Would the begin a fect, might quench the zeal
Of all profeffors elfe, make profelites

Of who fhe but bid follow.

Pau. How? not women?

Gent. Women will love her, that he is a woman
More worth than any man: men, that she is
The rareft of all women.

Leo. Go, Cleomines;

Your felf (affifted with your honour'd friends)
Bring them to our embracement. Still 'tis ftrange,
He thus fhould steal upon us.

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,
He dies to me again, when talk'd of: fure,
When I fhall fee this Gentleman, thy speeches
Will bring me to confider 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 fhe did print your royal father off,
Conceiving you. Were I but twenty one,
Your father's image is fo hit in you,

His very air, that I fhould call you Brother,
As I did him, and speak of fomething wildly
By us perform❜d before. Moft dearly welcome,
As your fair Princefs, Goddefs:-oh! alas!

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
You gracious Couple do; and then I loft
(All mine own folly) the fociety,
Amity too of your brave father, whom
(Tho' bearing mifery) 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 fend his brother; and but infirmity,

Which waits upon worn times, hath fomething feiz'd
His wifh'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 fay fo, more than all the Scepters,
And Those that bear them living.

Leo. Oh, 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 flackness. Welcome hither,
As is the Spring to th' Earth. And hath he too
Expos'd this Paragon to th' fearful ufage

(At least, ungentle) of the dreadful Neptune,
Το greet a man, not worth her pains; much lefs,
Th' adventure of her perfon?

Flo. Good my lord,

She came from Libya.

Leo. Where the warlike Smalus,

That noble honour'd lord, is fear'd, and lov'd?
Flo. Moft royal Sir,

From thence; from him, whofe daughter

His tears proclaim'd his parting with her; thence
(A profperous fouth-wind friendly) we have crofs'd,
To execute the charge my father gave me,
For vifiting your Highnefs; my best train
I have from your Sicilian fhores difmifs'd,
Who for Bohemia bend, to fignifie
Not only my fuccefs in Libya, Sir,

But my arrival, and my wife's, in fafety
Here, where we are.

Leo. The bleffed Gods

Purge all infection from our Air, whilft you
Do climate here! You have a holy father,
A graceful gentleman, against whose person,
So facred as it is, I have done fin;

For which the Heavens, taking angry note,
Have left me iffue-lefs; and your father's blefs'd,
As he from heaven merits it, with you,

Worthy his goodness. What might I have been,
Might I a fon and daughter now have look'd on,
Such goodly things as you?

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
A fhepherd's daughter.

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
Whilst he was haftning, in the chafe, it seems,
Of this fair Couple, meets he on the way
The father of this feeming lady, and

Her brother, having both their Country quitted
With this young Prince.

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.
Leo. Who? Camillo?

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
Our contract celebrated.

Leo. You are marry'd?

Flo. We are not, Sir, nor are we like to be;
The stars, I fee, will kifs 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 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;
Where you were ty'd in duty; and as sorry, (33)
Your choice is not fo 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 fhe to change our loves. Befeech you, Sir,
Remember, fince you ow'd no more to Time
Than I do now; with thought of fuch affections,
Step forth mine advocate; at your request,
My father will grant precious things, as trifles.

(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