Clo. In some sort, sir: but, though my case be a pitiful one, I hope I shall not be flay'd out of it.82

Aut. O, that's the case of the shepherd's son: hang him, he'll be made an example.

Clo. [Aside to Shep.] Comfort, good comfort! We must to the King, and show our strange sights: he must know 'tis none of your daughter nor my sister; we are gone else. — Sir, I will give you as much as this old man does, when the business is perform'd; and remain, as he says, your pawn till it be brought you.

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. [Aside to Shep.] We are bless'd in this man, as I may say, even bless'd.

Shep. [Aside to Clo.] provided to do us good.

Let's before, as he bids us: he was

[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 but luck may turn to my advancement? I will bring these two moles, these blind ones, aboard him 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 will I present them: there may be matter in it.

:

if he think it fit to shore them

[Exit.

82 The Clown, however uncorrupted with the sophistications of pen and ink, and though he may "have a mark to himself, like an honest plaindealing man," is no clod-pole: his pun on case in this instance is something keen.

SCENE I.

ACT V.

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 saint-like 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

My blemishes in them; and so still think of
The wrong I did myself: which was so much,
That heirless it hath made my kingdom; and
Destroy'd the sweet'st companion that e'er man
Bred his hopes out of.

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

Would be unparallel'd.

kill'd

Kill'd!

Kill'd she I kill'd! I did so: but thou strikest me
Sorely, to say I did; it is as bitter

Upon thy tongue as in my thought: now, good now,
Say so but seldom.

Cleo.

Not at all, good lady:

You might have spoke a thousand things that would

You pity not the State, nor the remembrance
Of his most sovereign name; consider little
What dangers, by his Highness' fail of issue,
May drop upon his kingdom, and devour
Incertain lookers-on. What were more holy
Than to rejoice the former Queen is well?1
What holier than for royalty's repair,
For present comfort, and for future good—
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
Will have fulfill'd their secret purposes;

For has not the divine Apollo said,

Is't not the tenour of his oracle,

That King Leontes shall not have an heir
Till his lost child be found? which that it shall,
Is all as monstrous to our human reason
As my Antigonus to break his grave
And come again to me; who, on my life,
Did perish with the infant. 'Tis your counsel
My lord should to the Heavens be contrary,

1 Is well is an old phrase for is dead; that is, happy, or at rest. So in Antony and Cleopatra, ii. 5: "We use to say the dead are well."

2 Respecting, here, is in comparison with; the only instance, I think, of the word so used. But the Poet often has in respect of in just the same See As You Like It, page 81, note 13.

sense.

Oppose against their wills. [To LEON.] Care not for issue;

The crown will find an heir: great Alexander
Left his to th'3 worthiest; so his successor
Was like to be the best.

Leon.

Thou good Paulina,

Who hast the memory of Hermione,

I know, in honour, O, that ever I

Had squared 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.

Leon.

And left them

Thou speak'st truth.

No more such wives; therefore, no wife: one worse,
And better used, would make her sainted spirit

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.

3 This elision of the, so as to make it coalesce with the preceding word into one syllable, has occurred many times in this play, and ought, perhaps, to have been noted before. So we have by th', do th', for th', from th', on th', wi' th', and others. See The Tempest, page 47, note 16.

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.

No remedy, but you will, give me the office

To choose your Queen: she shall not be so young
As was your former; but she shall be such

As, walk'd your first Queen's ghost, it should take joy
To see her in your arms.

Leon.

My true Paulina,

That

We shall not marry till thou bidd'st us.

Paul.

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

desires access

4 Affront is meet or encounter. Shakespeare uses this word with the same meaning in Hamlet, iii. 1: “That he, as 'twere by accident, may here affront Ophelia." And in Cymbeline: “Your preparation can affront no less than what you hear of." Lodge, in the Preface to his Translation of Seneca, says, "No soldier is counted valiant that affronteth not his enemie."