You chose her: then I'd shriek, that even your ears 1 Should rift to hear me; and the words that followed Should be, Remember mine. Leon. And all eyes else dead coals!-Fear thou no wife; Paul. Stars, stars, Will you swear Never to marry but by my free leave? Leon. Never, Paulina; so be blessed my spirit! Paul. Then, good my lords, bear witness to his Yet, if my lord will marry,-if you will, sir, As, walked your first queen's ghost, it should take joy Leon. My true Paulina, That We shall not marry, till thou bidd'st us. Paul. Shall be, when your first queen's again in breath; 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. Leon. 1 i. e. split. What with him? He comes not 2 i. e. meet his eye, or encounter it—affrontare (Ital.). Shakspeare uses this word with the same meaning again in Hamlet, Act iii. Sc. 1: "That he, as 'twere by accident, may here Affront Ophelia." Like to his father's greatness. His approach, By need and accident. What train? And those but mean. Leon. But few, 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. O Hermione, Gent. 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. Leon. Go, Cleomenes; Yourself, assisted with your honored friends, Bring them to our embracement.-Still 'tis strange [Exeunt CLEOMENES, Lords, and Gentlemen. He thus should steal upon us. Paul. Had our prince (Jewel of children) seen this hour, he had paired 1 i. e. thy beauties which are buried in the grave. 2 So relates not to what precedes, but to what follows; that she had not been equalled. 3 i. e. than the corse of Hermione, the subject of your writing. Well with this lord; there was not full a month Leon. Re-enter CLEOMENES, with FLORIZEL, PERDITA, and Your mother was most true to wedlock, prince; His very air, that I should call you brother, Amity too, of your brave father; whom, Flo. By his command Have I here touched Sicilia; and from him Give you all greetings, that a king, at friend,3 (Which waits upon worn times) hath something seized His wished ability, he had himself The lands and waters 'twixt your throne and his 1 The old copy reads, “Pr'ythee, no more: cease; thou know'st," &c. Steevens made the omission of the redundant word, which he considers a mere marginal gloss or explanation of no more. 2 Steevens altered this to look upon, but there are many instances of similar construction, in Shakspeare, incorrect as they may now appear. 3 i. e. at amity, as we now say. (He bade me say so) more than all the sceptres, And those that bear them, living. Leon. O, my brother, (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 Exposed 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? Flo. She came from Libya. Leon. Good my lord, Where the warlike Smalus, That noble, honored lord, is feared and loved? Flo. Most royal sir, from thence; from him, whose daughter His tears proclaimed his, parting with her; thence Leon. For which the Heavens, taking angry note, 1 i. e. full of grace and virtue. Lord. Enter a Lord. Most noble sir, That which I shall report, will bear no credit, Were not the proof so nigh. Please you, great sir, Bohemia greets you from himself, by me; Desires you to attach his son; who has Fled from his father, from his hopes, and with 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. Το your court Whiles he was hastening, (in the chase, it seems, Her brother, having both their country quitted Flo. Whose honor, and whose honesty, till now Endured all weathers. Lord. Camillo has betrayed me; Lay't so to his charge; Who? Camillo ? He's with the king your father. Leon. Lord. Camillo, sir; I spake with him; who now Has these poor men in question.1 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. 1 i. e. conversation. |