Lord. Enter a Lord. Most noble sir, That which I shall report, will bear no credit, Fled from his father, from his hopes, and with Leon. Where's Bohemia? speak. Lord. Here in the city; I now came from him. I speak amazedly; and it becomes My marvel, and my message. To your court Her brother, having both their country quitted Flo. Whose honor, and whose honesty, till now Endured all weathers. Lord. Camillo has betrayed me; 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.1 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 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. 1 i. e. conversation. When once she is my wife. My lord, She is, Leon. That once, I see, by your good father's speed, Will come on very slowly. I am sorry, Most sorry, you have broken from his liking, Flo. Dear, look up. Should chase us with my father, power no jot My father will grant precious things as trifles. Leon. Would he do so, I'd beg your precious mistress, Which he counts but a trifle. Paul. Sir, my liege, Your eye hath too much youth in't. Not a month Leon. [TO FLORIZEL. Is yet unanswered; I will to your father; I am a friend to them, and you; upon which errand And mark what way I make. VOL. III. Come, good my lord 1 Worth, for descent or wealth. 13 SCENE II. The same. Before the Palace. Enter AUTOLYCUS and a Gentleman Aut. 'Beseech you, sir, were you present at this relation? 1 Gent. I was by at the opening of the fardel, 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 seemed 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 looked as they had heard of a world ransomed, or one destroyed. A notable passion of wonder appeared in them; but the wisest beholder, that knew no more but seeing, could not say, if the importance1 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 fulfilled; the king's daughter is found; such a deal of wonder is broken out within this hour, that balladmakers cannot be able to express it. Enter a third Gentleman. Here comes the lady Paulina's steward; he can deliver you more. How goes it now, sir? This news, which 1 i. e. import, the thing imported. is called true, is so like an old tale, that the verity of it is in strong suspicion. Has the king found his heir? 3 Gent. Most true; if ever truth were pregnant by circumstance. That which you hear, you'll swear you see, there is such unity in the proofs. The mantle of queen Hermione; her jewel about the neck of it; the letters of Antigonus, found with it, which they know to be his character; the majesty of the creature, in resemblance of the mother; the affection of nobleness, which nature shows above her breeding,-and many other evidences, proclaim her, with all certainty, to be the king's daughter. Did you see the meeting of the two kings? 2 Gent. No. 3 Gent. Then have you lost a sight, which was to be seen, cannot be spoken of. There might you have beheld one joy crown another; so, and in such manner, that, it seemed, sorrow wept to take leave of them; for their joy waded in tears. There was casting up of eyes, holding up of hands; with countenance of such distraction, that they were to be known by garment, not by favor. Our king, being ready to leap out of himself for joy of his found daughter; as if that joy were now become a loss, cries, O thy mother, thy mother! then asks Bohemia forgiveness; then embraces his son-in-law; then again worries he his daughter, with clipping her; now he thanks the old shepherd, which stands by, like a weather-bitten conduit of many kings' reigns. I never heard of such another encounter, which lames report to follow it, and undoes. description to do it. 3 2 Gent. What, pray you, became of Antigonus, that carried hence the child? 3 Gent. Like an old tale still; which will have matter to rehearse, though credit be asleep, and not an 1 In Shakspeare's time, to affect a thing meant, to have a tendency or disposition to it. The affections were the dispositions-appetitus animi. 2 Favor here stands for mien, feature. 3 i. e. embracing. 4 Conduits or fountains were frequently representations of the human figure. ear open. He was torn to pieces with a bear; this avouches the shepherd's son; who has not only his innocence (which seems much) to justify him, but a handkerchief, and rings, of his, that Paulina knows. 1 Gent. What became of his bark, and his followers? 3 Gent. Wrecked the same instant of their master's death, and in the view of the shepherd; so that all the instruments, which aided to expose the child, were even then lost, when it was found. But, O, the noble combat, that, 'twixt joy and sorrow, was fought in Paulina! She had one eye declined for the loss of her husband; another elevated that the oracle was fulfilled. She lifted the princess from the earth; and so locks her in embracing, as if she would pin her to her heart, that she might no more be in danger of losing. 1 Gent. The dignity of this act was worth the audience of kings and princes; for by such was it acted. 3 Gent. One of the prettiest touches of all, and that which angled for mine eyes, (caught the water, though not the fish,) was, when at the relation of the queen's death, with the manner how she came to it, (bravely confessed, and lamented by the king,) how attentiveness wounded his daughter; till, from one sign of dolor to another, she did, with an alas! I would fain say, bleed tears; for, I am sure, my heart wept blood. Who was most marble there, changed color; some swooned, all sorrowed. If all the world could have seen it, the woe had been universal. 1 Gent. Are they returned to the court? 3 Gent. No; the princess, hearing of her mother's statue, which is in the keeping of Paulina,—a piece many years in doing, and now newly performed by that rare Italian master, Julio Romano; who, had he himself eternity,' and could put breath into his work, would beguile nature of her custom, so perfectly he is her ape; he so near to Hermione hath done Hermione, that, they say, one would speak to her, and stand in 1 However misplaced the praise, it is no small honor to Julio Romano to be thus mentioned by the Poet. By eternity Shakspeare only means immortality. |