THE WINTER'S TALE. Sidney Lee

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.

       AUTOLYCUS

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

       CLOWN

       Ay, and have been so any time these four hours.

       SHEPHERD

       And so have I, boy!

       CLOWN

       So you have:—but I was a gentleman born before my father; for the king’s son took me by the hand and called me brother; and then the two kings called my father brother; and then the prince, my brother, and the princess, my sister, called my father father; and so we wept; and there was the first gentlemanlike tears that ever we shed.

       SHEPHERD

       We may live, son, to shed many more.

       CLOWN

       Ay; or else ‘twere hard luck, being in so preposterous estate as we are.

       AUTOLYCUS

       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.

       SHEPHERD

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

       CLOWN

       Thou wilt amend thy life?

       AUTOLYCUS

       Ay, an it like your good worship.

       CLOWN

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

       SHEPHERD

       You may say it, but not swear it.

       CLOWN

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

       SHEPHERD

       How if it be false, son?

       CLOWN

       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 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.

       AUTOLYCUS

       I will prove so, sir, to my power.

       CLOWN

       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.—Hark! the kings and the princes, our kindred, are going to see the queen’s picture. Come, follow us: we’ll be thy good masters.

       [Exeunt.]

      SCENE III. The same. A Room in PAULINA’s house.

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

       LEONTES

       O grave and good Paulina, the great comfort

       That I have had of thee!

       PAULINA

       What, sovereign sir,

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

       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.

       LEONTES

       O Paulina,

       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.

       PAULINA

       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 ‘tis well.

       [PAULINA undraws 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?

       LEONTES

       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.

       POLIXENES

       O, not by much!

       PAULINA

       So much the more our carver’s excellence;

       Which lets go by some sixteen years, and makes her

       As she liv’d now.

       LEONTES

       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!

       PERDITA

       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.

       PAULINA

       O, patience!

       The statue is but newly fix’d, the colour’s

       Not dry.

       CAMILLO

       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 kill’d itself much sooner.

       POLIXENES

       Dear my brother,