1    O grave and good Paulina, the great comfort
2    That I have had of thee!

3    What, sovereign sir,
4    I did not well I meant well. All my services
5    You have paid home: but that you have vouchsafed,
6    With your crown'd brother and these your contracted
7    Heirs of your kingdoms, my poor house to visit,
8    It is a surplus of your grace, which never
9    My life may last to answer.

10   O Paulina,
11   We honour you with trouble: but we came
12   To see the statue of our queen: your gallery
13   Have we pass'd through, not without much content
14   In many singularities; but we saw not
15   That which my daughter came to look upon,
16   The statue of her mother.

17   As she lived peerless,
18   So her dead likeness, I do well believe,
19   Excels whatever yet you look'd upon
20   Or hand of man hath done; therefore I keep it
21   Lonely, apart. But here it is: prepare
22   To see the life as lively mock'd as ever
23   Still sleep mock'd death: behold, and say 'tis well.
24   I like your silence, it the more shows off
25   Your wonder: but yet speak; first, you, my liege,
26   Comes it not something near?

27   Her natural posture!
28   Chide me, dear stone, that I may say indeed
29   Thou art Hermione; or rather, thou art she
30   In thy not chiding, for she was as tender
31   As infancy and grace. But yet, Paulina,
32   Hermione was not so much wrinkled, nothing
33   So aged as this seems.

34   O, not by much.

35   So much the more our carver's excellence;
36   Which lets go by some sixteen years and makes her
37   As she lived now.

38   As now she might have done,
39   So much to my good comfort, as it is
40   Now piercing to my soul. O, thus she stood,
41   Even with such life of majesty, warm life,
42   As now it coldly stands, when first I woo'd her!
43   I am ashamed: does not the stone rebuke me
44   For being more stone than it? O royal piece,
45   There's magic in thy majesty, which has
46   My evils conjured to remembrance and
47   From thy admiring daughter took the spirits,
48   Standing like stone with thee.

49   And give me leave,
50   And do not say 'tis superstition, that
51   I kneel and then implore her blessing. Lady,
52   Dear queen, that ended when I but began,
53   Give me that hand of yours to kiss.

54   O, patience!
55   The statue is but newly fix'd, the colour's Not dry.

56   My lord, your sorrow was too sore laid on,
57   Which sixteen winters cannot blow away,
58   So many summers dry; scarce any joy
59   Did ever so long live; no sorrow
60   But kill'd itself much sooner.

61   Dear my brother,
62   Let him that was the cause of this have power
63   To take off so much grief from you as he
64   Will piece up in himself.

65   Indeed, my lord,
66   If I had thought the sight of my poor image
67   Would thus have wrought you,--for the stone is mine--
68   I'ld not have show'd it.

69   Do not draw the curtain.

70   No longer shall you gaze on't, lest your fancy
71   May think anon it moves.

72   Let be, let be.
73   Would I were dead, but that, methinks, already--
74   What was he that did make it? See, my lord,
75   Would you not deem it breathed? and that those veins
76   Did verily bear blood?

77   Masterly done:
78   The very life seems warm upon her lip.

79   The fixture of her eye has motion in't,
80   As we are mock'd with art.

81   I'll draw the curtain:
82   My lord's almost so far transported that
83   He'll think anon it lives.

84   O sweet Paulina,
85   Make me to think so twenty years together!
86   No settled senses of the world can match
87   The pleasure of that madness. Let 't alone.

88   I am sorry, sir, I have thus far stirr'd you: but
89   I could afflict you farther.

90   Do, Paulina;
91   For this affliction has a taste as sweet
92   As any cordial comfort. Still, methinks,
93   There is an air comes from her: what fine chisel
94   Could ever yet cut breath? Let no man mock me,
95   For I will kiss her.

96   Good my lord, forbear:
97   The ruddiness upon her lip is wet;
98   You'll mar it if you kiss it, stain your own
99   With oily painting. Shall I draw the curtain?

100  No, not these twenty years.

101  So long could I
102  Stand by, a looker on.

103  Either forbear,
104  Quit presently the chapel, or resolve you
105  For more amazement. If you can behold it,
106  I'll make the statue move indeed, descend
107  And take you by the hand; but then you'll think--
108  Which I protest against--I am assisted
109  By wicked powers.

110  What you can make her do,
111  I am content to look on: what to speak,
112  I am content to hear; for 'tis as easy
113  To make her speak as move.

114  It is required
115  You do awake your faith. Then all stand still;
116  On: those that think it is unlawful business
117  I am about, let them depart.

118  Proceed:
119  No foot shall stir.

120  Music, awake her; strike!
Music
121  'Tis time; descend; be stone no more; approach;
122  Strike all that look upon with marvel. Come,
123  I'll fill your grave up: stir, nay, come away,
124  Bequeath to death your numbness, for from him
125  Dear life redeems you. You perceive she stirs:
HERMIONE comes down
126  Start not; her actions shall be holy as
127  You hear my spell is lawful: do not shun her
128  Until you see her die again; for then
129  You kill her double. Nay, present your hand:
130  When she was young you woo'd her; now in age
131  Is she become the suitor?

132  O, she's warm!
133  If this be magic, let it be an art
134  Lawful as eating.

135  She embraces him.

136  She hangs about his neck:
137  If she pertain to life let her speak too.

138  Ay, and make't manifest where she has lived,
139  Or how stolen from the dead.

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

147  You gods, look down
148  And from your sacred vials pour your graces
149  Upon my daughter's head! Tell me, mine own.
150  Where hast thou been preserved? where lived? how found
151  Thy father's court? for thou shalt hear that I,
152  Knowing by Paulina that the oracle
153  Gave hope thou wast in being, have preserved
154  Myself to see the issue.

155  There's time enough for that;
156  Lest they desire upon this push to trouble
157  Your joys with like relation. Go together,
158  You precious winners all; your exultation
159  Partake to every one. I, an old turtle,
160  Will wing me to some wither'd bough and there
161  My mate, that's never to be found again,
162  Lament till I am lost.

163  O, peace, Paulina!
164  Thou shouldst a husband take by my consent,
165  As I by thine a wife: this is a match,
166  And made between's by vows. Thou hast found mine;
167  But how, is to be question'd; for I saw her,
168  As I thought, dead, and have in vain said many
169  A prayer upon her grave. I'll not seek far--
170  For him, I partly know his mind--to find thee
171  An honourable husband. Come, Camillo,
172  And take her by the hand, whose worth and honesty
173  Is richly noted and here justified
174  By us, a pair of kings. Let's from this place.
175  What! look upon my brother: both your pardons,
176  That e'er I put between your holy looks
177  My ill suspicion. This is your son-in-law,
178  And son unto the king, who, heavens directing,
179  Is troth-plight to your daughter. Good Paulina,
180  Lead us from hence, where we may leisurely
181  Each one demand an answer to his part
182  Perform'd in this wide gap of time since first
183  We were dissever'd: hastily lead away.