310 Clo. We'll have this song out anon by our- Exit with DORCAS and MOPSA. Will you buy any tape, Or lace for your cape, My dainty duck, my dear-a? Any toys for your head, Of the new'st and fin'st, fin'st wear-a? Money's a meddler, That doth utter all men's ware-a. Re-enter Servant. 330 To load my she with knacks: I would have ran- The pedlar's silken treasury and have pour'd it 370 Flo. How prettily the young swain seems to wash 380 More than was ever man's, I would not prize them Serv. Master, there is three carters, three shep. herds, 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, if it be not too rough for some that know little but bowling, it will please plentifully. 343 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. Serv. One three of them, by their own report, sir, hath danced before the king; and not the worst of the three but jumps twelve foot and a half by the square. 352 Shep. Leave your prating: since these good men Po'. O father! you'll know more of that here- To CAMILLO. Is it not too far gone? "Tis time He's simple and tells much. To FLORIZEL. Your heart is full of something that does take And handed love as you do, I was wont 360 Fairly offer'd. But, my daughter, Mark our contract. Come, come, he must not. 430 You know your father's temper: at this time Flo. I think, Camillo ? Cam. Even he, my lord. 430 Per. How often have I told you 'twould be Mark your divorce, young sir, thus! How often said my dignity would last Flo. It cannot fail but by 499 Of excellent witchcraft, who of force must know The violation of my faith; and then O my heart. Pol. I'll have thy beauty scratch'd with briers, and made 441 More homely than thy state. For thee, fond boy, 451 Worthy enough a herdsman; yea, him too, Exit. 459 Per. Why, how now, father! Shep. Cam. With her whom here I cannot hold on shore; 510 Flo. Well, my lord, 539 If you may please to think I love the king As 'twere i' the father's person; kisses the hands Cam. The which shall point you forth at every sitting I am bound to you. 580 Be born another such. My good Camillo, I cannot say 'tis pity Your pardon, sir; for this I'll blush you thanks. My lord, Fear none of this: I think you know my fortunes Re-enter AUTOLYCUS. Aut. Ha, ha! what a fool Honesty is! and Trust, his sworn brother, a very simple gentle. man ! I have sold all my trumpery: not a counterfeit stone, not a riband, glass, pomander, brooch, table-book, 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 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, 635 tended 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. Aut. I am a poor fellow, sir. Aside. I know ye well enough. Cam. Nay, prithee, dispatch: the gentleman is half flayed already. 660 Aut. Are you in earnest, sir? Aside. I smell the trick on 't. Flo. Dispatch, I prithee. 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 a piece of honesty to acquaint the king withal, I would not do 't: I hold it the more knavery to conceal it, and therein am I constant to my profession. Aside, aside: here is more matter for a hot brain. Every lane's end, every shop, church, session, hanging, yields a careful man work, Re-enter Clown and Shepherd. 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. 710 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. 720 Shep. I will tell the king all, every word, yea, and his son's pranks too; who, I may say, is no Aut. Indeed, I have had earnest ; but I cannot honest man, neither to his father nor to me, to with conscience take it. Cam. Unbuckle, unbuckle. Should I now meet my father Nay, you shall have no hat. Farewell, my friend. He would not call me son. Adieu, sir. Flo. Fortune speed us! Thus we set on, Camillo, to the sea-side. Cam. The swifter speed the better. Excunt 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 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. Aside. Very wisely, puppies! Shep. Well, let us to the king: there is that in this fardel will make him scratch his beard. Aut. Aside. I know not what impediment this complaint may be to the flight of my master. Clo. Pray heartily he be at palace. Aut. Aside. Though I am not naturally honest, I am so sometimes by chance: let me pocket up my pedlar's excrement. Takes of his false beard. How now, rustics! whither are you bound? 738 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. 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 stabbing steel; therefore they do not give us the lie. 751 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. Seest 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 courtcontempt? Thinkest thou, for that I insinuate, or touse from thee thy business, I am therefore no courtier? I am courtier cap-a-pe; 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. Clo. Advocate's the court-word for a pheasant say you have none. 771 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. 782 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. 700 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? 800 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 though it be great pity, yet it is necessary. An old sheep-whistling rogue, a ram-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. 812 Clo. Has the old man e'er a son, sir, do you hear, an 't like you, sir? 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. 832 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'll make it as much more and leave this young man in pawn till I bring it you. Aut. After I have done what I promised? 842 Aut. Well, give me the moiety. Are you a party in this business? Clo. In some 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: hang him, he'll be made an example. 850 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. Aut. I will trust you. Walk before toward the sea-side: go on the right hand; I will but look upon the hedge and follow you. 860 Clo. We are blessed in this man, as I may say, even blessed. 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 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 him will I present them there may be matter in it. ACT V. 877 Exit. SCENE I-Sicilia. A Room in the Palace of LEONTES. Aut. He has a son, who shall be flayed alive; then 'nointed over with honey, set on the head Enter LEONTES, CLEOMENES, DION, PAULINA, of a wasp's nest; then stand till he be three quarters and a dram 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 brickwall, 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 you have to and Others. |
