6

Leon.

She had; and would incense me% To murder her I married. Paul.

I should so:
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
Shou'd rifts to hear me; and the words that follow'd
Should be, Remember mine.
Leon.

Stars, very 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 !
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,
Paul.

I have done.8
Yet, if my lord will marry,-if you will, sir,
No remedy, but you will; give me the office

was printed in the SECOND APPENDIX to my SUPP. to SHAKSP. 1783, I have observed that the editor of the third folio made the same correction. Malone. incense me -] i. e. instigate me, set me on.

So, in King Richard III:

“ Think you, my lord, this little prating York

“ Was not incensed by his subtle mother?" Steevens. 5 Should rift -] i.e. split. So, in The Tempest:

rifted Jove's stout oak.” Steevens. 6 Stars, very stars,] The word-very, was supplied by Sir T. Hanmer, to assist the metre. So, in Cymbcline :

“'Twas very Cloten.” Again, in The Two Gentlemen of Verona:

Especially against his very friend.” Steevens. 7 Affront his eye.] To affront, is to meet. Johnson. So, in Cymbeline :

“ Your preparation can affront no less

“ Than what you hear of.” Steevens. 8 Paul. I have done.] These three words in the old copy make part of the preceding speech. The present regulation, which is clearly right, was suggested by Mr. Steevens. Malone.

66

To choose you a 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,
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
To your high presence.
I.eon.

What with him? he comes not
Like to his father's greatness: his approach,
So out of circumstance, and sudden, tells us,
'Tis not a visitation fram’d, but forc'd
By need, and accident. What train?
Gent.

But few,
And those but mean.
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.
Paul.

O Hermione,
As every present time doth boast itself
Above a better, gone; so must thy grave
Give way to what 's seen now.' Sir, you yourself
Have said, and writ so, 1 (but your writing now
Is colder than that theme?) She had not been,
Nor was not to be equall'd ;-thus your verse
Flow'd with her beauty once; 'tis shrewdly ebb’d,

1

So must thy grave
Give way to what's seen now.

w.] Thy grave here means--thy beauties, which are buried in the grave; the continent for the contents. Edwards.

- Sir, you yourself Have said and writ so,] The reader must observe, that so relates not to what precedes, but to what follows; that she had not been-equall’d. Johnson.

? Is colder than that theme,] i. e. than the lifeless body of Hermione, the theme or subject of your writing. Malone.

To say, you have seen 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 such a creature, 3
Would she begin a sect, might quench the zeal
Of all professors else; make proselytes
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,

[Exeunt Cleo. Lords, and Gent. He thus should steal upon us. Paul.

Had our prince,
(Jewel of children) seen this hour, he had pair'd
Well with his lord; there was not full a month
Between their births.
Leon.

Pr’ythee, no more; thou know'st,4
He dies to me again, when talk'd of: sure,
When I shall see this gentleman, thy speeches
Will bring me to consider that, which may
Unfurnish me of reason. They are come.
Re-enter CLEOMENES, with FLORIZEL, PERDITA, and

Attendants.
Your mother was most true to wedlock, prince;
For she did print your royal father off,
Conceiving you: Were I but twenty-one,
Your father's image is so hit in you,
His very air, that I should call you brother,

3 This is such a creature,] The word such, which is wanting in the old copy, was judiciously supplied by Sir T. Hanmer, for the sake of metre. Steevens. Prythee, no more; thou know'st,] The old copy redundantly

Pr’ythee, no more; cease; thou know'st," Cease, I believe, was a mere marginal gloss or explanation of -no more, and, injuriously to the metre, had crept into the text.

Steedens.

reads

As I did him; and speak of something, wildly
By us perform’d before. Most dearly welcome!
And your fair princess, goddess!-O, alas!
I lost a couple, that 'twixt heaven and earth
Might thus have stood, begetting wonder, as
You, gracious couple, do! and then I lost
(All mine own folly) the society,
Amity too, of your brave father; whom,
Though bearing misery, I desire my life
Once more to look upon.5
Flo.

By his command
Have I here touch'd Sicilia: and from him
Give you all greetings, that a king, at friend,
Can send his brother: and, but infirmity
(Which waits upon worn times) hath something seiz'd
His wish'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 say so) more than all the sceptres,
And those that bear them, living.
Leon.

O, my brother,

6

5

whom,
Though bearing misery, I desire my life
Once more to look upon.] The old copy reads-

Once more to look on him. Steevens. For this incorrectness our author must answer. There are many others of the same kind to be found in his writings. See p. 206, n. 9. Mr. Theobald, with more accuracy, but without necessity, omitted the word him, and to supply the metre, reads in the next line—“Sir, by his command,” &c. in which he has been followed, I think, improperly, by the subsequent editors.

Malone. As I suppose this incorrect phraseology to be the mere jargon of the old players, I have omitted-him, and (for the sake of metre) instead of-on, read upon. So, in a former part of the present scene:

“I might have look'd upon my queen's full eyes —," Again, p. 323:

“ Strike all that look upon with marvel.” Steevens.

that a king, at friend,], Thus the old copy; but having met with no example of such phraseology, I suspect our author wrote-and friend. At has already been printed for and in the play before us. Malone.

At friend, perhaps means, at friendship. So, in Hamlet, we have the wind at help.” We might, however, read, omitting only a single letter-a friend. Steevens.

(Good gentleman!) the wrongs I have done thee, stir Afresh within me; and these thy offices, So rarely kind, are as interpreters Of my

behind-hand slackness! - Welcome hither,
As is the spring to the earth. And hath he too
Expos’d this paragon to the fearful usage
(At least, ungentle,) of the dreadful Neptune,
To greet a man, not worth her pains; much less
The adventure of her person?
Flo.

Good my lord,
She came from Libya.
Leon.

Where the warlike Smalus,
That noble honour'd lord, is fear'd, and lov’d?
Flo. Most royal sir, from thence; from him, whose

daughter
His tears proclaim'd his, parting with her:; thence
(A prosperous south-wind friendly) we have cross’d,
To execute the charge my father gave me,
For visiting your highness: My best train
I have from your Sicilian shores dismiss'd;
Who for Bohemia bend, to signify
Not only my success in Libya, sir,
But my arrival, and my wife's, in safety
Here, where we are.
Leon.

The blessed godse

7

whose daughter His tears proclaim'd his, parting with her:] This is very ungrammatical and obscure. We may better read:

whose daughter His tears proclaim'd her parting with her. The prince first tells that the lady came from Libya; the King, interrupting him, says, from Smalús?

from him, says the Prince, whose tears, at parting, showed her to be his daughter. Johnson.

The obscurity arises from want of proper punctuation. By placing a comma after his, I think the sense is cleared. Steevens.

8 The blessed gods – ] Unless both the words here and where were employed in the preceding line as dissyllables, the metre is defective. We might read-The ever-blessed gods ;—but whether there was any omission, is very doubtful, for the reason already assigned. Malone.

I must confess that in this present dissyllabic pronunciation I have not the smallest degree of faith. Such violent attempts to produce metre should at least be countenanced by the shadow of examples. Sir T. Hanmer reads

Here, where we happily are. Steevens.