Will bring me to confider that which may
Unfurnish me of reafon. They are come.

Enter Florizel, Perdita, Cleomines, and others.
Your mother was most true to wedlock, Prince,
For fhe did print your royal father off,
Conceiving you. Were I but twenty-one,
Your father's image is fo hit in you,

His very air, that I fhould call you brother,
As I did him, and fpeak of fomething wildly
By us perform'd before. Moft dearly welcome,
As your fair Princefs, goddefs: -oh! alas!
I loft a couple, that 'twixt heav'n and earth (32)
Might thus have ftood begetting wonder, as
You gracious couple do; and then I loft
(All mine own folly) the fociety,

Amity too of your brave father, whom
(Tho' bearing mifery) I defire 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, (at friend)
Can fend his brother; and but infirmity,

Which waits upon worn times, hath fomething feiz'd
His wifh'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 fay fo, more than all the fcepters,
And thofe that bear them living.

Leo. Oh, my brother!

Good gentleman, the wrongs I have done thee ftir (32) I left a couple, that 'twixt heav'n and earth

Might thus have food, begetting wonder, as

You gracious couple do

I have feveral times hinted how dangerous to fenfe an innocent comma is, in the hands of ignorance. The editors, by a ftupid pointing here, had ftifled a fine hyperbole, and blunder'd the text into abfurdity. Did the young Prince and his Confort ftand betwixt heaven and earth, fufperfi ad ventos, as Virgil calls it? No fuch matter. The King's meaning is this; he had loft a pair of children, who might have flood the wonder of two worlds, the objects of admiration to gods and men; as this young Prince and his Princefs did, in his opinion.

Afresh

Afresh within me; and thefe thy offices,

So rarely kind, are as interpreters

Of my behind-hand flackness. Welcome hither,
As is the fpring to th' earth. And hath he too
Expos'd this paragon to th' fearful ufage

(At least, ungentle) of the dreadful Neptune,
To greet a man, not worth her pains; much lefs,
Th' adventure of her perfon ?

Flo. Good my Lord,

She came from Libya.

Leo. Where the warlike Smalus,

That noble honour'd Lord, is fear'd, and lov'd ?
Flo. Moft royal Sir,

From thence; from him, whofe daughter

His tears proclaim'd his parting with her; thence
(A profperous fouth-wind friendly) we have crofs'd,
To execute the charge my father gave me,
For vifiting your Highnefs; my beft train.
I have from your Sicilian fhores dismiss'd,
Who for Bohemia bend, to fignify
Not only my fuccefs in Libya, Sir,
But my arrival, and my wife's, in fafety
Here, where we are.

Leo. The bleffed gods

Purge all infection from our air, whilft
you
Do climate here! You have a holy father,
A graceful gentleman, against whose person,
So facred as it is, I have done fin;

For which the heavens, taking angry note,
Have left me iffue-lefs; and your father's blefs'd,
As he from heaven merits it, with you,

Worthy his goodness. What might I have been,
Might I a fon and daughter now have look'd on,
Such goodly things as you?

Enter a Lord.

Lord. Moft noble Sir,

That, which I fhall report, will bear no credit, Were not the proof fo nigh. Please you, Great Sir, Bohemia greets you from himself, by me;

Defires

Defires you to attach his son, who has,

His dignity and duty both caft off,

Fled from his father, from his hopes, and with
A fhepherd's daughter.

Leo. Where's Bohemia? fpeak..

Lord. Here in your city; I now came from him. I fpeak amazedly, and it becomes

My marvel, and my meffage: to your court
Whilft he was haftning, in the chafe, it seems,
Of this fair couple, meets he on the way
The father of this feeming Lady, and

Her brother, having both their country quitted
With this young Prince.

Flo. Camillo has betray'd me;

Whofe honour and whofe honesty 'till now
Endur'd all weathers.

Lord. Lay't fo to his charge;
He's with the King your father..
Leo. Who? Camillo ?

Lord. Camillo, Sir, I fpake with him; who now Has thefe poor men in queftion. Never faw I Wretches fo quake; they kneel, they kifs the earth; Forfwear themselves, as often as they speak: Bohemia ftops his ears, and threatens them With divers deaths, in death.

Per. Oh, my poor father!

The heav'n fets pies upon us, will not have
Our contract celebrated..

Leo. You are marry'd ♪

Flo. We are not, Sir, nor are we like to be ;

The stars, I fee, will kifs the valleys firft;

The odds for high and low's alike..

When once she is my wife.

Leo. That once, I fee by your good father's fpeed,

Will come on very flowly. I am forry,

(Moft forry) you have broken from his liking;

Where

Where you were ty'd in duty; and as forry, (33)
Your choice is not fo rich in worth as beauty,
That you might well enjoy her.

Flo. Dear, look up;

Tho' Fortune, visible an enemy,

Should chafe us, with my father; power no jot
Hath the to change our loves. Befeech you, Sir,
Remember, fince you ow'd no more to time
Than I do now; with thought of fuch affections,
Step forth mine advocate; at your request,
My father will grant precious things, as trifles.
Leo. Would he do fo, I'd beg your precious mistress,
Which he counts but a trifle.

Paul. Sir, my Liege,

Your eye hath too much youth in't; not a month 'Fore your Queen dy'd, fhe was more worth fuch gazesThan what you look on now.

Leo. I thought of her,

Even in these looks I made.

But your petition

[To Florizel.

Is yet unanfwer'd; I will to your father;
Your Honour not o'erthrown by your defires,
I'm friend to them and you; upon which errand
I now go towards him, therefore follow me,

And mark what way I make: come, good my Lord,
[Exeunt.

(33)

and as forry

Your choice is not so rich in worth, as be. That you might well enjoy her,] Mr. Warburton thinks, the Poet wrote here;

Your choice is not fo rich in birth as beauty,

Because Leontes was fo far from difparaging, or thinking meanly of, her worth; that, on the contrary, he rather efteems her a treasure, and, in his very next fpeech to the Prince, fays:

Would he do fo, I'd beg your precious mistress,

Which be counts but a trifle.

I have not, however, difturb'd the text, because by worth, perhaps, the Poet might mean not the endowments of Nature or education; but the royalty of her dower.

SCENE,

Aut.

SCENE, near the Court in Sicilia.

B

Enter Autolicus, and a Gentleman. Efeech you, Sir, were you prefent at this relation? 1 Gent. I was by at the opening of the farthel, heard the old fhepherd deliver the manner how he found it; whereupon, after a little amazed nefs, we were all commanded out of the chamber: only this, methought, I heard the shepherd fay, he found the child.

Aut. I would moft gladly know the iffue of it.

1 Gent. I make a broken delivery of the bufiness; but the changes I perceived in the King, and Camillo, were very notes of admiration; they feem'd almoft, with ftaring on one another, to tear the cafes of their eyes. There was fpeech in their dumbnefs, language in their very gefture; they look'd, as they had heard of a world ranfom'd, or one deftroy'd; a notable paffion of wonder appear'd in them; but the wifeft beholder, that knew no more but feeing, could not fay if th’importance were joy or forrow; 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 fulfill'd; the King's daughter is found; fuch a deal of wonder is broken out within this hour, that ballad-makers cannot be able to exprefs it.

Enter another Gentleman.

Here comes the Lady Paulina's fteward, he can deliver you more. How goes it now, Sir? this news, which is call'd true, is fo like an old tale, that the verity of it is in ftrong fufpicion; has the King found his heir?

3 Gent. Most true, if ever truth were pregnant by circumftance that which you hear, you'll fwear you fee, there is fuch 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 refemblance

of