beauty,
That you might well enjoy her.
Flo.

Dear, look up:
Though fortune, visible an enemy,

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.
Enter LEONTES, POLIXENES, FLORIZEL, PERDITA,
CAMILLO, PAULINA, Lords, and Attendants.
Leon. O grave and good Paulina, the great
That I have had of thee!
[comfort
Paul.
What, sovereign sir,
I did not well, I meant well: All my services,
You have paid home: but that you have vouch-
saf'd
[tracted
With your crown'd brother, and these your con-
Heirs of your kingdoms, my poor house to visit,
It is a surplus of your grace, which never
My life may last to answer.
Leon.

O Paulina,

We honour you with trouble: But we came
To see the statue of our qreen: 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 liv'd 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.

[PAUL. undraws a curtain, and discovers a Statue.
I like your silence, it the more shows off
Your wonder: But yet speak ;-first, you, my
Comes it not something near?
[liege,
Leon.
Her natural posture!-
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.

O, not by much.

Pol.
Paul. So much the more our carver's excel-
lence;
[her
Which lets go by some sixteen years, and makes
As she liv'd now.

Leon.
As now she might have done,
So much to my good comfort, as it is
Now piercing to my soul. O, thus she stood,
Even with such life of majesty (warm life,
As now it coldly stands), when first I woo'd her!
I am asham'd: Does not the stone rebuke me,
For being more stone than it ?-O royal piece,
There's magic in thy majesty; which has
My evils conjur'd to remembrance; and
From thy admiring daughter took the spirits,
Standing like stone with thee!
Per.
And give me leave;
And do not say, 'tis superstition, that
I kneel, and then implore her blessing.-Lady,
Dear queen, that ended when I but began,
Give me that hand of yours, to kiss.
Paul.
O, patience;
The statue is but newly fix'd, the colour's
Not dry.
[on:
Cam. My lord, your sorrow was too sore laid
When sixteen winters cannot blow away,
So many summers dry; scarce any joy
Did ever so long live; no sorrow,
But kill'd itself much sooner.

Pol.
Dear my brother,
Let him that was the cause of this have power
To take off so much grief from you, as he
Will piece up in himself.

Indeed, my lord,

Paul.
If I had thought, the sight of my poor image
Would thus have wrought you (for the stone is
I'd not have show'd it.
[mine),
Leon.
Do not draw the curtain.
Paul. No longer shall you gaze on't; lest your
May think anon, it moves.
[fancy
Leon.
Let be, let be.
'Would I were dead, but that, methinks, al-
ready-

What was he, that did make it ?-See, my lord,
Would you not deem, it breath'd? and that
Did verily bear blood?
[those veius
Pol.
Masterly done.
The very life seems warm upon her lip.
Leon. The fixture of her eye has motion in't,
As we are mock'd with art.
Paul.
I'll draw the curtain;
My lord's almost so far transported, that
He'll think anon, it lives.

Leon.
O sweet Paulina,
Make me to think so twenty years together;
No settled senses of the world can match
The pleasure of that madness. Let't alone.
Paul. I am sorry, sir, I have thus far stirr'd
I could afflict you further.
[you; but
Leon.
Do, Paulina;
For this affliction has a taste as sweet
As any cordial comfort.-Still, methinks,
There is an air comes from her: What fine chisel
Could ever yet cut breath? Let no man mock me,
For I will kiss her.

Paul.
Good my lord, forbear:
The ruddiness upon her lip is wet;
You'll mar it, if you kiss it; stain your own
With oily painting: Shall I draw the curtain?
Leon. No, not these twenty years.
Per.
Stand by, a looker on.
Paul.

So long could I
Either forbear,
Quit presently the chapel; or resolve you
For more amazement: If you can behold it,
I'll make the statue move indeed; descend,
And take you by the hand; but then you'll think
(Which I protest against), I am assisted
By wicked powers.

Leon.

What you can make her do,
I am content to look on: what to speak,
I am content to hear: for 'tis as easy
To make her speak as move.

Paul.
It is requir'd,
You do awake your faith? Then all stand still;
Or those, that think it is unlawful business
I am about, let them depart.
Leon.
No foot shall stir.
Pol.

Proceed;

Musick; awake her: strike-
[Musick.
Tis time; descend; be stone no more: approach,
Strike all that look upon with marvel. Come:
I'll fill your grave up: stir; nay, come away;
Bequeath to death your numbness, for from him
Dear life redeems you.-You perceive, she stirs:
[HERMIONE comes down from the Pedestal.
Start not: her actions shall be holy, as,
You hear, my spell is lawful: do not shun her,
Until you see her die again; for then
You kill her double: Nay, present your hand:
When she was young, you woo'd her; now, in
Is she become the suitor.
(age,
Leon.
O, she's warm! [Embracing her
If this be magick, let it be an art
Lawful as eating.

Pol.

She embraces him.
Cam. She hangs about his neck;

T

If she pertain to life, let her speak too.
Pol. Ay, and make't manifest where she has
[liv'd,
Or, how stol'n from the dead?
Paul.
That she is living,
Were it but told you, should be hooted at
Like an old tale; but it appears, she lives,
Though yet she speak not. Mark a little while.-
Please you to interpose, fair madam; kneel,
And pray your mother's blessing.-Turn, good
Our Perdita is found.
[lady;
[Presenting PERDITA, who kneels to HERM.
You gods, look down,
And from your sacred vials pour your graces
Upon my daughter's head!-Tell me, mine own,
Where hast thou been preserv'd? where liv'd?
how found

Her.

Thy father's court? for thou shalt hear, that I,-
Knowing by Paulina, that the oracle
Gave hope, thou wast in being,-have preserv'd
Myself to see the issue.

Paul.

There's time enough for that;
Lest they desire, upon this push to trouble
Your joys with like relation. Go together,
You precious winners all; your exultation
Partake to every one. I, an old turtle,
Will wing me to some wither'd bough: and there

My mate, that's never to be found again,
Lament till I am lost.
Leon.
O peace, Paulina;

Thou shouldst a husband take by my consent,
As I by thine, a wife: this is a match,
And made between's by vows. Thou hast found
mine:

But how is to be question'd: for I saw her,
As I thought, dead; and have in vain, said many
A prayer upon her grave: I'll not seek far
(For him, I partly know his mind), to find thee
An honourable husband :-Come, Camillo,
And take her by the hand: whose worth and
[honesty,
Is richly noted: and here justified
By us, a pair of kings.--Let's from this place.
What?-Look upon my brother;-both your
pardons,

That e'er I put between your holy looks
My ill suspicion.-This your son-in-law, [ing),
And son unto the king (whom heavens direct-
Is troth-plight to your daughter.-Good Paulina,
Lead us from hence; where we may leisurely
Each one demand, and answer to his part
Perform'd in this wide gap of time, since first
We were dissever'd: Hastily lead away.
[Exeunt

Comedy of Errors.

Persons Represented.

SCENE-Ephesus.

SCENE I. A Hall in the Duke's Palace.
Enter Duke, ÆGEON, Gaoler, Officer, and other
Attendants.

Egeon. PROCEED, Solinus, to procure my fall,
And, by the doom of death, end woes and all.
Duke. Merchant of Syracusa, plead no more;
I am not partial, to infringe our laws.
The enmity and discord, which of late
Sprung from the rancorous outrage of your duke
To merchants, our well-dealing countrymen,-
Who, wanting gilders to redeem their lives,
Have seal'd his rigorous statutes with their
bloods,

Excludes all pity from our threatening looks.
For, since the mortal and intestine jars
"Twixt thy seditious countrymen and us,
It hath in solemn synods been decreed,
Both by the Syracusans and ourselves,
To admit no traffick to our adverse towns:
Nay, more,

If any, born at Ephesus, be seen
At any Syracusan marts and fairs,
Again, If any Syracusan born,

Come to the bay of Ephesus, he dies,

His goods confiscate to the duke's dispose,
Unless a thousand marks be levied,
To quit the penalty, and to ransom him.
Thy substance, valued at the highest rate,
Cannot amount unto a hundred marks;
Therefore, by law thou art condemn'd to die.
Ege. Yet this my comfort; when your words
are done,

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:
Yet, that the world may witness, that sy end
Was wrought by nature, not by vile offence,
I'll utter what my sorrow gives me leave.
In Syracusa was I born; and wed
Unto a woman, happy but for me,
And by me too, had not our hap been bad.
With her I liv'd in joy; our wealth increas'd,
By prosperous voyages I often made
To Epidamnum, till my factor's death;
And he (great care of goods at random left)
Drew me from kind embracements of my spouse,
From whom my absence was not six months old
Before herself (almost at fainting, under