Cam. Then list to me; This follows: if you will not change your purpose, Flo. Worthy Camillo, What colour for my visitation shall I Cam. Sent by the king your father, To greet him, and to give him comforts. Sir, 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 heart together Per. One of these is true: I think, affliction may subdue the cheek, Cum. Yea, say you so? There shall not, at your father's house, these seven That you may know, you shall not want,-one word! [They talk aside. Enter AUTOLYCUS. Aut. Ha, ha! what a fool honesty is! and trust, his sworn brother, a very simple gentleman! I have sold all my trumpery; not a counterfeit stone, not a riband, glass, pomander, brooch, table-book, ballad, knife, tape, glove, shoe-tye, 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 wenches' 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: you might have pinched a placket, it was senseless; twas nothing to geld a codpiece of a purse; I would have filed 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 picked and cut most of their festival purses: and had not the old man come in with a whoobub against his daughter and the king's son, and scared my choughs from the chaff, I had not left a purse alive in the whole army. [Camillo, Florizel, and Perdita,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 Le [Aside. Cam How now, good fellow? why shakest 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 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. Aut. I am a poor fellow, sir:-I know ye well enough. [Aside. Cam. Nay, pr'ythee, dispatch: the gentleman is half flayed 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 Autol. exchange garments. Fortunate mistress, let my prophecy Come home to you!- 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, (ForI do fear eyes over you,) to shipboard Get undescried. Per. I see, the play so lies, That I must bear a part. Cam. No remedy! Have you done there? Flo. 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 the sea-side. [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 kingwithal, I would do't: I holdit 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 punished by him. Show those things, you found about her: those secret things, all but what she has with 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 brother-in 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. Aut. Very wisely; puppies! [Aside. 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 he be at palace. 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 me, or no, I am a courtier. See'st thou not the air of the court,in these enfoldings? hath 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, cap-a-pè; and one that will either push on, or pluck back thy business there: whereupon I command thee to open thy affair. Shep. My business, sir, is to the king. Aut. What advocate hast thou to him? Shep. I know not, an't like you. Clo. Advocate's the court-word for a pheasant; say, you have none. Shep. None, sir; I have no pheasant, cock nor hen. Aut. How bless'd are we, that are not simple men! 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 handsomely. Clo. He seems to be the more noble in being fantastical; a great man, I'll warrant; I know, by the picking on's teeth. Aut. The fardel there? what's i'the fardel? Wherefore that box? Shep. Sir, there lies such secrets in this fardel, and box, which none must know but the king; and which he shall know within this hour, if I may come to the speech of him. 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 heart of monster. Clo. Think you so, sir? Aut. Not he alone shall suffer what wit can make heavy, aud vengeance bitter; but those, that are germane to him, though removed fifty times, shall all come under the hangman: which though it be great pity, yet it is necessary. An old sheep-whistling rogue, aram-tender, to offer to have his daughter come into grace! Some say, he shall be stoned; but that death is too soft for him,say I. Draw our throne into a sheepcote! 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 head of a wasp's nest; then stand, till he be three quarters and Aut. Though I am not naturally honest, I am so sometimes by chance. Let me pocket up my ped-a dram dead; then recovered again with aqua-vitae, ler'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 having, breeding, and any thing, that is fitting to be known, discover. Clo. We are but plain fellows, sir. Aut. Alie; 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 stabbing steel: therefore they do not give us the lie. 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 sun 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 have you 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 Your kindness better. Aut. After I have done what I promised? - Aut. Well, give me the moiety. Are you a party in this business? Clo. In some sort, sir: but though my case be a pi- Paul. You are one of those, Paul. 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 tenour 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, Aut. I will trust you. Walk before toward the sea-And come again to me; who, on my life, side; go on the right hand; I will but look upon the hedge and follow Clo. Comfort, good comfort! We must to the king, and show our strange sights: he must know, 'tis none of your daughter, nor my sister; we are gone else. Sir, I will give you as much as this old man does, when the business is performed; and remain, as he says, your pawn, till it be brought you. you. Clo. We are blessed in this man, as I may say, even blessed. Did perish with the infant. 'Tis your counsel, Shep. Let's before, as he bids us: he was provided to do us good. [Exeunt Shepherd and Clown. Aut.If I had a mind to be honest, 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 I that may turn back to my advancement? I will bring these two moles, these blindones, aboard him:ifhethink I 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 him will I present them, there may be matter in it. [Exit. A CT V. SCENE I.-Sicilia. A room in the palace of Leontes. Leon. Whilst I remember Her and her virtues, I cannot forget My blemishes in them; and so still think of The wrong I did myself: which was so much, Paul. True, too true, my lord; If, one by one, you wedded all the world, Or from the all, that are, took something good, Leon. 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 More rich, for what they yielded. No more such wives; therefore, no wife; one worse, Leon. She had; and would incense me Paul. Unless another, As like Hermione, as is her picture, Cleo. Good madam,— Paul. I have done. Upon thy tongue, as in my thought. Now, good now, Yet, if my lord will marry,—if you will, sir, Say so but seldom. Cleo. Not at all, good lady! You might have spoken a thousand things, that would No remedy, but you will: give me the office As, walk'd your first queen's ghost, it should take joy To see her in your arins. Leon. My true Paulina, We shall not marry, till thou bidd'st us. Paul. That Shall be, when your first queen's again in breath ; Never till then. Enter a Gentleman. Gent. One, that gives out himself prince Florizel, Leon. What with him? he comes not So out of circumstance, and sudden, tells us, By need, and accident. What train? And those but mean. Leon. His princess, say you, with him? (Good gentleman!) the wrongs I have done thee, stir Afresh within me; and these thy offices, So rarely kind, are as interpreters Of my behind-hand slackness!-Welcome hither, As is the spring to the earth. And hath he too Expos'd this paragon to the fearful usage (At least, ungentle,) of the dreadful Neptune, To greet a man not worth her pains; much less The adventure of her person? Gent. Ay; the most peerless piece of earth, I think, Flo. Good my lord, That e'er the sun shone bright on. Paul. O Hermione, As every present time doth boast itself to what's seen now. Sir, you yourself way Have said, and writ so, (but your writing now Is colder than that theme,) She had not been, Nor was not to be equall'd; thus your verse Flow'd with her beauty once; 'tis shrewdly ebb'd, To say, you have seen a better. Gent. Pardon, madam! Your mother was most true to wedlock, prince; Flo. By his command She came from Libya. Leon. Where the warlike Smalus, That noble honour'd lord, is fear'd, and lov'd? His tears proclaim'd his, parting with her: thence I have from your Sicilian shores dismiss'd, But my arrival, and my wife's, in safety Leon. The blessed gods Purge all infection from our air, whilst you For which the heavens, taking angry note, Enter a Lord. Lord. Most noble sir, That, which I shall report, will bear no credit, Fled from his father, from his hopes, and with Leon. Where's Bohemia? speak. Lord. Here in the city; I now came from him: 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; 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, Though fortune, visible an enemy, Should chase us with my father: power no jot Which he counts but a trifle. Paul. Sir, my liege, Your eye hath too much youth in't: not a month Leon I thought of her, Even in these looks, I made.-But your petition Is yet unanswered, I will to your father; SCENE II.-The same. Before the palace. Enter AUTOLYCUS and a Gentleman. Aut. 'Beseech you, sir, were you present at this relation? Enter a third Gentleman. Here comes the lady Paulina's steward; he can deliver you more.-How goes it now, sir? this news, which is called true, is so like an old tale, that the verity of it is in strong suspicion. Has the king found his heir? 3 Gent. Most true; if ever truth were pregnant by circumstance: that, which you hear, you'll swear you see, there is such unity in the proofs. The mantle of queen Hermione: her jewel about the neck of it :-the lettersof Antigonus, found with it, which they know to be his character-the majesty of the creature,in resemblance of the mother; the affection of nobleness, which nature shows above her breeding, and many other evidences, proclaim her, with all certainty, to be the king's daughter. Did you see the meeting of the two kings? 2 Gent. No. 3 Gent. Then have you lost a sight, which was to be seen, cannot be spoken of. There might you have beheld one joy.crown another, so, and in such manner,that, it seemed, sorrow wept to take leave of them: for their joy waded in tears. There was casting up of eyes, holding up of hands; with countenance of such distraction, that they were to be known by garment, not by favour. Our king, being ready to leap out of himself for joy of his found daughter, as if that joy were now become a loss, cries, O, thy mother, thy mother! then asks Bohemia forgiveness; then embraces his son-in-law; then again worries he his daughter, with clipping her; now he thanks the old shepherd, which stands by, like a weather-bitten conduit of many kings' reigns. Inever heard of such another encounter, which lames report to follow it, and undoes description to do it. 2 Gent. What, pray you, became of Antigonus, that carried hence the child? 8 Gent. Like an old tale still; which will have matter to rehearse, though credit be asleep, and not an ear open. He was torn to pieces with a bear: this avouches the shepherd's son; who has not only his innocence (which seems much,) to justify him, but a handherchief, and rings, of his, that Paulina knows. 1 Gent. What became of his bark, and his followers? 8 Gent. Wrecked, the same instant of their master's death; and in the view of the shepherd: so that all the instruments, which aided to expose the child, were even then lost, when it was found. But, O, the noble combat,that, 'twixt joy and sorrow, was fought in Paulina! She had one eye declined for the loss of her husband; another elevated, that the oracle was fulfil1 Gent. I was by at the opening of the fardel, heard led. She lifted the princess from the earth, and so the old shepherd deliver the manner, how he found it: locks her in embracing, as if she would pin her to her whereupon, after a little amazedness, we were all com-heart, that she might no more be in danger of losing. manded out of the chamber; only this, methought, I heard the shepherd say, he found the child. Aut. I would most gladly know the issue of it. 1 Gent. I make a broken delivery of the business :but the changes, I perceived in the king, and Camillo, were very notes of admiration: they seemed almost, with staring on one another, to tear the cases of their eyes; there was speech in their dumbness, language in their very gesture: they looked, as they had heard of a world ransomed, or one destroyed. A notable passion of wonder appeared in them; but the wisest beholder, that knew no more but seeing, could not say, if the importance were joy, or sorrow: but in the extremity of the one, it must needs be. Enter another Gentleman. Here comes a gentleman, that, happily, knows more. 1 Gent. The dignity of this act was worth the audience of kings and princes; for by such was it acted. 2 Gent. One of the prettiest touches of all, and that which angled for mine eyes, (caught the water, though not the fish,) was, when at the relation of the queen's death, with the manner, how she came to it, (bravely confessed and lamented by the king,) how attentiveness wounded his daughter: till, from one sign of dolour to another, she did, with an alas! I would fain say, bleed tears; for, I am sure, my heart wept blood. Who was most marble there, changed colour; some swooned, all sorrowed: if all the world could have seen it, the woe had been universal. 1 Gent. Are they returned to the court? 8 Gent. No: the princess, hearing of her mother's statue, which is in the keeping of Paulina, -a piece many years in doing, and now newly performed by that 2 Gent. Nothing but bonfires. The oracle is ful-rare Italian master, Julio Romano; who, had he himfilled; the king's daughter is found; such a deal of self eternity, and could put breath into his work, wonder has broken out within this hour, that ballad- would beguile nature of her custom, so perfectly he is makers cannot be able to express it. her ape: he so near to Hermione hath done Hermione, |