The scene you play, were mine. For instance, sir, Enter Autolycus. [Cam. Flor. and Per. come forward. ontes, Cam. Shall satisfy your father. Per. All, that you speak, shews fair. Happy be you! Cam. Who have we here? [Seeing Autolycus. Of this escape, and whither they are bound; Fortune speed us! [Aside. [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 ne cessary 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 this exchange? Sure, the gods do this year connive at us, and we may do any thing extempore. The prince himself is about a piece of iniquity; stealing away from his father, with his elog 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 und Shepherd. Aut. If they have overheard me now,-why, hang-ing, yields a careful man work. ing. [Aside. Cam. How now, good fellow? why shakest thou so? Cam. Why, be so still; here's nobody will steal that from thee: yet, for the outside of thy poverty, we must make an excbange: therefore, discase thee instantly, thou must think, there's necessity in't, and change garments with this gentleman: Though the pennyworth, on his side, be the worst, yet hold thee, Aut. Indeed, I have had earnest; but I cannot with conscience take it Cam. Unbuckle, unbuckle. Clo. See, see; what a man you are now? there is no other way, but to tell the king she's a changeling, and none of your flesh and blood. Shep. 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 furthest off you could have been to him; and then your blood had been the dearer, by I know how much an ounoe. [Flo. and Aut. exchange garments. || fardel will make him scratch his beard. Aut. I know not what impediment this complaint may be to the flight of my master. The truth of your own seeming; that you may, 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 pedler'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 any thing 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. dead: then recovered again with aqua-vitæ, 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 offenees being so capital? Tell me, (for you seem to be hon. est plain men,) what you have to the king: Being something gently consider'd, I'll bring you where he is 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. Your worship had like to have given us one, if aboard, tender your persons to his you had taken yourself with the manner. Shep. Are you a courtier, an't like you, sir? Aut. Whether it like me, or no, I am a courtier. Seest 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, court-contempt? Think'st thou, for that I insinuate, or toze from thee thy business, I am therefore no courtier? I am courtier, cap-a-pe; 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. Cla. 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, Therefore I'll not disdain. Clo. This cannot be but a great courtier. 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? 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. Shep. His garments are rich, but he wears them not Sir, I will give you as much as this old man does, when 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 gerrane to him, though removed fifty times, shall allcome 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 stoned; but that death is too soft for him, say I. Draw our throne into a sheepcute! 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 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 seaside; 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 provided to do us good. [Exeunt Shep. and Clo. 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 may [Exit. be matter in it. Pau. There is none worthy, Respecting her that's gone. Besides, the gods Will have fulfill'd their secret purposes: For has not the divine Apollo said, 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, [To Leontes. You chose her: then I'd shriek, that even your ears Should rift to hear me; and the words that follow'd Should be, Remember mine. Leo. Stars, very stars, And all eyes else dead coals!--Fear thou no wife, I'll have no wife, Paulina. Pau. Will you swear Never to marry, but by my free leave? Leo. Never, Paulina; so be bless'd my spirit! Pau. As like Hermione as is her picture, Affront his eye. Cleo. Pau. Good madam, Unless another, I have done. Yet, if my lord will marry,-If you will, sir, Leo. My true Paulina, We shall not marry, till thou bidd'st us. Pau. That Shall be, when your first queen's again in breath; Never till then. Enter a Gentleman. Gent. One that gives out himseh' prince Florizel, Son of Polixenes, with his princess, (she The fairest I have yet beheld) desires Access to your high presence. Leo. 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 fore'd By need, and accident. What train? Gent. And those but mean. Leo. But few, His princess, say you, with him? Gent. Ay; the most peerless piece of earth, I think, That e'er the sun shone bright on. Pau. Q Hermione, Well with this lord; there was not full a month Between their births. Leo. Pr'ythee, no more; thou know'st He dies to me again, when talk'd of: suré, 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; His very air, that I should call you brother, Amity too, of your brave father; whom, Leo. Good my lord, 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 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, For visiting your highness: My best train I have from your Sicilian shores dismiss'd; Not only may success in Libya, sir, Who? Camillo? He's with the king your father, Leo. 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 cars, 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. Leo. You are married? Flo. We are not, sir, nor are we like to be ; The stars, I see, will kiss the valleys first :--The odds for high and low's alike. Leo. Is this the daughter of a king? Flo. When once she is my wife. My lord, She is, Leo. That once, I see, by your good father's spoed, Will come on very slowly. I am sorry, Most sorry, you have broken from his liking, Where you were tied in duty: and as sorry, Your choice is not so rich in worth as beauty, That you might well enjoy her. Flo. Dear, look up: Though fortune, visible an enemy, Should chase us, with my father; power no jot Hath she, to change our loves.-'Beseech you, sir, Remember since you ow'd no more to time Than I do now: with thought of such affections, Step forth mine advocate; at your request, My father will grant precious things, as trifles. Leo. Would he do so, I'd beg your precious mistress, Which he counts but a trifle. And mark what way I make: Come, good my lord. Aut. 'Beseech you, sir, were you present at this relation? 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 of the chamber; only this, methought I heard the shepherd say, he found the child. Aut. I would most gladly know the issue of it. 1 Gent. I make a broken delivery of the business;But the changes I perceived in the king, and Camille, were very notes of admiration: they seemed almost, with staring on one 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 be holder, 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 another Gentleman. 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? | 3 Gent. Most true; if ever truth were pregnant by circumstance: that, which you hear, you'll swear you see, there is such unity in the proofs. The mantle of queen Hermione :-her jewel about the neck of it :the letters of Antigonus, found with it, which they know to be his character:-the majesty of the creature, in resemblance of the mother;-the affection of nobleness, which nature shows above her breeding, and many other evidences, proclaim her, with all certainty, to be the king's daughter. Did you see the meeting of the two kings? 2 Gent. No. 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 countenance 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, 0, thy mother, thy mother! then asks Bohemia forgiveness; then embraces his son-inlaw; 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. 2 Gent. What, pray you, became of Antigonus, that carried hence the child? 3 Gent. Like an old tale still; which will have matter to rehearse, though credit be asleep, and not an ear open: He was torn to pieces with a bear: this avouches the shepherd's son; who has not only his innocence (which seems much,) to justify him, but a handker chief, and rings, of his, that Paulina knows. 1 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 com bat, 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 audi. ence 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 manner how she came to it, (bravely confessed, and lamented by the king) how attentiveness wounded his daughter: till, from one sign of dolour to another, she did, with an alas! I would fain say, bleed tears; for, I am sure, my heart wept blood. Who was most marble there, changed colour; some swooned, all sorrowed: if all the world could have seen it, the woe had been universal. 1 Gent. Are they returned to the court? 3 Gent. No: the princess, hearing of her mother's statue, which is in the keeping of Paulina,-a piece many years in doing, and now newly performed by that rare Italian master, Julio Romano; who, had he himself eternity, and could put breath into his work, would beguile nature of her custom, so perfectly he is her ape: He so near to Hermione hath done Hermione, that, they say, one would speak to her, and stand in hope of answer: thither, with all greediness of affeetion, are they gone; and there they intend to sup. 2 Gent. I thought, she had some great matter there in hand; for she hath, privately twice or thrice a day, ever since the death of Hermione, visited that removed house. Shall we thither, and with our company piece the rejoicing? 1 Gent. Who would be thence, that has the benefit of access? every wink of an eye, some new grace will be born: our absence makes us unthrifty to our knowl edge. Let's along. [Exeunt Gentlemen. Aut. Now, had I not the dash of my former life in me, would preferment drop on my head. I brought the old man and his son aboard the prince; told him I heard him talk of a fardel, and I know not what: but he at that time, over-fond of the shepherd's daughter, (so he then took her to be,) who began to be much sen sick, and himself little better, extremity of weather continuing, this mystery remained undiscovered. But 'tis all one to me: for had I been the finder out of this secret, it would not havé relished among my other dis |