Page 854 - Shakespeare - Vol. 4

PAULINA

Had our prince [115]
(Jewel of children) seen this hour, he had pair’d
Well with this lord: there was not full a month

Between their births.

LEONTES

Prithee, no more; cease; thou know’st
He dies to me again, when talk’d of: sure,
When I shall see this gentleman, thy speeches [120]
Will bring me to consider that which may

Unfurnish me of reason. They are come.

Enter Florizel, Perdita, Cleomenes and others.

Your mother was most true to wedlock, prince;
For she did print your royal father off,
Conceiving you. Were I but twenty-one, [125]

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! [130]

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 [135]
(Though bearing misery) I desire my life
Once more to look on him.

FLORIZEL
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 [140]
(Which waits upon worn times) hath something seiz’d

His wish’d ability, he had himself