1 Flo. O Perdita, what have we twain forgot? Of this escape, and whither they are bound; pocket up my pedlar'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 anything 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. [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 Shep. Are you a courtier, an't like you, sir? this exchange! Sure, the gods do this year Aut. Whether it like me, or no, I am a connive at us, and we may do anything ex-courtier. Seest thou not the air of the court in tempore. The prince himself is about a piece these enfoldings? hath not my gait in it the of iniquity; stealing away from his father, measure of the court? receives not thy nose with his clog at his heels: if I thought it were court-odour from me? reflect I not on thy a piece of honesty to acquaint the king withal, baseness court-contempt? Think'st thou, for I would not do't: I hold it the more knavery that I insinuate, or toze from thee thy busito conceal it; and therein am I constant to ness, I am therefore no courtier? I am courtier, my profession. cap-à-pé; and one that will either push on, or pluck back thy business there whereupon, I command thee to open thy affair. Re-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! Clo. Nay, but hear me. 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 farthest 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 Shep. My business, sir, is to the king. ple men! Yet nature might have made me as these are, 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 that 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. 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 now in handfast, let him fly: the curses he shall have, the torture he shall feel, will break the back of man, the heart of monster. 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. Clo. Think you so, sir? Aut. Not he alone shall suffer what wit can make heavy, and vengeance bitter; but those [Exeunt Shepherd and Clown. that are germane to him, though removed Aut. If I had a mind to be honest, I see, fifty times, shall all come under the hangman: Fortune would not suffer me: she drops booties which, though it be great pity, yet it is neces- in my mouth. I am courted now with a sary. An old sheep-whistling rogue, a ram-double occasion, gold, and a means to do the tender, to offer to have his daughter come in-prince my master good; which who knows to grace? Some say, he shall be stoned; but how that may turn back to my advancement? that death is too soft for him, say I draw our I will bring these two moles, these blind ones, 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 hottest day prognostication proclaims, shall he 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 a 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 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 have pro- Aut. Well, give me the moiety. Are you a party in this business? 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. SCENE I.-Sicilia. ACT V. [Exit. A Room in the Palace of Leontes. Enter Leontes, Cleomenes, Dion, Paulina, and others. Cleo. Sir, you have done enough, and have perform'd A saint-like sorrow; no fault could you make, More penitence than done trespass; at the last, Leon. Whilst I remember Kill'd! Paul. 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 'tis 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. : Have done the time more benefit, and grac'd Incertain lookers-on. What were more holy, Paul. 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, The crown will find an heir: Great Alexander [now, Good Paulina,Who hast the memory of Hermione, I know, in honour,—Ö, that ever I Had squar'd me to thy counsel! then, even I might have look'd upon my queen's full Have taken treasure from her lips,- [eyes; Paul. And left them More rich, for what they yielded. Leon. Thou speak'st truth. No more such wives; therefore, no wife: one Should rift to hear me; and the words that Paul. Affront his eye. Cleo. Paul. Good madam,— Yet, if my lord will marry,-if you will, sir, As was your former; but she shall be such That Shall be when your first queen's again in breath; Never till then. Enter a Gentleman. [rizel, Gent. One that gives out himself prince FloSon 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? That e'er the sun shone bright on. O Hermione, Leon. Pr'ythee, no more; cease; thou Re-enter Cleomenes, with Florizel, Perdita, and others. 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 you, 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. Flo. By his command 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 His wish'd ability, he had himself [seiz'd The land 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 stir Afresh within me; and these thy offices Flo. She came from Libya. Good my lord, Leon. Where the warlike Smalus, That noble honour'd lord, is fear'd and lov'd? Flo. Most royal sir, from thence; from him, whose daughter : [thence His tears proclaim'd his, parting with her (A prosperous south-wind friendly) we have cross'd, To execute the charge my father gave me, Leon. Might I a son and daughter now have look'd Bohemia greets you from himself by me; Leon. Has these poor men in question. Never saw I Wretches so quake: they kneel, they kiss the earth; Forswear themselves as often as they speak: Bohemia stops his ears, and threatens them With divers deaths in death. Per. Is this the daughter of a king? My lord, She is, Leon. That once, I see, by your good Will come on very slowly. I am sorry, Flo. sir, Remember since you ow'd no more to time Than I do now: with thought of such affections, (As he from heaven merits it) with you, [been, Step forth mine advocate; at your request, Worthy his goodness. What might I have| My father will grant precious things as trifles. Paul. Your eye hath too much youth in't: not a But your petition I thought of her, Leon. Would he do so, I'd beg your pre- claim her with all certainty to be the king's Which he counts but a trifle. [cious mistress, daughter. Did you see the meeting of the Sir, my liege, 2 Gent. No. [two kings? 3 Gent. Then you have lost a sight, which was to be seen, cannot be spoken of. There might you have beheld one joy crown another, so, and in such manner, that, it seemed, sorrow wept to take leave of them; for their joy waded in tears. There was casting up of eyes, holding up of hands, with countenances of such distraction, that they were to be known by garment, not by favour. Our king, being ready to leap out of himself for joy of his found daughter, as if that joy were now become a loss, cries, "O, thy mother, thy mother!" then asks Bohemia forgiveness; then embraces his son-in-law; then again worries he his daughter with clipping her; now he thanks the old shepherd, which stands by, like a weather-bitten conduit of many kings' reigns. I never heard of such another encounter, which lames report to follow it, and undoes description to do it. Is yet unanswer'd. I will to your father: I now go toward him; therefore, follow me, 2 Gent. What, pray you, became of Antigonus, that carried hence the child? 1 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 3 Gent. Like an old tale still, which will of the chamber; only this, methought I heard have matter to rehearse, though credit be the shepherd say he found the child. [it. asleep, and not an ear open. He was torn to Aut. I would most gladly know the issue of pieces with a bear: this avouches the shep1 Gent. I make a broken delivery of the herd's son; who has not only his innocence business;-but the changes I perceived in the (which seems much) to justify him, but a king and Camillo were very notes of admira- handkerchief and rings of his, that Paulina tion: they seemed almost, with staring on one knows. 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. [Enter Rogero.] Here comes a gentleman, that happily knows more. The news, Rogero! 2 Gent. Nothing but bonfires: the oracle is fulfilled; the king's daughter is found: such a deal of wonder is broken out within this hour, that ballad-makers cannot be able to express it. [Enter a third Gentleman.] Here comes the lady Paulina's steward: he can deliver you more.-How goes it now, sir? this news, which is called true, is so like an old tale, that the verity of it is in strong suspicion has the king found his heir? : I Gent. What became of his bark, and his followers? 3 Gent. Wrecked, the same instant of their master's death, and in the view of the shepherd: so that all the instruments, which aided to expose the child, were even then lost, when it was found. But, O, the noble combat, that, 'twixt joy and sorrow, was fought in Paulina! She had one eye declined for the loss of her husband, another elevated that the oracle was fulfilled: she lifted the princess from the earth, and so locks her in embracing, as if she would pin her to her heart, that she might no more be in danger of losing. 1 Gent. The dignity of this act was worth the audience of kings and princes, for by such was it acted. 3 Gent. One of the prettiest touches of all, and that which angled for mine eyes, (caught the water, though not the fish,) was, when at the relation of the queen's death, with the 3 Gent. Most true, if ever truth were preg- manner how she came to it, (bravely confessed nant by circumstance: that which you hear and lamented by the king,) how attentiveness you'll swear you see, there is such unity in the wounded his daughter; till, from one sign of proofs. The mantle of queen Hermione; her dolour to another, she did, with an "alas," jewel about the neck of it; the letters of An-I would fain say, bleed tears; for I am sure tigonus, found with it, which they know to be my heart wept blood. Who was most marble his character; the majesty of the creature, in there changed colour; some swooned, all sorresemblance of the mother; the affection of rowed: if all the world could have seen it, nobleness, which nature shows above her the woe had been universal. breeding; and many other evidences,-pro-l I Gent. Are they returned to the court? |