Aut. What advocate hast thou to him? Shep. I know not, an't like you. Clo. Advocate's the court-word for a pheasant : say you have none.51 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 fan tastical 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? A pheasant was a very common present from country tenantı to noblemen. H. Aut. Not he alone shall suffer what wit can make heavy, and vengeance bitter, but those that are germane to him, though remov'd 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 ston'd; but that death is too soft for hin, 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 flay'd alive; then, 'nointed over with honey, set on the head of a wasps'-nest; then stand, till he be three quarters and a dram dead; then recover'd 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 smil❜d 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 consider'd,52 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 62 That is, being handsomely bribed; to consider often signified to reward of his hand, and no more ado: Remember, ston'd, and flay'd alive. Shep. An't please you, sir, to undertake the busi ness 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 flay'd 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 bless'd in this man, as I may say; even bless'd. 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 I will present them; there may 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: We concur with Collier and Verplanck in restoring the original reading here. It gives a softening effect to what Paulina says, which is no more than due to her noble-heartedness. In all modern editions till Collier's, true is transferred from the end of this speech to the beginning of the next. Strange, the Poet should not be allowed to have known what he meant to say! H If one by one you wedded all the world, Leon. I think so. Kill'd! She I kill'd? I did so; but thou strik'st me Upon thy tongue, as in my thought. Now, good now, Say so but seldom. Cleo. Not at all, good lady: You might have spoken a thousand things that would Have done the time more benefit, and grac'd Your kindness better. Paul. You are one of those Would have him wed again. If you would not so, Dion. Paul. Respecting her that's gone. There is none worthy, Besides, the gods Will have fulfill'd their secret purposes; For has not the divine Apollo said, 2 Here again in modern editions name has been impudently re formed into dame, and no notice made of the change. 3 That is, at rest, dead. So in Antony and Cleopatra: "Mess. First, madam, he is well Cleop. Why, there's more gola; but, sirrah, mark, H. |