Would the begin a fect, might quench the zeal Of who fhe but bid follow. Pau. How? not women? Gent. Women will love her, that he is a woman Leo. Go, Cleomines; Your felf (affifted with your honour'd friends) Pau. Had our Prince [Exit Clea. (Jewel of children) feen this hour, he had pair'd Well with this lord; there was not full a month Between their births. Leo. Pr'ythee, no more; ceafe; thou know'ft, Enter Florizel, Perdita, Cleomines, and others. His very air, that I fhould call you Brother, I loft a Couple, that 'twixt heav'n and earth (32). (32) I loft 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 Sense 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, fufpenfi 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 ftood the Wonder of two Worlds, the Objects of Admiration to Gods and Men; as this young Prince and his Princess did, in his Opinion. Might thus have ftood begetting wonder, as Flo. Sir, by his Command Have I here touch'd Sicilia, and from him Which waits upon worn times, hath fomething feiz'd The lands and waters 'twixt your Throne and his Leo. Oh, my brother! Good Gentleman, the wrongs I have done thee stir Of my behind-hand flackness. Welcome hither, (At least, ungentle) of the dreadful Neptune, Flo. Good my lord, She came from Libya. Leo. Where the warlike Smalus, That noble honour'd lord, is fear'd, and lov'd? From thence; from him, whofe daughter His tears proclaim'd his parting with her; thence But my arrival, and my wife's, in fafety Leo. The bleffed Gods Purge all infection from our Air, whilft you For which the Heavens, taking angry note, Worthy his goodness. What might I have been, 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 you to attach his fon, who has, His Dignity and Duty both caft off, Fled from his father, from his hopes, and with 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 Her brother, having both their Country quitted Flo. Camillo has betray'd me; Whose honour and whose honefty 'till now Endur'd all weathers. Lord. Lay't fo to his Charge; He's with the King your father. Lord. Camillo, Sir, I fpake with him; who now Has these poor men in question. Never faw I Wretches 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 fpies upon us, will not have Leo. You are marry'd? Flo. We are not, Sir, nor are we like to be; Leo. My lord, Is this the daughter of a King? Flo. She is, When once the is my wife.. Leo. That once, I fee, by your good father's fpeed, Will come on very flowly. I am forry, (Most sorry) you have broken from his liking; Flo. Dear, look up; Though Fortune, visible an enemy, Should chafe us, with my father; power no jot (33) and as forry Your Choice is not fo rich in Worth, as Beauty, That you might well enjoy her.] Mr. Warburton thinks, the Poet wrote here; Your Choice is not fo rich in Birth as Beauty, Becaufe 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 Speech to the Prince, fays: Would be do fo, I'd beg your precious Mistress, Which he 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. Leo. Leo. Would he do fo, I'd beg your precious miftrefs, 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, fhe was more worth fuch 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 defires, 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. [Exéunt. SCENE, near the Court in Sicily. Enter Autolicus, and a Gentleman. Aut. B Efeech you, Sir, were you prefent at this re 1 Gent. I was by at the opening of the fardel, heard the old fhepherd deliver the manner how he found it; whereupon, after a little amazedness, we were all commanded out of the chamber: only this, me-thought, I heard the shepherd fay, he found the child. Aut. I would moft 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 feem'd almoft, with ftaring on one another, to tear the cafes of their eyes. There was Speech 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 |