To bless the bed of majesty again With a sweet fellow to't? Paul. Respecting her that's gone. There is none worthy, Besides, the gods That king Leontes shall not have an heir, Leon. Good Paulina,— Who hast the memory of Hermione, I know, in honour, -O, that ever I Had squar'd me to thy counsel!—then, even now, I might have look'd upon my queen's full eyes; Have taken treasure from her lips, Paul. More rich, for what they yielded. And left them Leon. Thou speak'st truth. No more such wives; therefore, no wife: one worse, And better us'd, would make her sainted spirit Again possess her corps; and, on this stage (Where we offenders now appear), soul-vex'd, Begin, And why to me?? 2 The old copy reads, And begin, why to me.' The transposition of and was made by Steevens. She had just cause. Had she such power, 3 She had; and would incense3 me To murder her I married. Paul. I should so: Were I the ghost that walk'd, I'd bid you mark Leon. Stars, stars, And all eyes else dead coals!—fear thou no wife, I'll have no wife, Paulina. Paul. Will you swear Never to marry, but by my free leave? Leon. Never, Paulina; so be bless'd my spirit! oath. Cleo. You tempt him over-much. Paul. As like Hermione as is her picture, Unless another, 3 Incense, to instigate or stimulate, was the ancient sense of this word; it is rendered in the Latin dictionaries by dare stimulo. So in King Richard III. 'Think you, my lord, this little prating York Was not incensed by his subtle mother?' 4 i. e. split. 5 i. e. meet his eye, or encounter it. Affrontare, Ital. Shakspeare uses this word with the same meaning again in Hamlet, Act iii. Sc. 1: 'That he, as 'twere by accident, may here Affront Ophelia.' And in Cymbeline: Your preparation can affront no less than you hear of. The word is used in the same sense by Ben what Jonson, and even by Dryden. Lodge, in the Preface to his Translation of Seneca, says, 'No soldier is counted valiant that Cleo. Good madam, I have done. Yet, if my lord will marry,—if you will, sir, As, walk'd your first queen's ghost, it should take joy Leon. My true Paulina, We shall not marry, till thou bidd'st us. Paul. That Shall be, when your first queen's again in breath; Never till then. Enter a Gentleman. Gent. One that gives out himself prince Florizel, Son of Polixenes, with his princess (she The fairest I have yet beheld), desires access Leon. Gent. And those but mean. Leon. But few, His princess, say you, with him? Gent. Ay; the most peerless piece of earth, I think, That e'er the sun shone bright on. Paul. O Hermione, As every present time doth boast itself 6 i.e. thy beauties which are buried in the grave. Have said, and writ so7 (but your writing now Gent. Pardon, madam: Of who she but bid follow. Paul. How? not women? Gent. Women will love her, that she is a woman More worth than any man; men, that she is The rarest of all women. Leon. Go, Cleomenes; Yourself, assisted with your honour'd friends, Bring them to our embracement.-Still 'tis strange, Paul. Leon. Pr'ythee, no more; thou know'st 9, 7 So relates not to what precedes, but to what follows; that she had not been equall'd. 8 i. e. than the corse of Hermione, the subject of your writing. 9 The old copy reads, 'Pr'ythee, no more; cease; thou know'st,' &c. Steevens made the omission of the redundant word, which he considers a mere marginal gloss or explanation of no more. Re-enter CLEOMENES, with FLORIZEL, PERDITA, and Attendants. Your mother was most true to wedlock, prince; His very air, that I should call you brother, Flo. 11 Give you all greetings, that a king, at friend 11, The lands and waters 'twixt your throne and his Leon. O, my brother, (Good gentleman!) the wrongs, I have done thee, stir 10 Steevens altered this to look upon, but there are many instances of similar construction in Shakspeare, incorrect as they may now appear. 11 i. e. at amity, as we now say. Malone, contrary to his usual custom, would here desert the old reading; and says he has met with no example of similar phraseology! He surely must have read very inattentively. |