Yourself, assisted with your honour'd friends, Paul. (Jewel of children,) seen this hour, he had pair'd Well with this lord; there was not full a month Between their births. Leon. Pr'ythee, no more; thou know'st, He dies to me again, when talk'd of: sure, When I shall see this gentleman, thy specches Will bring me to consider that, which may Unfurnish me of reason. They are come. — Re-enter CLEOMENES, with FLORIZEL, PERDITA, ang 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 perform'd 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 upon. Flo. - By his command She came from Libya. Good, my lord, Leon. His tears proclaim'd his, parting with her: thence Not only my success in Libya, sir, Leon. The blessed gede Purge all infection from our air, whilst vou That which I shall report, will bear no credit, (His dignity and duty both cast off,) Leon. To your court 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. When once she is my wife. My lord, She is, Your eye hath too much youth in't: not a month Than what you look on now. Even in these looks I made. I thought of her, But your petition [TO FLORIZEL Is yet unanswer'd: I will to your father; 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 ballad-makers cannot be able to express it. Leon. That once, I see, by your good father's 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, and in such manner, that, it seemed, sorrow wept to take leave of them; for their joy waded in tears. There was casting up of eyes, holding up of hands; with countenance of such distraction, that they were to be known by garment, not by favour. Our king, being ready to leap out of himself for joy of his found daughter; as if that joy were now become a loss, cries, 0, thy mother, thy mother! then asks Bohemia forgiveness; then embraces his son-inlaw; then again worries he his daughter, with clipping her; now he thanks the old shepherd, which stands by, like a weather-bitten conduit of many kings' reigns. I never heard of such another encounter, which lames report to follow it, and undoes description to do it. Aut. Now, had I not the dash of my former life in me, would preferment drop on my head. brought the old man and his son aboard the prince; told him, I heard them talk of a fardel, and I know not what; but he at that time, over-fond of the shepherd's daughter, (so he then took her to be,) who began to be much sea-sick, and himself little better, extremity of weather continuing, this mystery remained undiscovered. But 'tis all one to me; for had I been the finder out of this secret, it would not have relished among my other dis 2 Gent. What, pray you, became of Antigonus, credits. that carried hence the child? 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 followers? 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 hearing 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 beguile 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 benefit of access? every wink of an eye, some new Enter Shepherd and Clown. Here come those I have done good to against my will, and already appearing in the blossoms of their fortune. Shep. Come, boy; I am past more children, but thy sons and daughters will be all gentlemen born. Clo. You are well met, sir: You denied to fight with me this other day, because I was no gentleman born: See you these clothes? say, you see thei 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 princess, my sister, called my father, father; and so we wept : and there was the first gentleman-like 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. We honour you with trouble: But we came That which my daughter came to look upon, Paul. 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 excellence; Which lets go by some sixteen years, and makes her 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 he! I am asham'd: Does not the stone rebuke me, For being more stone than it? - O, royal piece, There's magick 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. Cam. My lord, your sorrow was too sore laid on: Which sixteen winters cannot blow away, So many summers, dry: scarce any joy Did ever so long live; no sorrow, Paul. There's tire 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 should'st 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 |