Page 855 - Shakespeare - Vol. 4

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 [145]
And those that bear them living.

LEONTES
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, [150]
As is the spring to th’ earth. And hath he too
Expos’d this paragon to th’ fearful usage
(At least ungentle) of the dreadful Neptune,
To greet a man not worth her pains, much less

Th’ adventure of her person?

FLORIZEL
Good my lord, [155]
She came from Libya.

LEONTES
Where the warlike Smalus,

That noble honour’d lord, is fear’d and lov’d?

FLORIZEL

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, [160]
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, [165]

But my arrival, and my wife’s, in safety
Here, where we are.

LEONTES