May drop upon his kingdom and devour
Incertain lookers on35. What were more holy
Than to rejoice the former queen is well36?
What holier than, for royalty's repair,
For present comfort and for future good,
To bless the bed of majesty again
With a sweet fellow to't?
PAULINA There is none worthy,
Respecting42 her that's gone. Besides, the gods
Will have fulfilled their secret purposes.
For has not the divine Apollo said?
Is't not the tenor45 of his oracle,
That King Leontes shall not have an heir
Till his lost child be found? Which that it shall
Is all as monstrous48 to our human reason
As my Antigonus to break his grave
And come again to me, who, on my life50,
Did perish with the infant. 'Tis your counsel51
My lord should to the heavens be contrary,
Oppose against their wills.-- Care not for issue.
To Leontes
The crown will find an heir. Great Alexander
Left his to th'worthiest54, so his successor
Was like to be the best.
LEONTES Good Paulina,
Who hast the memory of Hermione,
I know, in honour -- O, that ever I
Had squared me60 to thy counsel! Then, even now,
I might have looked upon my queen's full61 eyes,
Have taken treasure from her lips--
PAULINA And left them
More rich for what they yielded.
LEONTES Thou speak'st truth.
No more such wives: therefore, no wife. One worse,
And better used66, would make her sainted spirit
Again possess her corpse, and68 on this stage --
Where we offenders now69 -- appear soul-vexed,
And begin, 'Why70 to me?'
PAULINA Had she such power,
She had72 just such cause.
LEONTES She had, and would incense me
To murder her I married.
PAULINA I should so75.
Were I the ghost that walked, I'd bid you mark76
Her eye, and tell me for what dull part in't
You chose her. Then I'd shriek, that even your ears
Should rift79 to hear me and the words that followed
Should be 'Remember mine80.'
LEONTES Stars, stars,
And all eyes else82 dead coals! Fear thou no wife;
I'll have no wife, Paulina.
PAULINA Will you swear
Never to marry but by my free leave85?
LEONTES Never, Paulina, so be blest my spirit!
PAULINA Then, good my lords, bear witness to his oath.
CLEOMENES You tempt88 him over-much.
PAULINA Unless another,
As like Hermione as is her picture,
Affront91 his eye.
CLEOMENES Good madam--
PAULINA I have done.
Yet, if my lord will marry -- if you will, sir,
No remedy, but you will -- give me the office95
To choose you a queen. She shall not be so young
As was your former, but she shall be such
As, walked your first queen's ghost98, it should take joy
To see her in your arms.
LEONTES My true Paulina,
We shall not marry till thou bid'st us.
PAULINA That
Shall be when your first queen's again in breath.
Never till then.
Enter a Servant104
SERVANT One that gives out himself105 Prince Florizel,
Son of Polixenes, with his princess, she
The fairest I have yet beheld, desires access
To your high presence.
LEONTES What109 with him? He comes not
Like to his father's greatness. His approach,
So out of circumstance111 and sudden, tells us
'Tis not a visitation framed112, but forced
By need and accident113. What train?
SERVANT But few,
And those but mean115.
LEONTES His princess, say you, with him?
SERVANT Ay, the most peerless piece of earth117, I think,
That e'er the sun shone bright on.
PAULINA O, Hermione,
As every present time doth boast itself
Above a better gone, so must thy grave
To Servant
Have said and writ so, but your writing now
Is colder than that theme124: 'She had not been,
Nor was not to be equalled.' Thus your verse
Flowed with her beauty once; 'tis shrewdly ebbed126,
To say you have seen a better.
SERVANT Pardon, madam.
The one129 I have almost forgot -- your pardon --
The other, when she has obtained your eye,
Will have your tongue131 too. This is a creature,
Would she begin a sect, might quench the zeal
Of all professors else133, make proselytes
Of who134 she but bid follow.
PAULINA How? Not women?
SERVANT Women will love her that she is a woman
More worth than any man: men that she is
The rarest of all women.
LEONTES Go, Cleomenes.
Yourself, assisted with your honoured friends,
Bring them to our embracement.-- Still, 'tis strange
To Paulina
He thus should steal upon us.
[Exeunt Cleomenes and others]
PAULINA Had our prince143,
Jewel of children, seen this hour, he had paired
Well with this lord, there was not full a145 month
Between their births.
LEONTES Prithee no more; cease. Thou know'st
He dies to me again when talked of. Sure,
When I shall see this gentleman, thy speeches
Will bring me to consider that which may
Unfurnish151 me of reason. They are come.
Enter Cleomenes and others, [with] Florizel and Perdita
To Florizel
Your mother was most true to wedlock, prince,
For she did print your royal father off153,
Conceiving you. Were I but twenty-one,
Your father's image is so hit155 in you,
His very air, that I should call you brother,
As I did him, and speak of something wildly
By us performed before. Most dearly welcome!
And your fair princess -- goddess! -- O, alas!
I lost a couple, that 'twixt heaven and earth
Might thus have stood begetting161 wonder as
You, gracious couple, do. And then I lost --
All mine own folly -- the society163,
Amity164 too, of your brave father, whom,
Though bearing misery, I desire my life
Once more to look on him165.
FLORIZEL By his command
Have I here touched168 Sicilia and from him
Give you all greetings that a king, at friend169,
Can send his brother, and but170 infirmity,
Which waits upon worn times171 hath something seized
His wished ability, he had himself
The lands and waters 'twixt your throne and his
Measured174 to look upon you, whom he loves --
He bade me say so -- more than all the sceptres
And those that bear them living175.
LEONTES O, my brother --
Good gentleman! -- the wrongs I have done thee stir
Afresh within me, and these thy offices179,
So rarely180 kind, are as interpreters
Of my behind-hand rarely slackness180. Welcome hither,
As is the spring to th'earth. And hath he too
Exposed th
is paragon183 to th'fearful usage,
At least ungentle184, of the dreadful Neptune,
To greet a man not worth her pains185, much less
Th'adventure of her person186?
FLORIZEL Good my lord,
She came from Libya.
LEONTES Where the warlike Smalus189,
That noble honoured lord, is feared and loved?
FLORIZEL Most royal sir, from thence, from him whose
daughter
His tears proclaimed192 his, parting with her: thence,
A prosperous south-wind friendly, we have crossed,
To execute194 the charge my father gave me
For visiting your highness. My best train
I have from your Sicilian shores dismissed,
Who for Bohemia bend197, to signify
Not only my success in Libya, sir,
But my arrival and my wife's in safety
Here where we are.
LEONTES The blessed gods
Purge all infection from our air whilst you
Do climate203 here! You have a holy father,
A graceful204 gentleman, against whose person,
So sacred as it is, I have done sin,
For which the heavens, taking angry note,
Have left me issueless207. And your father's blest,
As he from heaven merits it, with you,
Worthy his209 goodness. What might I have been,
Might I a son and daughter now have looked on,
Such goodly things as you.
Enter a Lord
LORD Most noble sir,
That which I shall report will bear no credit213,
Were not the proof so nigh214. Please you, great sir,
Bohemia greets you from himself by me.
Desires you to attach216 his son, who has --
His dignity and duty217 both cast off --
Fled from his father, from his hopes, and with
A shepherd's daughter.
LEONTES Where's Bohemia? Speak.
LORD Here in your city. I now came from him.
I speak amazedly222, 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 seeming226 lady and
Her brother, having both their country quitted
With this young prince.
FLORIZEL Camillo has betrayed me,
Whose honour and whose honesty till now
Endured all weathers.
LORD Lay't so to his charge232:
He's with the king your father.
LEONTES Who? Camillo?
LORD Camillo, sir. I spake with him, who now
Has these poor men in question236. Never saw I
Wretches so quake. They kneel, they kiss the earth,
Forswear themselves238 as often as they speak.
Bohemia stops239 his ears, and threatens them
With divers240 deaths in death.
PERDITA O, my poor father!
The heaven sets spies upon us, will not have
Our contract243 celebrated.
LEONTES You are married?
FLORIZEL We are not, sir, nor are we like to be.
The stars, I see, will kiss the valleys first246:
The odds for high and low's alike247.
LEONTES My lord,
Is this the daughter of a king?
FLORIZEL She is,
When once she is my wife.
LEONTES 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 worth256 as beauty,
That you might well enjoy her.
FLORIZEL Dear, look up258.
To Perdita
Though Fortune, visible an enemy,
Should chase us with my father, power no jot
Hath she to change our loves. Beseech you, sir,
Remember since you owed no more to time
Than I do now262. With thought of such affections,
Step forth mine advocate264. At your request
My father will grant precious things as trifles.
LEONTES Would he do so, I'd beg your precious mistress,
Which he counts but a trifle267.
PAULINA Sir, my liege,
Your eye hath too much youth in't. Not a month
'Fore your queen died, she was more worth such gazes
Than what you look on now.
LEONTES I thought of her,
Even in these looks I made.-- But your petition273
To Florizel
Is yet unanswered. I will to your father.
Your honour not o'erthrown by your desires275,
I am friend to them and you, upon which errand
I now go toward him: therefore follow me
And mark what way I make278. Come, good my lord.
Exeunt
Act 5 Scene 2 running scene 13
* * *
Enter Autolycus and a Gentleman
AUTOLYCUS Beseech you, sir, were you present at this relation1?
FIRST GENTLEMAN I was by2 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 chamber5. Only this, methought I
heard the shepherd say, he found the child.
AUTOLYCUS I would most gladly know the issue7 of it.
FIRST GENTLEMAN I make a broken delivery8 of the business; but
the changes I perceived in the king and Camillo were very
notes of admiration10. They seemed almost, with staring on
one another, to tear the cases of their eyes11. There was speech
in their dumbness, language in their very gesture. They
looked as13 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 th'importance16 were joy or sorrow, but in the
extremity of the one17, it must needs be.
Enter another Gentleman
Here comes a gentleman that happily18 knows more. The
news, Rogero?
SECOND GENTLEMAN Nothing but bonfires20. The oracle is fulfilled.
The king's daughter is found. Such a deal of wonder is
broken out within this hour that ballad-makers22 cannot be
able to express it.
Enter another Gentleman
Here comes the lady Paulina's steward. He can deliver you
more. How goes it now, sir? This news, which is called true, is
so like an old tale that the verity26 of it is in strong suspicion.
Has the king found his heir?
THIRD GENTLEMAN Most true, if ever truth were pregnant by
circumstance28. That which you hear you'll swear you see,
there is such unity in the proofs. The mantle30 of Queen
Hermione's, her jewel about the neck of it, the letters of
Antigonus found with it which they know to be his
character33, the majesty of the creature in resemblance of the
mother, the affection of34 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?
SECOND GENTLEMAN No.
THIRD GENTLEMAN 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
te
ars. There was casting up of eyes, holding up of hands,
with countenance44 of such distraction that they were to be
known by garment, not by favour45. 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 'O, thy mother, thy
mother!' Then asks Bohemia forgiveness, then embraces his
son-in-law, then again worries he49 his daughter with
clipping50 her. Now he thanks the old shepherd, which stands
by like a weather-bitten conduit of many kings' reigns51. I
never heard of such another encounter, which lames report
to follow it52 and undo 53 description to do it.
SECOND GENTLEMAN What, pray you, became of Antigonus, that
carried hence the child?
THIRD GENTLEMAN Like an old tale still, which will have matter to
rehearse57, though credit be asleep and not an ear open: he
was torn to pieces with58 a bear. This avouches the shepherd's
son, who has not only his innocence59, which seems much, to
justify him, but a handkerchief and rings of his that Paulina
knows.
FIRST GENTLEMAN What became of his bark62 and his followers?
THIRD GENTLEMAN 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 elevated67 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 losing71.
FIRST GENTLEMAN The dignity of this act was worth the
audience of kings and princes, for by such was it acted.
THIRD GENTLEMAN One of the prettiest touches74 of all and that
which angled for mine eyes, caught the water75 though not
the fish, was when, at the relation of the queen's death, with
the manner how she came to't bravely confessed and
lamented by the king, how attentiveness78 wounded his
daughter, till, from one sign of dolour79 to another, she did,
with an 'Alas', I would fain80 say, bleed tears, for I am sure my
heart wept blood. Who was most marble81 there changed
colour, some swooned, all sorrowed. If all the world could
have seen't, the woe had been universal.
FIRST GENTLEMAN Are they returned to the court?
THIRD GENTLEMAN 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 performed87 by that rare Italian
master, Julio Romano88, who, had he himself eternity and
could put breath into his work, would beguile89 nature of her
custom90, so perfectly he is her ape. He so near to Hermione
hath done91 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.
SECOND GENTLEMAN 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 removed96 house.