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 hear, an 't like you, sir?

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 aquavitæ, or some other hot infusion; then, raw as he is, and in the hottest day prognostication proclaims, shall 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. 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

If that shepherd be not in hand-fast, let him fiy:] The only eritic who has noticed the term "hand-fast" is Mr. R. G. White; and he quite mistakes its meaning. To be in "hand-fast"-mainprize, is to be at large only on security given.

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 king, and show our strange sights: he must know 't is 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 but 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.

CLEO. Sir, you have done enough, and have perform'd

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

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 man Bred his hopes out of.

PAUL. True, too true, my lord: " If, one by one, you wedded all the world, Or from the all that are took something good,

a True, too true, my lord:] A correction of Theobald; the old editions having,

To make a perfect woman, she, you kill'd, Would be unparallel'd.

LEON.

I think so.

Kill'd!

Than to rejoice the former queen is well?a
What holier than,-for royalty's repair,
For present comfort and for future good,—
To bless the bed of majesty again
With a sweet fellow to 't?

PAUL.
There is none worthy,
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 tenor 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. "T is 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 Alexander
Left his to the worthiest; so his successor
Was like to be the best.

Theobald reads,

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.
And those but mean.

But few,

LEON. His princess, say you, with him? GENT. Ay, the most peerless piece of earth, I think,

That e'er the sun shone bright on.

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

(Where we offend her now) appear," &c.

She had just cause.] The first and second folios have,-"She had just such cause."

d PAUL. I have done.] In the old editions, the words, "I have done," form part of the preceding speech; they were properly assigned by Capell.

"Grave" has been changed by some editors to grace, by others to graces; to the destruction of a very fine idea.

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; 't is shrewdly ebb'd,
To say you have seen a better.

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 a creature,
Would she begin a sect, might quench the zeal
Of all professors else; make proselytes

Of who she but bid follow.

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 your 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 on him.

Have I here touch'd Sicilia; and from him Give you all greetings, that a king, at friend," Can send his brother: and, but infirmity (Which waits upon worn times) hath something seiz'd

His wish'd ability, he had himself

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

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

His tears proclaim'd his, parting with her: thence (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;
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 on,
Such goodly things as you!

LORD.

Enter a Lord.

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

"I know that we shall have him well to friend,"-Julius Cæsar, Act III. Sc. 1; "Had I admittance and opportunity to friend,"Cymbeline, Act I. Sc. 4.

Enter AUTOLYCUS and a Gentleman.

AUT. Beseech you, sir, were you present at this relation?

GENT. I was by at the opening of the fardel; heard the old shepherd deliver the manner how he found it whereupon, after a little amazedness, we were all commanded out of the chamber; only this, methought I heard the shepherd say he found the child.

AUT. I would most gladly know the issue of it. GENT. I make a broken delivery of the business;—but the changes I perceived in the king and Camillo were very notes of admiration: they seemed almost, with staring on one another, 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 notable passion of wonder appeared in them; but the wisest beholder, that knew no more but seeing, could not say if the importance were joy or sorrow,—but in the extremity of the one it must needs be.-Here comes a gentleman that happily knows more:

:

Enter ROGERO.

The news, Rogero?

ROG. Nothing but bonfires: the oracle is fulfilled; the king's daughter is found: such a

to be,-A mere spectator could never have said whether their emotion were of joyful or sorrowing significance.