Though bearing misery, I desire my life
Once more to look on him.
FLORIZEL
By his command
Have I here touch’d Sicilia, and from him
Give you all greetings that a king, at friend,
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 sceptres
And those that bear them, living.
LEONTES
O my brother,—
Good gentleman!—the wrongs I have done thee stir
Afresh within me; and these thy offices,
So rarely kind, are as interpreters
Of my behindhand slackness!—Welcome hither,
As is the spring to the earth. And hath he too
Expos’d this paragon to the fearful usage,—
At least ungentle,—of the dreadful Neptune,
To greet a man not worth her pains, much less
The adventure of her person?
FLORIZEL
Good, my lord,
She came from Libya.
LEONTES
Where the warlike Smalus,
That noble honour’d lord, is fear’d and lov’d?
FLORIZEL
Most royal sir, from thence; from him whose daughter
His tears proclaim’d his, parting with her: thence,—
A prosperous south-wind friendly, we have cross’d,
To execute the charge my father gave me,
For visiting your highness: my best train
I have from your Sicilian shores dismiss’d;
Who for Bohemia bend, to signify
Not only my success in Libya, sir,
But my arrival, and my wife’s, in safety
Here, where we are.
LEONTES
The blessèd gods
Purge all infection from our air whilst you
Do climate here! You have a holy father,
A graceful gentleman; against whose person,
So sacred as it is, I have done sin:
For which the heavens, taking angry note,
Have left me issueless; 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 son and daughter now have look’d on,
Such goodly things as you!
[Enter a Lord.]
LORD
Most noble sir,
That which I shall report will bear no credit,
Were not the proof so nigh. Please you, great sir,
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.
LEONTES
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.
FLORIZEL
Camillo has betray’d me;
Whose honour and whose honesty, till now,
Endur’d all weathers.
LORD
Lay’t so to his charge;
He’s with the king your father.
LEONTES
Who? Camillo?
LORD
Camillo, sir; I spake with him; who now
Has these poor men in question. Never saw I
Wretches so quake: they kneel, they kiss the earth;
Forswear themselves as often as they speak:
Bohemia stops his ears, and threatens them
With divers deaths in death.
PERDITA
O my poor father!—
The heaven sets spies upon us, will not have
Our contract celebrated.
LEONTES
You are married?
FLORIZEL
We are not, sir, nor are we like to be;
The stars, I see, will kiss the valleys first:—
The odds for high and low’s alike.
LEONTES
My lord,
Is this the daughter of a king?
FLORIZEL
She is,
When once she is my wife.
LEONTES
That once, I see by your good father’s speed,
Will come on very slowly. I am sorry,
Most sorry, you have broken from his liking,
Where you were tied in duty; and as sorry
Your choice is not so rich in worth as beauty,
That you might well enjoy her.
FLORIZEL
Dear, look up:
Though Fortune, visible an enemy,
Should chase us with my father, power no jot
Hath she to change our loves.—Beseech you, sir,
Remember since you ow’d no more to time
Than I do now: with thought of such affections,
Step forth mine advocate; at your request
My father will grant precious things as trifles.
LEONTES
Would he do so, I’d beg your precious mistress,
Which he counts but a trifle.
PAULINA
Sir, my liege,