Page 828 - Shakespeare - Vol. 4

SHEPHERD

Come, your hand;
And, daughter, yours.

POLIXENES
Soft, swain, awhile, beseech you; [385]
Have you a father?

FLORIZEL

I have: but what of him?

POLIXENES

Knows he of this?

FLORIZEL
He neither does nor shall.

POLIXENES
Methinks a father
Is at the nuptial of his son a guest
That best becomes the table. Pray you once more, [390]

Is not your father grown incapable
Of reasonable affairs? is he not stupid
With age and alt’ring rheums? can he speak? hear?
Know man from man? dispute his own estate?

Lies he not bed-rid? and again does nothing [395]
But what he did being childish?

FLORIZEL
No, good sir;
He has his health, and ampler strenght indeed
Than most have of his age.

POLIXENES

By my white beard,
You offer him, if this be so, a wrong
Something unfilial: reason my son [400]