To unpath'd waters, andream'd stores; most certain, His going I could frame to serve my turn; Flo. Now, good Camillo, I am so fraught with curious business, that I leave out ceremony. Sir, I think [Going. Cam. Flo. Well, my lord, I'll point you where you shall have such receiving How, Camillo, That I may call thee something more than man, And, after that, trust to thee. A place whereto you'll go? Have you thought on Not any yet: But as the unthought-on accident is guilty Cam. Then list to me : Aut. Ha, ha! what a fool honesty is! and trust, This follows, if you will not change your pur- his sworn brother, a very simple gentleman! have sold all my trumpery; not a counterfeit stone, not a riband, glass, pomander, brooch, table-book, ballad, knife, tape, glove, shoe-tie, bracelet, hornring, to keep my pack from fasting; they throng 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 off 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 whoobub 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. [CAM., FLO., and PER. come forward. Cam. Nay, but my letters by this means being there So soon as you arrive, shall clear that doubt. Cam. Shall satisfy your father. Per. All that you speak shows fair. A WINTER'S TALE. Who have we here? Aut. If they have overheard me now,-why, Fear not, man; here's no harm intended to thee. 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 pennyworth, on his side, be the worst, yet hold thee, there's some boot. Aut. I am a poor fellow, sir:-I know ye well [Aside. enough. Cam. Nay, prithee, despatch: the gentleman is half flay'd already. Aut. Are you in earnest, sir?—I smell the [Aside. trick on't. Flo. Despatch, I prithee. Aut. Indeed, I have had earnest; but I cannot with conscience take it. Cam. Unbuckle, unbuckle.— [FLO. and AUT. exchange garments. Fortunate mistress, let my prophecy Come home to you!-you must retire yourself Into some covert: take your sweetheart's hat, And pluck it o'er your brows; muffle your face; disliken Dismantle you; and, as you can, The truth of your own seeming; that you may (For I do fear eyes over you) to shipboard Get undescried. Per. I see the play so lies That I must bear a part. No remedy. Should I now meet my father, He would not call me son. Cam. Aut. Adieu, sir. Of this escape, and whither they are bound; I see [Exeunt FLO., PER., and CAM. Aut. I understand the business, I hear it: To have an open ear, a quick eye, and a nimble hand, is necessary for a cutpurse; a good nose is requisite also, to smell out work for the other senses. this is the time that the unjust man doth thrive. What an exchange had this been, without boot! Sure, what a boot is here, with this exchange! the gods do this year connive at us, and we may do anything 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 not a piece of honesty to acquaint the king withal, I would 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 change ling, and none of your flesh and blood. Shep. Nay, but hear me. Clo. Nay, but hear me. 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 farthest off you could have been to him; and then your blood had been the dearer, by I know how much an ounce. [Aside. Aut. Very wisely; puppies! Shep. Well; let us to the king; there is that in this fardel will make him scratch his beard. Aut. I know not what impediment this complaint may be to the flight of my master. Clo. 'Pray heartily he be at palace. Aut. Though I am not naturally honest, I am so sometimes by chance :-Let me 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 naines; 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 sted; 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 an a courtier See'st 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, courtcontempt? Think'st thou, for that I insinuate, or toze from thee thy business, I am therefore no courtier? I am courtier cap-a-pè; 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. 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, 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. 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, 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 sheepwhistling 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 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 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 promised? Aut. Well, give me the moiety:-Are you a party in this business? a Clo. In some sort, sir: but though my case be 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. Clo. We are blessed in this man, as I may say, even blessed. Shep. Let's before, as he bids us: he was pro vided 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 ma be matter in it. [Exit. ACT V. SCENE I.-Sicilia. 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 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, To make a perfect woman, she you kill'd Would be unparallel'd. I think so. Kill'd! Leon. Upon thy tongue as in my thought. Now, good Would have him wed again. Dion. If you would not so, You pity not the state, nor the remembrance Of his most sovereign name; consider little, What dangers, by his highness' fail of issue, May drop upon his kingdom, and devour Incertain lookers-on. What were inore holy Than to rejoice the former queen is well? 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 Is't not the tenor of his oracle, That King Leontes shall not have an heir Leon. 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 now, Never to marry, but by my free leave? Leon. Never, Paulina: so be bless'd my spirit! Paul. Then, good my lords, bear witness to his oath, Cleo. You tempt him over-much. As like Hermione as is her picture, Cleo. Unless another, Good madam, I have done. Paul. Yet, if my lord will marry,—if you will, sir, No remedy but you will; give me the office To see her in your arms. My true Paulina, Leon. Go, Cleomenes; Yourself, assisted with your honour'd friends, Bring them to our embracement.-Still tis strange [Exeunt CLEOMENES, Lords, and Gentlemen. He thus should steal upon us. Prithee, no more; cease; thou know'st He dies to me again when talk'd of: sure, When I shall see this gentleman, thy speeches Will bring me to consider that which may Unfurnish me of reason.-They are come.-Re-enter CLEOMENES, with FLOrizel, Perdita, and Attendants. Your mother was most true to wedlock, prince; Flo. Most royal sir, from thence; from him whose daughter 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, Not only my success in Libya, sir, Leon. Lay't so to his charge⚫ Who? Camillo? Lord. Camillo, sir; I spake with him; who now 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. O, my poor father!-The Heaven sets spies upon us, will not have Our contract celebrated." Leon. You are married? Is this the daughter of a king? When once she is my wife. My lord, She is, Leon. That once, I see, by your good father's speed, Will come on very slowly. I am sorry, Most sorry, you have broken from his liking, |