Aut. I will trust you. Walk before toward the sea-side; go on the right hand; I will but look upon the hedge, and follow you. Clo. We are blessed in this man, as I may say, even blessed. Shep. Let's before, as he bids us; he was provided to do us good. [Exeunt Shepherd and Clown. Aut. If I had a mind to be honest, I see, fortune would not suffer me; she drops booties in my mouth. I am courted now with a double occasion; gold, and a means to do the prince my master good; which, who knows how that may turn back to my advancement? I will bring these two moles, these blind ones, aboard him: if he think it fit to shore them again, and that the complaint they have to the king concerns him nothing, let him call me rogue, for being so far officious: for I am proof against that title, and what shame else belongs to't: To him I will present them, there may be matter in it. [Exit. ACT V. SCENE I. Sicilia. A Room in the Palace of Leontes. Enter LEONTES, CLEOMENES, DION, PAULINA, and others. Cleo. Sir, you have done enough, and have perform'd A saintlike sorrow: no fault could you make, Which you have not redeem'd; indeed, paid down More penitence, than done trespass: at the last, Do, as the heavens have done; forget your evil: With them, forgive yourself. Leon. Whilst I remember Her and her virtues, I cannot forget Paul. True, too true, my lord: If, one by one, you wedded all the world, Or, from the all that are, took something good, To make a perfect woman; she, you kill'd, Would be unparallel'd. Leon. I think so. Kill'd! She I kill'd? I did so: but thou strik'st me Upon thy tongue, as in my thought: Now, good now, Cleo. Not at all, good lady: You might have spoken a thousand things that would Have done the time more benefit, and grac'd Your kindness better. Paul. You are one of those, Would have him wed again. Dion. Cleop. Why, there's more gold; but, sirrah, mark, well. To bless the bed of majesty again With a sweet fellow to't? Paul. There is none worthy, Respecting her that's gone. Besides, the gods Is't not the tenour of his oracle, 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 Thou speak'st truth. Leon. 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?? 6 2 The old copy reads, And begin, why to me.' The transposition of and was made by Steevens. Paul. She had just cause. Had she such power, She had; and would incense 3 me To murder her I married. I should so: Paul. Were I the ghost that walk'd, I'd bid you mark Her eye; and tell me, for what dull part in't You chose her: then I'd shriek, that even your ears Should rift to hear me; and the words that follow'd Should be, Remember mine. Leon. And all Stars, stars, 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! Paul. Then, good my lords, bear witness to his 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 · And in Cymbeline: Your preparation can affront no less than what you hear of.' The word is used in the same sense by Ben Jonson, and even by Dryden. Lodge, in the Preface to his Translation of Seneca, says, 'No soldier is counted valiant that affronteth not his enemie.' 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. What with him? he comes not Gent. And those but mean. But few, Leon. His princess, say you, with him? Gent. Ay; the most peerless piece of earth, I think, That e'er the sun shone bright on. O Hermione, Paul. Sir, you yourself 6 i.e. thy beauties which are buried in the grave. |