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And all eyes elfe, dead coals!-fear thou no wife, I'll have no wife, Paulina.

PAUL.

Will you fwear

Never to marry, but by my free leave?

LEON. Never, Paulina; fo, be blefs'd my fpirit!
PAUL. Then, good my lords, bear witnefs to

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Yet, if my lord will marry,if you will, fir,
No remedy, but you will; give me the office
To choose you a queen: fhe fhall not be fo young
As was your former; but flre fhall be fuch,

As, walk'd your first queen's ghoft, it should take joy
To fee her in your arms.

LEON.

My true Paulina, We fhall not marry, till thou bidd'ft us.

PAUL.

That

Shall be, when your firft queen's again in breath; Never till then.

5 Affront his eye. To affront, is to meet. JOHNSON. So, in Cymbeline:

"Your preparation can affront no lefs

"Than what you hear of." STEEVENS.

6 Paul. I have done. Thefe three words in the old copy make part of the preceding fpeech. The prefent regulation, which-is clearly right, was fuggefted by Mr. Steevens.

MALONE.

Enter a Gentleman.

GENT. One that gives out himself prince Florizel,
Son of Polixenes, with his princess, (the

The fairest I have yet beheld,) defires access
To your high presence.

LEON.

What with him? he comes not
Like to his father's greatness: his approach,

So out of circumftance, and fudden, tells us,
'Tis not vifitation fram'd, but forc'd
By need, and accident. What train?

GENT.

And thofe but mean.

LEON.

But few,

His princess, fay you, with him?

GENT. Ay; the most peerless piece of earth, I

think,

That e'er the fun fhone bright on.

PAUL.

O Hermione,

1

As every prefent time doth boaft itself
Above a better, gone;' fo muft thy grave

8

Give way to what's feen now." Sir, you yourself
Have faid, and writ fo, (but your writing now
Is colder than that theme,) She had not been,
Nor was not to be equall'd; thus your verfe
Flow'd with her beauty once; 'tis fhrewdly ebb'd,

-fo muft thy grave

Give way to what's feen now. ] Thy grave here means-thy beauties, which are buried in the grave; the continent for the contents. EDWARDS.

8 ——— Sir, you 'yourself

Have faid, and writ fo,] The reader muft obferve, that fo relates not to what precedes, but to what follows; that he had not been -equall'd. JOHNSON.

9 Is colder than that theme,] i. e. than the lifeless body of Her mione, the theme or fubject of your writing. MALONE,

To fay, you have feen a better.

Pardon, madam:

GENT. The one I have almoft forgot; (your pardon,) The other, when she has obtain'd your eye, Will have your tongue too. This is fuch a crea

ture, 9

Would the begin a fect, might quench the zeal
Of all profeffors elfe; make profelytes

Of who fhe but bid follow.

How? not women?

PAUL. GENT. Women will love her, that fhe is a woman More worth than any man; men that she is The rareft of all women.

LEON.

Go, Cleomenes;

Yourself, affifted with your honour'd friends,
Bring them to our embracement.-Still 'tis ftrange,
[Exeunt CLEOMENES, Lords, and Gentleman.
He thus fhould fteal upon us.

Had our prince,

PAUL. (Jewel of children,) feen this hour, he had pair'd Well with this lord; there was not full a month Between their births.

LEON.

Pr'ythee, no more; thou know'ft,* He dies to me again, when talk'd of: fure, When I fhall fee this gentleman, thy speeches Will bring me to confider that, which may Unfurnish me of reafon.-They are come.-

9 This is fuch a creature,] The word fuch, which is wanting in the old copy, was judiciously supplied by Sir T. Hanmer, for the fake of metre. STEEVENS.

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Prythee, no more; thou know'ft, ] The old copy redundantly

reads

-

"Pr'ythee, no more; ceafe; thou know'ft. ". Ceafe, I believe, was a mere marginal glofs or explanation of no more, and, injuriously to metre, had crept into the text.

STEEVENS.

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

Your mother was most 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 should call you brother,
As I did him and fpeak of fomething, wildly
By us perform❜d before. Moft dearly welcome!
And your fair princefs, goddefs)—Ó, alas!
I loft a couple, that 'twixt heaven and earth
Might thus have flood, 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.

3

By his command

Have I here touch'd Sicilia; and from him
Give you all greetings, that a king, at friend, 4

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For this incorrectness 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 fubfequent editors. MALONE.

As I fuppofe this incorre& 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:

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"I might have look'd upon my queen's full eyes — Again, p. 202:

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Strike all that look upon with marvel." STEEVENS. -that a king, at friend,] Thus the old copy; but having

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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
Meafur'd, to look upon you; whom he loves

(He bade me fay fo,) more than all the scepters,
And thofe that bear them, living.

LEON.

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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 fpring to the earth.
And hath he too
Expos'd this paragon to the fearful usage
(At leaft, 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,

whofe daughter

4

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

29

met with no example of fuch phrafeology, I fufpect our author wrote and friend. At has already been printed for and in the play

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before us. MALONE.

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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.

4

whofe daughter

STEEVENS.

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

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