Aut. Oh, 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 thew our ftrange fights; he must know, 'tis 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 perform'd; 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 bless'd in this man, as I may fay, even bless'd.

Shep. Let's before, as he bids us; he was provided to do us good.

[Exeunt Shep. and Clown. Aut. If I had a mind to be honest, 'I fee, 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 shoar 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 toʻt: to him will I present them, there may be matter in it.

[Exit.

A CT V.
SCENE changes to Sicilia.
Enter Leontes, Cleomines, Dion, Paulina, and

Servants.

CLEO MIN E S.
IR, you have done enough, and have perform'd

A saint-like forrow: 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 your self.

Leo. Whilft I remember
Her and her virtues, I cannot forget
My blemishes in them, and so ftill think of
The wrong I did my self; which was so much,
That heir-less it hath made my Kingdom; and
Destroy'd the sweet'it companion, that e'er man (16)
Bred his. hopes out of.

Pau. True, too true, my lord ;
If one by one you wedded all the world,
Or, from the all that are, took something good,
To make a perfect woman ; ņe, you kill'd,
Would be unparallel d.

Leo. I think so. Kill'd ?
Kill'd? she I kill'd? I did so, but thou strik'it me,
Sorely, to say I did ; it is as bitter
(16) Deffroy'd the sweet' ft Companion, that c'er Man

Bred kis hopes out of, true. Pau. Too true, my Lord.) A very light Examination will convince ev'ry intelligent Reader, that, true, here hasjump'd out of its place in all the Editions. What the King would say, is absolutely complete without it: and the placing it, where the printed Copies have done, is an Embarrassment to the Sense. These two Reasons, I hope, will be sufficient to justify my Tranfpofition,

Upon

Upon thy tongue, as in my thought. Now, good now,
Say so but feldom.

Cleo. Not at all, good lady;
You might have spoke a thousand things, that would
Have done the time more benefit, and gracid
Your kindness better.

Pau. You are one of those,
Would have him wed again.

Dio. If you would not so,
You pity not the state, nor the remembrance
Of his most sovereign name; consider little,
What dangers (by his highness' fail of issue)
May drop upon his kingdom, and devour
Incertain lookers on. What were more holy,
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?

Pau. There is none worthy,
Respecting her that's gone; besides, the Gode
Will have fulfill'd their secret purposes :
For has not the divine Apollo faid,
Is't not the tenour of his oracle,
That King Leontes shall not have an heir,
"Till his loit 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 heav'ns be contrary;
Oppose against their wills.-Care not for issue ;

[To the King,
The crown will find an heir. Great Alexander
Left his to th' worthieft; so his fucceffor
Was like to be the best.

Leo. Good Paulina,
Who haft the memory of Hermione,
I know, in honour: 0, that ever I
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 !

Pau. 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 (17)
Again possess her corps ; and on this stage,
(Where we offend her now) appear soul-vext,
And begin, Why to me!-

Pau. Had she such power,
She had just cause.

Leo. She had, and would incense me
To murther her I married.

Pau. I should fo:
Were I the ghost that walk'd, I'd bid you mark
Her eye, and tell me, for what dull part in't
You chofe her; then I'd shriek, that even your cars
Shoud'd 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.
Pau. Will

you

swear
Never to marry, but by my free leave?

Leo. Never, Paulina ; fo be bless'd my spirit!
Pau. Then, good my lords, bear witness to his oath.
Cleo. You tempt him over-much.

Pau. Unless another,
As like Hermione as is her picture,

would make her Sainted Spirit
Again poffefs her Corps, and on this Stage
(Where we offenders now appear) soul-- vext,

And begin, &c.] 'Tis obvious, that the Grammar is defective; and the Sense confequently wants supporting. The fight Change, I have made, cures Both : and, surely, 'ris an Improvement to the Sentiment forthe King to say, that Paulina and He offended his dead Wife's Ghost with the Subject of a second March ; rather than in general Terms to cail themselves Offenders, Sinners.

Affront

Affront his eye.

Cleo. Good Madam, pray, have done.
Pau. Yet, if my lord will marry; if you will, Sir;
No remedy, but you will; give me the office
To chuse you a Queen ; the 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'ft us.

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

Enter a Gentleman.
Gent. One that gives out himself prince Florizel,
Son of Polixenes, with his princess (she,
The faireft 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,
'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. Yes; the most peerless piece of earth, I think, That e'er the sun shone bright on.

Pau. Oh Hermione,
As every, present time doth boast it felf
Above a better, gone; so must thy grave
Give
way

to what's feen now. Sir, you your self
Have said, and writ fo; 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've feen a better.

Gent. Pardon, Madam ;
The one I have almost forgot, (your pardon)

The

forgot