You have paid home: but that you have vouchsaf'd,
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.

We honour you with trouble: But we came

To see the statue of our queen: your gallery
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 liv'd 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, 't is well.

[PAULINA undraws a curtain, and discovers 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 aged, as this seems.

POL.

O, not by much.

PAUL. So much the more our carver's excellence;
Which lets go by some sixteen years, and makes her
As she liv'd 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!
I am asham'd: 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 conjur'd to remembrance; and
From thy admiring daughter took the spirits,
Standing like stone with thee!

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.

LEON.

POL.

Let be, let be.

Would I were dead, but that, methinks, already a

What was he that did make it ?-See, my lord,

Would you not deem it breath'd? and that those veins
Did verily bear blood?

Masterly done:

a Tieck understands this-" Would I were dead," if that could reanimate Hermione-" but that -methinks-already"-the sculptor has done it-made her breathe-given her motion-" what was he that did make it?" It is scarcely necessary to conjecture how Leontes would have closed the sentence: for the abrupt breaking off is one of those touches of nature with which Shak spere knew how to give passion an eloquence beyond words.

PAUL. I am sorry, sir, I have thus far stirr'd you: but
I could afflict you further.

PAUL.

That she is living,
Were it but told you, should be hooted at
Like an old tale; but it appears she lives,
Though yet she speak not. Mark a little while.-
Please you to interpose, fair madam; kneel,
And pray your mother's blessing.—Turn, good lady;
Our Perdita is found.

HER.

[Embracing her.

[Presenting PER., who kneels to HER.

You gods, look down,

And from your sacred vials pour your graces

Upon my daughter's head!-Tell me, mine own,

Where hast thou been preserv'd? where liv'd? how found

Thy father's court? for thou shalt hear, that I,—

Knowing by Paulina, that the oracle

Gave hope thou wast in being,-have preserv'd
Myself, to see the issue.

PAUL.

There's time enough for that;
Lest they desire, upon this push, to trouble
Your joys with like relation.-Go together,
You precious winners all; your exultation
Partake to every one. I, an old turtle,

Will wing me to some wither'd bough, and there
My mate, that's never to be found again,
Lament till I am lost.

Thou shouldst a husband take by my consent,

As I by thine, a wife: this is a match,

And made between 's by vows. Thou hast found mine;

But how, is to be question'd: for I saw her,

As I thought, dead; and have, in vain, said many

A prayer upon her grave: I'll not seek far

(For him, I partly know his mind) to find thee.

An honourable husband:-Come, Camillo,

And take her by the hand: whose worth, and honesty,
Is richly noted; and here justified

By us, a pair of kings.-Let's from this place.-
What?-Look upon my brother:-both your pardons,
That e'er I put between your holy looks

My ill suspicion. This your son-in-law,

And son unto the king, (whom heavens directing,)
Is troth-plight to your daughter.-Good Paulina,
Lead us from hence; where we may leisurely
Each one demand, and answer to his part
Perform'd in this wide gap of time, since first

We were dissever'd: Hastily lead away.

Is she become the suitor!"-Act V., Sc. 3.]

[Exeunt.