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Kill'd' fhe I kill'd? I did fo, but thou ftrik'st me

Sorely, to fay I did; it is as bitter

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

Cle. Not at all, good Lady;

You might have spoke a thousand things that would
Have done the time more benefit, and grace'd
Your kindness better.

Paul. You are one of those
Would have him wed again.
Dion. If you would not fo,

You pity not the state, nor the remembrance
Of his most sovereign name; confider little,
What dangers by his Highnefs' fail of iffue
May drop upon his kingdom, and devour
Incertain lookers on. What were more holy,
Than to rejoice the former Queen? This will.
What holier, than for royalty's repair,
For prefent comfort, and for future good,
To blefs the bed of Majefty again
With a fweet fellow to't?

Paul. There is none worthy,

Refpecting her that's gone. Befides, the gods
Will have fulfill'd their fecret purposes:
For has not the divine Apollo faid,

Is't not the tenor of his oracle,

That King Leontes fhall not have an heir,
Till his loft child be found? which, that it fhall,
Is all as monftrous to our human reason,
As my Antigonous to break his grave,
And come again to me; who, on my life,
Did perish with the infant. 'Tis your counsel
My Lord fhould 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; fo his fucceffor
Was like to be the best.

Leo. Good Paulina,

Who haft the memory of Hermione,
I know, in honour; O, that ever I

Had

Had fquar'd me to thy counfel! then, even now
I might have look'd upon my Queen's full eyes,
Have taken treafure from her lips!

Paul. And left them

More rich, for what they yielded.

Leo. Thou fpeak'st truth :

No more fuch wives, therefore no wife; one worse,
And better us'd, would make her fainted spirit
Again poffefs her corpfe; and on this stage
(Where we offend her now) appear foul-vex'd,
And begin, Why to me?-

Paul. Had fhe such power,

She had just cause.

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

Paul. I fhould 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 fhriek, that even your ears
Shou'd rift to hear me, and the words that follow'd
Should be, Remember mine.

Leo. Stars, ftars,

And all eyes elfe, dead coals: fear thou no wife.
I'll have no wife, Paulina.

Paul. Will you fwear

Never to marry, but by my free leave?

Leo. Never, Paulina; fo be blefs'd my spirit! Paul. Then, good my Lords, bear witnefs to his oath.

Cleo. You tempt him over-much.

Paul. Unlefs another,

As like Hermione as is her picture,

Affront his eye.

Cleo. Good Madam, pray, have done.

Paul. Yet, if my Lord will marry; if you will, Sir; No remedy, but you will; give me the office.

To chufe you a Queen; the thall not be to young
As was your former; but the fhall be fuch

As, walk'd your firft Queen's ghoft, it should take joy
To fee her in your arms.

Leo. My true Paulina,

We fhall not marry till thou bid'st us.

Paul.

Paul. That

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

SCENE II. Enter a Gentleman.

Gent. One that gives out himself Prince Florizel, Son of Polixenes, with his Princess (fhe

The fairest I have yet beheld), defires accefs
To your high prefence.

Leo. What with him? he comes not

Like to his father's greatnefs; his approach, So out of circumftance and fudden, tells us, 'Tis not a vifitation fram'd, but force'd

By need and accident. What train?

Gent. But few,

And thofe but mean.

Leo. His Princefs, fay you, with him?

Gent. Yes; the most peerless piece of earth, I think, That e'er the fun fhone bright on.

Paul. Oh Hermione,

As every present time doth boast itself
Above a better gone; fo muft thy grave

*

Give way to what's feen now. Sir, you yourfelf
Have faid, and writ fo: but your writing now
Is colder than that theme; he had not been,
Nor was he to be equall'd; thus your verse
Flow'd with her beauty once; 'tis fhrewdly ebb'd,
To fay you've feen a better.

Gent. Pardon, Madam;

The one I have almoft forgot, (your pardon);
The other when she has obtain'd your eye,
Will have your tongue too. This is a creature,
Would the begin a fect, might quench the zeal
Of all profeffors elfe, make profelytes

Cf who the but bid follow.

Paul. How? not women?

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

Leo. Go, Clomenes;

Yourfelf (affifted with your honour'd friends)

Grave for epitapk.

Bring them to our embracement.

Still 'tis ftrange

He thus fhould fteal upon us.

Paul. Had our Prince

[Exit Cleo,

(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; ceafe; thou know'ft, Hedies to me again, when talk'd of: sure, When I fhall fee this gentleman, thy fpeeches Will bring me to confider that which may Unfurnish me of reafon. They are come.

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Enter Florizel, Perdita, Cleomenes, 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 fpeak of fomething wildly
By us perform'd before. Mofl dearly welcome,
As you fair Princefs, goddefs!-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 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 (as friend)
Can fend his brother; and but infirmity,
Which waits upon worn times, hath something 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 bade me fay fo, more than all the fceptres,
And thofe that bear them living.

Leo. Oh, my brother!

Good gentleman, the wrongs I have done thee ftir

Afreth

Afresh within me; and these thy offices,

So rarely kind, are as interpreters

Of my behind-hand flackness. Welcome hither,
As is th' fpring to th' earth.

And hath he too

Expos'd this paragon to th' fearful ufage

(At leaft, ungentle) of the dreadful Neptune, To greet a man not worth her pains, much less 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 profp'rous fouth-wind friendly) we have crofs'd,
To execute the charge my father gave me,
For visiting your Highnefs; my best train
I have from your Sicilian fhores dismiss'd,
Who for Bithynia bend, to fignify
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 iffueless; and your father's blefs'd,
As he from heaven merits it, with you,

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

SCENE IV. Enter a Lord.

Lord. Moft Noble Sir,

That which I fhall report will bear no credit,
Were not the proof fo high. Please you, great Sir,
Bithynia greets you from himself, by me;

Defires you to attach his fon, who has

His dignity and duty both caft off,

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