Oppose against their wills.-Care not for iffue ; [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 Hermionc,

I know, in honour: O, that ever I

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

PAUL. And left them

More rich, for what they yielded.

LEO. Thou speak'st truth:

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

PAUL. Had the fuch power,

She had just cause.

LEO. She had, and would incenfe me.

To murder her I married.

PAUL. I fhould fo,

Were I the ghoft 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

Should rift to hear me; and the words that follow'd
Should be," Remember mine."

LEO. Stars, ftars,

And all eyes else, 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 bless'd my spirit!

PAUL. Then, good my lords, bear witness to his oath. CLEO. You tempt him over-much.

PAUL. Unless 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, fir; No remedy, but if you will; give me the office To chufe you a queen; fhe fhall not be fo young As was your former; but she shall be such

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

LEO. My true Paulina,

We shall not marry, 'till thou bid'st us.

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, she,

The fairest I have yet beheld, defires

Accefs to your high presence.

LEO. What with him? he comes not
Like to his father's greatness; his approach,
So out of circumftance and fudden, tells us,
'Tis not a vifitation, fram'd, but forc'd
By need and accident. What train ?
GENT. But few,

And those but mean.

LEO. His princess, fay you, with him?

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

PAUL. Oh Hermione,

As every present time doth boaft itself

Above a better, gone,

fo muft thy grave

Give way to what's feen now. Sir, you yourself
Have faid, and writ fo; (but your writing now
Is colder than that theme)" She had not been
"Nor was fhe 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 almost forgot, (your pardon)
The other, when she has obtain'd your eye,
Will have your tongue too. This is a creature,
Would she begin a fect, might quench the zeal
Of all profeffors elfe, make profelytes

Of who the but did follow.

PAUL. How? not women?

GENT. Women will love her, that the is a woman More worth than any man: men, that she is

The rareft of all women.

LEO. Go, Cleomines;

Yourself affifted with your honour'd friends, [ExitCleomines. Bring them to our embracement. Still 'tis ftrange

He thus fhould steal upon us.

PAUL. Had our prince,

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. Sure,
When I shall fee this gentleman, thy speeches
Will bring me to confider that which may
Unfurnish me of reason. They are come.-

SCENE III. 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,

As

His very air, that I should call you brother,
As I did him, and speak of fomething wildly
By us perform'd before. Most dearly welcome,
your fair princess, goddess -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 lost
(All mine own folly !) the fociety,
Amity too of your brave father, whom
Tho' bearing misery 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 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 bade me fay fo, more than all the scepters,
And thofe that bear them living.

LEO. Oh, my

brother!

Good gentleman, the wrongs I've 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 fpring to th'earth. And hath he too
Expos'd'this paragon to th'fearful ufage

At least, 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 fir,

From thence from him, whofe daughter

His tears proclaim'd his parting with her; thence
(A profperous fouth wind friendly) we have cross'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 fignify

Not only my fuccess in Libya, fir,

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

LEO. The blessed Gods

Purge all infection from our air, whilst 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