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-tie, bracelet, horn-ring, to keep my pack from fasting: they thronged 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 off3, 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 whoo-bub' 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. Cam. 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? Per. All that you speak shows fair. Cam. Happy be you! Whom have we here ?- 6 pomander,] A pomander was a ball of perfumes, worn in the pocket, or about the neck. "Pomme d'ambre, an apple of amber." Richardson. 7 they THRONGED who should buy first;] The past tense is required, but in the old copies "throng" is in the present: the change is from the corr. fo. 1632, but it is of comparatively little moment. 8 - I would have FILED keys OFF,] "I would have fill'd keys of" in the old copies of 1623 and 1632, but corrected in the third folio of 1664. 9 with a WHOO-BUB] So spelt in the original, supporting the etymology of whoop-up given by some lexicographers. The meaning, of course, is what we now call a hubbub; and in this form we meet with it in several writers of the time of Shakespeare. In 1619, Barnabe Rich (regarding whom see the Introduction to "Twelfth-Night," Vol. ii. p. 632) published a tract, which he calls "The Irish Hubbub, or English Hue and Cry," which fortifies Todd's opinion, that "it seems clearly to have implied 'the whoop is up,' the hue and cry is making." We'll make an instrument of this: omit Nothing may give us aid. Aut. If they have overheard me now,-why hanging. Why shakest thou so? Fear not, man; here's no harm intended to thee. 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 a necessity in't) and change garments with this gentleman. Though the penny-worth on his side be the worst, yet hold thee, there's some boot. Aut. I am a poor fellow, sir.-[Aside.] I know ye well enough. Cam. Nay, pr'ythee, dispatch: the gentleman is half flayed already. Aut. Are you in earnest, sir ?—[Aside.] I smell the trick of it. Flo. Dispatch, I pr'ythee. Aut. Indeed, I have had earnest; but I cannot 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 And pluck it o'er your brows"; muffle your face; The truth of your own seeming, that you may, (For I do fear eyes ever)' to ship-board 10 And pluck it o'er YOUR brows;] Malone reads "thy brows," and higher in the page he omits the indefinite article. 1 (For I do fear eyes EVER)] The old reading is, "For I do fear eyes over," which the MS. corrector of Lord Ellesmere's copy of the folio of 1623 altered to "For I do fear eyes ever;" the sense of which is clear, and the change inconsiderable. Rowe added you after "over," and in this reading he has been almost universally followed. The corr. fo. 1632 confirms the emendation of over to "ever," so that we have two authorities for the change. Flo. He would not call me son. Cam. Should I now meet my father, Nay, you shall have no hat. Come, lady, come.-Farewell, my friend. Aut. Adieu, sir. Flo. O, Perdita! what have we twain forgot? Pray you, a word. [They converse apart. I shall review Sicilia, for whose sight Flo. Fortune speed us!— Thus we set on, Camillo, to the sea-side. Cam. The swifter speed, the better. [Exeunt FLORIZEL, PERDITA, and 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 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 any thing 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. 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 blood. Shep. Nay, but hear me. Clo. Nay, but hear me. 2 I would not do't:] Steevens differed about it. The meaning seems very evident, though Malone and Autolycus says, "I would not acquaint the king with what I know, because it would be a piece of honesty, and inconsistent with my profession: I hold it the more knavery to conceal it." 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 secret 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 brother-in-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. [Aside.] Very wisely, puppies! Shep. Well, let us to the king: there is that in this fardel will make him scratch his beard. Aut. [Aside.] I know not what impediment this complaint may be to the flight of my master. Clo. Pray heartily he be at palace. Aut. [Aside.] Though I am not naturally honest, I am so sometimes by chance:-let me pocket up my pedler's excrement'.-[Takes off his false beard.] How now, rustics! whither are you bound? 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 having, 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 stabbing steel: therefore, they do not give us the lie. 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. 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 3 pedler's EXCREMENT.] i. e. His beard. In "Love's Labour's Lost," Vol. ii. p. 150, Armado calls his beard "excrement." contempt? Think'st thou, for that I insinuate, or touze from thee thy business, I am therefore no courtier? I am courtier, cap-a-pie; 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? 5 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 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 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. 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, 4 OR TOUZE from thee thy business,] The first folio has at least two misprints in the two words, "or touze," which stand there at toaze: the second folio corrects "at" into or, but leaves toaze, sometimes spelt tose. Malone quotes Minsheu to show that to touze is to pull or tug, and in this sense it is used in "Measure for Measure," A. v. sc. 1,— 5 "We'll touze you joint by joint," &c. court-word for a pheasant:] A pheasant was a very common present from country tenants to great people. |