Leon. His Princess, say you, with him?
Gent. Ay; the most peerless piece of earth,

That e'er the sun shone bright on.

Paul. O Hermione,

think,

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, (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,
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,
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 CLE OMENES, Lords, and Gentleman.

He thus should steal upon us.

Paul. Had our Prince,

(Jewel of children,) seen this hour, he had pair'd Well with this Lord; there was not full a month Between their births.

Leon. Prythee, no more; thou know'st,

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,
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.

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

His wish'd ability, he had himself

seiz'd

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 scepters,
And those that bear them, living.

Leon. O, my brother,

(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,

The 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 Libia, Sir,
But my arrival, and my wife's, in safety
Here, where we are.

Leon. The blessed Gods

Purge all infection from our air, whilst you
Do climate here! You have a holy father,
A graceful gentleman; against whose person,
So sacred as it is, I have done sin:

For which the heavens, taking angry note,
Have left me issueless; 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 son and daughter now have look'd on,
Such goodly things as you?

Enter a Lord.

Lord. Most noble Sir,

That, which I shall report, will bear no credit,

Were not the proof so nigh. Please you, great Sir,
Bohemia greets you from himself, by me:
Desires you to attach his son; who has

(His dignity and duty both cast off,)

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

Leon. Where's Bohemia? speak.

Lord. Here in your city; I now came from him speak amazedly; and it becomes

My marvel, and my message. To your court
Whiles he was hast'ning, (in the chase it seems.
Of this fair couple,) meets he on the way
The father of this seeming lady, and

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

Flo. Camillo has betray'd me;

Whose honour, and whose honesty, till now,
Endur'd all weathers.

Lord. Lay't so, to his char e;

He's with the King your father.

Leon. Who? Camillo?

Lord. Camillo, Sir; I spake with him; who now Has these poor men in question. Never saw I Wretches so quake: they kneel, they kiss the earth; Forswear themselves as often as they speak: Bohemia stops his ears, and threatens them With diyers deaths in death.

Per. O, my poor father!

The heaven sets spies upon us, will not have
Our contract celebrated.

Leon. You are married?

Flo. We are not, Sir, nor are we like to be; The stars, I see, will kiss the valleys first.

The odds for high and low's alike.

Leon. My Lord,

Is this the daughter of a King?

Flo. She is,

When once she is my wife.

Leon. That once, I see, by your good father's

speed,

Will come on very slowly. I am sorry,

Most sorry, you have broken from his liking,
Where you were tied in duty: and as sorry,
Your choice is not so rich in worth as beauty,
That you might well enjoy her.

Flo. Dear, look up:

Though fortune, visible an enemy,

Should chase us, with my father; power no jot
Hath she, to change our loves. 'Beseech you, Sir,
Remember since you ow'd no more to time

Than I do now: with thought of such affections,
Step forth mine advocate; at your request,

My father will grant precious things, as trifles,
Leon. Would he do so, I'd beg your precious

Which he counts but a trifle.

Paul. Sir, my Liege,

mistress,

Your eye hath too much youth in't: not a month 'Fore your Queen died, she was more worth such

Than what you look on now.

Leon. I thought of her, Even in these looks I made.

gazes

But your petition

[To FLORIZEL.

Is yet unanswer'd: I will to your father;

Your honour hot o'erthrown by your desires,
I am 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.

[Exeunt,