Which then will speak; that you must change this purpose, Or I my life. Flo. Thou dearest Perdita, With these forc'd thoughts, I pr'ythee, darken not Mine own, nor any thing to any, if I be not thine: to this I am most constant, We two have sworn shall come. Per. Stand you auspicious! O lady fortune, Enter Shepherd, with POLIXENES and CAMILLO disguised; Clown, MOPSA, DORCAS, and Others. Flo. See, your guests approach: Address yourself to entertain them sprightly, Shep. Fye, daughter! when my old wife liv'd, This day, she was both pantler, butler, cook; With labour; and the thing, she took to quench it, Come, quench your blushes; and present yourself That which you are, mistress o'the feast: Come on, And bid us welcome to your sheep-shearing, As your good flock shall prosper. Per. Welcome, sir! [To PoL. It is my father's will, I should take on me The hostess-ship o'the day :-You're welcome, sir! [TO CAMILLO. Give me those flowers there, Dorcas.-Reverend sirs, For you there's rosemary, and rue; these keep Pol. Per. Sir, the year growing ancient, Not yet on summer's death, nor on the birth son Are our carnations, and streak'd gillyflowers, Pol. Do you neglect them? Per. Wherefore, gentle maiden, There is an art, which, in their piedness, shares For I have heard it said, Say, there be; With great creating nature. Pol. Yet nature is made better by no mean, But nature makes that mean: so, o'er that art, Which, you say, adds to nature, is an art That nature makes. You see, sweet maid, we marry For I have] For, in this place, signifies-because that. A gentler scion to the wildest stock; Which does mend nature,-change it rather: but The art itself is nature. Pol. Then make your garden rich in gillyflowers, And do not call them bastards. 2 Per. I'll not put The dibble in earth to set one slip of them: No more than, were I painted, I would wish This youth should say, 'twere well; and only there fore Desire to breed by me.-Here's flowers for you; And only live by gazing. Per. Out, alas! You'd be so lean, that blasts of January Would blow you through and through.-Now, my fairest friend, I would, I had some flowers o'the spring, that might That come before the swallow dares, and take dibble-] An instrument used by gardeners to make holes in the earth for the reception of young plants. But sweeter than the lids of Juno's eyes,3 Flo. What? like a corse? Per. No, like a bank, for love to lie and play on; Not like a corse: or if,-not to be buried, But quick, and in mine arms. Come, take your flowers: Methinks, I play as I have seen them do Flo. I'd have you buy and sell so; so give alms; To sing them too: When you do dance, I wish you So singular in each particular, Crowns what you are doing in the present deeds, That all your acts are queens. Per. O Doricles, violets, dim, But sweeter than the lids of Juno's eyes,] I suspect that our author mistakes Juno for Pallas, who was the goddess of blue eyes. Sweeter than an eye-lid is an odd image, but perhaps he uses sweet in the general sense for delightful. JOHNSON. Each your doing, &c.] That is, your manner in each act crowns the act. Your praises are too large: but that your youth, And the true blood, which fairly peeps through it, Do plainly give you out an unstain'd shepherd; With wisdom I might fear, my Doricles, You woo'd me the false way. Flo. I think, you have As little skill to fear, as I have purpose To put you to't.-But, come; our dance, I pray: Your hand, my Perdita: so turtles pair, That never mean to part. Per. I'll swear for 'em. Pol. This is the prettiest low-born lass, that ever Ran on the green sward: nothing she does, or seems, But smacks of something greater than herself; Cam. He tells her something, That makes her blood look out: Good sooth, she is The queen of curds and cream. Clo. Come on, strike up. Dor. Mopsa must be your mistress: marry, gar lick, To mend her kissing with. Mop. Now, in good time! Clo. Not a word, a word; we stands upon our manners. Come, strike up. [Musick. Here a dance of Shepherds and Shepherdesses. Pol. Pray, good shepherd, what Fair swain is this, which dances with your daughter? Shep. They call him Doricles; and he boasts himself To have a worthy feeding: but I have it we stand, &c.] That is, we are now on our behaviour. a worthy feeding:] I conceive feeding to be a pasture, |