The Winter's Tale
by
William Shakespeare [Collins edition]
Part 2 out of 3
Been both at Delphos, and from thence have brought
This seal'd-up oracle, by the hand deliver'd
Of great Apollo's priest; and that since then,
You have not dar'd to break the holy seal,
Nor read the secrets in't.
CLEOMENES, DION.
All this we swear.
LEONTES.
Break up the seals and read.
OFFICER.
[Reads.] 'Hermione is chaste; Polixenes blameless;
Camillo a true subject; Leontes a jealous tyrant; his innocent
babe truly begotten; and the king shall live without an heir, if
that which is lost be not found.'
LORDS.
Now blessed be the great Apollo!
HERMIONE.
Praised!
LEONTES.
Hast thou read truth?
OFFICER.
Ay, my lord; even so
As it is here set down.
LEONTES.
There is no truth at all i' the oracle:
The sessions shall proceed: this is mere falsehood!
[Enter a Servant hastily.]
SERVANT.
My lord the king, the king!
LEONTES.
What is the business?
SERVANT.
O sir, I shall be hated to report it:
The prince your son, with mere conceit and fear
Of the queen's speed, is gone.
LEONTES.
How! gone?
SERVANT.
Is dead.
LEONTES.
Apollo's angry; and the heavens themselves
Do strike at my injustice. [HERMIONE faints.]
How now there!
PAULINA.
This news is mortal to the queen:--Look down
And see what death is doing.
LEONTES.
Take her hence:
Her heart is but o'ercharg'd; she will recover.--
I have too much believ'd mine own suspicion:--
Beseech you tenderly apply to her
Some remedies for life.--Apollo, pardon
[Exeunt PAULINA and Ladies with HERMIONE.]
My great profaneness 'gainst thine oracle!--
I'll reconcile me to Polixenes;
New woo my queen; recall the good Camillo--
Whom I proclaim a man of truth, of mercy;
For, being transported by my jealousies
To bloody thoughts and to revenge, I chose
Camillo for the minister to poison
My friend Polixenes: which had been done,
But that the good mind of Camillo tardied
My swift command, though I with death and with
Reward did threaten and encourage him,
Not doing it and being done: he, most humane,
And fill'd with honour, to my kingly guest
Unclasp'd my practice; quit his fortunes here,
Which you knew great; and to the certain hazard
Of all incertainties himself commended,
No richer than his honour:--how he glisters
Thorough my rust! And how his piety
Does my deeds make the blacker!
[Re-enter PAULINA.]
PAULINA.
Woe the while!
O, cut my lace, lest my heart, cracking it,
Break too!
FIRST LORD.
What fit is this, good lady?
PAULINA.
What studied torments, tyrant, hast for me?
What wheels? racks? fires? what flaying? boiling
In leads or oils? what old or newer torture
Must I receive, whose every word deserves
To taste of thy most worst? Thy tyranny
Together working with thy jealousies,--
Fancies too weak for boys, too green and idle
For girls of nine,--O, think what they have done,
And then run mad indeed,--stark mad! for all
Thy by-gone fooleries were but spices of it.
That thou betray'dst Polixenes, 'twas nothing;
That did but show thee, of a fool, inconstant,
And damnable ingrateful; nor was't much
Thou wouldst have poison'd good Camillo's honour,
To have him kill a king; poor trespasses,--
More monstrous standing by: whereof I reckon
The casting forth to crows thy baby daughter,
To be or none or little, though a devil
Would have shed water out of fire ere done't;
Nor is't directly laid to thee, the death
Of the young prince, whose honourable thoughts,--
Thoughts high for one so tender,--cleft the heart
That could conceive a gross and foolish sire
Blemish'd his gracious dam: this is not,--no,
Laid to thy answer: but the last,--O lords,
When I have said, cry Woe!,--the queen, the queen,
The sweetest, dearest creature's dead; and vengeance for't
Not dropp'd down yet.
FIRST LORD.
The higher powers forbid!
PAULINA.
I say she's dead: I'll swear't. If word nor oath
Prevail not, go and see: if you can bring
Tincture, or lustre, in her lip, her eye,
Heat outwardly or breath within, I'll serve you
As I would do the gods.--But, O thou tyrant!
Do not repent these things; for they are heavier
Than all thy woes can stir; therefore betake thee
To nothing but despair. A thousand knees
Ten thousand years together, naked, fasting,
Upon a barren mountain, and still winter
In storm perpetual, could not move the gods
To look that way thou wert.
LEONTES.
Go on, go on:
Thou canst not speak too much; I have deserv'd
All tongues to talk their bitterest!
FIRST LORD.
Say no more:
Howe'er the business goes, you have made fault
I' the boldness of your speech.
PAULINA.
I am sorry for't:
All faults I make, when I shall come to know them,
I do repent. Alas, I have show'd too much
The rashness of a woman: he is touch'd
To th' noble heart--What's gone and what's past help,
Should be past grief: do not receive affliction
At my petition; I beseech you, rather
Let me be punish'd, that have minded you
Of what you should forget. Now, good my liege,
Sir, royal sir, forgive a foolish woman:
The love I bore your queen,--lo, fool again!--
I'll speak of her no more, nor of your children;
I'll not remember you of my own lord,
Who is lost too: take your patience to you,
And I'll say nothing.
LEONTES.
Thou didst speak but well,
When most the truth; which I receive much better
Than to be pitied of thee. Pr'ythee, bring me
To the dead bodies of my queen and son:
One grave shall be for both; upon them shall
The causes of their death appear, unto
Our shame perpetual. Once a day I'll visit
The chapel where they lie; and tears shed there
Shall be my recreation: so long as nature
Will bear up with this exercise, so long
I daily vow to use it.--Come, and lead me
To these sorrows.
[Exeunt.]
SCENE III. Bohemia. A desert Country near the Sea.
[Enter ANTIGONUS with the Child, and a Mariner.]
ANTIGONUS.
Thou art perfect, then our ship hath touch'd upon
The deserts of Bohemia?
MARINER.
Ay, my lord; and fear
We have landed in ill time: the skies look grimly,
And threaten present blusters. In my conscience,
The heavens with that we have in hand are angry,
And frown upon 's.
ANTIGONUS.
Their sacred wills be done!--Go, get aboard;
Look to thy bark: I'll not be long before
I call upon thee.
MARINER.
Make your best haste; and go not
Too far i' the land: 'tis like to be loud weather;
Besides, this place is famous for the creatures
Of prey that keep upon't.
ANTIGONUS.
Go thou away:
I'll follow instantly.
MARINER.
I am glad at heart
To be so rid o' th' business.
[Exit.]
ANTIGONUS.
Come, poor babe:--
I have heard (but not believ'd), the spirits of the dead
May walk again: if such thing be, thy mother
Appear'd to me last night; for ne'er was dream
So like a waking. To me comes a creature,
Sometimes her head on one side, some another:
I never saw a vessel of like sorrow,
So fill'd and so becoming: in pure white robes,
Like very sanctity, she did approach
My cabin where I lay: thrice bow'd before me;
And, gasping to begin some speech, her eyes
Became two spouts: the fury spent, anon
Did this break from her: 'Good Antigonus,
Since fate, against thy better disposition,
Hath made thy person for the thrower-out
Of my poor babe, according to thine oath,--
Places remote enough are in Bohemia,
There weep, and leave it crying; and, for the babe
Is counted lost for ever, Perdita
I pr'ythee call't. For this ungentle business,
Put on thee by my lord, thou ne'er shalt see
Thy wife Paulina more': so, with shrieks,
She melted into air. Affrighted much,
I did in time collect myself; and thought
This was so and no slumber. Dreams are toys;
Yet, for this once, yea, superstitiously,
I will be squar'd by this. I do believe
Hermione hath suffer'd death, and that
Apollo would, this being indeed the issue
Of King Polixenes, it should here be laid,
Either for life or death, upon the earth
Of its right father. Blossom, speed thee well!
[Laying down the child.]
There lie; and there thy character: there thes;
[Laying down a bundle.]
Which may if fortune please, both breed thee, pretty,
And still rest thine.--The storm begins:--poor wretch,
That for thy mother's fault art thus expos'd
To loss and what may follow!--Weep I cannot,
But my heart bleeds: and most accurs'd am I
To be by oath enjoin'd to this.--Farewell!
The day frowns more and more:--thou'rt like to have
A lullaby too rough:--I never saw
The heavens so dim by day. A savage clamour!--
Well may I get aboard!--This is the chace:
I am gone for ever.
[Exit, pursued by a bear.]
[Enter an old SHEPHERD.]
SHEPHERD.
I would there were no age between ten and three-and-twenty, or
that youth would sleep out the rest; for there is nothing in the
between but getting wenches with child, wronging the ancientry,
stealing, fighting.--Hark you now! Would any but these boiled
brains of nineteen and two-and-twenty hunt this weather? They
have scared away two of my best sheep, which I fear the wolf will
sooner find than the master: if any where I have them, 'tis by
the sea-side, browsing of ivy.--Good luck, an't be thy will! what
have we here? [Taking up the child.] Mercy on's, a bairn: A very
pretty bairn! A boy or a child, I wonder? A pretty one; a very
pretty one: sure, some scape: though I am not bookish, yet I can
read waiting-gentlewoman in the scape. This has been some
stair-work, some trunk-work, some behind-door-work; they were
warmer that got this than the poor thing is here. I'll take it up
for pity: yet I'll tarry till my son comes; he hallaed but even
now.--Whoa, ho hoa!
CLOWN.
[Within.] Hilloa, loa!
SHEPHERD.
What, art so near? If thou'lt see a thing to talk on when
thou art dead and rotten, come hither.
[Enter CLOWN.]
What ail'st thou, man?
CLOWN.
I have seen two such sights, by sea and by land!--but I am
not to say it is a sea, for it is now the sky: betwixt the
firmament and it, you cannot thrust a bodkin's point.
SHEPHERD.
Why, boy, how is it?
CLOWN.
I would you did but see how it chafes, how it rages, how it
takes up the shore! But that's not to the point. O, the most
piteous cry of the poor souls! sometimes to see 'em, and not to
see 'em; now the ship boring the moon with her mainmast, and anon
swallowed with yest and froth, as you'd thrust a cork into a
hogshead. And then for the land service,--to see how the bear
tore out his shoulder-bone; how he cried to me for help, and said
his name was Antigonus, a nobleman.--But to make an end of the
ship,--to see how the sea flap-dragon'd it:--but first, how the
poor souls roared, and the sea mocked them;--and how the poor
gentleman roared, and the bear mocked him,--both roaring louder
than the sea or weather.
SHEPHERD.
Name of mercy! when was this, boy?
CLOWN.
Now, now; I have not winked since I saw these sights: the men are
not yet cold under water, nor the bear half dined on the
gentleman; he's at it now.
SHEPHERD.
Would I had been by to have helped the old man!
CLOWN.
I would you had been by the ship-side, to have helped her:
there your charity would have lacked footing.
SHEPHERD.
Heavy matters, heavy matters! [Aside.] But look thee here, boy.
Now bless thyself: thou mettest with things dying, I with things
new-born. Here's a sight for thee; look thee, a bearing-cloth for
a squire's child! look thee here; take up, take up, boy; open't.
So, let's see:--it was told me I should be rich by the fairies:
this is some changeling:--open't. What's within, boy?
CLOWN.
You're a made old man; if the sins of your youth are forgiven
you, you're well to live. Gold! all gold!
SHEPHERD.
This is fairy-gold, boy, and 'twill prove so: up with it,
keep it close: home, home, the next way! We are lucky, boy: and
to be so still requires nothing but secrecy--Let my sheep go:--
come, good boy, the next way home.
CLOWN.
Go you the next way with your findings. I'll go see if the
bear be gone from the gentleman, and how much he hath eaten: they
are never curst but when they are hungry: if there be any of him
left, I'll bury it.
SHEPHERD.
That's a good deed. If thou mayest discern by that which is left
of him what he is, fetch me to the sight of him.
CLOWN.
Marry, will I; and you shall help to put him i' the ground.
SHEPHERD.
'Tis a lucky day, boy; and we'll do good deeds on't.
[Exeunt.]
ACT IV.
SCENE I.
[Enter Time, as Chorus.]
TIME.
I,--that please some, try all; both joy and terror
Of good and bad; that make and unfold error,--
Now take upon me, in the name of Time,
To use my wings. Impute it not a crime
To me or my swift passage, that I slide
O'er sixteen years, and leave the growth untried
Of that wide gap, since it is in my power
To o'erthrow law, and in one self-born hour
To plant and o'erwhelm custom. Let me pass
The same I am, ere ancient'st order was
Or what is now received: I witness to
The times that brought them in; so shall I do
To the freshest things now reigning, and make stale
The glistering of this present, as my tale
Now seems to it. Your patience this allowing,
I turn my glass, and give my scene such growing
As you had slept between. Leontes leaving
The effects of his fond jealousies, so grieving
That he shuts up himself; imagine me,
Gentle spectators, that I now may be
In fair Bohemia; and remember well,
I mention'd a son o' the king's, which Florizel
I now name to you; and with speed so pace
To speak of Perdita, now grown in grace
Equal with wondering: what of her ensues,
I list not prophesy; but let Time's news
Be known when 'tis brought forth:--a shepherd's daughter,
And what to her adheres, which follows after,
Is the argument of Time. Of this allow,
If ever you have spent time worse ere now;
If never, yet that Time himself doth say
He wishes earnestly you never may.
[Exit.]
SCENE II. Bohemia. A Room in the palace of POLIXENES.
[Enter POLIXENES and CAMILLO.]
POLIXENES.
I pray thee, good Camillo, be no more importunate: 'tis
a sickness denying thee anything; a death to grant this.
CAMILLO.
It is fifteen years since I saw my country; though I have
for the most part been aired abroad, I desire to lay my bones
there. Besides, the penitent king, my master, hath sent for me;
to whose feeling sorrows I might be some allay, or I o'erween to
think so,--which is another spur to my departure.
POLIXENES.
As thou lovest me, Camillo, wipe not out the rest of thy
services by leaving me now: the need I have of thee, thine own
goodness hath made; better not to have had thee than thus to want
thee; thou, having made me businesses which none without thee can
sufficiently manage, must either stay to execute them thyself, or
take away with thee the very services thou hast done; which if I
have not enough considered,--as too much I cannot,--to be more
thankful to thee shall be my study; and my profit therein the
heaping friendships. Of that fatal country Sicilia, pr'ythee,
speak no more; whose very naming punishes me with the remembrance
of that penitent, as thou call'st him, and reconciled king, my
brother; whose loss of his most precious queen and children are
even now to be afresh lamented. Say to me, when sawest thou the
Prince Florizel, my son? Kings are no less unhappy, their issue
not being gracious, than they are in losing them when they have
approved their virtues.
CAMILLO.
Sir, it is three days since I saw the prince. What his
happier affairs may be, are to me unknown; but I have missingly
noted he is of late much retired from court, and is less frequent
to his princely exercises than formerly he hath appeared.
POLIXENES.
I have considered so much, Camillo, and with some care;
so far that I have eyes under my service which look upon his
removedness; from whom I have this intelligence,--that he is
seldom from the house of a most homely shepherd;--a man, they
say, that from very nothing, and beyond the imagination of his
neighbours, is grown into an unspeakable estate.
CAMILLO.
I have heard, sir, of such a man, who hath a daughter of
most rare note: the report of her is extended more than can be
thought to begin from such a cottage.
POLIXENES.
That's likewise part of my intelligence: but, I fear, the
angle that plucks our son thither. Thou shalt accompany us to the
place; where we will, not appearing what we are, have some
question with the shepherd; from whose simplicity I think it not
uneasy to get the cause of my son's resort thither. Pr'ythee, be
my present partner in this business, and lay aside the thoughts
of Sicilia.
CAMILLO.
I willingly obey your command.
POLIXENES.
My best Camillo!--We must disguise ourselves.
[Exeunt.]
SCENE III. The same. A Road near the Shepherd's cottage.
[Enter AUTOLYCUS, singing.]
When daffodils begin to peer,--
With, hey! the doxy over the dale,--
Why, then comes in the sweet o' the year:
For the red blood reigns in the winter's pale.
The white sheet bleaching on the hedge,--
With, hey! the sweet birds, O, how they sing!--
Doth set my pugging tooth on edge;
For a quart of ale is a dish for a king.
The lark, that tirra-lirra chants,--
With, hey! with, hey! the thrush and the jay,--
Are summer songs for me and my aunts,
While we lie tumbling in the hay.
I have serv'd Prince Florizel, and in my time wore three-pile;
but now I am out of service:
But shall I go mourn for that, my dear?
The pale moon shines by night:
And when I wander here and there,
I then do most go right.
If tinkers may have leave to live,
And bear the sow-skin budget,
Then my account I well may give
And in the stocks avouch it.
My traffic is sheets; when the kite builds, look to lesser linen.
My father named me Autolycus; who being, I as am, littered under
Mercury, was likewise a snapper-up of unconsidered trifles. With
die and drab I purchased this caparison; and my revenue is the
silly-cheat: gallows and knock are too powerful on the highway;
beating and hanging are terrors to me; for the life to come, I
sleep out the thought of it.--A prize! a prize!
[Enter CLOWN.]
CLOWN.
Let me see:--every 'leven wether tods; every tod yields pound
and odd shilling; fifteen hundred shorn, what comes the wool to?
AUTOLYCUS.
[Aside.] If the springe hold, the cock's mine.
CLOWN.
I cannot do 't without counters.--Let me see; what am I to
buy for our sheep-shearing feast? 'Three pound of sugar; five
pound of currants; rice'--what will this sister of mine do with
rice? But my father hath made her mistress of the feast, and she
lays it on. She hath made me four and twenty nosegays for the
shearers,--three-man song-men all, and very good ones; but they
are most of them means and bases; but one puritan amongst them,
and he sings psalms to hornpipes. I must have saffron to colour
the warden pies; 'mace--dates',--none, that's out of my note;
'nutmegs, seven; a race or two of ginger',--but that I may beg;
'four pound of prunes, and as many of raisins o' the sun'.
AUTOLYCUS.
[Grovelling on the ground.] O that ever I was born!
CLOWN.
I' the name of me,--
AUTOLYCUS.
O, help me, help me! Pluck but off these rags; and then, death,
death!
CLOWN.
Alack, poor soul! thou hast need of more rags to lay on thee,
rather than have these off.
AUTOLYCUS.
O sir, the loathsomeness of them offend me more than the stripes
I have received, which are mighty ones and millions.
CLOWN.
Alas, poor man! a million of beating may come to a great matter.
AUTOLYCUS.
I am robb'd, sir, and beaten; my money and apparel ta'en from me,
and these detestable things put upon me.
CLOWN.
What, by a horseman or a footman?
AUTOLYCUS.
A footman, sweet sir, a footman.
CLOWN.
Indeed, he should be a footman, by the garments he has left
with thee: if this be a horseman's coat, it hath seen very hot
service. Lend me thy hand, I'll help thee: come, lend me thy
hand.
[Helping him up.]
AUTOLYCUS.
O, good sir, tenderly, O!
CLOWN.
Alas, poor soul!
AUTOLYCUS.
O, good sir, softly, good sir: I fear, sir, my shoulder
blade is out.
CLOWN.
How now! canst stand?
AUTOLYCUS.
Softly, dear sir! [Picks his pocket.] good sir, softly; you ha'
done me a charitable office.
CLOWN.
Dost lack any money? I have a little money for thee.
AUTOLYCUS.
No, good sweet sir; no, I beseech you, sir: I have a kinsman not
past three quarters of a mile hence, unto whom I was going; I
shall there have money or anything I want: offer me no money, I
pray you; that kills my heart.
CLOWN.
What manner of fellow was he that robbed you?
AUTOLYCUS.
A fellow, sir, that I have known to go about with troll-my-dames;
I knew him once a servant of the prince; I cannot tell, good sir,
for which of his virtues it was, but he was certainly whipped out
of the court.
CLOWN.
His vices, you would say; there's no virtue whipped out of the
court: they cherish it, to make it stay there; and yet it will no
more but abide.
AUTOLYCUS.
Vices, I would say, sir. I know this man well: he hath been since
an ape-bearer; then a process-server, a bailiff; then he
compassed a motion of the Prodigal Son, and married a tinker's
wife within a mile where my land and living lies; and, having
flown over many knavish professions, he settled only in rogue:
some call him Autolycus.
CLOWN.
Out upon him! prig, for my life, prig: he haunts wakes, fairs,
and bear-baitings.
AUTOLYCUS.
Very true, sir; he, sir, he; that's the rogue that put me into
this apparel.
CLOWN.
Not a more cowardly rogue in all Bohemia; if you had but looked
big and spit at him, he'd have run.
AUTOLYCUS.
I must confess to you, sir, I am no fighter: I am false of heart
that way; and that he knew, I warrant him.
CLOWN.
How do you now?
AUTOLYCUS.
Sweet sir, much better than I was; I can stand and walk: I will
even take my leave of you and pace softly towards my kinsman's.
CLOWN.
Shall I bring thee on the way?
AUTOLYCUS.
No, good-faced sir; no, sweet sir.
CLOWN.
Then fare thee well: I must go buy spices for our sheep-shearing.
AUTOLYCUS.
Prosper you, sweet sir!
[Exit CLOWN.]
Your purse is not hot enough to purchase your spice. I'll be with
you at your sheep-shearing too. If I make not this cheat bring
out another, and the shearers prove sheep, let me be enrolled,
and my name put in the book of virtue!
[Sings.]
Jog on, jog on, the footpath way,
And merrily hent the stile-a:
A merry heart goes all the day,
Your sad tires in a mile-a.
[Exit.]
SCENE IV. The same. A Shepherd's Cottage.
[Enter FLORIZEL and PERDITA.]
FLORIZEL.
These your unusual weeds to each part of you
Do give a life,--no shepherdess, but Flora
Peering in April's front. This your sheep-shearing
Is as a meeting of the petty gods,
And you the queen on't.
PERDITA.
Sir, my gracious lord,
To chide at your extremes it not becomes me,--
O, pardon that I name them!--your high self,
The gracious mark o' the land, you have obscur'd
With a swain's wearing; and me, poor lowly maid,
Most goddess-like prank'd up. But that our feasts
In every mess have folly, and the feeders
Digest it with a custom, I should blush
To see you so attir'd; swoon, I think,
To show myself a glass.
FLORIZEL.
I bless the time
When my good falcon made her flight across
Thy father's ground.
PERDITA.
Now Jove afford you cause!
To me the difference forges dread: your greatness
Hath not been us'd to fear. Even now I tremble
To think your father, by some accident,
Should pass this way, as you did. O, the fates!
How would he look to see his work, so noble,
Vilely bound up? What would he say? Or how
Should I, in these my borrow'd flaunts, behold
The sternness of his presence?
FLORIZEL.
Apprehend
Nothing but jollity. The gods themselves,
Humbling their deities to love, have taken
The shapes of beasts upon them: Jupiter
Became a bull and bellow'd; the green Neptune
A ram and bleated; and the fire-rob'd god,
Golden Apollo, a poor humble swain,
As I seem now:--their transformations
Were never for a piece of beauty rarer,--
Nor in a way so chaste, since my desires
Run not before mine honour, nor my lusts
Burn hotter than my faith.
PERDITA.
O, but, sir,
Your resolution cannot hold when 'tis
Oppos'd, as it must be, by the power of the king:
One of these two must be necessities,
Which then will speak, that you must change this purpose,
Or I my life.
FLORIZEL.
Thou dearest Perdita,
With these forc'd thoughts, I pr'ythee, darken not
The mirth o' the feast: or I'll be thine, my fair,
Or not my father's; for I cannot be
Mine own, nor anything to any, if
I be not thine: to this I am most constant,
Though destiny say no. Be merry, gentle;
Strangle such thoughts as these with any thing
That you behold the while. Your guests are coming:
Lift up your countenance, as it were the day
Of celebration of that nuptial which
We two have sworn shall come.
PERDITA.
O lady Fortune,
Stand you auspicious!
FLORIZEL.
See, your guests approach:
Address yourself to entertain them sprightly,
And let's be red with mirth.
[Enter Shepherd, with POLIXENES and CAMILLO, disguised; CLOWN,
MOPSA, DORCAS, with others.]
SHEPHERD.
Fie, daughter! When my old wife liv'd, upon
This day she was both pantler, butler, cook;
Both dame and servant; welcom'd all; serv'd all;
Would sing her song and dance her turn; now here
At upper end o' the table, now i' the middle;
On his shoulder, and his; her face o' fire
With labour, and the thing she took to quench it
She would to each one sip. You are retir'd,
As if you were a feasted one, and not
The hostess of the meeting: pray you, bid
These unknown friends to us welcome, for it is
A way to make us better friends, more known.
Come, quench your blushes, and present yourself
That which you are, mistress o' the feast: come on,
And bid us welcome to your sheep-shearing,
As your good flock shall prosper.
PERDITA.
[To POLIXENES.] Sir, welcome!
It is my father's will I should take on me
The hostess-ship o' the day:--[To CAMILLO.] You're welcome, sir!
Give me those flowers there, Dorcas.--Reverend sirs,
For you there's rosemary and rue; these keep
Seeming and savour all the winter long:
Grace and remembrance be to you both!
And welcome to our shearing!
POLIXENES.
Shepherdess--
A fair one are you!--well you fit our ages
With flowers of winter.
PERDITA.
Sir, the year growing ancient,--
Not yet on summer's death nor on the birth
Of trembling winter,--the fairest flowers o' the season
Are our carnations and streak'd gillyvors,
Which some call nature's bastards: of that kind
Our rustic garden's barren; and I care not
To get slips of them.
POLIXENES.
Wherefore, gentle maiden,
Do you neglect them?
PERDITA.
For I have heard it said
There is an art which, in their piedness, shares
With great creating nature.
POLIXENES.
Say there be;
Yet nature is made better by no mean
But nature makes that mean; so, o'er that art
Which you say adds to nature, is an art
That nature makes. You see, sweet maid, we marry
A gentler scion to the wildest stock,
And make conceive a bark of baser kind
By bud of nobler race. This is an art
Which does mend nature,-- change it rather; but
The art itself is nature.
PERDITA.
So it is.
POLIXENES.
Then make your garden rich in gillyvors,
And do not call them bastards.
PERDITA.
I'll not put
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, and only therefore
Desire to breed by me.--Here's flowers for you;
Hot lavender, mints, savory, marjoram;
The marigold, that goes to bed with the sun,
And with him rises weeping; these are flowers
Of middle summer, and I think they are given
To men of middle age. You're very welcome!
CAMILLO.
I should leave grazing, were I of your flock,
And only live by gazing.
PERDITA.
Out, alas!
You'd be so lean that blasts of January
Would blow you through and through.--Now, my fairest friend,
I would I had some flowers o' the spring that might
Become your time of day;--and yours, and yours,
That wear upon your virgin branches yet
Your maidenheads growing.--O Proserpina,
From the flowers now, that, frighted, thou lett'st fall
From Dis's 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,--a malady
Most incident to maids; 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!
FLORIZEL.
What, like a corse?
PERDITA.
No; like a bank for love to lie and play on;
Not like a corse; or if,--not to be buried,
But quick, and in mine arms. 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.
FLORIZEL.
What you do
Still betters what is done. When you speak, sweet,
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 ordering your affairs,
To sing them too: when you do dance, I wish you
A wave o' the sea, that you might ever do
Nothing but that; move still, still so, and own
No other function: each your doing,
So singular in each particular,
Crowns what you are doing in the present deeds,
That all your acts are queens.
PERDITA.
O Doricles,
Your praises are too large: but that your youth,
And the true blood which peeps fairly through it,
Do plainly give you out an unstained shepherd,
With wisdom I might fear, my Doricles,
You woo'd me the false way.
FLORIZEL.
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.
PERDITA.
I'll swear for 'em.
POLIXENES.
This is the prettiest low-born lass that ever
Ran on the green-sward: nothing she does or seems
But smacks of something greater than herself,
Too noble for this place.
CAMILLO.
He tells her something
That makes her blood look out: good sooth, she is
The queen of curds and cream.
CLOWN.
Come on, strike up.
DORCAS.
Mopsa must be your mistress; marry, garlic,
To mend her kissing with!
MOPSA.
Now, in good time!
CLOWN.
Not a word, a word; we stand upon our manners.--
Come, strike up.
[Music.]
[Here a dance Of Shepherds and Shepherdesses.]
POLIXENES.
Pray, good shepherd, what fair swain is this
Which dances with your daughter?
SHEPHERD.
They call him Doricles; and boasts himself
To have a worthy feeding; but I have it
Upon his own report, and I believe it:
He looks like sooth. He says he loves my daughter:
I think so too; for never gaz'd the moon
Upon the water as he'll stand, and read,
As 'twere, my daughter's eyes: and, to be plain,
I think there is not half a kiss to choose
Who loves another best.
POLIXENES.
She dances featly.
SHEPHERD.
So she does anything; 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.]
SERVANT.
O master, if you did but hear the pedlar 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
ears grew to his tunes.
CLOWN.
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.
SERVANT.
He hath songs for man or woman of all sizes; no milliner can so
fit his customers with gloves: he has the prettiest love-songs
for maids; so without bawdry, which is strange; with such
delicate burdens of 'dildos' and 'fadings', 'jump her and thump
her'; and where some stretch-mouth'd rascal would, as it were,
mean mischief, and break a foul gap into the matter, he makes the
maid to answer 'Whoop, do me no harm, good man',--puts him off,
slights him, with 'Whoop, do me no harm, good man.'
POLIXENES.
This is a brave fellow.
CLOWN.
Believe me, thou talkest of an admirable conceited fellow.
Has he any unbraided wares?
SERVANT.
He hath ribbons 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; you
would think a smock were she-angel, he so chants to the
sleeve-hand and the work about the square on't.
CLOWN.
Pr'ythee bring him in; and let him approach singing.
PERDITA.
Forewarn him that he use no scurrilous words in his tunes.
[Exit SERVANT.]
CLOWN.
You have of these pedlars that have more in them than you'd
think, sister.
PERDITA.
Ay, good brother, or go about to think.
[Enter AUTOLYCUS, singing.]
Lawn as white as driven snow;
Cypress black as e'er 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;
Pins and poking-sticks of steel,
What maids lack from head to heel.
Come, buy of me, come; come buy, come buy;
Buy, lads, or else your lasses cry:
Come, buy.
CLOWN.
If I were not in love with Mopsa, thou shouldst take no
money of me; but being enthralled as I am, it will also be the
bondage of certain ribbons and gloves.
MOPSA.
I was promis'd them against the feast; but they come not too
late now.
DORCAS.
He hath promised you more than that, or there be liars.
MOPSA.
He hath paid you all he promised you: may be he has paid you
more,--which will shame you to give him again.
CLOWN.
Is there no manners left among maids? will they wear their
plackets where they should bear their faces? Is there not
milking-time, when you are going to bed, or kiln-hole, to whistle
off these secrets, but you must be tittle-tattling before all our
guests? 'tis well they are whispering. Clamour your tongues, and
not a word more.
MOPSA.
I have done. Come, you promised me a tawdry lace, and a pair
of sweet gloves.
CLOWN.
Have I not told thee how I was cozened by the way, and lost
all my money?
AUTOLYCUS.
And indeed, sir, there are cozeners abroad; therefore it
behoves men to be wary.
CLOWN.
Fear not thou, man; thou shalt lose nothing here.
AUTOLYCUS.
I hope so, sir; for I have about me many parcels of charge.
CLOWN.
What hast here? ballads?
MOPSA.
Pray now, buy some: I love a ballad in print a-life; for
then we are sure they are true.
AUTOLYCUS.
Here's one to a very doleful tune. How a usurer's wife
was brought to bed of twenty money-bags at a burden, and how she
long'd to eat adders' heads and toads carbonadoed.
MOPSA.
Is it true, think you?
AUTOLYCUS.
Very true; and but a month old.
DORCAS.
Bless me from marrying a usurer!
AUTOLYCUS.
Here's the midwife's name to't, one Mistress Taleporter,
and five or six honest wives that were present. Why should I
carry lies abroad?
MOPSA.
Pray you now, buy it.
CLOWN.
Come on, lay it by; and let's first see more ballads; we'll
buy the other things anon.
AUTOLYCUS.
Here's another ballad, of a fish that appeared upon the
coast on Wednesday the fourscore of April, forty thousand fathom
above water, and sung this ballad against the hard hearts of
maids: it was thought she was a woman, and was turned into a cold
fish for she would not exchange flesh with one that loved her.
The ballad is very pitiful, and as true.
DORCAS.
Is it true too, think you?
AUTOLYCUS.
Five justices' hands at it; and witnesses more than my pack will
hold.
CLOWN.
Lay it by too: another.
AUTOLYCUS.
This is a merry ballad; but a very pretty one.
MOPSA.
Let's have some merry ones.
AUTOLYCUS.
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.
MOPSA.
can both sing it: if thou'lt bear a part thou shalt hear; 'tis in
three parts.
DORCAS.
We had the tune on't a month ago.
AUTOLYCUS.
I can bear my part; you must know 'tis my occupation: have at it
with you.
[SONG.]
AUTOLYCUS.
Get you hence, for I must go
Where it fits not you to know.
DORCAS.
Whither?
MOPSA.
O, whither?
DORCAS.
Whither?
MOPSA.
It becomes thy oath full well
Thou to me thy secrets tell.
DORCAS.
Me too! Let me go thither.
MOPSA.
Or thou goest to the grange or mill:
DORCAS.
If to either, thou dost ill.
AUTOLYCUS.
Neither.
DORCAS.
What, neither?
AUTOLYCUS.
Neither.
DORCAS.
Thou hast sworn my love to be;
MOPSA.
Thou hast sworn it more to me;
Then whither goest?--say, whither?
CLOWN.
We'll have this song out anon by ourselves; my father and the
gentlemen are in sad talk, and we'll not trouble them.--Come,
bring away thy pack after me.--Wenches, I'll buy for you both:--
Pedlar, let's have the first choice.--Follow me, girls.
[Exit with DORCAS and MOPSA.]
AUTOLYCUS.
[Aside.] And you shall pay well for 'em.
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 pedlar;
Money's a meddler
That doth utter all men's ware-a.
[Exeunt Clown, AUT., DOR., and MOP.]
[Re-enter Servant.]
SERVANT.
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 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.
SHEPHERD.
Away! we'll none on't; here has been too much homely foolery
already.--I know, sir, we weary you.
POLIXENES.
You weary those that refresh us: pray, let's see these
four threes of herdsmen.
SERVANT.
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 squire.
SHEPHERD.
Leave your prating: since these good men are pleased, let
them come in; but quickly now.
SERVANT.
Why, they stay at door, sir.
[Exit.]
[Enter Twelve Rustics, habited like Satyrs. They dance, and then
exeunt.]
POLIXENES.
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 handed love as you do, I was wont
To load my she with knacks: I would have ransack'd
The pedlar'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.
FLORIZEL.
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.
POLIXENES.
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.
FLORIZEL.
Do, and be witness to't.
POLIXENES.
And this my neighbour, too?
FLORIZEL.
And he, and more
Than he, and men,--the earth, the heavens, and all:--
That,--were I crown'd the most imperial monarch,
Thereof most worthy; were I the fairest youth
That ever made eye swerve; had force and knowledge
More than was ever man's,--I would not prize them
Without her love: for her employ them all;
Commend them, and condemn them to her service,
Or to their own perdition.
POLIXENES.
Fairly offer'd.
CAMILLO.
This shows a sound affection.
SHEPHERD.
But, my daughter,
Say you the like to him?
PERDITA.
I cannot speak
So well, nothing so well; no, nor mean better:
By the pattern of mine own thoughts I cut out
The purity of his.
SHEPHERD.
Take hands, a bargain!--
And, friends unknown, you shall bear witness to't:
I give my daughter to him, and will make
Her portion equal his.
FLORIZEL.
O, that must be
I' the virtue of your daughter: one being dead,
I shall have more than you can dream of yet;
Enough then for your wonder: but come on,
Contract us 'fore these witnesses.
SHEPHERD.
Come, your hand;--
And, daughter, yours.
POLIXENES.
Soft, swain, awhile, beseech you;
Have you a father?
FLORIZEL.
I have; but what of him?
POLIXENES.
Knows he of this?
FLORIZEL.
He neither does nor shall.
POLIXENES.
Methinks a father
Is, at the nuptial of his son, a guest
That best becomes the table. Pray you, once more;
Is not your father grown incapable
Of reasonable affairs? is he not stupid
With age and altering rheums? can he speak? hear?
Know man from man? dispute his own estate?
Lies he not bed-rid? and again does nothing
But what he did being childish?
FLORIZEL.
No, good sir;
He has his health, and ampler strength indeed
Than most have of his age.
POLIXENES.
By my white beard,
You offer him, if this be so, a wrong
Something unfilial: reason my son
Should choose himself a wife; but as good reason
The father,--all whose joy is nothing else
But fair posterity,--should hold some counsel
In such a business.
FLORIZEL.
I yield all this;
But, for some other reasons, my grave sir,
Which 'tis not fit you know, I not acquaint
My father of this business.
POLIXENES.
Let him know't.
FLORIZEL.
He shall not.
POLIXENES.
Pr'ythee let him.
FLORIZEL.
No, he must not.
SHEPHERD.
Let him, my son: he shall not need to grieve
At knowing of thy choice.
FLORIZEL.
Come, come, he must not.--
Mark our contract.
POLIXENES.
[Discovering himself.] Mark your divorce, young sir,
Whom son I dare not call; thou art too base
To be acknowledged: thou a sceptre's heir,
That thus affects a sheep-hook!--Thou, old traitor,
I am sorry that, by hanging thee, I can but
Shorten thy life one week.--And thou, fresh piece
Of excellent witchcraft, who of force must know
The royal fool thou cop'st with,--
SHEPHERD.
O, my heart!
POLIXENES.
I'll have thy beauty scratch'd with briers, and made
More homely than thy state. For thee, fond boy,--
If I may ever know thou dost but sigh
That thou no more shalt see this knack,--as never
I mean thou shalt,--we'll bar thee from succession;
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, enchantment,--
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,
Or hoop his body more with thy embraces,
I will devise a death as cruel for thee
As thou art tender to't.
[Exit.]
PERDITA.
Even here undone!
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.--[To FLORIZEL.] Will't please you, sir, be gone?
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 further,
But milk my ewes, and weep.
CAMILLO.
Why, how now, father!
Speak ere thou diest.
SHEPHERD.
I cannot speak, nor think,
Nor dare to know that which I know.--[To FLORIZEL.] O, sir,
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 me
Where no priest shovels in dust.--[To PERDITA.] O cursed wretch,
That knew'st this was the prince, and wouldst adventure
To mingle faith with him!,--Undone, undone!
If I might die within this hour, I have liv'd
To die when I desire.
[Exit.]
FLORIZEL.
Why look you so upon me?
I am but sorry, not afeard; delay'd,
But nothing alt'red: what I was, I am:
More straining on for plucking back; not following
My leash unwillingly.
CAMILLO.
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.
FLORIZEL.
I not purpose it.
I think Camillo?
CAMILLO.
Even he, my lord.
PERDITA.
How often have I told you 'twould be thus!
How often said my dignity would last
But till 'twere known!
FLORIZEL.
It cannot fail but by
The violation of my faith; and then
Let nature crush the sides o' the earth together
And mar the seeds within!--Lift up thy looks.--
From my succession wipe me, father; I
Am heir to my affection.
CAMILLO.
Be advis'd.
FLORIZEL.
I am,--and by my fancy; if my reason
Will thereto be obedient, I have reason;
If not, my senses, better pleas'd with madness,
Do bid it welcome.
CAMILLO.
This is desperate, sir.
FLORIZEL.
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 honour'd 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, who 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.
CAMILLO.
O, my lord,
I would your spirit were easier for advice,
Or stronger for your need.
FLORIZEL.
Hark, Perdita.--[Takes her aside.]
[To CAMILLO.]I'll hear you by and by.
CAMILLO.
He's irremovable,
Resolv'd for flight. Now were I happy if
His going I could frame to serve my turn;
Save him from danger, do him love and honour;
Purchase the sight again of dear Sicilia
And that unhappy king, my master, whom
I so much thirst to see.
FLORIZEL.
Now, good Camillo,
I am so fraught with curious business that
I leave out ceremony.
CAMILLO.
Sir, I think
You have heard of my poor services, i' the love
That I have borne your father?
FLORIZEL.
Very nobly
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.
CAMILLO.
Well, my lord,
If you may please to think I love the king,
And, through him, what's nearest to him, 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 receiving
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.
FLORIZEL.
How, Camillo,
May this, almost a miracle, be done?
That I may call thee something more than man,
And, after that, trust to thee.
CAMILLO.
Have you thought on
A place whereto you'll go?
FLORIZEL.
Not any yet;
But as the unthought-on accident is guilty
To what we wildly do; so we profess
Ourselves to be the slaves of chance, and flies
Of every wind that blows.
CAMILLO.
Then list to me:
This follows,--if you will not change your purpose,
But undergo this flight,--make for Sicilia;
And there present yourself and your fair princess,--
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, forgiveness,
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,--the one
He chides to hell, and bids the other grow
Faster than thought or time.
FLORIZEL.
Worthy Camillo,
What colour for my visitation shall I
Hold up before him?
CAMILLO.
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.
FLORIZEL.
I am bound to you:
There is some sap in this.
CAMILLO.
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;
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 loath to be: besides, you know
Prosperity's the very bond of love,
Whose fresh complexion and whose heart together
Affliction alters.
PERDITA.
One of these is true:
I think affliction may subdue the cheek,
But not take in the mind.
CAMILLO.
Yea, say you so?
There shall not at your father's house, these seven years
Be born another such.
FLORIZEL.
My good Camillo,
She is as forward of her breeding as
She is i' the rear our birth.
CAMILLO.
I cannot say 'tis pity
She lacks instruction; for she seems a mistress
To most that teach.
PERDITA.
Your pardon, sir; for this:
I'll blush you thanks.
FLORIZEL.
My prettiest Perdita!--
But, O, the thorns we stand upon!--Camillo,--
Preserver of my father, now of me;
The medicine of our house!--how shall we do?
We are not furnish'd like Bohemia's son;
Nor shall appear in Sicilia.
CAMILLO.
My lord,
Fear none of this: I think you know my fortunes
Do all lie there: it shall be so my care
To have you royally appointed as if
The scene you play were mine. For instance, sir,
That you may know you shall not want,--one word.
[They talk aside.]
[Re-enter AUTOLYCUS.]
AUTOLYCUS.
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-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 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.]
CAMILLO.
Nay, but my letters, by this means being there
So soon as you arrive, shall clear that doubt.
FLORIZEL.
And those that you'll procure from king Leontes,--
CAMILLO.
Shall satisfy your father.
PERDITA.
Happy be you!
All that you speak shows fair.
CAMILLO.
[seeing AUTOLYCUS.] Who have we here?
We'll make an instrument of this; omit
Nothing may give us aid.
AUTOLYCUS.
[Aside.] If they have overheard me now,--why, hanging.
CAMILLO.
How now, good fellow! why shakest thou so? Fear not, man; here's
no harm intended to thee.
AUTOLYCUS.
I am a poor fellow, sir.
CAMILLO.
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. [Giving money.]
AUTOLYCUS.
I am a poor fellow, sir:--[Aside.] I know ye well enough.
CAMILLO.
Nay, pr'ythee dispatch: the gentleman is half flay'd already.
AUTOLYCUS.
Are you in camest, sir?--[Aside.] I smell the trick on't.
FLORIZEL.
Dispatch, I pr'ythee.
AUTOLYCUS.
Indeed, I have had earnest; but I cannot with conscience
take it.
CAMILLO.
Unbuckle, unbuckle.
[FLORIZEL and AUTOLYCUS 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,--
For I do fear eyes over,--to shipboard
Get undescried.
PERDITA.
I see the play so lies
That I must bear a part.
CAMILLO.
No remedy.--
Have you done there?
FLORIZEL.
Should I now meet my father,
He would not call me son.
CAMILLO.
Nay, you shall have no hat.--
[Giving it to PERDITA.]
Come, lady, come.--Farewell, my friend.
AUTOLYCUS.
Adieu, sir.
FLORIZEL.
O Perdita, what have we twain forgot!
Pray you a word.
[They converse apart.]
CAMILLO.
[Aside.] What I do next, shall be to tell the king
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 re-view Sicilia; for whose sight
I have a woman's longing.
FLORIZEL.
Fortune speed us!--
Thus we set on, Camillo, to the sea-side.
CAMILLO.
The swifter speed the better.
[Exeunt FLORIZEL, PERDITA, and CAMILLO.]
AUTOLYCUS.
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 anything 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.
[Re-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.
CLOWN.
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.
SHEPHERD.
Nay, but hear me.
CLOWN.
Nay, but hear me.
SHEPHERD.
Go to, then.
CLOWN.
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.
SHEPHERD.
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.
CLOWN.
Indeed, brother-in-law was the farthest off you could have
been to him; and then your blood had been the dearer by I know
how much an ounce.
AUTOLYCUS.
[Aside.] Very wisely, puppies!
SHEPHERD.
Well, let us to the king: there is that in this fardel
will make him scratch his beard!
AUTOLYCUS.
[Aside.] I know not what impediment this complaint may
be to the flight of my master.
CLOWN.
Pray heartily he be at palace.
AUTOLYCUS.
Though I am not naturally honest, I am so sometimes by chance.
Let me pocket up my pedlar's excrement. [Aside, and takes off his
false beard.]--How now, rustics! whither are you bound?
SHEPHERD.
To the palace, an it like your worship.
AUTOLYCUS.
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 anything that is fitting to be known?
discover.
CLOWN.
We are but plain fellows, sir.
AUTOLYCUS.
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.
CLOWN.
Your worship had like to have given us one, if you had not
taken yourself with the manner.
SHEPHERD.
Are you a courtier, an't like you, sir?
AUTOLYCUS.
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 court-contempt? Think'st thou, for
that I insinuate, that toaze 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 the to open thy affair.
SHEPHERD.
My business, sir, is to the king.
AUTOLYCUS.
What advocate hast thou to him?
SHEPHERD.
I know not, an't like you.
CLOWN.
Advocate's the court-word for a pheasant, say you have none.
SHEPHERD.
None, sir; I have no pheasant, cock nor hen.
AUTOLYCUS.
How bless'd are we that are not simple men!
Yet nature might have made me as these are,
Therefore I will not disdain.
CLOWN.
This cannot be but a great courtier.
SHEPHERD.
His garments are rich, but he wears them not handsomely.
CLOWN.
He seems to be the more noble in being fantastical: a great man,
I'll warrant; I know by the picking on's teeth.
AUTOLYCUS.
The fardel there? what's i' the fardel? Wherefore that box?
SHEPHERD.
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.
AUTOLYCUS.
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