Where no priest shovels in wretch ! dust.-O cursed, If you may please to think I love the king; That knew'st this was the prince, and would'st | adventure To mingle faith with him.-Undone ! undone i If I might die within this hour, I have liv'd To die when I desire. Flo. Why look you so upon me? I am but sorry, not afeard; delay'd, [Exit. which is Your gracious self; embrace but my direction, (If your more ponderous and settled project May suffer alteration,) on mine honour I'll point you where you shall have such re- As shall become your highness; where you may More straining on, for plucking back; not fol- There's no disjunction to be made, but by, lowing My leash unwillingly. Cam. Gracious my lord, You know your father's temper: at this time He will allow no speech,-which, I do guess, You do not purpose to him;-and as hardly Will he endure your sight as yet, I fear: Then, till the fury of his highness settle, Come not before him. Flo. I not purpose it. I think, Camillo. Cum. Even be, my lord. As heavens forefend! your ruin :) marry her; And (with my best endeavours, in your absence,) Your discontenting father strive to qualify, And bring him up to liking. Flo. How, Camillo, May this, almost a miracle, be done? That I may call thee something more than man, And, after that, trust to thee. Cum. Have you thought on A place, whereto you'll go ? Per. How often have I told you, 'twould be But as the unthought-on accident + is guilty thus ? How often said, my dignity would last But till 'twere known? Flo. It cannot fail, but by The violation of my faith; And then Let nature crush the sides o'the earth together, Cam. Be advis'd. Flo. I am; and by my fancy:+ if my reason Will thereto be obedient, I bave reason; If not, my senses, better pleased with madness, Do bid it welcome. Cam. This is desperate, Sir. Flo. So call it but it does fulfil my vow; In unknown fathoms, will I break my oath When he shall miss me, (as, in faith, I mean not For this design. What course I mean to hold, Cam. O my lord, To what we wildly do; so we profess Ourselves to be the slaves of chance, and flies Of every wind that blows. Cam. Then list to me: [pose, This follows,-if you will not change your purBut undergo this flight ;-Make for Sicília; And there present yourself, and your fair prin cess, (Fo so, I see, she must be,) 'fore Leontes; The partner of your bed. Methinks, I see ness, As 'twere i'the father's person: kisses the hands Flo. Worthy Camillo, Cam. Sent by the king your father The which shall point you forth at every sitting, What you must say; that he shall not perceive, But that you have your father's bosom there, And speak his very heart. Flo. I am bound to you: There is some sap in this. Cam. A course more promising Than a wild dedication of yourselves To unpath'd waters, undream'd shores; most certain, To miseries enough: no hope to help you; Whose fresh complexion and whose beart to- Per. One of these is true: I think, affliction may subdue the cheek, Cam. Yea, say you so ? [gether There shall not, at your father's house, these seven years, Be born another such. Flo. My good Camillo, She is as forward of her breeding, as I'the rear of birth. For discontented. This unthought-on accident is the unexpected dis covery made by Poiixenes. The council-days were called the sittings, + Love. 6 Conquer. Cam. I cannot say, tis pity Aut. Are you in earnest, Sir?-I smell the [Aside. She lacks instructions; for she seems a mistress trick of it.— Per. Your pardon, Sir, for this; I'll blush you thanks. Flo. My prettiest Perdita.- But, oh! the thorns we stand upon !-Camillo,- The medicine of our house !-bow shall we do? Cam. My lord, Fear none of this: I think, you know my fortunes The scene you play, were mine. For instance, That you may know you shall not want,-one : Flo. Despatch, I pr'ythee. Aut. Indeed, I have had earnest; but I cannot with conscience take it. Cam. Unbuckle, unbuckle. [FLO. and AUTOL. exchange garments. Fortunate mistress,-let my prophecy Come home to you!-you must retire yourself Into some covert: take your sweetheart's ha And pluck it o'er your brows; muffle your face; Enter AUTOLYCUS. [CAMILLO, FLORIZEL, and PERDITA, Cam. Nay, but my letters by this means being So soon as you arrive, shall clear that doubt. Cam. Shall satisfy your father. All, that you speak, shows fair. Cam. Who have we bere ? [Seeing AUTOLYCUS. We'll make an instrument of this; omit Nothing, may give us aid. Aut. If they have overheard me now,-why hanging. [Aside. Cam. How now, good fellow? W) shakest thou so? Fear not, man; here's no harm. atended to thee. Aut. I am a poor fellow, Sir. Cam. Why, be so still here's nobody will steal that from thee: Yet, for the outside of thy poverty, we must make an exchange: therefore, discase thee instantly, (thou must think, there's necessity in',) and change garments with this gentleman: Though the penny-worth, on his side, be the worst, yet hold thee, there's some boot. Aut. I am a poor fellow, Sir :-I know ye well enough. [Aside. Cam. Nay, pr'ythee, despatch: the gentleman is half flayed already. A little ball made of perfumes, and worn to prevent infection in times of plague. t Birds. 1 Something over and above. 6 Stripped. Dismantle you and as you can, disliken Per. I see, the play so lies, Have you done there ? Flo. Should I now meet my father, Cam. Nay, you shall have No hat:-Come, lady, come.-Farewell, my friend. Aut. Adieu, Sir. Flo. O Perdita, what have we twain forgot? Of this escape, and whither they are bound; [Exeunt FLORIZEL, PERDITA, and CAMILLO. Aut. I understand the business, I hear it: To have an open ear, a quick eye, and a nimble hand, is necessary for a cut-purse; a good nose is requisite also to smell out work for the other senses. I see, this is the time that the unjust man doth thrive, What an exchange had this been, without boot? What a boot is here, with this exchange? Sure, the gods do this year connive at us, and we may do any thing extempore. The prince himself is about a piece of iniquity; stealing away from his father, with his clog at his heels: If I thought it were not a piece of honesty to acquaint the king withal, I would do't: I hold it the more knavery to conceal it and therein am 1 constant to my profession. Enter CLOWN and SHEPHERD. Aside, aside-here is more matter for a hot brain Every lane's end, every shop, church, session, hanging, yields a careful man work. Clo. See, see; what a man you are now! there is no other way, but to tell the king she's a changeling, and none of your flesh and blood. Shep. Nay, but bear me. Clo. Nay, but hear me. Shep. Go to then. Clo. She being none of your flesh and blood your flesh and blood has not offended the king: and, so, your flesh and blood is not to be punished by him. Show those things you found about her; those sacred things, all but what she has with her: This being done, let the law go whistle; 1 warrant you. Shep. I will tell the king all, every word, yea, and his son's pranks too; who, I may say, is no honest man neither to his father, nor to me, to go about to make me the king's brotherin-law. Clo. Indeed, brother-in-law was the furthest off you could have been to him; and then your blood had been the dearer, by I know how much an ounce. [Aside. Aut. Very wisely; puppies! Shep. Well; let us to the king; there is that in this fardel, * will make him scratch his beard. Aut. I know not what impediment this complaint may be to the flight of my master. Clo. 'Pray heartily be be at palace. Aut. Though I am not naturally honest, I am so sometimes by chance :-Let me pocket up my pediar's excrement. +-[Takes off his false beard.] How now, rustics? whither are you bound? Shep. To the palace, an it like your worship. Aut. Your affairs there? what? with whom? the condition of that fardel, the place of your dwelling, your names, your ages, of what haying, I breeding, and any thing that is fitting to be known, discover. Clo. We are but plain fellows, Sir. Aut. A lie; you are rough and hairy: Let me have no lying; it becomes none but tradesmen, and they often give us soldiers the lie: but we pay them for it with stamped coin, not stab. bing steel; therefore they do not give us the lie. Clo. Your worship had like to have given us one, if you had not taken yourself with the manner. § Shep. Are you a courtier, an't like you, Sir? Aut. Whether it like ine, or no, I am a courtier. See'st thou not the air of the court, in these enfoldings? bath not my gait in it, the measure of the court? receives not thy nose court-odour from me? reflect I not on thy baseness, court-contempt? Think'st thou, for that I insinuate, or toze ¶ from thee thy business, I am therefore no courtier? I am courtier, capa-pe; and one that will either push on, or pluck back thy business there: whereupon 1 cominaud thee to open thy affair. Shep. My business, Sir, is to the king. Clo. Advocate's the court-word for a pheasant; say, you have none. soft for him, say 1: Draw our throne into a sheep-cote ! all deaths are too few, the sharpest too easy. Clo. Has the old man e'er a son, Sir, do you hear, an't like you, Sir? Aut. He has a son, who shall be flayed alive; then, 'nointed over with honey, set on the bead of a wasp's nest; then stand, till he be three quarters and a drain dead: then recovered again with aqua-vitæ, or some other hot infusion: then, raw as he is, and in the hottest day prognostication proclaims, shall he be set against a brick-wall, the suu looking with a southward eye upon him; where he is to behold him, with flies blown to death. But what talk we of these traitorly rascals, whose miseries are to be smiled at, their offences being so capital? Tell me, (for you seem to be honest plain men,) what you have to the king: being something gently considered, † I'll bring you where he is aboard, tender your persons to his presence, whisper him in your behalfs; and, if it be in man, besides the king to effect your suits, here is man shall do it. Clo. He seems to be of great authority: close with him, give him gold; and though authority be a stubborn bear, yet he is oft led by the nose with gold show the inside of your purse to the outside of his hand, and no more ado: Remember stoned, and flayed alive. Shep. An't please you, Sir, to undertake the business for us, here is that gold I have: I'l make it as much more and leave this young man ia pawn, till I bring it you. Aut. After I have done what I promised? Aut. Well give me the moiety :- Are you a party in this business? Clo. In soine sort, Sir: but though my case be a pitiful one, I hope I shall not be flayed out of it." Aut. O that's the case of the shepherd's son: Shep. None, Sir? I have no pheasant, cock-Hang him, he'll be made an example. nor hen. Aut. How bless'd are we, that are not simple men I Yet nature might have made me as these are, Therefore I'll not disdain. Clo. This cannot be but a great courtier. Shep. His garments are rich, but he wears them not handsoinely. Clo. He seems to be the more noble in being fantastical; a great man, P'il warrant; I know, by the picking on's teeth. Aut. The fardel there? what's i'the fardel? Wherefore that box? Clo. Comfort, good comfort: we must to the king, and show our strauge sights; he must know, 'tis none of your daughter nor my sister; we are gone else. Sir, I will give you as much 2, this old man does when the business is performed; and remain, as he says, your pawn, till it be brought you. Aut. I will trust you. Walk before toward the sea-side; go on the right hand; I will look upon the hedge, and follow you. Clo. We are blessed in this man, as I may say, even blessed. Shep. Let's before, as he bids us: he was pro Shep. Sir, there lies such secrets in this far-vided to do us good." Aut. Age, thou hast lost thy labour. Aut. The king is not at the palace; he is gone aboard a new ship to purge melancholy, and air himself; For, if thou be'st capable of things serious, thou must know, the king is full of grief. Shep. So 'tis said, Sir; about his son, that should have married a shepherd's daughter. Aut. If that shepherd be not in hand-fast, let him fly; the curses he shall have, the tortures he shall feel, will break the back of man, the beart of monster. Clo. Think you so, Sir? [Exeunt SHEPHERD and CLOWN. Aut. If I had a mind to be hon st, I see fortune would not suffer me; she drops booties in my mouth. I am courted now with a double occasion; gold, and a means to do the prince my master good; which, who knows how that may turn back to my advancement ? I will bring these two moles, these blind ones, aboard him; if he think it fit to shore them again, and that the complaint they have to the king concerns him nothing, let him call me, rogue, for being so far officious; for I am proof against that title, and what shame else belongs to't: To bin will I present them, there may be matter in it. [Exit. Aut. Not he alone shall suffer what wit can make heavy, and vengeance bitter; but those that are germane ** to him, though removed fifty times, shall all come under the hangman: which; SCENE 1.-Sicilia.-A Room in the Palace though it be great pity, yet it is necessary. An ACT V. of LLONTES. and others. old sheep-whistling rogue, a ram-tender, to offer Enter LEONTES, CLEOMENES, DION, PAULINA, to have his daughter come into grace! Some say, he shall be stoned; but that death is too • Bundle, parcel 1 Estate, property. Cleo. Sir, you have done enough, and have The stately tread of courtiers. I cajole or force. .. Related. ↑ Being handsomely bribed. The hottest day foretold in the almanack. 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 yourself. Leon. Whilst I remember Her, and ber virtues, I cannot forget My blemishes in them; and so still think of The wrong I did myself: which was so much, That heirless it hath made my kingdom; and Destroy'd the sweet'st companion, that e'er man Bred his hopes out of. Paul. True, 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, Would be unparallel'd. Leon. I think so. Kill'd! She I kill'd? I did so: but thou strik 'st me Upon my tongue, as in my thought: Now, good Cleo. Not at all, good lady: [now, You might have spoken a thousand things that would Have done the time more benefit, and grac'd Paul. You are one of those, Would have him wed again. Dion. If you would not so, You pity not the state, nor the remembrance Paul. There is none worthy, Respecting ber that's gone. Besides, the gods Is't not the tenour of his oracle, Till his lost child be found? which, that it shall, Is all as monstrous to our human reason, Leon. His princess, say you, with him? Gent. Ay; the most peerless piece of earth, I think, That e'er the sun shone bright on. Paul. O Hermione, As every present time doth boast itself Gent. Pardon, madam : The one I have almost forgot; (your pardon,) Will have your tongue too. This is such a crea ture, Would she begin a sect, might quench the zeal of all professors else: make proselytes Of who she but bid follow. Paul. How? not women? Gent. Women will love her, that she is a wo He dies to me again, when talk'd of: sure, Your mother was most true to wedlock, prince; Amity too, of your brave father; whom, Flo. By his command Lord. Here in the city; I now came from bim. I speak amazedly; and it becomes My marvel, and my message. To your court Flo. Camillo has betray'd me; Whose honour, and whose honesty, till now, Lord. Lay't so, to his charge; Lord. Camillo, Sir; I spake with him; who now Has these poor men in question. Never saw I Wretches so quake: they kneel, they kiss the earth; Forswear themselves as often as they speak: Per. O my poor father I The heaven sets spies upon us, will not have Leon. You are married? Flo. We are not, Sir, nor are we like to be; The stars, I see, will kiss the valleys first :The odds for high and low's alike.t Leon. My lord, Is this the daughter of a king? When once she is my wife. Leon. That once, I see, by your good father's speed, Will come on very slowly. I am sorry, Flo. Dear, look up: : Though fortune, visible an enemy Should chase us, with my father; power no jot Remember since you ow'd no more to time Even in these looks I made.-But your petition Is yet unanswer'd; I will to your father; I am a friend to them, and you: upon which errand I now go toward him; therefore, follow me, SCENE II.-The same.-Before the Palace. 1 Gent. I was by at the opening of the fardel, heard the old shepherd deliver the manner how be found it whereupon, after a little amazedness, we were all commanded out of the chamber; only this, methought I heard the shepherd say, he found the child. it. Aut. I would most gladly know the issue of + Seize, arrest. 1 Descent or wealth. |