Have left me iffueless; and your father's bless'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 ?

Enter a Lord.

LORD.

Most 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? speak.

LORD. Here in the 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 chase, it seems,
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;

Whofe honour, and whofe honesty, till now,

Endur'd all weathers.

LORD.

He's with the king your father.

LEON.

Lay't fo, to his charge;

Who? Camillo ?

Has these poor men in question.

Never faw I

Wretches fo quake: they kneel, they kifs the earth; Forfwear themselves as often as they speak;

Bohemia stops his ears, and threatens them

With divers deaths in death.

PER.

O, my poor father!—

The heaven fets spies upon us, will not have
Our contract celebrated.

LEON.

1 You are married?

FLO. We are not, fir, nor are we like to be; The ftars, I fee, will kifs the valleys firft:

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,*

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

1 The odds for high and low's alike.] A quibble upon the false dice fo called. See note in The Merry Wives of Windfor, Vol. V. p. 45, n. 9. DOUCE.

"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 also, together with high birth, be here in contemplation. MALONE. So, in Twelfth-Night:

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

STEEVENS.

Dear, look up:

'Though fortune, vifible an enemy,

Should chafe us, with my father; power no jot
Hath fhe, to change our loves.-Befeech you, fir,
Remember fince you ow'd no more to time 3
Than I do now: with thought of fuch affections,
Step forth mine advocate; at your request,
My father will grant precious things, as trifles.
LEON. Would he do fo, I'd beg your precious
mistress,

Which he counts but a trifle.

PAUL.

Sir, my liege,

Your eye hath too much youth in't: not a month 'Fore your queen died, fhe was more worth fuch

gazes

Than what you look on now.

LEON. I thought of her, Even in these looks I made.-But your petition

[To FLORIZEL.

Is yet unanfwer'd: I will to your father;
Your honour not o'erthrown by your defires,
I am a friend to them, and you: upon which errand
I now go toward him; therefore, follow me,
And mark what way I make: Come, good my lord.
[Exeunt.

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

SCENE II.

The fame. Before the Palace.

Enter AUTOLYCUS and a Gentleman.

AUT. 'Befeech you, fir, were you prefent at this relation?

1 GENT. I was by at the opening of the fardel, heard the old fhepherd deliver the manner how he found it whereupon, after a little amazedness, we were all commanded out of the chamber; only this, methought I heard the fhepherd fay, he found the child.

AUT. I would moft gladly know the iffue of it.

1 GENT. I make a broken delivery of the bufinefs;-But the changes I perceived in the king, and Camillo, were very notes of admiration: they seemed almoft, with ftaring on one another, to tear the cafes of their eyes; there was speech in their dumbnefs, language in their very gefture; they looked, as they had heard of a world ranfomed, or one deftroyed: A notable paffion of wonder appeared in them but the wifeft beholder, that knew no more but seeing, could not fay, if the importance were joy, or forrow:4 but in the extremity of the one, it must needs be.

Enter another Gentleman.

Here comes a gentleman, that, happily, knows more: The news, Rogero?

if the importance were joy, or forrow ;] Importance here means, the thing imported. M. MASON.

2 GENT. Nothing but bonfires: The oracle is fulfilled; the king's daughter is found: fuch a deal of wonder is broken out within this hour, that ballad-makers cannot be able to express it.

Enter a third Gentleman.

Here comes the lady Paulina's fteward; he can deliver you more.-How goes it now, fir? this news, which is called true, is so like an old tale, that the verity of it is in ftrong fufpicion: Has the king found his heir?

3 GENT. Moft true; if ever truth were pregnant by circumftance: that, which you hear, you'll swear you fee, there is fuch unity in the proofs. The mantle of queen Hermione :-her jewel about the neck of it :-the letters of Antigonus, found with it, which they know to be his character:-the majesty of the creature, in resemblance of the mother; -the affection of noblenefs,5 which nature fhows above her breeding, and many other evidences, proclaim her, with all certainty, to be the king's daughter. Did you fee the meeting of the two kings?

5 the affection of nobleness,] Affection here perhaps means difpofition or quality. The word feems to be used nearly in the fame sense in the following title: "The first set of Italian Madrigalls Englished, not to the sense of the original ditty, but to the affection of the noate," &c. By Thomas Watson, quarto, 1590. Affection is used in Hamlet for affectation, but that can hardly be the meaning here.

Perhaps both here and in King Henry IV. affection is used for propenfity:

66

in fpeech, in gait,

"In diet, in affections of delight,

"In military exercifes, humours of blood,

"He was the mark and glass," &c. MALONE.