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 welco.ne! And your fair princess, goddess 5-0, 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, 3 whom, 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. 66, n. 7. 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 follow. ed, 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. 202 : « Strike all that look upon with marvel.” Steevens. 4- that a king, at friend,] Thus the old copy; but having 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 scepters, And those that bear them, living. Leon. O, my brother, Good my lord, Where the warlike Smalus, That noble honour'd lord, is fear'd, and lov'd ? Flo. Most royal fir, from thence; from him, whose daughter His tears proclaim'd his, parting with her:4 thence 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. whose daughter His tears proclaim'd bis, parting with her :) This is very un. grammatical and obscure. We may better read: whose daughter (A prosperous south-wind friendly,) we have cross’d, The blessed gods s The prince first tells that the lady came from Libya; the king, interrupting him, says, from Smalus? 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 clear’d. Steevens. s The blessed gods -] Unless both the words here and where were employed in the preceding line as dislyllables, the metre is defective. We might read— The ever-blessed gods; but whether there was any omillion, is very doubtful, for the reason already assigned. MALONE. I must confess that in this present diffyllabic pronunciation I have not the smallest degree of faith. Such violent attempts to pro. duce metre should at least be countenanced by the shadow of exam. ples. Sir T. Hanmer reads Here, where we happily are. STEEVENS. M. MASON. Enter a Lord. Lord. Most noble fir, That, which I shall report, will bear no credit, Were not the proof so nigh. Please you, great fir, 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 : I 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; Lay't so, to his charge; Who? Camillo? Forswear themselves as often as they speak: 7 in question.] i. e. in conversation. So, in As you like it : “ I met the Duke yelturday, and had much question with him.” STEEVENS. Per. O, my poor father! You are married? My lord, She is, speed, Dear, look up: 7 The odds for high and low's alike.] A quibble upon the false dice so called. See note in The Merry Wives of Windfor. Vol. III. P• 339, n. 4. Douce. 8 Your choice is not so rich in worth as beauty,] Worth signifies any kind of worthiness, and among others that of high descent. The king means that he is sorry the prince's choice is not in other refpects as worthy of him as in beauty. Johnson. Our author often uses worth for wealth; which may also, toge. ther with high birth, be here in contemplation. Malone. So, in Twelfth-Night: “ But were my worth as is my conscience firm," &c. STEEVENS. 9 Remember fince you ow'd no more to time, &c.] Recollect the period when you were of my age. MALONE. |