Shep. Would I had been by, to have help'd the old man.

of ivy. Good luck, an't be thy will! what have Clo. Now, now; I have not wink'd fince I faw we here? [Taking up the child.] Mercy on's, a thefe fights: the men are not yet cold under barne! a very pretty barne1! A boy, or a child, water, nor the bear half-din'd on the gentleman; I wonder? A pretty one; a very pretty one he's at it now, Sure fome scape: though I am not bookish, yet I can read waiting-gentlewoman in the fcape. This has been fome ftair-work, fome trunk-work, fome behind-door-work: they were warmer that got this, than the poor thing is here. I'll take it up for pity: yet I'll tarry till my fon come; he halloo'd but even now. Whon, ho hoa! Enter Clorun.

C. Hilloa, loa!

Shep. What, art fo near? If thou'lt fee a thing to talk on when thou art dead and rotten, come hither. What ail'ft thou, man ?

Clo. I have feen two fuch fights, by fea, and by land; but I am not to fay, it is a fea, for it is now the fky; betwixt the firmament and it, you cannot thruft a bodkin's point.

Shep. Why, boy, how is it?

Clo. I would you had been by the fhip fide, to have. help'd her; there your charity would have lack'd footing. Afide

Shep. Heavy matters! heavy matters! but look thee here, boy. Now blefs thyfelf; thou mett'st with things dying, I with things new born. Here's a fight for thee; look thee, a bearing-cloth for a fquire's child! Look thee here; take up, take up, boy; open't. So, let's fee ;--It was told me, I fhould be rich by the fairies: this is fome changeling 3- -open't: What's within, boy?

Clo. You're a made old man ; the fins of your youth are forgiven you, you're well to live. Gold! all gold!

way. We are lucky, boy; and to be fo ftill requires nothing but fecrecy.-Let my sheep go:Come, good boy, the next way home.

Cia. Go you the next way with your findings: I'll go fee if the bear be gone from the gentleman, and how much he hath eaten : they are never curit, but when they are hungry: if there be any of him left, I'll bury it.

Shep. This is fairy gold, boy, and 'twill prove fo: Ch. I would, you did but fee how it chafes,up with it, keep it clofe; home, home, the next how it rages, how it takes up the fhore! but that's not to the point: Oh, the moft piteous cry of the poor fouls! fometimes to fee 'em, and not to fee 'em: now the thip boring the moon with her main-maft; and anon fwallow'd with yeft and froth, as you'd thruit a cork into a hogthead. And then for the land fervice,-To fee how the bear tore out his thoulder-bone; how he cry'd to me for help, and faid, his name was Antigonus, a nobleman --But to make an end of the fhip ;to fee how the fea flap-dragon'd it :-but, firit, how the poor fouls roar'd, and the fea mock'd them--and how the poor gentleman roar'd, and the bear mock'd him, both roaring louder than the fea, or weather.

Name of mercy, when was this, boy?

|

Shep. That's a good deed: If thou may'ft difcern by that which is left of him, what he is, fetch me to the fight of him.

Clo. Marry, will I; and you fhall help to put him i' the ground.

Shep. 'Tis a lucky day, boy; and we'll do good deeds on't.

[Exeunt.

ACT

THAT please fome, try all; both joy,

and terror,

Of good and bad; that make, and unfold error,-
Now take upom me, in the name of Time,
To ufe my wings. Impute it not a crime,
To me, or my iwift paffage, that I flide
O'er fixteen years, and leave the growth untry'd
Of that wide gap; fince it is in my power
To o'erthrow law, and in one feif-born hour
To plant and o'erwhelm cuftom: Let me pafs
The fame I am, ere ancient'ft order was,
Or what is now receiv'd: I witnefs to
The times that brought them in; fo fhall I do
To the fresheit things now reigning; and make stale
The gliftering of this prefent, as my tale
Now feems to it. Your patience this allowing,

As

IV.

I turn my glafs; and give my fcene fuch growing,
you had flept between. Leontes leaving
The effects of his fond jealoufies; fo grieving,
That he thuts up himself; Imagine me,
Gentle fpectators, that I now may be
In fair Boltemia; and remenaber well,
I mentioned a fon o'the king's, which Florizel
I now name to you; and with speed fo pace
To fpeak of Perdita, now grown in grace
Equal with wond'ring: What of her ensues,
I lift not prophecy; but let Time's news
Be known when 'tis brought forth :-a fhepherd's
daughter,

And what to her adheres, which follows after,
Is the argument 4 of Time: Of this allow,
If you have ever spent time worse ere now;
If never yet, that Time himself doth fay,
He withes earn ftly, you never may.

[Exis

1 i. e. child. 2 The mantle or cloth with which a child is ufually covered, when carried to church to be baptized. 3 Meaning, fome child left behind by the fairies, in place of one which they had itolen. 4 i. e. fubject,

SCENE

SCENE I

The Court of Bohemia.

Enter Polixenes and Camillo.

Pol. I pray thee, good Camillo, be no more importunate: 'tis a fickness, denying thee any thing; a death, to grant this.

Cam. It is fifteen years, fince I faw my country: though I have, for the moft part, been aired abroad, I defire to lay my bones there. Refides, the penitent king, my master, hath fent for me: to whofe feeling forrows I might be fome allay, or I o'erween to think fo; which is another fpur to my departure.

think it not uneafy to get the caufe of my fon's
refort thither. Pr'ythee, be my prefent partner in
this bufinefs, and lay afide the thoughts of Sicilia.
Cam. I willingly obey your command.
Pol. My beft Camillo !-We must disguise our
felves.
[Exeunt.

E

II.

SCEN
The Country.

Enter Autolycus finging.

When daffodils begin to peer,——

With, beigh! the doxy over the dale,-
Why, then comes in the sweet of the year ;

For the red bload reigns in 3 the winter's pale.
The white feet bleaching on the hedge,-

With, hey! the feet birds, 0, bow they fing!→→ Doth it my pugging tooth on edge;

For a quart of ale is a difh for a king.

The lark, that tirra-lirra chaunts,

With,bey! with, bey! the thrush and the jay:—
Are fummer fangs for me and my aunts 4,
While we lie tumbling in the bay.

Pal. As thou lov'ft me, Camillo, wipe not out the rest of thy fervices, by leaving me now: the need I have of thee, thine own goodness hath made; better not to have had thee, than thus to want thee thou, having made me bufineffes, which none, without thee, can fufficiently manage, muft either ftay to execute them thyfelt, or take away with thee the very fervices thou haft done : which if I have not enough confider'd, (as too much I cannot) to be more thankful to thee, fhall I have ferv'd prince Florizel, and, in my time, wore be my study and my pront therein, the heaping friendships. Of that fatal country Sicilia, pr'ythee fpeak no more: whofe very naming punishes me with the remembrance of that penitent, as thou call'ft him, and reconciled king, my brother; whofe lofs of his moft precious queen, and children, are even now to be afresh lamented. Say to me, when faw'ft thou the prince Florizel my fon? Kings are no lefs unhappy, their illue not being gracious; than they are in lofing them, when they have approved their virtues.

three-pile 5 ; but now am out of fervice:
But fall I mourn 1 for that, my dear?
The pale moon fhines by night:
And when I wander bere and there,
I then do go moft right.

My

If tinkers may have leave to live,

And bear the fow-skin budget;
Then my account I well may give,
And in the flocks avouch it.

traffick is fheets 6; when the kite builds, Cam. Sir, it is three days fince I faw the prince : look to leffer linen. My father nam'd me AutoWhat his happier affairs may be, are to me un-lycus; who being, as I am, litter'd under Mer, known: but I have, miflingly, noted, he is of cury, was likewife a fnapper-up of unconfider'd late much retired from court, and is lefs frequent trifles: With die, and drab, I purchas'd this cato his princely exercifes, than formerly he hath parifon 7; and my revenue is the filly cheat: appeared. Gallows, and knock, are too powerful on the Pol. 1 have confider'd fo much, Camillo; and high-way: beating, and hanging, are terrors to with fome care; fo far, that I have eyes under my me; for the life to come, fleep out the thought fervice, which look upon his removednefs; from of it.- A prize! a prize! whom I have this intelligence: That he is feldom from the houfe of a mott homely fhepherd; a man, they fay, that from very nothing, and beyond the imagination of his neighbours, is grown into an unfpeakable eftate.

Cam. I have heard, fir, of fuch a man, who hath a daughter of moft rare note: the report of her is extended more, than can be thought to begin from

fuch a cottage.

Enter Clown.

Clo. Let me fee :-Every 'leven wether tods 9; every tod yields pound and odd fhilling fifteen hundred fhorn,--What comes the wool to:

Aut. If the fpringe hold, the cock's mine. [-fide, Clo. I cannot do't without counters.-Let me fee; what am I to buy for our sheep-fhearing feat? Three pound of fugar; five pound of currants; vice-What will this fitter of mine do with rice? But my father Pok. That's likewife part of my intelligence. hath made her miftrefs of the feaft, and fhe lays it But, I fear the angle 2 that plucks our fon thither.on. She hath made me four and twenty nofe-gays Thou thalt accompany us to the place; where we for the fhearers: three-man 10 fong-men all, and will, not appearing what we are, have fome quef-very good ones; but they are moft of them means, tion with the shepherd; from whofe fimplicity, I and bafes: but one puritan among them, and he

1 i. e. occafionally. 2 Meaning, the fishing-rod. 3 The meaning is, the Spring, or red blood, reigns over the winter's pale blood. 4 A cant word for a bawd. 5 i. e. rich velvet. Meaning, that he was a hawker or vender of feet ballads, and other publications. 7 Meaning, with gaming and whoring, I brought my felf to this reduced dreis. 8 The cant term for picking pockets. 9 A tod is twenty-eight pounds of wool. 10 i, e. fingers of catches in three parts. Means are trebles.

lycus.

fings pfalmis to horn-pipes. I must have faffron, to and, having flown over many knavish profeffions, colour the warden-pies; mace-dates-none; he fettled only in a rogue: fome call him Autothat's out of my note: natmigs, feven: a race, or two, of ginger;-but that I may beg;-four pound of prunes, and as many raifins o'the fun.

Clo. Out upon him! Prig, for my life, prig: he haunts wakes, fairs, and bear-baitings.

Aut. Very true, fir; he, fir, he; that's the rogue, that put me into this apparel.

Clo. Not a more cowardly rogue in all Bohemia; if you had but look'd big, and fpit at him, he'd

Clo. Alas, poor man a million of beating may ftand, and walk: I will even take my leave of you,' come to a great matter. and pace foftly towards my kinfinan's. Clo. Shall I bring thee on thy way? Aut. No, good-fac'd fir; no, fweet fir. Clo. Then fare thee well; I muit go to buy fpices, for our sheep-fhearing.

1 That is, pies made of wardens, a fpecies of large pears. 2 Trou-madame, French. The game of nine-holes. 3 That is, refide bu. for a time. 4 That is, the puppet-flow, then called motions. This term frequently occurs in our author. 5 Begging gypfies, in the time of our author, were in gangs and companies, that had fomething of the fhew of an incorporated body. From this noble fociety he wishes he may be unrolled if he does not fo and fo. That is, take hold of it. 1 The object of all men's notice and expectation. 8 To prank is to dre's with oitentation. would think that in putting on this habit of a fhepherd, you had fworn to put me out of countenance; for in this, as in a glafs, you thew how much below yourself you muit defcend before you Sau gel upon a level with me,

Your refolution cannot hold, when 'tis
Oppos'd, as it muft be, by the power o'the king:
One of these two must be neceflities, [purpofe,
Which then will speak; that you muft change this
Or I my life.

Flo. Thou dearest Perdita,

With thefe forc'd thoughts, I pr'ythee, darken not
The mirth o'the feaft: 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 moit constant,
Though deltiny say, no. Be merry, gentle;
Strangle fuch thoughts as thefe, with any thing
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 fworn fhall come.

Per. Olady fortune,

Stand you aufpicious!

For you there's rofemary, and rue; thefe keep
Seeming, and favour, all the winter long:
Grace, and remembrance, be to you both,
And welcome to our fhearing!

Pol. Shepherdels,

(A fair one are you) well you fit our ages
With flowers of winter.

Per. Sir, the year growing ancient,
Not yet on fummer's death, nor on the birth
Oftrembling winter--the fairest flowers o' the feafor
Are our carnations, and streak'd gilly-flowers,
Which fome call, nature's baftards: of that kind
Our ruftick garden's barren; and I care not
To get flips of them.

Pol. Wherefore, gentle maiden,

Do you neglect them?

Per. For I have heard it faid,

There is an art, which, in their piedness, shares
With great creating nature.

Pol. Say, there be;

Yet nature is made better by no mean,

But nature makes that mean: fo, o'er that art
Which, you fay, adds to nature, is an art
That nature makes. You fee, fweet maid, we marry
A gentler cyon to the wildest ftock;

And make conceive a bark of bater kind
By bud of nobler race: This is an art
Which does mend nature: change it rather: but
The art itfelf is nature.

Per. So it is.

Pol. Then make your garden rich in gilly-flowers, And do not call them battards.

Per. I'll not put

The dibble in earth to fet one flip of them:
No more than, were I painted, I would with
This youth fhould fay, 'twere well; and only
therefore

Defire to breed by me.--Here's flowers for you;

Enter Shepherd,Clown, Mopfa, Dorcas,Servants; with | Hot lavender, mints, favory, marjoram ;

The marigold, that goes to bed with the fun,
And with him Thies weeping: these are flowers
Of middle fummer, and, I think, they are given
To men of middle age: You are very welcome.
Cam. 1 fhould leave grazing, were I of your flock,
And only live by gaz.ng.

Per. Out, alas!

You'd be fo lean, that blafts of January
Would blow you through and through-Now, my
fairest friend,

With labour; and the thing, fhe took to quench it, I would, I had fome flowers o'the fpring, that might

She would to each one fip: You are retir'd,
As if you were a feafted one, and not
The hoftefs of the meeting: Pray you, bid
Thefe unknown friends to us welcome; for it is
A way to make us better friends, more known.
Come, quench your blushes; and present yourself
That which you are, mistress o' the feaft: Come on,
And bid us welcome to your theep-fhearing,
As your good flock fhall profper.
Per. Sir, welcome!
[To Pol. and Cam.
It is my father's will, I fhould take on me
The hottesfhip o'the day :-You're welcome, fir!
Give me thofe flowers there, Dorcas.--Reverend fars, The crown-imperial; lilies of all kinds,

Become your time of day; and yours, and yours;
That wear upon your virgin branches yet
Your maidenheads growing:-0 Proferpina,
For the flowers now, that, frighted, thou let it fall
From Dis's waggon! daffodils,

That come before the swallow dares, and take
The winds of March with beauty; violets dim,
But fweeter than the lids of Juno's eyes,
Or Cytherea's breath; pale primrofes,
That die unmarried, ere they can behold
Bright Phoebus in his ftrength, a malady
Moft incident to maids; bold oxlips, and

1 Rue was called herb of grace. Rofenary was ansiently fuppofed to strengthen the memory, and is prescribed for that purpofe in the books of ancient phyfick.

The

The flower-de-lis being one! O, thefe I lack,

To make you garlands of; and, my fweet friend,
To ftrow him o'er and o'er.

Flo. What? like a corfe?

Pol. She dances featly.

Shep. So the does any thing; though I report it, That thould be filent: if young Doricles

Do light upon her, fhe fhall bring him that

Per. No, like a bank, for love to lie and play on; Which he not dreams of. Not like a corfe: or if,-not to be buried,

But quick, and in mine arms. Come, take your
flowers:

Methinks, I play as I have feen them do
In Whitfun' paftorals: fure, this robe of mine
Does change my difpofition.

Flo. What you do,

Still betters what is done. When you speak, fweet,
I'd have you do it ever: when you fing,
I'd have you buy and fell fo; fo give alms;
Pray fo: and, for the ordering your affairs,
To fing them too: When you do dance, I wish you
A wave o' the fea, that you might ever do
Nothing but that; move ftill, till fo,
And own no other function: Each your doing,
So fingular in each particular,

Crowns what you are doing in the prefent deeds,
That all your acts are queens.

Per. O Doricles,

Enter a Servant.

Ser. O mafter, if you did but hear the pedler at the door, you would never dance again after a tabor and pipe; no, the bag-pipe could not move you: he fings feveral tunes, fafter than you'll tell money; he utters them as he had eaten ballads, and all men's ears grew to his tunes.

Clo. He could never come better; he shall come in: I love a ballad but even too well; if it be doleful matter, merrily fet down, or a very pleafant thing indeed, and fung lamentably.

Ser. He hath fongs, for man, or woman, of all fizes; no milliner can fo fit his cuftomers with gloves: he has the prettieft love-fongs for maids; fo with out bawdry, which is ftrange; with fuch delicate burdens of dil-do's and fadings: jump her and thump ber; and where fome ftretch-mouth'd rafcal would, as it were, mean mifchief, and break a foul gap into the matter, he makes the maid to anfwer, Whoop, do me no harm, good man; puts him off, flights him, with Whoop, do me no barm, good

man.

Pol. This is a brave fellow.

Cl. Believe me, thou talkeft of an admirableconceited fellow. Has he any unbraided + wares?

Ser. He hath ribbons of all the colours i' the rain

To put you to't. But, come; our dance, I pray: bow; points, more than all the lawyers in Bohemia Your hand, my Perdita: fo turtles pair,

can learnedly handle, though they come to him by the grofs; inkles, caddiffes 5, cambricks, lawns: why, he fings them over, 'as they were gods or goddeffes: you would think, a mock were a fheangel; he fo chants to the fleeve-hand, and the work about the square on 't ".

Ch. Pr'ythee, bring him in; and let him approach finging.

Per. Forewarn him, that he ufe no fcurrilous words in his tunes.

Clo. You have of thefe pedlers, that have more in 'em than you'd think, fifter.

Per. Ay, good brother, or go about to think..
Enter Autolycus, finging.

Lawn, as white as driven fnow;
Cyprus, black as e'er was crow;
Gloves, as fweet as damask rofes;
Masks for faces, and for noses;
Bugle bracelet, neck-lase amber;
Perfume for a lady's chamber;
Golden quoifs, and stomachers,
my lads to give the drays;
Pins, and poking-flicks of fleet",
What maids lack from head to heel:
Come, buy of me, come: come buy, come bus ;
Buy, lads, or elfe your laffes cry:
Come buy, &c.

For

I That is, reafon. 2 i. e. a confiderable tract of pafturage. 3 i. e. truth. 4 i. e. undamaged. 5 Mr. Steevens conjectures caddis to mean ferret. The work about the fquare on't probably figuines the work or embroidery about the bofom part of a fhift, which might then have been of a quare form, or might have a fquare tucker. 6 Thefe poking-flicks were heated in the fire, and inade ufe of to adjuft the plaits of ruffs.

Ch