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I'the rear of birth.

Cam. I cannot say, 'tis pity

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,

She lacks instructions; for she seems a mistress there's some boot.*

To most that teach.

Per. Your pardon, Sir, for this;

I'll blush you thanks.

Flo. 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 Sicily-

Cam. My lord,

Fear none of this: I think, you know my for-
Do all lie there: it shall be so my care [tunes
To have you royally appointed, as if [Sir,
The scene you play, were mine. For instance,
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 choughst from the chaff, I had not left a purse alive in the whole army.

[CAMILLO, FLORIZEL, and PERDITA, come forward.

Cum. 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.
Cam. Who have we here?

[Seeing AUTOLYCUS. We'll make an instrument of this; omit Nothing, may give us aid.

Aut. If they have overheard me now,-why Langing. [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:-I know ye well enough. [Aside. Cam. Nay, pr'y thee, despatch: the gentleman is half layed already.

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

Flo. Despatch, I pr'ythee. Aut. Indeed, I have had earnest ; but I can. not 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,
Get undescried.
(For I do fear eyes over you,) to shipboard

That I must bear a part.
Per. I see, the play so lies,

Cam. No remedy.-
Have you done there?

He would not call me son.
Flo. Should I now meet my father,

No hat :- Come, lady, come.-Farewell, my
Cam. Nay, you shall have
[friend.
Aut. Adieu, Sir.

Pray you, a word.
Flo. O Perdita, what have we twain forgot?
[They converse apart.
Cam. What I do next, shall be, to tell the
Of this escape, and whither they are bound;
king
[Aside.
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.

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

[Exeunt FLORIZEL, PERDITA, ana
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 the other senses. I see, this is the time that nose is requisite also, to smell out work for had this been, without boot? What a boot is the unjust man doth thrive. What an exchange here, with this exchange? Sure, the gods do thing extempore. The prince himself is about this year connive at us, and we may do any 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

A little ball made of perfumes, and worn to prevent blood. Infuction in times of plague. + Birds.

* Something over and above.

+ Stripper.

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 sacred 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 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.

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. Aut. Though I am not naturally honest, I am 50 sometimes by chance:--Let me pocket up my pedlar's excrement.+-[Takes off his fulse beard.] How now, rustics? whither are you bound?

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 far. del, 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. Shep. Why, Sir?

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, 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 sheep-cote! all deaths are too few, the sharpest too easy.

Clo. Has the old man e'er a son, Sir, do you

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 hav-hear, an't like you, Sir? ing, 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 bing steel; therefore they do not give us the lie.

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 a dram dead: then recovered again with aqua-vitæ, or some other hot infusion: then, raw as he is, and in the hottest day stab-prognostication proclaims,t 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 you have to the king: being something gently considered, I'll bring you where he is aboard, tender your persons to his presence, whisper him in your behalfs; and, if it be in man, besides the king to effect your suits, here is man shall do it.

Clo. 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, capa-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

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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? Shep. Ay, Sir.

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. Clo. Comfort, good comfort: we must to the

* Related.

+ The hottest day foretold in the Being handsomely bribed.

!

Eing, 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 look upon the hedge, and follow you.

Clo. We are blessed in this man, as I may say, even blessed.

Shep. Let's before, as he bids us: he was 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. [Exit.

ACT V.

SCENE I-Sicilia.-A Room in the Palace of LEONTES.

Enter LEONTES, CLEOMENES, DION, PAULINA, and others.

Cleo. Sir, you have done enough, and have

perform'd Asaint-like sorrow: no fault could you make,, Which you have not redeem'd; indeed, paid down [last, More penitence, than done trespass: At the Do, as the heavens have done, forget your With them, forgive yourself. [evil;

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,
That heirless it hath made my kingdom; and
Destroy'd the sweet'st companion, that e'er
Bred his hopes out of.

Paul. True, too true, my lord:

[man

If, one by one, you wedded all the world,
Or, from the all that are, took something good,
To make a perfect woman; she, you kill'd,
Would be unparallel'd.

Leon. I think so.

Kill'd!

She I kill'd? I did so: but thou strik'st me
Sorely, to say I did; it is as bitter

Upon my tongue, as in my thought: Now, good

Say so but seldom.

Cleo. Not at all, good lady:

now,

To bless the bed of majesty again With a sweet fellow to't?

Paul. There is none wortny,
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,
And come again to me; who, on my life,
Did perish with the infant. "Tis your counsel,
My lord should to the heavens be contrary,
Oppose against their wills.-Care not for
issue;
[To LEONTES.
The crown will find an heir: Great Alexan-
der

Left his to the worthiest; so his successor
Was like to be the best.

Leon. Good Paulina,-
Who hast the memory of Hermione,
I know, in honour,-O, that ever I' [now,
Had squar'd me to thy counsel!-then, even
I might have look'd upon my queen's full eyes;
Have taken treasure from her lips,-
Paul. And left them
More rich, for what they yielded.
Leon. Thou speak'st truth.

[worse, No more such wives; therefore, no wife: one And better us'd, would make her sainted spirit Again possess her corps; and, on this stage, (Where we offenders now appear,) soul-vex'd, Begin, And why to me?

She had just cause.

Paul. Had she such power,

To murder her I married.
Leon. She had; and would incense* me

Paul. I should so:

Were I the ghost that walk'd, I'd bid you mark You chose her: then I'd shriek, that even your Her eye; and tell me, for what dull part in't

ears

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Paul. Then, good my lords, bear witness to his oath.

Cleo. You tempt him over-much.
Paul. Unless another,

As like Hermione as is her picture,
Affront his eye.

Cleo. Good inadain,-
Paul. I have done.

You might have spoken a thousand things that Yet, if my lord will marry, if you will, Sir,

would

Have done the time more benefit, and grac'd Your kindness better.

Paul. You are one of those, Would have him wed again.

Dion. If you would not so,

You pity not the state, nor the remembrance
Of his most sovereign dame; consider little,
What dangers, by his Highness' fail of issue,
May drop upon his kingdom, and devour
Incertain lookers-on. What were more holy,
Than to rejoice, the former queen is well ?*
What holier, than,-for royalty's repair,
For present comfort and for future good,-
* At rest, dead.

No remedy, but you will; give me the office To choose you a queen: but she shall not be

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Son of Polixenes, with his princess, (she The fairest I have yet beheld,) desires access To your high presence.

Leon. What with him? he comes not Like to his father's greatness: his approach, So out of circumstance, and sudden, tells us, "Tis not a visitation fram'd, but forc'd By need, and accident. What train? Gent. But few,

And those but mean.

Leon. His princess, say you, with him? Gent. Ay; the most peerless piece of earth, That e'er the sun shone bright on. [I think,

Paul. O Hermione,

As every present time doth boast itself
Above a better, gone; so must thy grave
Give way to what's seen now. Sir, you your-
self

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
To say, you have seen a better. [ebb'd,

Gent. Pardon, madam:

The one I have almost forgot; (your pardon,) The other, when she has obtain❜d your eye, Will have your tongue too. This is such a

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[Exeunt CLEOMENES, GENTLEMEN.

friends, still 'tis

?DS, und

He thus should steal upon us. Paul. Had our prince, [pair'd (Jewel of children,) seen this hour, he had Well with this lord; there was not full a month Between their births.

Leon. Pr'ythee, no more; thou know'st, He dies to me again, when talk'd of: sure, When I shall see this gentleman, thy speeches Will bring me to consider that, which may Unfurnish me of reason.-They are come.

Re-enter CLEOMENES, with FLORIZEL, PERDITA, and Attendants.

Your mother was most true to wedlock, prince;
For she did print your royal father off,
Conceiving you: Were I but twenty-one,
Your father's image is so hit in you,
His very air, that I should call you brother,
As I did him; and speak of something, wildly
By us perform'd before. Most dearly welcome!
And you fair princess, goddess!—O, alas!
I lost a couple, that 'twixt heaven and earth
Might thus have stood, begetting wonder, as
You, gracious couple, do! and then I lost
(All mine own folly,) the society,
Amity too, of your brave father; whom,
Though bearing misery, I desire my life
Once more to look upon.

Flo. By his command

Have I here touch'd Sicilia: and from him Give you all greetings, that a king, a friend, Can send his brother: and, but infirmity

* I. e. Than the corse of Hermione, the subject of your writing

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His wish'd ability, he had himself

[his

The lands and waters 'twixt your throne and
Measur'd, to look upon you; whom he loves
(He bade me say so,) more than all the scep-
And those that bear them, living. [tres.

Leon. O, my brother, (Good gentleman!) the wrongs I have done thee, stir

Afresh within me; and these thy offices,
So rarely kind, are as interpreters [ther,
Of my behind-hand slackness!-Welcome hi-
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 nian, not worth her pains; much
The adventure of her person?
[less

Flo. Good my lord, She came from Libya.

Leon. Where the warlike Smalus, That noble honour'd lord, is fear'd, and lov'd? Flo. Most royal Sir, from thence; from him, whose daughter [thence His tears proclaim'd his, parting with her: (A prosperous south-wind friendly,) we have cross'd,

To execute the charge my father gave me,
For visiting your highness: My best train
I have from your Sicilian shores dismiss'd; à
Who for Bohemia bend, to signify
Not only my success in Libya, Sir,
But my arrival, and my wife's, in safety
Here, where we are.

Leon. The blessed gods

Purge all infection from our air, whilst you
Do climate here! You have a holy father,
A graceful gentleman; against whose person,
So sacred as it is, I have done sin:

For which the heavens, taking angry note, Have left me issueless; and your father's bless'd,

(As he from heaven merits it,) with you, Worthy his goodness. What might I have been, Might I a son and daughter now have look'd Such goodly things as you? [on,

Enter a LORD.

Lord. Most noble Sir,

That, which I shall report, will bear no credit,
Were not the proof so nigh. Please you, great
Sir,

Bohemia greets you from himself, by me:
Desires you to attacht his son; who has
Fled from his father, from his hopes, and with
(His dignity and duty both cast off,)
A shepherd's daughter.

[hiin.

Leon. Where's Bohemia? speak. Lord. Here in the city; I now came from I speak amazedly; and it becomes My marvel, and my message. To your court Whiles he was hast'ning, (in the chase, it seems Of this fair couple,) meets he on the way The father of this seeming lady, and Her brother, having both their country quitted With this young prince.

Flo. Camillo has betray'd me; Whose honour, and whose honesty, till now, Endur'd all weathers.

Lord. Lay't so, to his charge; He's with the king your father. Leon. Who? Camillo?

Lord. Camillo, Sir; I spake with him; who

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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: Bohemia stops his ears, and threatens them With divers deaths in death.

Per. O, my poor father!—

The heaven sets spies upon us, will not have Our contract celebrated.

Leon. You are married?

Flo. We are not, Sir, nor are we like to be; The stars, I see, will kiss the valleys first:The odds for high and low's alike.t

Leon. My lord,

Is this the daughter of a king?
Flo. She is,

When once she is my wife.

Leon. That once, I see, by your good father's speed,

Will come on very slowly. I am sorry,
Most sorry, you have broken from his liking,
Where you were tied in duty: and as sorry,
Your choice is not so rich in worth; as beauty,
That you might well enjoy her.

Flo. Dear, look up:
Though fortune, visible an enemy, [jot
Should chase us, with my father; power no
Hath she, to change our loves.-'Beseech you,
Sir,

Remember since you ow'd no more to time Than I do now: with thought of such affections,

Step forth mine advocate; at your request, My father will grant precious things, as trifles. Leon. Would he do so, I'd beg your precious mistress,

Which he counts but a trifle.

Paul. Sir, my liege, [month Your eye hath too much youth in't: not a 'Fore your queen died, she was more worth such gazes Than what you look on now. Leon. i thought of her, Even in these looks I made.-But your petition [To FLORIZEL.

Is yet unanswer'd; I will to your father;
Your honour not o'erthrown by your desires,
I am a friend to them, and you: upon which

errand

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it.

Aut. I would most gladly know the issue of

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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 letters of 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 clippings her; now he thanks the old shepherd, which stands by, like a weatherbitten conduit of many kings' reigns. I never 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?

3 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 seenis much,) to justify him, but a bankerchief, and rings, of his, that Paulina knows. 1 Gent. What became of his bark and his followers?

1 Gent. I make a broken delivery of the business;-But the changes I perceived in the king, 3 Gent. Wrecked, the same instant of their and Camillo, were very notes of admiration: master's death; and in the view of the shepthey seemed almost, with staring at one ano-herd: so that all the instruments, which aided ther, 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 no

Conversation.

+ A quibble on the false dice so called ↑ Descent or wealth,

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

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