our absence makes us unthrifty to our knowledge. Let's along. [Exeunt Gentlemen.

Aut. Now, had I not the dash of my former life in me, would preferment drop on my head. I brought the old man and his son aboard the Prince; 11 told him I heard them talk of a fardel, and I know not what: but, he at that time overfond of the shepherd's daughter, so he then took her to be, - who began to be much sea-sick, and himself little better, extremity of weather continuing, this mystery remained undiscover'd. But 'tis all one to me; for, had I been the finderout of this secret, it would not have relish'd among my other discredits. Here come those I have done good to against my will, and already appearing in the blossoms of their fortune.

Enter the Shepherd and Clown, richly dressed.

Shep. Come, boy; I am past more children, but thy sons and daughters will be all gentlemen born.

Clo. You are well met, sir. You denied to fight with me this other day, because I was no gentleman born. See you these clothes? say you see them not, and think me still no gentleman born: you were best say these robes are not gentlemen born. Give me the lie, do; and try whether I am not now a gentleman born.

Aut. I know you are now, sir, a gentleman born.

Clo. Ay, and have been so any time these four hours.
Shep. And so have I, boy.

Clo. So you have: - but I was a gentleman born before my father; for the King's son took me by the hand, and call'd me brother; and then the two Kings call'd my father brother; and then the Prince my brother and the Princess my sister

11 That is, aboard Prince Florizel's ship. In iv. 3, the Prince says to Camillo, "most oppórtune to our need, I have a vessel rides fast by," &c.

call'd my father father and so we wept; and there was the first gentleman-like tears that ever we shed.

Shep. We may live, son, to shed many more.

Clo. Ay; or else 'twere hard luck, being in so preposterous estate 12

as we are.

Aut. I humbly beseech you, sir, to pardon me all the faults I have committed to your Worship, and to give me your good report to the Prince my master.

Shep. Pr'ythee, son, do; for we must be gentle, now we are gentlemen.

Clo. Thou wilt amend thy life?

Aut. Ay, an it like your good Worship.

Clo. Give me thy hand: I will swear to the Prince thou art as honest a true fellow as any is in Bohemia.

Shep. You may say it, but not swear it.

Clo. Not swear it, now I am a gentleman? Let boors and franklins say it, I'll swear it.

Shep. How if it be false, son?

Clo. If it be ne'er so false, a true gentleman may swear it in the behalf of his friend :—and I'll swear to the Prince thou art a tall fellow of thy hands,13 and that thou wilt not be drunk; but I know thou art no tall fellow of thy hands, and that thou wilt be drunk: but I'll swear it; and I would thou wouldst be a tall fellow of thy hands.

Aut. I will prove so, sir, to my power.

Clo. Ay, by any means prove a tall fellow: if I do not wonder how thou darest venture to be drunk, not being a tall fellow, trust me not. [Trumpets within.] Hark! the Kings

12 Estate and state were used interchangeably. Preposterous is the Clown's blunder, perhaps intentional, for prosperous: for this Clown is a most Shakespearian compound of shrewdness and simplicity, and has something of the "allowed Fool" in his character; by instinct, of course.

13 A bold, courageous fellow. Autolycus chooses to understand the phrase in one of its senses, which was that of nimble handed, working with his hands, a fellow skilled in thievery. See vol. v. page 143, note 4.

and the Princes, our kindred, are going to see the Queen's picture.14 Come, follow us: we'll be thy good masters.15

[Exeunt.

SCENE III. The Same.

A Chapel in PAULINA'S House.

Enter LEONTES, POLIXENES, FLORIZEL, PERDITA, CAMILLO, PAULINA, Lords, and Attendants.

Leon. O grave and good Paulina, the great comfort That I have had of thee!

Paul.

What, sovereign sir,

I did not well, I meant well. All my services

You have paid home: but, that you have vouchsafed,
With your crown'd brother and these your contracted
Heirs of your kingdoms, my poor house to visit,

It is a surplus of your grace, which never

My life may last to answer.

Leon.

We honour you with trouble.1

O Paulina,

But we came

To see the statue of our Queen: your gallery

14 The words picture and statue were sometimes used indiscriminately; which Collier thinks may have grown from the custom of painting statues. So in Heywood's If you know not me, you know Nobody :

Your ship, in which all the king's pictures were,

From Brute unto our Queen Elizabeth,

Drawn in white marble, by a storm at sea

Is wreck'd, and lost.

15 It was a common petitionary phrase to ask a superior to be good lord or good master to the supplicant. So, in 2 Henry IV., iv. 3, Falstaff says to Prince John, “I beseech you, when you come to the Court, stand my good lord"; that is, "be my friend or patron."

1 Trouble, and not honour, is the emphatic word here. "The honour we are doing you puts you to trouble." A similar thought occurs in Macbeth, i. 6: "The love that follows us sometime is our trouble, which still we thank as love."

Have we pass'd through, not without much content
In many singularities; but we saw not

That which my daughter came to look upon,

The statue of her mother.

Paul.

As she lived peerless,

So her dead likeness, I do well believe,
Excels whatever yet you look'd upon,

Or hand of man hath done; therefore I keep it
Lonely, apart. But here it is: prepare

To see the life as lively mock'd as ever

Still sleep mock'd death: behold, and say 'tis well.

[PAULINA draws back a curtain, and discovers HERMIONE standing as a statue.

I like your silence; it the more shows off

Your wonder: but yet speak ;— first, you, my liege :

Comes it not something near?

Leon.

Her natural posture !

Chide me, dear stone, that I may say indeed
Thou art Hermione; or rather, thou art she
In thy not chiding, for she was as tender
As infancy and grace. But yet, Paulina,
Hermione was not so much wrinkled, nothing
So agèd as this seems.

Paul. So much the more our carver's excellence ; Which lets go by some sixteen years, and makes her As 2 she lived now.

Leon.

As now she might have done,

So much to my good comfort, as it is

Now piercing to my soul. O, thus she stood,
Even with such life of majesty,— warm life,
As now it coldly stands,— when first I woo'd her!

2 As for as if occurs very often in Shakespeare.

I am ashamed: does not the stone rebuke me
For being more stone than it? — O royal piece,
There's magic in thy majesty; which has
My evils cónjured to remembrance, and
From thy admiring 3 daughter took the spirits,
Standing like stone with thee!

Per.

And give me leave,

And do not say 'tis superstition that

I kneel, and then implore her blessing. — Lady,
Dear Queen, that ended when I but began,

Give me that hand of yours to kiss.

Paul.

O, patience!

The statue is but newly fix'd, the colours

Not dry.

Cam. My lord, your sorrow was too sore laid on, Which sixteen Winters cannot blow away,

So many Summers dry: scarce any joy

Did ever so long live; no sorrow but

It kill'd itself much sooner.

Polix.

Dear my brother,

Let him that was the cause of this have power

To take off so much grief from you as he

Will piece up in himself.

Paul.

Indeed, my lord,

If I had thought the sight of my poor image

Would thus have wrought you, - for the stone is mine,-
I'd not have show'd it.

Leon.

Do not draw the curtain.

Paul. No longer shall you gaze on't, lest your fancy May think anon it moves.

Would I were dead, but that, methinks, already 4 —

3 Admiring is wondering, here, as usual. See page 255, note I.

4 The expression, "Would I were dead," &c., is neither more nor less