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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 dar'st 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. Sicilia. A chapel 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 draws a curtain, and discovers HERMIONE

standing like 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 aged 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,

Let him that was the cause of this have pow'r

To take off so much grief from you as he

Will piece up in himself.

PAULINA.

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.

LEONTES.

Do not draw the curtain.

PAULINA.

No longer shall you gaze on't, lest your fancy

May think anon it moves.

LEONTES.

Let be, let be.

Would I were dead, but that methinks already-

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?

POLIXENES.

Masterly done!

The very life seems warm upon her lip.

LEONTES.

The fixture of her eye has motion in't,

As we are mock'd with art.

PAULINA.

I'll draw the curtain.

My lord's almost so far transported that

He'll think anon it lives.

LEONTES.

O sweet Paulina,

Make me to think so twenty years together!

No settled senses of the world can match

The pleasure of that madness. Let 't alone.

PAULINA.

I am sorry, sir, I have thus far stirr'd