Cleomines.
Sir, you have done enough, and have perform'd
A saint-like sorrow: no fault could you make,
Which you have not redeem'd; indeed paid down
More penitence, than done trespass. At the last
Do as the heavens have done, forget your evil;
With them forgive your self.

Leo.
Whilst I remember
Her and her virtues, I cannot forget

My blemishes in them, and so still think of
The wrong I did my self; which was so much
That heir-less it hath made my kingdom, and
Destroy'd the sweet'st companion that e'er man
Bred his hopes out of, true.

Pau.
Too true, my lord,
If one by one you wedded all the world,
Or from the all that are took something good,
To make a perfect woman; she you kill'd
Wou'd be unparallel'd.

Leo.
I think so. Kill'd?
She I kill'd? I did so, but thou strik'st me
Sorely, to say I did; it is as bitter
Upon thy tongue, as in my thought. Now, good now,
Say so but seldom.

Cleo.
Not at all, good lady;
You might have spoke a thousand things that would
Have done the time more benefit, and grac'd
Your kindness better.

Pau.
You are one of those
Would have him wed again.

Dio.
If you would not so,
You pity not the state, nor the remembrance
Of his most soveraign name; consider little,
What dangers (by his highness' fail of issue)
May drop upon his kingdom, and devour
Incertain lookers on. What were more holy,
Than to rejoice the former Queen is well?
What holier, than for royalty's repair,
For present comfort, and for future good,
To bless the bed of majesty again
With a sweet fellow to't?

Pau.
There is none worthy,

(Respecting her that's gone;) besides, the Gods
Will have fulfill'd their secret purposes:
For has not the divine Apollo said,
Is't not the tenor of his oracle,
That King Leontes shall not have an heir,
'Till his lost child be found? which, that it shall,
Is all as monstrous to our human reason,
As my Antigonus to break his grave,
And come again to me; who, on my life,
Did perish with the infant. 'Tis your counsel,
My lord should to the heav'ns be contrary,
Oppose against their wills. Care not for issue,
The crown will find an heir. Great Alexander
Left his to th' worthiest; so his successor
Was like to be the best.

Leo.
Good Paulina,
Who hast the memory of Hermione
I know in honour: O, that ever I
Had squar'd me to thy counsel; then, even now
I might have look'd upon my Queen's full eyes,
Have taken treasure from her lips!

Pau.
And left them
More rich, for what they yielded.

Leo.
Thou speak'st truth:
No more such wives, therefore no wife; one worse
And better us'd would make her sainted spirit
Again possess her corps, and on this stage,
(Where we offenders now appear) soul-vext,
And begin, why to me?

Pau.
Had she such power,
She had just cause.

Leo.
She had, and would incense me
To murther her I married.

Pau.
I should so:
Were I the ghost that walk'd, I'd bid you mark
Her eye, and tell me for what dull part in't
You chose her; then I'd shriek, that even your ears
Should rift to hear me, and the words that follow'd
Should be, Remember mine.

Leo.
Stars, stars,
And all eyes else, dead coals: fear thou no wife:
I'll have no wife, Paulina.

Pau.
Will you swear
Never to marry, but by my free leave?

Leo.
Never, Paulina, so be bless'd my spirit.

Pau.
Then, good my lords, bear witness to his oath.

Cleo.
You tempt him over-much.

Pau.
Unless another,
As like Hermione as is her picture,
Affront his eye.

Cleo.
Good madam, pray have done.

Pau.
Yet if my lord will marry; if you will, Sir;
No remedy, but you will; give me the office
To chuse you a Queen; she shall not be so young
As was your former; but she shall be such,
As, walk'd your first Queen's ghost, it should take joy
To see her in your arms,

Leo.
My true Paulina,
We shall not marry, 'till thou bid'st us.

Pau.
That
Shall be, when your first Queen's again in breath:
Never 'till then.

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