Yet, for this once, yea, superstitiously,
I will be squared 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: 1 there these ;
[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 exposed
To loss, and what may follow!-Weep I cannot,
But my heart bleeds; and most accursed am I,

To be by oath enjoin'd to this.—Farewell!

The day frowns more and more; thou art like to have

A lullaby too rough. I never saw

The heavens so dim by day. A savage clamor!Well may I get aboard!—This is the chase;

I am gone for ever.

[Exit, pursued by a bear.

Enter an old SHEPHERD.

Shep. I would, there were no age between ten and three and twenty, or that youth would sleep out

i. e. the writing afterwards discovered with Perdita

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 barne; 1 a very pretty barne! 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 stairwork, 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 come; he holla'd but even now. Whoa, ho hoa!

Enter CLOWN.

Clown. Hilloa, loa!

Shep. What, art so near? If thou 'lt see a thing to talk on when thou art dead and rotten, come hither. What ailest 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.

:

Shep. 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 flapdragoned 1 it; but, first, how the poor souls roared, and the sea mocked them; and how the poor gentle. man roared, and the bear mocked him, both roaring louder than the sea or weather.

Shep. 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.

Shep. 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. [aside. Shep. Heavy matters! heavy matters! but look thee here, boy. Now bless thyself: thou met'st

Swallowed.

with things dying, I with things new born. Here's a sight for thee: look thee, a bearing-cloth1 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: 2-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!

Shep. This is fairy gold, boy, and 'twill prove so : up with it; keep it close: home, home, the next3 way. We are lucky, boy; and to be so still, requires nothing but secresy. 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.

Shep. That's a good deed. If thou mayst 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.

Shep. 'Tis a lucky day, boy; and we'll do good deeds on 't.

[Exeunt.

The mantle in which a child was carried to be baptised.

2 Some child left behind by the fairies.