Clo. Then fare thee well; I must go buy spices for our sheep-shearing. [Exit. Aut. Prosper you, sweet sir!-Your purse is not hot enough to purchase your spice. I'll be with you at your sheep-shearing too: If I make not this cheat bring out another, and the shearers prove sheep, let me be unrolled, and my name put in the book of virtue !" Jog on, jog on, the foot-path way, A And merrily hent the stile-a :6 Your sad tires in a mile-a. The same. SCENE III. [Exit. A Shepherd's Cottage. Enter FLORIZEL and Flo. These your unusual weeds to each part of you And you the queen on't. Per. Sir, my gracious lord, To chide at your extremes,' it not becomes me; Flo. I bless the time, When my good falcon made her flight across [5] Begging gypsies, in the time of our author, were in gangs and companies, that had something of the show of an incorporated body. From this noble society he wishes he may be unrolled, if he does not so and so. WARBURTON. [6] To hent the stile, is to take hold of it. STEEVENS. [7] That is, your excesses, the extravagance of your praise. JOHNSON. [8] The object of all men's notice and expectation. JOHNSON. [9] That is, one would think that in putting on this habit of a shepherd, you had sworn to put me out of countenance; for, in this, as in a glass, you show me how much below yourself you must descend, before you can get upon a level with me. The sentiment is fine, and expresses all the delicacy, as well as humble modesty of the character. WARBURTON. I think she means to say, that the prince by the rustic habit that he wears, seems as if he had sworn to show her a glass, in which she might behold how she ought to bc attired, instead of being "most goddess-like prank'd up." MALONE. Thy father's ground. Per. Now Jove afford you cause ! To me, the difference forges dread ;' your greatness Should pass this way, as you did : 0, the fates! Flo. Apprehend Nothing but jollity. The gods themselves, As I seem now: Their transformations Per. O but, dear sir, Your resolution cannot hold, when 'tis Oppos'd, as it must be, by the power o' th' king: One of these two must be necessities, Which then will speak; that you must change this pur Or I my life. Flo. Thou dearest Perdita, With these forc'd thoughts, I pr'ythee, darken not The mirth o' th' feast: Or I'll be thine, my fair, Or not my father's: for I cannot be Mine own, nor any thing to any, if I be not thine: to this I am most constant, Though destiny say, No. Be merry, gentle; [pose, That you behold the while. Your guests are coming : Lift up your countenance; as it were the day Of celebration of that nuptial, which We two have sworn shall come. Meaning the difference between his rank and hers. M. MASON. "To beautify him only lacks a cover." STEEVENS. VOL. III. 6 Per. O lady fortune, Stand you auspicious! 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, upon This day, she was both pantler, butler, cook; Both dame and servant: welcom'd all, serv'd all : On his shoulder, and his: her face o' fire With labour; and the thing, she took to quench it, As your good flock shall Per. Welcome, sir! prosper. It is my father's will, I should take on me [TO POL, The hostessship o' th' day.-You're welcome, sir. [To CAM, Seeming, and savour, all the winter long: Pol. Shepherdess, (A fair one are you,) well you fit our ages With flowers of winter. Per. Sir, the year growing ancient, Not yet on summer's death, nor on the birth Of trembling winter,-the fairest flowers o' th' season Which some call nature's bastards: of that kind To get slips of them. [3] Rue was called herb of grace. Rosemary was the emblem of remembrance, I know not why, unless because it was carried at funerals. JOHNSON. Rosemary was anciently supposed to strengthen the memory, and is prescribed for that purpose in the books of ancient physic. STEEVENS. Pol. Wherefore, gentle maiden, Do you neglect them? Per. For I have heard it said, There is an art, which, in their piedness, shares Pol. Say, there be; 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 And make conceive a bark of baser kind By bud of nobler race. This is an art Which does mend nature,-change it rather: but The art itself is nature. Per. So it is. Pol. Then make your garden rich in gillyflowers, And do not call them bastards. 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 therefore The marigold, that goes to bed with th' sun, 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' th' spring, that might That come before the swallow dares, and take "ut summa vestem laxavit ab ora, "Collecti flores tunicis cecidere remissis." STEEVENS. But sweeter than the lids of Juno's eyes, The flower-de-luce being one! O, these I lack, Flo. What? like a corse? Per. No, like a bank, for love to lie and play on; In Whitsun' pastorals: sure, this robe of mine Flo. What you do, flowers; Still betters what is done. When you speak, sweet, I'd have you buy and sell so; so give alms And own no other function: Each your doing, Crowns what you are doing in the present deeds, Per. O Doricles, : Your praises are too large but that your youth 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 : 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, author mistakes Juno for Pallas, who was the goddess of The eyes of Juno were as remarkable as those of Pallas. [5] I suspect that our blue eyes. JOHNSON |