As my Antigonus to break his

grave,

And come again to me; who, on my life,
Did perish with the infant. 'Tis your counsel,
My lord should to the heavens be contrary;
Oppose against their wills.-

The crown will find an heir.

Care not for issue;

50

[To the King.

Great Alexander

Left his to the worthiest; so his successor

Was like to be the best.

Leo. Good Paulina,

Who hast the memory of Hermione,

I know, in honour: O, that ever I

Had squar'd me to thy counsel! then, even now 60 I might have look'd upon my queen's full eyes; Have taken treasure from her lips!

Paul. And left them

More rich, for what they yielded.

Leo. Thou speak'st truth.

No more such wives; therefore no wife: one worse, And better us'd, would make her sainted spirit

Again possess her corps; and, on this stage

(Where we offend her now), appear soul-vext, And begin, Why to me?

Paul. Had she such power,

She had just such cause.

Leo. She had; and would incense me

To murder her I married.

Paul. I should so,

Were I the ghost that walk'd; I'd bid you mark and tell me, for what dull part in't Kij

Her eye;

70

You

You chose her: then I'd shriek, that even your ears Should rift to hear me; and the words that follow'd Should be, Remember mine.

Leo. Stars, stars!

And all eyes else, dead coals. Fear thou no wife, I'll have no wife, Paulina.

Paul. Will you swear

Never to marry, but by my free leave?

Leo. Never, Paulina; so be bless'd my spirit!

Paul. Then, good my lords, bear witness to his oath.

Cleo. You tempt him over-much.

Paul. Unless another,

As like Hermione as is her picture,

Affront his eye. !

Cleo. Good madam, pray, have done.
Paul. Yet, if my lord will marry

sir;

90

If you will,

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 take joy

To see her in your arms.

Leo. My true Paulina,

We shall not marry, 'till thou bid'st us.

Paul. That

Shall be, when your first queen's again in breath:
Never 'till then.

100

Enter

Enter a Gentleman.

Gent. One that gives out himself prince Florizel, Son of Polixenes, with his princess (she, The fairest I have yet beheld), desires Access to your high presence.

Leo. What with him? he comes not

Like to his father's greatness: his approach,

So out of circumstance, and sudden, tells us, 110

'Tis not a visitation fram'd, but forc'd

By need and accident. What train?

Gent. But few,

And those but mean.

Leo. His princess, say you, with him?

Gent. Ay; the most peerless piece of earth, I think, That e'er the sun shone bright on.

Paul. Oh Hermione,

As every present time doth boast itself

Above a better, gone; so must thy grave

Give way to what's seen now. Sir, you yourself
Have said, and writ so (but your writing now
Is colder than that theme); she had not been,
Nor was she to be equall'd; thus your verse
Flow'd with her beauty once; 'tis shrewdly ebb'd,

To say, you have seen a better.

1

Gent. Pardon, madam;

The one I have almost forgot (your pardon);
The other, when she has obtain'd your eye,

120

Will have your tongue too. This is a creature, 130 Would she begin a sect, might quench the zeal

Kiij

Of

Of all professors else; make proselytes

Of who she but bid follow.

Gent. Women will love her, that she is a woman More worth than any man; men, that she is The rarest of all women.

Leo. Go, Cleomenes;

Yourself, assisted with your honour'd friends,

Bring them to our embracement.
He thus should steal upon us.
Paul. Had our prince

[Exit CLEOMENES.

Still 'tis strange

(Jewel of children), seen this hour, he had pair'd Well with this lord; there was not full a month Between their births.

Leo. Pr'ythee, no more; cease; thou know'st, He dies to me again, when talk'd 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..

141

150

Enter FLORIZEL, PERDITA, CLEOMENES, and others.

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,

As

As your fair princess, goddess!-oh! 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.

Flo. Sir, by his command

Have I here touch'd Sicilia; and from him
Give you all greetings, that a king, a friend
Can send his brother: and, but infirmity

(Which waits upon worn times), hath something seiz'd

His wish'd ability, he had himself

The lands 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.

Leo. Oh, my brother!

170

(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
Expos'd 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?

179

Elo.