The other, when she has obtain’d your eye,
Will have your tongue too. This is a creature,
Would the begin a feet, might quench the zeal
Of all professors elfe, make proselites
Of who she but bid follow.
Pau. 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.
Leo. Go, Cleomines;
Your self (afsifted with your honour'd friends)
Bring them to our embracement. Still 'tis strange
He thus should fteal upon us.
[Exit Cleo Pau. Had our prince (Jewel of children) seen this hour, he had pair'd Well with this lord; there was not full a month Between their births.
Leo. Pr'ythee, no more ; cease; thou know'ft,
He dies to me again, when talk'd of: fure,
When I shall see this gentleman, thy speeches
Will bring me to consider that which may
Unfurnish me of reason. They are come.
Enter Florizel, Perdita, Cleomines, and others."
Your mother was most true to wedlock, prince,
For the 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. Moft dearly welcome,
As your fair princess, goddess !-oh! alas!
I loft a couple, that 'twixt heav'n and earth
Might thus have stood 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 misery) 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 send his brother; and but infirmity,
Which waits upon worn times, hath fomething 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 bad me say fo, more than all the scepters,
And those that bear them living.
Leo. Oh, my brother!
Good gentleman, the wrongs I have done thee ftir
Afresh within me; and these thy offices,
So rarely kind, are as interpreters
Of behind-hand slackness. Welcome hither,
As is the spring to th' earth. And hath he too
Expos'd this paragon to th' fearful usage
(At least, ungentle) of the dreadful Neptune,
To greet a man, not worth her pains; much less,
Th* adventure of her person?
Flo. Good
She came from Libya.
Leo. Where the warlike Smalus,
That noble honour'd lord, is fear'd, and lov'd ?
Fl. 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 crossd,
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 fignific
Not only my success in Libya, Sir,
But my arrival, and my wife's, in safety
Here, where we are.
Leo. The blessed Gods
Purge all infection from our air, whilft you
Do climate here! You have a holy father,
A graceful gentleman, against whose person,
So sacred as it is, I have done fin ;
For which the heavens, taking angry note,
Назе
Have left me issue-less; 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 ?
Enter a Lord.
Lord. Most noble Sir,
That, which I shall report, will bear no credit,
Were not the proof so high. Please you, great Sir,
Bohemia greets you from himself, by me;
Desires you to attach his son, who has,
His dignity and duty both cast off,
Fled from his father, from his hopes, and with
A shepherd's daughter.
Leo. Where's Bohemia ? speak.
Lord. Here in your city ; I now came from him.
I speak amazedly, and it becomes
My marvel, and my message: to your court
Whilst he was hastning, in the chase, it seems,
Of this fair couple, meets he on the way
The father of this seeming lady, and
Her brother, having both their country quitted
With this young Prince.
Flo. Camillo has betray'd me;
Whose honour and whose honesty 'till now
Endur'd all weathers.
Lord. Lay't so to his charge ;
He's with the king your father.
Leo. Who? Camilla ?
Lord. Camillo, Sir, I spake with him ; who now
Has these poor men in question. Never saw I
Wretches lo quake; they kneel, they kiss the earth ;
Forswear themselves, as often as they speak:
Boheinia stops his ears, and threatens them
With divers deaths, in death.
Per. Oh, my poor
father!
The heav'n sets fpies upon us, will not have
Our contract celebrated.
Leo. You are marry'd ?
Fle.
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.
Leo. My lord,
Is this the daughter of a King?
Flo. She is,
When once she is
my
wife. Leo. That once, I fee, 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 ty'd in duty; and as forry, 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 chafe us, with my father ; power no jot
Hath she to change our loves. 'Beseech you, Sir,
Remember, fince 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.
Leo. Would he do so, I'd big your precious mistress, Which he counts but a trifle.
Pau. Sir, my liege, Your
eye hath too much youth in't ; not a month 'Fore your Queen dy'd, she was more worth such gazes Than what
you
look on now. Leo. I thought of her, Even in these looks I made_But your petition
[To Florizel, Is yet unanswer'd ; I will to your father; Your honour not o'erthrown by your desires, I'm friend to them and you ; upon which errand I now go toward him, therefore follow me, And mark what way I make: come, good my lord.
[Exeunt.
SCENE, near the Court in Sicilia,
Enter Autolicus, and a Gentleman. Aut. Eseech you, Sir, were you present at this re
• lation ? i Gent. I was by at the opening of the farthel, 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.
1 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 seem'd 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 look'd, as they had heard of a world ransom'd, or one destroy'd ; a notable passion of wonder appear’d in them; but the wiseft beholder, that knew no more but seeing, could not say if th' importance were joy or sorrow; 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 fulfillid; the King's daughter is found ; such a deal of wonder is broken out within this hour, that ballad-makers 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 call'd true, is to like an old tale, that the verity of it is in strong suspicion ; has the King found his heir 3 Gent. Moft true, if ever truth were pregnant by
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