Re-enter CLEOMENES, with FLORIZEL, PERDITA, and Attendants.

Your mother was moft true to wedlock, prince;
For fhe did print your royal father off,
Conceiving you: Were I but twenty-one,
Your father's image is fo hit in you,

His very air, that I fhould call you brother,
As I did him; and speak of fomething, wildly
By us perform'd before. Moft dearly welco.ne!
And your fair princess, goddess !—Ó, alas!
I loft a couple, that 'twixt heaven and earth
Might thus have ftood, begetting wonder, as
You, gracious couple, do! and then I loft
(All mine own folly,) the fociety,

Amity too, of your brave father; whom,
Though bearing mifery, I defire 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,

Though bearing mifery, I defire my life

Once more to look upon.] The old copy reads

Once more to look on him. STEEVENS.

For this incorrectnefs our author muft anfwer. There are many others of the fame kind to be found in his writings. See p. 60, n. 7. Mr. Theobald, with more accuracy, but without neceffity, omitted the word him, and to fupply the metre, reads in the next line" Sir, by his command," &c. in which he has been followed, I think, improperly, by the subsequent editors. MALONE.

As I fuppofe this incorrect phrafeology to be the mere jargon of the old players, I have omitted-him, and (for the fake of metre) inftead of-on, read-upon. So, in a former part of the prefent fcene:

"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 fend his brother: and, but infirmity (Which waits upon worn times,) hath fomething feiz'd

His wifh'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 fay fo,) more than all the scepters,
And those that bear them, living.

LEON.

O, my brother, (Good gentleman!) the wrongs I have done thee, ftir Afresh within me; and these thy offices,

So rarely kind, are as interpreters

Of my behind-hand flackness !-Welcome hither, As is the spring to the earth. And hath he too Expos'd this paragon to the fearful ufage

(At least, ungentle) of the dreadful Neptune, To greet a man, not worth her pains; much less The adventure of her perfon?

FLO.

She came from Libya.

LEON.

Good my lord,

Where the warlike Smalus,

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

FLO. Moft royal fir, from thence; from him, whose daughter

His tears proclaim'd his, parting with her: 4 thence

met with no example of fuch phrafeology, I fufpect 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 fingle letter-a friend. STEEVENS.

His tears proclaim'd his, parting with her:] This is very ungrammatical and obfcure. We may better read:

-whofe daughter

His tears proclaim'd her parting with her.

(A profperous fouth-wind friendly,) we have crofs'd,
To execute the charge my father gave me,
For visiting your highness: My best train
I have from your Sicilian fhores difmifs'd;
Who for Bohemia bend, to fignify

Not only my fuccefs in Libya, fir,
But my arrival, and my wife's, in fafety
Here, where we are.

LEON.

The bleffed gods'

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

For which the heavens, taking angry note,
Have left me iffuelefs; and your father's blefs'd,
(As he from heaven merits it,) with you,
Worthy his goodness. What might I have been,
Might I a fon and daughter now have look'd on,
Such goodly things as you?

The prince firft tells that the lady came from Libya; the king, interrupting him, fays, from Smalus? from him, fays the prince, whofe tears, at parting, showed her to be his daughter. JOHNSON.

The obfcurity arifes from want of proper punctuation. By placing a comma after his, I think the fenfe is clear'd. STEEVENS.

The bleffed gods-] Unlefs both the words here and where were employed in the preceding line as diffyllables, the metre is defective. We might read-The ever-bleffed gods-; but whether there was any omiffion, is very doubtful, for the reason already affigned. MALONE.

I must confefs that in this prefent diffyllabic pronunciation I have not the smallest degree of faith. Such violent attempts to produce metre should at least be countenanced by the shadow of examples. Sir T. Hanmer reads

Here, where we happily are. STEEVENS.

• A graceful gentleman;] i. e. full of grace and virtue.

M. MASON.

LORD.

Enter a Lord.

Moft noble fir,

That, which I fhall report, will bear no credit,
Were not the proof fo nigh. Please you, great fir,
Bohemia greets you from himself, by me:
Defires you to attach his fon; who has
(His dignity and duty both caft off,)

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

LEON.

Where's Bohemia? fpeak.

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

My marvel, and my meffage. To your court
Whiles he was haft'ning, (in the chafe, it feems,
Of this fair couple,) meets he on the way
The father of this feeming lady, and

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

FLO.

Camillo has betray'd me;

Whose honour, and whofe honefty, till now,
Endur'd all weathers.

LORD.

He's with the king your father.

LEON.

Lay't fo, to his charge;

Who? Camillo?

LORD. Camillo, fir; I fpake with him; who now Has these poor men in queftion. Never faw I Wretches fo quake: they kneel, they kifs the earth; Forfwear then felves as often as they speak: Bohemia ftops his ears, and threatens them With divers deaths in death.

7

-in question.] i. e. in converfation. So, in As you like it : "I met the Duke yesterday, and had much question with him."

STEEVENS.

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, fir, nor are we like to be; The stars, I fee, will kifs the valleys first :The odds for high and low's alike."

LEON. That once, I fee, by your good father's

speed,

Will come on very flowly. I am forry,

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

FLO.

Dear, look up: Though fortune, vifible an enemy,

Should chafe us, with my father; power no jot Hath fhe, to change our loves.-'Beseech you, fir, Remember fince you ow'd no more to time"

The odds for high and low's alike.] A quibble upon the falfe dice fo called. See note in The Merry Wives of Windfor. Vol. III. P. 339, n. 4. DOUCE.

8 Your choice is not fo rich in worth as beauty,] Worth fignifies any kind of worthiness, and among others that of high defcent. The king means that he is forry the prince's choice is not in other refpects as worthy of him as in beauty. JOHNSON.

Our author often ufes worth for wealth; which may alfo, toge ther with high birth, be here in contemplation. MALONE. So, in Twelfth-Night:

"But were my worth as is my confcience firm," &c.

STEEVENS.

9 Remember fince you ow'd no more to time, &c.] Recollect the period when you were of my age. MALONE.