SHEP. So 't is said, sir,-about his son, that should have married a shepherd's daughter.

AUT. If that shepherd be not in hand-fast," let him fly; the curses he shall have, the tortures he shall feel, will break the back of man, the heart of monster.

CLO. Think you so, sir?

AUT. Not he alone shall suffer what wit can make heavy, and vengeance bitter; but those that are germane to him, though removed fifty times, shall all come under the hangman: which though it be great pity, yet it is necessary. An old sheep-whistling rogue, a ram-tender, to offer to have his daughter come into grace! Some say, he shall be stoned; but that death is too soft for him, say I draw our throne into a sheep-cote! all deaths are too few, the sharpest too easy.

CLO. Has the old man e'er a son, sir, do hear, an 't like you, sir?

you

AUT. He has a son, who shall be flayed alive; then, 'nointed over with honey, set on the head of a wasp's nest; then stand till he be three quarters and a dram dead; then recovered again with aquavitæ, or some other hot infusion; then, raw as he is, and in the hottest day prognostication proclaims, shall be set against a brick wall, the sun looking with a southward eye upon him,-where he is to behold him with flies blown to death. But what talk we of these traitorly rascals, whose miseries are to be smiled at, their offences being so capital? Tell me (for you seem to be honest plain men) what you have to the king: being something gently considered, I'll bring you where he is aboard, tender your persons to his presence, whisper him in your behalfs; and, if it be in man, besides the king, to effect your suits, here is man shall do it.

CLO. He seems to be of great authority: close with him, give him gold; and though authority be a stubborn bear, yet he is oft led by the nose with gold: show the inside of your purse to the outside

a If that shepherd be not in hand-fast, let him fly:] The only critic who has noticed the term "hand-fast" is Mr. R. G. White; and he quite mistakes its meaning. To be in "hand-fast "-mainprize, is to be at large only on security given.

of his hand, and no more ado. Remember,stoned, and flayed alive!

SHEP. An't please you, sir, to undertake the business for us, here is that gold I have: I'll make it as much more, and leave this young man in pawn till I bring it you.

AUT. After I have done what I promised?
SHEP. Ay, sir.

AUT. Well, give me the moiety.-Are you a party in this business?

CLO. In some sort, sir: but though my case be a pitiful one, I hope I shall not be flayed out of it. AUT. O, that's the case of the shepherd's son ; hang him, he'll be made an example.

CLO. Comfort, good comfort! We must to the king, and show our strange sights: he must know 't is none of your daughter nor my sister; we are gone else.-Sir, I will give you as much as this old man does, when the business is performed; and remain, as he says, your pawn till it be brought

you.

AUT. I will trust you. Walk before toward the sea-side; go on the right hand; I will but look upon the hedge, and follow you.

CLO. We are blessed in this man, as I may say, even blessed.

SHEP. Let's before, as he bids us: he was provided to do us good. [Exeunt Shepherd and Clown.

AUT. If I had a mind to be honest, I see Fortune would not suffer me; she drops booties in my mouth. I am courted now with a double occasion,

gold, and a means to do the prince my master good; which who knows how that may turn back to my advancement? I will bring these two moles, these blind ones, aboard him if he think it fit to shore them again, and that the complaint they have to the king concerns him nothing, let him call me rogue for being so far officious; for I am proof against that title, and what shame else belongs to 't. To him will I present them; there may be matter in it. [Exit.

Enter LEONTES, CLEOMENES, DION, PAULINA,

and others.

To make a perfect woman, she, you kill'd, Would be unparallel'd.

I think so.

Kill'd!

perform'd

A saint-like sorrow: no fault could you make, Which you have not redeem'd; indeed, paid down More penitence than done trespass: at the last, Do as the heavens have done, forget your evil; With them, forgive yourself.

LEON. Whilst I remember Her and her virtues, I cannot forget My blemishes in them; and so still think of The wrong I did myself: which was so much, That heirless it hath made my kingdom; and Destroy'd the sweet'st companion that e'er man Bred his hopes out of.

PAUL. True, too true, my lord:a lf, one by one, you wedded all the world, Or from the all that are took something good,

a True, too true, my lord:] A correction of Theobald; the old editions having,

Upon thy tongue as in my thought. Now, good

Than to rejoice the former queen is well ?^ 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?

PAUL.

There is none worthy, Besides, the gods Will have fulfill'd their secret purposes; For has not the divine Apollo said,

Respecting her that's gone.

Is 't not the tenor of his oracle,

That king Leontes shall not have an heir
Till his lost child be found? which that it shall,
Is all as monstrous to our human reason,
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.-Care not for issue;
[TO LEONTES.
The crown will find an heir. Great Alexander
Left his to the worthiest; so his successor
Was like to be the best.
LEON.

Good Paulina,―

ever I

Who hast the memory of Hermione,

I know, in honour,-O, that

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

Theobald reads,

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.
What with him? he comes not
Like to his father's greatness: his approach,
So out of circumstance and sudden, tells us
'Tis not a visitation fram'd, but forc'd
By need and accident. What train?
GENT.

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.

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

and on this stage

(Where we offend her now) appear," &c.

She had just cause.] The first and second folios, have,-"Sho had just such cause."

d PAUL. I have done.] In the old editions, the words, I have done," form part of the preceding speech; they were properly assigned by Capell.

0

"Grave" has been changed by some editors to grace, by others to graces; to the destruction of a very fine idea.

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 on him.
FLO.

By his command

a that a king, at friend,-] This has been variously and needlessly altered; the most recent change is," a king as friend;" buta king at friend" means a king on terms of friendship, and is as much the phraseology of Shakespeare's age as "to friend,"—

Have I here touch'd Sicilia; and from him Give you all greetings, that a king, at 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.

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
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?

FLO.

She came from Libya. LEON.

Good my lord,

Where the warlike Smalus,

That noble honour'd lord, is fear'd and lov'd?
FLO. Most royal sir, from thence; from him,
whose daughter

His tears proclaim'd his, parting with her: thence
(A prosperous south-wind friendly) we have cross'd,
To execute the charge my father gave me,
For visiting your highness. My best train
I have from your Sicilian shores dismiss'd;
Who for Bohemia bend, to signify
Not only my success in Libya, sir,
But my arrival, and my wife's, in safety
Here where we are.

LEON.
The blessed gods
Purge all infection from our air, whilst you
Do climate here! You have a holy father,
A graceful gentleman; against whose person,
So sacred as it is, I have done sin,

For which the heavens, taking angry note,
Have left me issueless; and your father's bless'd
(As he from heaven merits it) with you,
Worthy his goodness. What might I have been,
Might I a son and daughter now have look'd on,
Such goodly things as you!

LEON. 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 worth as beauty,
That you might well enjoy her.
FLO.

Dear, look up:
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 ow'd no more to time
Than I do now: with thought of such affections,
Step forth mine advocate; at your request
My father will grant precious things as trifles.

a Sir, my liege,-] See note (a), p. 204.

b-if the importance were joy or sorrow,-] The meaning seems

AUT. Beseech you, sir, were you present at this relation?

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. 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.-Here comes a gentleman that happily knows more: