The lark, that tirra-lirra chants, With, hey! with, hey! the thrush and the jay :— While we lie tumbling in the hay. I have served 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 ? If tinkers may have leave to live, And in the stocks avouch it. My traffick is sheets ; when the kite builds, look to lesser linen. My father named me, Autolycus, who, being, as I am, littered under Mercury, was likewise a snapper-up of unconsidered trifles :3 With die,and drab, I purchased this caparison ; and my revenue is the silly cheat. Gallows, and knock, 5 are too powerful on the high-way; 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. Clo. Let me see :-Every 'leven wether-tods ; ev [1] Aunt appears to have been at this time a cant word for a bawd. STEE. [2] That is, I am a vender of sheet ballads, and other publications that are sold unbound From the word sheet, the poet takes occasion to quibble. STEEV. [3] Not only the allusion, but the whole speech is taken from Lucian; who appears to have been one of our poet's favourite authors, as may be collected from several pieces of his work. It is from his discourse on judicial astrology, where Autolycus talks much in the same manner; and it is on this account that he is called the son of Mercury by the ancients, namely, because he was born under that planet. And as the infant was supposed by the astrologers to communicate of the nature of the star which predominated, so Autolycus was a thief. WARB. [4] That is, with gaming and whoring, I brought myself to this shabby dress. PERCY. [5] The resistance which a highwayman encounters in the fact, and the panishment which he suffers on detection, withhold me from daring robbery, and determine me to the silly cheat, and petty theft. JOHNS. [6] A tod, is twenty-eight pounds of wool. PERCY. This has been rightly expounded to mean that the wool of eleven sheep would weigh a tod or 281b Each fleece would, therefore, be 2lb 80z, 11 dr. and the whole produce of fifteen hundred shorn 136 tod, i clove, 2lb 60% 2 dr. which at pound and odd shilling per ted would yield £143 3 0. Our author was too familiar with the subject to be suspected of inaccuracy. RITSON. VOL. III. 27 ery tod yields-pound and odd shilling; fifteen hundred shorn,-What comes the wool to? Aut. If the springe hold, the cock's mine. [Aside. Clo. 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, 7 and very good ones; but they are most of them means, 8 and bases; but one puritan amongst them, and he sings psalms to horn-pipes. I must have saffron, to colour the warden-pies ;9 macedates 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 c' the sun. Aut. O, that ever I was born! Clo. I' the name of me [Grovelling on the ground. Aut. O, help me, help me ! pluck but off these rags ; and then, death, death! Clo. Alack, poor soul! thou hast need of more rags to lay on thee, rather than have these off. Aut. O, sir, the loathsomeness of them offends me more than the stripes I have received; which are mighty ones, and millions. Clo. Alas, poor man! a million of beating may come to a great matter. Aut. I am robbed, sir, and beaten; my money and apparel ta'en from me, and these detestable things put upon me. Clo. What, by a horse-man, or a foot-man? Aut. A foot-man, sweet sir, a foot-man. Clo. Indeed, he should be a foot-man, by the garments he hath left with thee; if this be a horse-man's coat, it hath seen very hot service. Lend me thy hand, I'll help thee. Come, lend me thy hand. Aut. O, good sir, tenderly, oh ! Aut. O good sir, softly, good sir shoulder-blade is out. [Helping him up. I fear, sir, my [7] i. e. singers of catches in three parts. A six-man song occurs in the Tournament of Tottenham. See Rel. of Ant. Eng. Poetry vol. ii. [8] Means are tenors. STEEV. 191 Wardens are a species of large pears. STEEV. PERCY. Clo. How now? canst stand? Aut. Softly, dear sir; [Picks his pocket.] good sir, softly you ha' done me a charitable office. Clo. Dost lack any money? I have a little money for thee. Aut. 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 any thing I want: Offer me no money, I pray you; that kills my heart. Clo. What manner of fellow was he that robbed you? Aut. A fellow, sir, that I have known to go about with trol-my-dames:1 I knew himo nce a servant of the prince: Icannot tell,good sir,for which of his virtues it was, but he was certainly whipped out of the court. Clo. 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.2 Aut. 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, 3 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. Clo. Out upon him, prig! for my life, prig ; 4-he haunts wakes, fairs, and bear-baitings. Aut. Very true, sir; he, sir, he; that's the rogue, that put me into this apparel. Clo. Not a more cowardly rogue in all Bohemia; if you had but looked big, and spit at him, he'd have run. Aut. I must confess to you, sir, I am no fighter: Iam false of heart that way; and that he knew, I warrant him. Clo. How do you now? Aut. 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. Clo. Shall I bring thee on the way? Aut. No, good-faced sir; no, sweet sir. [1] The old English title for this game was pigeon-holes ; as the arches in the machine through which the balls are rolled, resemble the cavities made for pigeons in a dove-house. STEEV. [2] To abide, here, must signify to sojourn, to live for a time without a settled habitation. JOHNS [3] That is, the puppet-shew then called motions. [4] To prig is to filch. MAL. WARB. Clo. Then fare thee well; I must go buy spices for our sheep-shearing. [Exit. Aut. Prosper you, sweet sir!-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 unrolled, and my pame put in the book of virtue !5 Flo. 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. Per. Sir, my gracious lord, 8 To chide at your extremes," it not becomes me; Flo. I bless the time, When my good falcon made her flight across JOHNS. JOHNS. [5] Begging gypsies, in the time of our author, were in gangs and compa nies, that had something of the show of an incorporated body. From this noble society he wishes he may be unrolled, if he does not so and so. WARB. [6] To hent the stile, is to take hold of it. STEEV. [7] Thar is, your excesses, the extravagance of your praise. [8] The object of all men's notice and expectation. [9] That is, one would think that in putting on this habit of a shepherd, you had sworn to put me out of countenance; for, in this, as in a glass, you show me how much below yourself you must descend, before you can get upon a level with me. The sentiment is fine, and expresses all the delicacy, as well as humble modesty of the character. WARB. I think she means to say, that the prince by the rustic habit that he wears, seems as if he had sworn to show her a glass, in which she might behold how she ought to be attired, instead of being "most goddess-like prank'd up." MALONE. Thy father's ground. Per. 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 : Oh, the fates! Flo. Apprehend Nothing but jollity. The gods themselves, Per. O but, dear sir, Your resolution cannot hold, when 'tis Oppos'd, as it must be, by the power o'the king: One of these two must be necessities, Which then will speak ; that you must change this pur Or I my life. Flo. Thou dearest Perdita, [pose, With these forc'd thoughts, I pr'ythee, darken not The mirth o'the feast or I'll be thine, my fair, Mine own, nor any thing 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: We two have sworn shall come. [1] Meaning the difference between his rank and hers. M. MASON, [2] This allusion occurs more than once in Romeo and Juliet: 27* "This precious book of love, this unbound lover, VOL. III. STEEV. |