The dibble in earth to set one slip of them:
No more than, were I painted, I would wish
This youth should say, 'twere well-Here's
flowers for you;

Hot lavender, mints, savory, marjoram ;
The marigold, that goes to bed with th' sun,
And with him rises weeping; these are flowers
Of middle summer, and, I think, they are given
To men of middle age: You are very welcome.
Cam. I should leave grazing, were I of your
flock,

And only live by gazing.
Out, alas!

Per.

You'd be so lean, that blasts of January Would blow you through and through.-Now, my fair'st friend,

[might

I would I had some flowers o' the spring, that
Become your time of day-O, Proserpine,
For the flowers now, that, frighted, thou let'st fall
From Dis'st waggon! daffodils,

That come before the swallow dares, and take
The winds of March with beauty; violets, dim,
But sweeter than the lids of Juno's eyes,
Or Cytherea's breath; pale primroses,
That die unmarried, ere they can behold
Bright Phoebus in his strength; bold oxlips, and
The crown-imperial; lilies of all kinds,
The flower-de-luce being one! O! these I lack,
To make you garlands of; and, my sweet friend,
To strew him o'er and o'er. Come, take your
flowers:

Methinks, I play as I have seen them do,
In Whitsun' pastorals: sure, this robe of mine
Does change my disposition.

Flo.

What you do [sweet, Still betters what is done. When you speak, I'd have you do it ever: when you sing, I'd have you buy and sell so; so give alms; Pray so; and, for the ord'ring your affairs, To sing them too: When you do dance, I wish

| Your praises are too large: but that your youth,
And the true blood which fairly peeps through 't,
Do plainly give you out an unstain'd shepherd,
With wisdom I might fear, my Doricles,
You woo'd me the false way.
Flo.
I think, you have
As little skill to fear, as I have purpose

To put you to 't.-But, come.-Our dance, I pray :
Your hand, my Perdita: so turtles pair,
That never mean to part.

Per.

ever

I'll swear for 'em.

Pol. This is the prettiest low-born lass that [seems, Ran on the green sward: nothing she does or But smacks of something greater than herself; Too noble for this place.

Cam. He tells her something,
[she is
That makes her blood look out: Good sooth,
The queen of curds and cream.
Come on, strike up.

Clo.
Dor. Mopsa must be your mistress.
Mop.
In good time!

Clo. Not a word, a word; we stand upon our

Here a dance of Shepherds and Shepherdesses. Pol. Pray, good shepherd, what fair swain is this

Which dances with your daughter?

[himself Shep. They call him Doricles; and he boasts To have a worthy feeding: but I have it Upon his own report, and I believe it; [ter; He looks like sooth: He says, he loves my daughI think so too: for never gaz'd the moon Upon the water, as he'll stand, and read, As 't were, my daughter's eyes: and, to be plain, I think there is not half a kiss to choose Who loves another best.

She dances featly.||

Pol. Shep. So she does any thing; though I report it, That should be silent: if young Doricles Do light upon her, she shall bring him that Which he not dreams of.

Enter a Servant.

Serv. O master, if you did but hear the pedier at the door, you would never dance again after a tabor and pipe; no, the bagpipe could not move you he sings several tunes faster than you'll tell money; he utters them as he had eaten ballads, and all men's cars grew to his tunes.

Clo. He could never come better: he shall come in: I love a ballad but even too well; if it be doleful matter, merrily set down, or a very pleasant thing indeed, and sung lamentably.

Serv. He hath songs, for man, or woman, of all sizes; no milliner can so fit his customers with Pol. This is a brave fellow. [gloves.

Clo. Believe me, thou talk'st of an admirableconceited fellow. Has he any unbraided wares ?¶ Serv. He hath ribands of all the colours i' the rainbow; points, more than all the lawyers in Bohemia can learnedly handle, though they come to him by the gross; inkles, caddisses,** cambrics, lawns; why, he sings 'em over, as they were gods or goddesses."

Clo. Pr'ythee, bring him in; and let him approach singing. [words in's tunes. Per. Forewarn him, that he use no scurrilous Clo. You have of these pedlers, that have more in them than you'd think, sister. Per. Ay, good brother, or go about to think.

+ Pluto.

Enter AUTOLYCUS, singing. Lawn, as white as driven snow; Cyprus, black as ere was crow; Gloves, as sweet as damask roses; Masks for faces, and for noses; Bugle-bracelet, necklace-amber, Perfume for a lady's chamber: Golden quoifs, and stomachers, For my lads to give their dears; Come, buy of me, come; come buy, come buy; Buy, lads, or else your lasses cry: Come buy. Clo. If I were not in love with Mopsa, thou should'st take no money of me; but being enthrall'd as I am, it will also be the bondage of certain ribands and gloves.

Mop. I was promis'd them against the feast; but they come not too late now.

Clo. Have I not told thee how I was cozen'd by the way, and lost all my money?

Aut. And, indeed, sir, there are cozeners abroad; therefore it behoves men to be wary. Cio. Fear not thou, man, thou shalt lose nothing here.

Aut. I hope so, sir; for I have about me many parcels of charge.

Clo. What hast here? ballads?

away thy pack after me.

Girls, I'll buy for you both:-Pedler, let's have the first choice.Follow me, girls.

Aut. And you shall pay well for 'em. [Aside.
Will you buy any tape,

Or lace for your cape,
My dainty duck, my dear-a?
Any silk, any thread,

Any toys for your head,

Of the new'st, and fin'st, fin'st wear-a?
Come to the pedler;
Money's a medler,

That doth utter+ all men's ware-a.

[Exeunt Clo., AUT., DOR., and MOF.

Enter a Servant.

Serv. Master, there is three carters, three shepherds, three neat-herds, three swine-herds, that have made themselves all men of hair ; they call themselves saltiers: and they have a dance which the wenches say is a gallimaufry || of gambols, because they are not in't; but they themselves are o' the mind, it will please plentifully.

Shep. Away! we'll none on't; here has been too much homely foolery already :-I know, sir, we weary you.

Pol. You weary those that refresh us: Pray, let's see these four threes of herdsmen.

Dor. Is it true too, think you?

Aut. Five justices' hands at it; and witnesses, more than my pack will hold.

Clo. Lay it by; Another.

[one. Aut. This is a merry ballad; but a very pretty Mop. Let's have some merry ones.

Aut. Why, this is a passing merry one; and goes to the tune of Two maids wooing a man ;' there's scarce a maid westward, but she sings it; 'tis in request, I can tell you.

Mop. We can both sing it; if thou'lt bear a part, thou shalt hear; 'tis in three parts.

Dor. We had the tune on 't a month ago. Aut. I can bear my part; you must know, 'tis my occupation: have at it with you.

half by th' squire.

Shep. Leave your prating: since these good men are pleas'd, let them come in; but quickly now. Serv. Why, they stay at door, sir. [Exit. Re-enter Servant, with Twelve Rustics, habited like Satyrs. They dance, and then exeunt.

Pol. O, father, you'll know more of that hereafter.

Is it not too far gone?-'Tis time to part them.He's simple, and tells much. [Aside.]-How now, fair shepherd?

Your heart is full of something that does take Your mind from feasting. Sooth, when I was young,

And handled love as you do, I was wont [sack'd
To load my she with knacks: I would have ran-
The pedler's silken treasury, and have pour'd it
To her acceptance; you have let him go
And nothing marted** with him: If your lass
Interpretation should abuse, and call this
Your lack of love or bounty, you were straited
For a reply, at least, if you make a care
Of happy holding her.

Flo.
Old sir, I know
She prizes not such trifles as these are:
The gifts she looks from me are pack'd and lock'd
Up in my heart; which I have given already,
But not deliver'd.-O, hear me breathe my life
Before this ancient sir, who, it should seem,
Hath sometime lov'd: I take thy hand; this hand,
As soft as dove's down, and as white as it;
Or Ethiopian's tooth, or the fann'd snow,
That's bolted ++ by the northern blasts twice o'er.
Pol. What follows this?-

How prettily the young swain seems to wash
The hand was fair before!-I have put you out :-
But to your protestation; let me hear
What you profess.

Flo.
Do, and be witness to 't.
Pol. And this my neighbour too?

**Bought, trafficked.

+ The sieve used to separate flour from bran is called a bolting-cloth.

Pol. I'll have thy beauty scratch'd with briars,

and made

never

[boy,
More homely than thy state. For thee, fond
If I may ever know thou dost but sigh
That thou no more shalt see this knack, (as
[cession;
I mean thou shalt,) we'll bar thee from suc-
Not hold thee of our blood, no, not our kin,
Far+ than Deucalion off.-Mark thou my words;
Follow us to the court.-Thou churl, for this time,
Though full of our displeasure, yet we free thee
From the dead blow of it.-And you, enchant-
ment,

Worthy enough a herdsman; yea, him too,
That makes himself, but for our honour therein,
Unworthy thee,-if ever, henceforth, thou
These rural latches to his entrance open,
I will devise a death as cruel for thee
As thou art tender to 't.
Per.

Even here undone !

[Exit.

I was not much afeard: for once, or twice,
I was about to speak: and tell him plainly,
The self-same sun that shines upon his court
Hides not his visage from our cottage, but
Looks on alike.-Will 't please you, sir, begone?
[To FLORIZEL

I told you what would come of this: 'Beseech you,

Of your own state take care: this dream of mine,
Being now awake, I'll queen it no inch farther,
But milk my ewes, and weep.

Cam.
Why, how now, father!
Speak, ere thou diest.
Shep.

I cannot speak, nor think, Nor dare to know that which I know.-O, sir, [TO FLORIZEL.

You have undone a man of fourscore three,
That thought to fill his grave in quiet; yea,
To die upon the bed my father died,
To lie close by his honest bones: but now
Some hangman must put on my shroud, and lay
[girl!
Where no priest shovels in dust,-O wretched
[FO PERDITA.

me

This is desperate, sir.

Flo. So call it; but it does fulfil my vow;
I needs must think it honesty. Camillo,
Not for Bohemia, nor the pomp that may
Be thereat glean'd; for all the sun sees, or
The close earth wombs, or the profound seas hide
In unknown fathoms, will I break my oath
To this my fair belov'd: Therefore, I pray you,
As you have ever been my father's friend,
When he shall miss me, (as in faith, I mean not
To see him any more,) cast your good counsels
Upon his passion: Let myself and fortune
Tug for the time to come. This you may know,
And so deliver,-I am put to sea

With her, whom here I cannot hold on shore;
And, most opportune to her need, I have
A vessel rides fast by, but not prepar'd
For this design. What course I mean to hold
Shall nothing benefit your knowledge, nor
Concern me the reporting.

Have you deserv'd: it is my father's music, To speak your deeds; not little of his care To have them recompens'd as thought on. Cam.

Well, my lord,

[is

If you may please to think I love the king,
And, through him, what is nearest to him, which
Your gracious self, embrace but my direction,
(If your more ponderous and settled project
May suffer alteration,) on mine honour [ceiving
I'll point you where you shall have such re-
As shall become your highness; where you may
Enjoy your mistress; (from the whom, I see,
There's no disjunction to be made, but by,
As Heavens forfend! 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?

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 pur But undergo this flight,-make for Sicilia; [cess, And there present yourself, and your fair prin(For so, I see, she must be,) 'fore Leontes; She shall be habited as it becomes

The partner of your bed. Methinks, I see Leontes, opening his free arms, and weeping His welcomes forth: asks thee, the son, forgive

ness,

As 'twere i' the father's person: kisses the hands:
Of your fresh princess: o'er and o'er divides him
'Twixt his unkindness and his kindness; th' one.
He chides to hell, and bids the other grow
Faster than thought or time.

Flo.
Worthy Camillo,
What colour for my visitation shall I
Hold up before him?

Cam.

Sent by the king your father
To greet him, and to give him comforts. Sir,
The manner of your bearing towards him, with
What you, as from your father, shall deliver,
Things known betwixt us three, I'll write you
down:

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.
I am bound to you:
There is some sap in this.
Cam.

Flo.

[certain,

A course more promising Than a wild dedication of yourselves To unpath'd waters, undream'd shores; most To miseries enough: no hope to help you: But, as you shake off one, to take another: Nothing so certain as your anchors; who Do their best office, if they can but stay you Where you'll be loth to be: Besides, you know, Prosperity 's the very bond of love; [ther Whose fresh complexion and whose heart togeAffliction alters.

Per.

One of these is true :

I think affliction may subdue the cheek, But not take in the mind.

Cam.

Yea, say you so?

There shall not, at your father's house, these seven years,

stone, not a riband, glass, pomander, brooch, table-hook, ballad, knife, tape, glove, shoe-tie, bracelet, horn-ring, to keep my pack from fasting; they throng who should buy first, as if my trinkets had been hallowed, and brought a benediction to the buyer: by which means I saw whose purse was best in picture; and what I saw, to my good use I remembered. My clown (who wants but something to be a reasonable man) grew so in love with the song, that he would not stir his pettitoes till he had both tune and words; which so drew the rest of the herd to me, that all their other senses stuck in ears: I would have fil'd keys off that hung in chains no hearing, no feeling, but my sir's song, and admiring the nothing of it. So that, in this time of lethargy, I pick'd and cut most of their festival purses: and had not the ld man come in with a whoobub against his daughter and the king's son, and scar'd my choughs from the chaff, I had not left a purse alive in the whole army.

[CAM., FLO., and PER. come forward. Cam. Nay, but my letters by this means being there

So soon as you arrive, shall clear that doubt.
Flo. And those that you'll procure from King
Leontes-

Cam. Shall satisfy your father.
Per.
Happy be you!

All that you speak shows fair.

[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? why shak'st thou so? Fear not, man; here's no harm intended 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 a necessity in 't,) and change garments with this gentleman: Though the pennyworth, on his side, be the worst, yet hold thee, there's some boot.t

Aut. I am a poor fellow, sir :-I know ye well enough. Aside. Cam. Nay, pr'ythee, dispatch: the gentleman is half flay'd already.

Aut. Are you in earnest, sir?-I smell the trick of it.[Aside.

Flo. Dispatch, I pr'ythee. Aut. Indeed I have had earnest; but I cannot with conscience take it.

Cam. Unbuckle, unbuckle.

[FLO. and AUT. exchange garments. Fortunate mistress,-let my prophecy Come home to ye!-you must retire yourself Into some covert: take your sweetheart's hat, And pluck it o'er your brows; muffle your face; Dismantle you; and, as you can, disliken The truth of your own seeming; that you may (For I do fear eyes over you) to shipboard Get undescry'd.

Per.

I see the play so lies

That 1 must bear a part.

Should I now meet my father,

He would not call me son.
Cam.

Nay, you shall have no hat:
Come, lady, come.-Farewell, my friend.
Aut.
Adieu, sir.
Flo. O Perdita, what have we twain forgot!
Pray you, a word. [They converse apart.
Cam. What I do next shall be, to tell the king
[Aside.

Of this escape, and whither they are bound;
Wherein, my hope is, I shall so prevail
To force him after; in whose company
I shall review Sicilia; for whose sight
I have a woman's longing.
Flo.

Fortune speed us!-
Thus we set on, Camillo, to th' sea-side.
Cam. The swifter speed the better.

[Exeunt FLO., PER., and CAM. 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 th' 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 I 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 hear 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 punish'd by him. Show those things you found about her; This being done, let the law go whistle; I 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.

A bird resembling a jackdaw.

Something over and above.

Bundle, parcel.

Shep. To th' 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