Your heart is full of something, that does take
Your mind from feasting. Sooth, when I was young,
And handed love, as you do, I was wont

To load my she with knacks: I would have ransack'd
The pedler's silken treasury, and have pour'd it
To her acceptance; you have let him go,
And nothing marted with him: If your lass
Interpretation should abuse; and call this,
Your lack of love, or bounty; you were straited
For a reply, at least, if you make a care
Of happy holding her.

Flo.

Old sir, I know
She prizes not such trifles as these are :

The gifts, she looks from me, are pack'd and lock'd
Up in my heart; which I have given already,
But not deliver'd. - O, hear me breathe my life
Before this ancient sir, who, it should seem,
Hath sometime lov'd: I take thy hand; this hand,
As soft as dove's down, and as white as it;
Or Ethiopian's tooth, or the fann'd snow,
That's bolted by the northern blasts twice o'er.
Pol. What follows this?—

How prettily the young swain seems to wash

The hand, was fair before! I have put you out:-
But, to your protestation; let me hear

What you profess.

Flo.

And he, and more

Do, and be witness to't.
Pol. And this my neighbour too?
Flo.
Than he, and men; the earth, the heavens, and all:
That, —were I crown'd the most imperial monarch,
Thereof most worthy; were I the fairest youth
That ever made eye swerve; had force, and know-
ledge,

More than was ever man's,-I would not prize them,
Without her love for her, employ them all ;
Commend them, and condemn them, to her service,
Or to their own perdition.

Pol.

Fairly offer'd.

Cam. This shows a sound affection.
Shep.

Say you the like to him?

Per.

But, my daughter,

I cannot speak

So well, nothing so well; no, nor mean better:
By the pattern of mine own thoughts I cut out
The purity of his.

Shep.

Take hands, a bargain;

Pol. Methinks, a father

Is, at the nuptial of his son, a guest
That best becomes the table. Pray you, once more;
Is not your father grown incapable
Of reasonable affairs? is he not stupid

With age, and altering rheums? Can he speak ?
hear?

Know man from man? dispute his own estate?
Lies he not bed-rid? and again does nothing,
But what he did being childish?
Flo.

No, good sir;

He has his health, and ampler strength, indeed,
Than most have of his age.

Pol.

By my white beard,
You offer him, if this be so, a wrong
Something unfilial: Reason, my son
Should choose himself a wife; but as good reason,
The father, (all whose joy is nothing else
But fair posterity,) should hold some counsel
In such a business.

Pol. I'll have thy beauty scratch'd with briars, and made

More homely than thy state. - For thee, fond
boy,

If I may ever know, thou dost but sigh,
That thou no more shalt see this knack, (as never
I mean thou shalt,) we'll bar thee from succession;
Not hold thee of our blood, no not our kin,
Far than Deucalion off'; -Mark thou my words;
Follow us to the court. — Thou churl, for this
time,

And, friends unknown, you shall bear witness to't: Though full of our displeasure, yet we free thee
I give my daughter to him, and will make

Worthy enough a herdsman; yea, him too,
That makes himself, but for our honour therein,
Unworthy thee, if ever, henceforth, thou
These rural latches to his entrance open,
Or hoop his body more with thy embraces,
I will devise a death as cruel for thee,
As thou art tender to't.

Per.
Even here undone!
I was not much afeard: for once, or twice,
I was about to speak; and tell him plainly,
The self same sun, that shines upon his court,
Hides not his visage from our cottage, but

Cam. The swifter speed, the better.

[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 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 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 :

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.
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.

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 fanEvery lane's end, every shop, church, session, hang-tastical: a great man, I'll warrant; I know, by the ing, yields a careful man work.

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 ounce. Aut. Very wisely; puppies! [Aside. 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 pedler's excrement.- -[Takes off his false beard.] How now, rusticks? whether 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; there fore they do not give us the lie.

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.

Ant. 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 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 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 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 miseClo. Your worship had like to have given us one, ries are to be smiled at, their offences being so capiif 'you had not taken yourself with the manner. tal? Tell me, (for you seem to be honest plain men,) Shep. Are you a courtier, an't like you, sir? what you have to the king: being something gently Aut. Whether it like me, or no, I am a courtier. considered, I'll bring you where he is aboard, tenSee'st thou not the air of the court in these enfold-der your persons to his presence, whisper him in mgs? hath not my gait in it, the measure of the your behalfs; and, if it be in man, besides the king, court? receives not thy nose court-odour from me? to effect your suits, here is man shall do it. reflect I not on thy baseness, court-contempt?

Clo He seems to be of great authority

close

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?
Shep. Ay, sir.

Aut. Well, give me the moiety : — party in this business?

- Are you a

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.

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 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 nim 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. [Exit.

SCENE I. .Sicilia.

ACT V.

A Room in the Palace of Incertain lookers-on. What were more holy,
Leontes.
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?

Enter LEONTES, CLEOMENES, DION, PAULINA, and
others.

Cleo. Sir, you have done enough, and have per-
form'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.

She I kill'd? I did so: but thou strik'st me

Sorely, to say I did; it is as bitter

Paul.

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 tenour of his oracle,

That king Leontes shall not have an heir,

Till his lost child be found? which, that it shal,
Is all as monstrous to our human reason,
As my Antigonus to break his grave,
And come again to me; who, on my life,
Did perish with the infant. 'Tis your counsel,
My lord should to the heavens be contrary,
Oppose against their wills. Care not for issue;
[To LEONTES
The crown will find an heir: Great Alexander
Left his to the worthiest; so his successor
Was like to be the best.

Leon.

Good Paulina,

Who hast the memory of Hermione,

I know, in honour, · O, that ever I

Had squar'd me to thy counsel ! then, even now,

Upon thy tongue, as in my thought: Now, good I might have look'd upon my queen's full eyes;

Have taken treasure from her lips,
Paul.

More rich, for what they yielded.

Leon.

And left them

Thou speak'st truth.
No more such wives; therefore, no wife: one worse,
And better us'd, would make her sainted spirit
Again possess her corps; and, on this stage,
(Where we offenders now appear,) soul-vexed,
Begin, And why to me?

Paul.

She had just cause.

Leon.

Had she such power,

She had; and would incense me