THE WINTER'S TALE.

140

Gent. Women

Woman

will love her, that she is a

More worth than any man; men, that she is
The rarest of all women.

Leon.

Go, Cleomenes;

Yourself, assisted with your honoured friends, to our embracement.

Bring them

strange,

- Still 't is

[Exeunt CLEOMENES, Lords and Gentleman.

He thus should steal upon us.

Paul.

Had our prince—

Jewel of children-seen this hour, he had paired
Well with this lord: there was not full a month
Between their births.

Leon. Pr'ythee, no more: cease: thou know'st,
He dies to me again, when talked of: sure,
When I shall see this gentleman, thy speeches.
Will bring me to consider that which may
Unfurnish me of reason.-They are come.-

Re-enter CLEOMENES, with FLORIZEL, PERDITA, and others.

Your mother was most true to wedlock, prince;

int your.

roval father off,

His very air, that I should call you brother,

As I did him; and speak of something, wildly
By us performed before. Most dearly welcome!
And your fair princess, goddess!-0, 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

Have I here touched 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 seized

His wished ability, he had himself

The land and waters 'twixt your throne and his
Measured 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

A fresh within me and th

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THE WINTER'S TALE.

So rarely kind are as interpreters

Of my behind hand slackness.-Welcome hither,
As is the spring to the earth.

And hath he too

Exposed 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, honoured lord, is feared and loved?

Flo. Most royal sir, from thence; from him,
whose daughter

His tears proclaimed his, parting with her, thence,
A prosperous south-wind friendly, we have crossed,
To execute the charge my father gave me,
For visiting your highness. My best train
I have from your Sicilian shores dismissed,
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.

11

The blessed gods

So sacred as it is, I have done sin ;

For which the heavens, taking angry note,
Have left me issueless; and your father's blessed,
As he from heaven merits it, with you,

Worthy his goodness. What might I have been,
Might I a son and daughter now have looked on,
Such goodly things as you!

Lord.

Enter a Lord.

Most noble sir,

That which I shall report will bear no credit,

Were not the proof so nigh. 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.

Leon.

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
Whiles he was hastening-in the chase, it seems,
Of this fair couple-meets he on the way
The father of this seeming lady

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THE WINTER'S TALE.

Her brother, having both their country quitted

With this young prince.

Flo.

Camillo has betrayed me,

Whose honour, and whose honesty, till now

Endured all weathers.

Lord.

Lay 't so to his charge:

Who? Camillo ?

He's with the king your father.

Leon.

Lord. Camillo, sir: I spake with him, who now Has these poor men in question. Never saw I Wretches so quake: they kneel, they kiss the earth,

Forswear themselves as often as they speak:
Bohemia stops his ears, and threatens them
With divers deaths in death.

Per.

O my poor father !—

The heaven sets spies upon us, will not have
Our contract celebrated.

Leon.

You are married?

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.

Leon.

Is this the daughter of a king?

My lord,