Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

Who for Bithynia bend, to fignify

Not only my fuccefs in Lybia, fir,
But my arrival, and my wife's, in safety
Here, where we happily are.

Leo. The bleffed gods

Purge all infection from our air, whilst you
Do climate here! you have a holy father,
A graceful gentleman, against whofe perfon,
So facred as it is, I have done fin;

For which the heavens, taking angry note,
Have left me issue-lefs; and your father's bless'd,
As he from heaven merits it, with you

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

[blocks in formation]

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

Defires you to attach his fon, who has,

His dignity and duty both caft off,

Fled from his father, from his hopes, and with
A fhepherd's daughter.

Leo. Where's Bithynia? fpeak.

Lord. Here in your city; I now came from him.

I speak amazedly, and it becomes

My marvel, and my meffage: to your court

Whilst he was haft'ning, in the chafe, it seems,
Of this fair couple, meets he on the

The father of this feeming lady, and

way

Her brother, having both their country quitted
With this young prince.

Flo.

[blocks in formation]

Lord. Camillo, fir; I fpake with him, who now
Has these poor men in question. Never faw I
Wretches fo quake; they kneel, they kiss the earth;
Forfwear themselves as often as they speak :

Bithynia ftops his ears, and threatens them
With divers deaths, in death.

Per. O my poor

father!

The heav'n, which fets fpies on us, will not have
Our contract celebrated.

Leo. You are marry'd?

Flo. We are not, fir, nor are we like to be; The stars, I fee, will kifs the valleys first :

The odds for high and low's alike.

[blocks in formation]

When once she is my wife.

Leo. That once, I fee, by your good father's speed,

Will come on very flowly. I am forry,

Most forry you have broken from his liking,

Where you were ty'd in duty; and as forry
Your choice is not fo rich in birth as beauty,
That you might well enjoy her.

Flo. Dear, look up;

Though fortune vifible, an enemy,

Should chase us, with my father; power no jot
Hath fhe to change our loves. 'Beseech you, fir,
Remember fince you ow'd no more to time
Than I do now; with thought of fuch affections,
Step forth mine advocate: at your request,

My

My father will grant precious things, as trifles.

Leo. Would he do fo, I'd beg your precious mistress, Which he counts but a trifle.

Pau. Sir, my liege,

Your eye hath too much youth in't; not a month
'Fore your queen dy'd, she was more worth fuch gazes
Than what you look on now.

Leo. I thought of her,

Even in these looks I made. But your petition

Is yet unanswer'd: I will to your father;
Your honour not o'erthrown by your defires,
I'm friend to them and you: upon which errand
I now go toward him; therefore follow me,
And mark what way I make: come, good my lord.

[Exeum.

Aut." B

SCENE V.

Enter Autolicus, and a Gentleman.

ESEECH you, fir, were you prefent at this relation? I Gent. I was by at the opening of the farthel, heard the old fhepherd 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 seem'd almoft, with staring on one another, to tear the cases of their eyes: there was speech in their dumbness, language in their very gefture; they look'd as if they had heard of a world ransom'd, or one destroy'd: a notable paffion of wonder appear'd in them; but the wisest beholder, that knew no more but feeing, could not fay, if th' importance were joy or forrow; but in the extremity of the one it must needs be:

Enter

Enter another Gentleman.

Here comes a gentleman that happily knows more. The news, Rogero?

2 Gent. Nothing but bonfires: the oracle is fulfill'd; the king's daughter is found: such a deal of wonder is broken out within this hour, that ballad-makers cannot be able to express it.

Enter another Gentleman.

Here comes the lady Paulina's steward, he can deliver you more. How goes it now, fir? this news which is call'd true is fo like an old tale, that the verity of it is in strong suspicion: has the king. found his heir?

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 loft a fight which was to be seen, cannot be spoken of. There might you have beheld one joy crown another; fo, and in such manner, that, it feem'd, forrow wept to take leave of them; for their joy waded in tears. There was cafting up of eyes, holding up of hands, with countenance of fuch distraction, that they were to be known by garment, not by favour. 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 Bithynia forgiveness ; then embraces his fon-in-law; then again worries he his daughter with clipping her: now he thanks the old fhepherd, who stands by like a weather-beaten conduit of many kings reigns. I never heard of fuch another encounter, which lames report to follow it, and undoes description to draw it.

2 Gent.

2 Gent. What, pray you, became of Antigonus, that carry'd hence the child?

3 Gent. Like an old tale ftill, which will have matters to rehearse, though credit be afleep, and not an ear open; he was torn in pieces with a bear: this avouches the fhepherd's fon, who has not only his innocence, which seems much, to justify him, but a handkerchief and rings of his, that Paulina knows. I Gent. What became of his bark, and his followers?

3 Gent. Wreck'd the fame instant of their master's death; and in the view of the shepherd: so that all the inftruments which aided to expose the child, were even then loft, when it was found. But, o, the noble combat, that, 'twixt joy and forrow, was fought in Paulina! She had one eye declin'd for the lofs of her husband, another elevated that the oracle was fulfill'd: fhe lifted the princess from the earth, and fo lock'd her in embracing, as if she would pin her to her heart, that fhe might no more be in danger of lofing.

1 Gent. The dignity of this act was worth the audience of kings and princes, for by fuch was it acted.

3 Gent. One of the prettiest touches of all, and that which angled for mine eyes, was, when at the relation of the queen's death, with the manner how she came to it, bravely confefs'd, and lamented by the king, how attentiveness wounded his daughter; till, from one fign of dolour to another, fhe did, with an alas, I would fain fay, bleed tears; for, I am fure, my heart wept blood. Who was moft marble there changed colour; fome fwooned, all forrowed: if all the world could have feen't, the woe had been univerfal.

I Gent. Are they returned to the court?

3 Gent. No: the princefs hearing of her mother's statue, which is in the keeping of Paulina, a piece many years in doing, and now newly perform'd by that rare Italian mafter, Julio Romano, who, had he himself eternity, and could put breath into his work, would beguile nature of her cuftom, fo perfectly he is her ape: he so near to Hermione hath done Hermione, that, they fay, one would fpeak to her, and ftand in hope of answer. Thither with all greedinefs of affection are they gone, and there they intend to fup. 2 Gent.

« AnteriorContinuar »