ACT IV.

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 1
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,

SHAK.

1 The intermediate time unexamined.

2 Imagine for me.

V.

X

Gentle spectators, that I now may be

In fair Bohemia; and remember well,

I mentioned 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 1 of Time.

Of this allow,2

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 I.

The same. A room in the palace of Polixenes.
Enter POLIXENES and CAMILLO.

Pol. I pray thee, good Camillo, be no more importunate 'tis a sickness, denying thee any thing; a death, to grant this.

Cam. 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'er

ween to think so; which is another spur to my departure.

Pol. 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 callest 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 saw'st 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.

Cam. 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. Pol. I have considered so much, Camillo, and

I Think too highly of myself.

2 Occasionally.

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 neighbors, is grown into an unspeakable estate.

Cam. 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.

Pol. 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 1 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. Cam. I willingly obey your command.

Pol. My best Camillo !-We must disguise ourseives. [Exeunt.

I Conversation.

The same.

SCENE II.

A road near the shepherd's cottage.

Enter AUTOLYCUS, singing.

When daffodils begin to peer,

With, heigh! 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 2 tooth on edge;

For a quart of ale is a dish for a king.

The lark, that tirra-lirra chants,

With, heigh! with, hey! the thrush and the jay ;Are summer songs for me and my aunts,3

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?
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.

1 The red, or spring blood, now reigns over the parts lately under the dominion of winter.'-Farmer.

2 Thievish.