The Winter’s Tale

1 Enter Florizel and Perdita.
2 FLORIZEL.
3 These your unusual weeds to each part of you
4 Do give a life, no shepherdess, but Flora
5 Peering in April’s front. This your sheep-shearing
6 Is as a meeting of the petty gods,
7 And you the queen on ’t.
8 PERDITA.
9 Sir, my gracious lord,
10 To chide at your extremes it not becomes me;
11 O, pardon that I name them! Your high self,
12 The gracious mark o’ th’ land, you have obscur’d
13 With a swain’s wearing, and me, poor lowly maid,
14 Most goddess-like prank’d up. But that our feasts
15 In every mess have folly, and the feeders
16 Digest it with a custom, I should blush
17 To see you so attir’d; swoon, I think,
18 To show myself a glass.
19 FLORIZEL.
20 I bless the time
21 When my good falcon made her flight across
22 Thy father’s ground.
23 PERDITA.
24 Now Jove afford you cause!
25 To me the difference forges dread. Your greatness
26 Hath not been us’d to fear. Even now I tremble
27 To think your father, by some accident,
28 Should pass this way, as you did. O, the Fates!
29 How would he look to see his work, so noble,
30 Vilely bound up? What would he say? Or how
31 Should I, in these my borrow’d flaunts, behold
32 The sternness of his presence?
33 FLORIZEL.
34 Apprehend
35 Nothing but jollity. The gods themselves,
36 Humbling their deities to love, have taken
37 The shapes of beasts upon them. Jupiter
38 Became a bull and bellow’d; the green Neptune
39 A ram and bleated; and the fire-rob’d god,
40 Golden Apollo, a poor humble swain,
41 As I seem now. Their transformations
42 Were never for a piece of beauty rarer,
43 Nor in a way so chaste, since my desires
44 Run not before mine honour, nor my lusts
45 Burn hotter than my faith.
46 PERDITA.
47 O, but, sir,
48 Your resolution cannot hold when ’tis
49 Oppos’d, as it must be, by the power of the king:
50 One of these two must be necessities,
51 Which then will speak, that you must change this purpose,
52 Or I my life.
53 FLORIZEL.
54 Thou dearest Perdita,
55 With these forc’d thoughts, I prithee, darken not
56 The mirth o’ th’ feast. Or I’ll be thine, my fair,
57 Or not my father’s. For I cannot be
58 Mine own, nor anything to any, if
59 I be not thine. To this I am most constant,
60 Though destiny say no. Be merry, gentle.
61 Strangle such thoughts as these with anything
62 That you behold the while. Your guests are coming:
63 Lift up your countenance, as it were the day
64 Of celebration of that nuptial which
65 We two have sworn shall come.
66 PERDITA.
67 O lady Fortune,
68 Stand you auspicious!
69 FLORIZEL.
70 See, your guests approach:
71 Address yourself to entertain them sprightly,
72 And let’s be red with mirth.
73 Enter Shepherd with Polixenes and Camillo, disguised; Clown, Mopsa,
74 Dorcas with others.
75 SHEPHERD.
76 Fie, daughter! When my old wife liv’d, upon
77 This day she was both pantler, butler, cook,
78 Both dame and servant; welcom’d all; serv’d all;
79 Would sing her song and dance her turn; now here
80 At upper end o’ th’ table, now i’ th’ middle;
81 On his shoulder, and his; her face o’ fire
82 With labour, and the thing she took to quench it
83 She would to each one sip. You are retired,
84 As if you were a feasted one, and not
85 The hostess of the meeting: pray you, bid
86 These unknown friends to ’s welcome, for it is
87 A way to make us better friends, more known.
88 Come, quench your blushes, and present yourself
89 That which you are, mistress o’ th’ feast. Come on,
90 And bid us welcome to your sheep-shearing,
91 As your good flock shall prosper.
92 PERDITA.
93 [_To Polixenes._] Sir, welcome.
94 It is my father’s will I should take on me
95 The hostess-ship o’ the day.
96 [_To Camillo._] You’re welcome, sir.
97 Give me those flowers there, Dorcas. Reverend sirs,
98 For you there’s rosemary and rue; these keep
99 Seeming and savour all the winter long.
100 Grace and remembrance be to you both!
101 And welcome to our shearing!
102 POLIXENES.
103 Shepherdess—
104 A fair one are you—well you fit our ages
105 With flowers of winter.
106 PERDITA.
107 Sir, the year growing ancient,
108 Not yet on summer’s death nor on the birth
109 Of trembling winter, the fairest flowers o’ th’ season
110 Are our carnations and streak’d gillyvors,
111 Which some call nature’s bastards: of that kind
112 Our rustic garden’s barren; and I care not
113 To get slips of them.
114 POLIXENES.
115 Wherefore, gentle maiden,
116 Do you neglect them?
117 PERDITA.
118 For I have heard it said
119 There is an art which, in their piedness, shares
120 With great creating nature.
121 POLIXENES.
122 Say there be;
123 Yet nature is made better by no mean
124 But nature makes that mean. So, over that art
125 Which you say adds to nature, is an art
126 That nature makes. You see, sweet maid, we marry
127 A gentler scion to the wildest stock,
128 And make conceive a bark of baser kind
129 By bud of nobler race. This is an art
130 Which does mend nature, change it rather, but
131 The art itself is nature.
132 PERDITA.
133 So it is.
134 POLIXENES.
135 Then make your garden rich in gillyvors,
136 And do not call them bastards.
137 PERDITA.
138 I’ll not put
139 The dibble in earth to set one slip of them;
140 No more than, were I painted, I would wish
141 This youth should say ’twere well, and only therefore
142 Desire to breed by me. Here’s flowers for you:
143 Hot lavender, mints, savory, marjoram,
144 The marigold, that goes to bed with th’ sun
145 And with him rises weeping. These are flowers
146 Of middle summer, and I think they are given
147 To men of middle age. You’re very welcome.
148 CAMILLO.
149 I should leave grazing, were I of your flock,
150 And only live by gazing.
151 PERDITA.
152 Out, alas!
153 You’d be so lean that blasts of January
154 Would blow you through and through. [_To Florizel_] Now, my fair’st
155 friend,
156 I would I had some flowers o’ th’ spring, that might
157 Become your time of day; and yours, and yours,
158 That wear upon your virgin branches yet
159 Your maidenheads growing. O Proserpina,
160 From the flowers now that, frighted, thou let’st fall
161 From Dis’s waggon! daffodils,
162 That come before the swallow dares, and take
163 The winds of March with beauty; violets dim,
164 But sweeter than the lids of Juno’s eyes
165 Or Cytherea’s breath; pale primroses,
166 That die unmarried ere they can behold
167 Bright Phoebus in his strength (a malady
168 Most incident to maids); bold oxlips and
169 The crown imperial; lilies of all kinds,
170 The flower-de-luce being one. O, these I lack,
171 To make you garlands of; and my sweet friend,
172 To strew him o’er and o’er!
173 FLORIZEL.
174 What, like a corse?
175 PERDITA.
176 No, like a bank for love to lie and play on;
177 Not like a corse; or if, not to be buried,
178 But quick, and in mine arms. Come, take your flowers.
179 Methinks I play as I have seen them do
180 In Whitsun pastorals. Sure this robe of mine
181 Does change my disposition.
182 FLORIZEL.
183 What you do
184 Still betters what is done. When you speak, sweet,
185 I’d have you do it ever. When you sing,
186 I’d have you buy and sell so, so give alms,
187 Pray so; and, for the ord’ring your affairs,
188 To sing them too. When you do dance, I wish you
189 A wave o’ th’ sea, that you might ever do
190 Nothing but that, move still, still so,
191 And own no other function. Each your doing,
192 So singular in each particular,
193 Crowns what you are doing in the present deeds,
194 That all your acts are queens.
195 PERDITA.
196 O Doricles,
197 Your praises are too large. But that your youth,
198 And the true blood which peeps fairly through ’t,
199 Do plainly give you out an unstained shepherd,
200 With wisdom I might fear, my Doricles,
201 You woo’d me the false way.
202 FLORIZEL.
203 I think you have
204 As little skill to fear as I have purpose
205 To put you to ’t. But, come; our dance, I pray.
206 Your hand, my Perdita. So turtles pair
207 That never mean to part.
208 PERDITA.
209 I’ll swear for ’em.
210 POLIXENES.
211 This is the prettiest low-born lass that ever
212 Ran on the green-sward. Nothing she does or seems
213 But smacks of something greater than herself,
214 Too noble for this place.
215 CAMILLO.
216 He tells her something
217 That makes her blood look out. Good sooth, she is
218 The queen of curds and cream.
219 CLOWN.
220 Come on, strike up.
221 DORCAS.
222 Mopsa must be your mistress: marry, garlic, to mend her kissing with!
223 MOPSA.
224 Now, in good time!
225 CLOWN.
226 Not a word, a word; we stand upon our manners.
227 Come, strike up.
228 [_Music. Here a dance Of Shepherds and Shepherdesses._]
229 POLIXENES.
230 Pray, good shepherd, what fair swain is this
231 Which dances with your daughter?
232 SHEPHERD.
233 They call him Doricles; and boasts himself
234 To have a worthy feeding. But I have it
235 Upon his own report, and I believe it.
236 He looks like sooth. He says he loves my daughter.
237 I think so too; for never gaz’d the moon
238 Upon the water as he’ll stand and read,
239 As ’twere, my daughter’s eyes. And, to be plain,
240 I think there is not half a kiss to choose
241 Who loves another best.
242 POLIXENES.
243 She dances featly.
244 SHEPHERD.
245 So she does anything, though I report it
246 That should be silent. If young Doricles
247 Do light upon her, she shall bring him that
248 Which he not dreams of.
249 Enter a Servant.
250 SERVANT.
251 O master, if you did but hear the pedlar at the door, you would never
252 dance again after a tabor and pipe; no, the bagpipe could not move you.
253 He sings several tunes faster than you’ll tell money. He utters them as
254 he had eaten ballads, and all men’s ears grew to his tunes.
255 CLOWN.
256 He could never come better: he shall come in. I love a ballad but even
257 too well, if it be doleful matter merrily set down, or a very pleasant
258 thing indeed and sung lamentably.
259 SERVANT.
260 He hath songs for man or woman of all sizes. No milliner can so fit his
261 customers with gloves. He has the prettiest love-songs for maids, so
262 without bawdry, which is strange; with such delicate burdens of dildos
263 and fadings, “jump her and thump her”; and where some stretch-mouthed
264 rascal would, as it were, mean mischief and break a foul gap into the
265 matter, he makes the maid to answer “Whoop, do me no harm, good man”;
266 puts him off, slights him, with “Whoop, do me no harm, good man.”
267 POLIXENES.
268 This is a brave fellow.
269 CLOWN.
270 Believe me, thou talkest of an admirable conceited fellow. Has he any
271 unbraided wares?
272 SERVANT.
273 He hath ribbons of all the colours i’ th’ rainbow; points, more than
274 all the lawyers in Bohemia can learnedly handle, though they come to
275 him by th’ gross; inkles, caddisses, cambrics, lawns; why he sings ’em
276 over as they were gods or goddesses; you would think a smock were a
277 she-angel, he so chants to the sleeve-hand and the work about the
278 square on ’t.
279 CLOWN.
280 Prithee bring him in; and let him approach singing.
281 PERDITA.
282 Forewarn him that he use no scurrilous words in ’s tunes.
283 [_Exit Servant._]
284 CLOWN.
285 You have of these pedlars that have more in them than you’d think,
286 sister.
287 PERDITA.
288 Ay, good brother, or go about to think.
289 Enter Autolycus, singing.
290 AUTOLYCUS.
291 _Lawn as white as driven snow,
292 Cypress black as e’er was crow,
293 Gloves as sweet as damask roses,
294 Masks for faces and for noses,
295 Bugle-bracelet, necklace amber,
296 Perfume for a lady’s chamber,
297 Golden quoifs and stomachers
298 For my lads to give their dears,
299 Pins and poking-sticks of steel,
300 What maids lack from head to heel.
301 Come buy of me, come; come buy, come buy;
302 Buy, lads, or else your lasses cry.
303 Come, buy._
304 CLOWN.
305 If I were not in love with Mopsa, thou shouldst take no money of me;
306 but being enthralled as I am, it will also be the bondage of certain
307 ribbons and gloves.
308 MOPSA.
309 I was promised them against the feast; but they come not too late now.
310 DORCAS.
311 He hath promised you more than that, or there be liars.
312 MOPSA.
313 He hath paid you all he promised you. Maybe he has paid you more, which
314 will shame you to give him again.
315 CLOWN.
316 Is there no manners left among maids? Will they wear their plackets
317 where they should bear their faces? Is there not milking-time, when you
318 are going to bed, or kiln-hole, to whistle of these secrets, but you
319 must be tittle-tattling before all our guests? ’Tis well they are
320 whispering. Clamour your tongues, and not a word more.
321 MOPSA.
322 I have done. Come, you promised me a tawdry lace and a pair of sweet
323 gloves.
324 CLOWN.
325 Have I not told thee how I was cozened by the way and lost all my
326 money?
327 AUTOLYCUS.
328 And indeed, sir, there are cozeners abroad; therefore it behoves men to
329 be wary.
330 CLOWN.
331 Fear not thou, man. Thou shalt lose nothing here.
332 AUTOLYCUS.
333 I hope so, sir; for I have about me many parcels of charge.
334 CLOWN.
335 What hast here? Ballads?
336 MOPSA.
337 Pray now, buy some. I love a ballad in print alife, for then we are
338 sure they are true.
339 AUTOLYCUS.
340 Here’s one to a very doleful tune. How a usurer’s wife was brought to
341 bed of twenty money-bags at a burden, and how she longed to eat adders’
342 heads and toads carbonadoed.
343 MOPSA.
344 Is it true, think you?
345 AUTOLYCUS.
346 Very true, and but a month old.
347 DORCAS.
348 Bless me from marrying a usurer!
349 AUTOLYCUS.
350 Here’s the midwife’s name to’t, one Mistress Taleporter, and five or
351 six honest wives that were present. Why should I carry lies abroad?
352 MOPSA.
353 Pray you now, buy it.
354 CLOWN.
355 Come on, lay it by; and let’s first see more ballads. We’ll buy the
356 other things anon.
357 AUTOLYCUS.
358 Here’s another ballad, of a fish that appeared upon the coast on
359 Wednesday the fourscore of April, forty thousand fathom above water,
360 and sung this ballad against the hard hearts of maids. It was thought
361 she was a woman, and was turned into a cold fish for she would not
362 exchange flesh with one that loved her. The ballad is very pitiful, and
363 as true.
364 DORCAS.
365 Is it true too, think you?
366 AUTOLYCUS.
367 Five justices’ hands at it, and witnesses more than my pack will hold.
368 CLOWN.
369 Lay it by too: another.
370 AUTOLYCUS.
371 This is a merry ballad; but a very pretty one.
372 MOPSA.
373 Let’s have some merry ones.
374 AUTOLYCUS.
375 Why, this is a passing merry one and goes to the tune of “Two maids
376 wooing a man.” There’s scarce a maid westward but she sings it. ’Tis in
377 request, I can tell you.
378 MOPSA.
379 We can both sing it: if thou’lt bear a part, thou shalt hear; ’tis in
380 three parts.
381 DORCAS.
382 We had the tune on ’t a month ago.
383 AUTOLYCUS.
384 I can bear my part; you must know ’tis my occupation: have at it with
385 you.
386 SONG.
387 AUTOLYCUS.
388 _Get you hence, for I must go
389 Where it fits not you to know._
390 DORCAS.
391 _Whither?_
392 MOPSA.
393 _O, whither?_
394 DORCAS.
395 _Whither?_
396 MOPSA.
397 _It becomes thy oath full well
398 Thou to me thy secrets tell._
399 DORCAS.
400 _Me too! Let me go thither._
401 MOPSA.
402 Or thou goest to th’ grange or mill.
403 DORCAS.
404 _If to either, thou dost ill._
405 AUTOLYCUS.
406 _Neither._
407 DORCAS.
408 _What, neither?_
409 AUTOLYCUS.
410 _Neither._
411 DORCAS.
412 _Thou hast sworn my love to be._
413 MOPSA.
414 _Thou hast sworn it more to me.
415 Then whither goest? Say, whither?_
416 CLOWN.
417 We’ll have this song out anon by ourselves. My father and the gentlemen
418 are in sad talk, and we’ll not trouble them. Come, bring away thy pack
419 after me. Wenches, I’ll buy for you both. Pedlar, let’s have the first
420 choice. Follow me, girls.
421 [_Exit with Dorcas and Mopsa._]
422 AUTOLYCUS.
423 [_Aside._] And you shall pay well for ’em.
424 SONG.
425 _Will you buy any tape,
426 Or lace for your cape,
427 My dainty duck, my dear-a?
428 Any silk, any thread,
429 Any toys for your head,
430 Of the new’st and fin’st, fin’st wear-a?
431 Come to the pedlar;
432 Money’s a meddler
433 That doth utter all men’s ware-a._
434 [_Exit._]
435 Enter Servant.
436 SERVANT.
437 Master, there is three carters, three shepherds, three neat-herds,
438 three swine-herds, that have made themselves all men of hair. They call
439 themselves saltiers, and they have dance which the wenches say is a
440 gallimaufry of gambols, because they are not in ’t; but they themselves
441 are o’ the mind (if it be not too rough for some that know little but
442 bowling) it will please plentifully.
443 SHEPHERD.
444 Away! we’ll none on ’t. Here has been too much homely foolery already.
445 I know, sir, we weary you.
446 POLIXENES.
447 You weary those that refresh us: pray, let’s see these four threes of
448 herdsmen.
449 SERVANT.
450 One three of them, by their own report, sir, hath danced before the
451 king; and not the worst of the three but jumps twelve foot and a half
452 by th’ square.
453 SHEPHERD.
454 Leave your prating: since these good men are pleased, let them come in;
455 but quickly now.
456 SERVANT.
457 Why, they stay at door, sir.
458 [_Exit._]
459 Enter Twelve Rustics, habited like Satyrs. They dance, and then
460 exeunt.
461 POLIXENES.
462 O, father, you’ll know more of that hereafter.
463 [_To Camillo._] Is it not too far gone? ’Tis time to part them.
464 He’s simple and tells much. [_To Florizel._] How now, fair shepherd!
465 Your heart is full of something that does take
466 Your mind from feasting. Sooth, when I was young
467 And handed love, as you do, I was wont
468 To load my she with knacks: I would have ransack’d
469 The pedlar’s silken treasury and have pour’d it
470 To her acceptance. You have let him go,
471 And nothing marted with him. If your lass
472 Interpretation should abuse, and call this
473 Your lack of love or bounty, you were straited
474 For a reply, at least if you make a care
475 Of happy holding her.
476 FLORIZEL.
477 Old sir, I know
478 She prizes not such trifles as these are:
479 The gifts she looks from me are pack’d and lock’d
480 Up in my heart, which I have given already,
481 But not deliver’d. O, hear me breathe my life
482 Before this ancient sir, who, it should seem,
483 Hath sometime lov’d. I take thy hand! this hand,
484 As soft as dove’s down and as white as it,
485 Or Ethiopian’s tooth, or the fann’d snow that’s bolted
486 By th’ northern blasts twice o’er.
487 POLIXENES.
488 What follows this?
489 How prettily the young swain seems to wash
490 The hand was fair before! I have put you out.
491 But to your protestation. Let me hear
492 What you profess.
493 FLORIZEL.
494 Do, and be witness to ’t.
495 POLIXENES.
496 And this my neighbour, too?
497 FLORIZEL.
498 And he, and more
499 Than he, and men, the earth, the heavens, and all:
500 That were I crown’d the most imperial monarch,
501 Thereof most worthy, were I the fairest youth
502 That ever made eye swerve, had force and knowledge
503 More than was ever man’s, I would not prize them
504 Without her love; for her employ them all;
505 Commend them and condemn them to her service,
506 Or to their own perdition.
507 POLIXENES.
508 Fairly offer’d.
509 CAMILLO.
510 This shows a sound affection.
511 SHEPHERD.
512 But my daughter,
513 Say you the like to him?
514 PERDITA.
515 I cannot speak
516 So well, nothing so well; no, nor mean better:
517 By th’ pattern of mine own thoughts I cut out
518 The purity of his.
519 SHEPHERD.
520 Take hands, a bargain!
521 And, friends unknown, you shall bear witness to’t.
522 I give my daughter to him, and will make
523 Her portion equal his.
524 FLORIZEL.
525 O, that must be
526 I’ th’ virtue of your daughter: one being dead,
527 I shall have more than you can dream of yet;
528 Enough then for your wonder. But come on,
529 Contract us ’fore these witnesses.
530 SHEPHERD.
531 Come, your hand;
532 And, daughter, yours.
533 POLIXENES.
534 Soft, swain, awhile, beseech you;
535 Have you a father?
536 FLORIZEL.
537 I have; but what of him?
538 POLIXENES.
539 Knows he of this?
540 FLORIZEL.
541 He neither does nor shall.
542 POLIXENES.
543 Methinks a father
544 Is at the nuptial of his son a guest
545 That best becomes the table. Pray you once more,
546 Is not your father grown incapable
547 Of reasonable affairs? is he not stupid
548 With age and alt’ring rheums? can he speak? hear?
549 Know man from man? dispute his own estate?
550 Lies he not bed-rid? and again does nothing
551 But what he did being childish?
552 FLORIZEL.
553 No, good sir;
554 He has his health, and ampler strength indeed
555 Than most have of his age.
556 POLIXENES.
557 By my white beard,
558 You offer him, if this be so, a wrong
559 Something unfilial: reason my son
560 Should choose himself a wife, but as good reason
561 The father, all whose joy is nothing else
562 But fair posterity, should hold some counsel
563 In such a business.
564 FLORIZEL.
565 I yield all this;
566 But for some other reasons, my grave sir,
567 Which ’tis not fit you know, I not acquaint
568 My father of this business.
569 POLIXENES.
570 Let him know ’t.
571 FLORIZEL.
572 He shall not.
573 POLIXENES.
574 Prithee let him.
575 FLORIZEL.
576 No, he must not.
577 SHEPHERD.
578 Let him, my son: he shall not need to grieve
579 At knowing of thy choice.
580 FLORIZEL.
581 Come, come, he must not.
582 Mark our contract.
583 POLIXENES.
584 [_Discovering himself._] Mark your divorce, young sir,
585 Whom son I dare not call; thou art too base
586 To be acknowledged: thou a sceptre’s heir,
587 That thus affects a sheep-hook! Thou, old traitor,
588 I am sorry that, by hanging thee, I can
589 But shorten thy life one week. And thou, fresh piece
590 Of excellent witchcraft, whom of force must know
591 The royal fool thou cop’st with,—
592 SHEPHERD.
593 O, my heart!
594 POLIXENES.
595 I’ll have thy beauty scratch’d with briers and made
596 More homely than thy state. For thee, fond boy,
597 If I may ever know thou dost but sigh
598 That thou no more shalt see this knack (as never
599 I mean thou shalt), we’ll bar thee from succession;
600 Not hold thee of our blood, no, not our kin,
601 Far than Deucalion off. Mark thou my words.
602 Follow us to the court. Thou churl, for this time,
603 Though full of our displeasure, yet we free thee
604 From the dead blow of it. And you, enchantment,
605 Worthy enough a herdsman; yea, him too
606 That makes himself, but for our honour therein,
607 Unworthy thee. If ever henceforth thou
608 These rural latches to his entrance open,
609 Or hoop his body more with thy embraces,
610 I will devise a death as cruel for thee
611 As thou art tender to ’t.
612 [_Exit._]
613 PERDITA.
614 Even here undone.
615 I was not much afeard, for once or twice
616 I was about to speak, and tell him plainly
617 The selfsame sun that shines upon his court
618 Hides not his visage from our cottage, but
619 Looks on alike. [_To Florizel._] Will’t please you, sir, be gone?
620 I told you what would come of this. Beseech you,
621 Of your own state take care. This dream of mine—
622 Being now awake, I’ll queen it no inch farther,
623 But milk my ewes, and weep.
624 CAMILLO.
625 Why, how now, father!
626 Speak ere thou diest.
627 SHEPHERD.
628 I cannot speak, nor think,
629 Nor dare to know that which I know. O sir,
630 You have undone a man of fourscore three,
631 That thought to fill his grave in quiet; yea,
632 To die upon the bed my father died,
633 To lie close by his honest bones; but now
634 Some hangman must put on my shroud and lay me
635 Where no priest shovels in dust. O cursed wretch,
636 That knew’st this was the prince, and wouldst adventure
637 To mingle faith with him! Undone, undone!
638 If I might die within this hour, I have liv’d
639 To die when I desire.
640 [_Exit._]
641 FLORIZEL.
642 Why look you so upon me?
643 I am but sorry, not afeard; delay’d,
644 But nothing alt’red: what I was, I am:
645 More straining on for plucking back; not following
646 My leash unwillingly.
647 CAMILLO.
648 Gracious my lord,
649 You know your father’s temper: at this time
650 He will allow no speech (which I do guess
651 You do not purpose to him) and as hardly
652 Will he endure your sight as yet, I fear:
653 Then, till the fury of his highness settle,
654 Come not before him.
655 FLORIZEL.
656 I not purpose it.
657 I think Camillo?
658 CAMILLO.
659 Even he, my lord.
660 PERDITA.
661 How often have I told you ’twould be thus!
662 How often said my dignity would last
663 But till ’twere known!
664 FLORIZEL.
665 It cannot fail but by
666 The violation of my faith; and then
667 Let nature crush the sides o’ th’ earth together
668 And mar the seeds within! Lift up thy looks.
669 From my succession wipe me, father; I
670 Am heir to my affection.
671 CAMILLO.
672 Be advis’d.
673 FLORIZEL.
674 I am, and by my fancy. If my reason
675 Will thereto be obedient, I have reason;
676 If not, my senses, better pleas’d with madness,
677 Do bid it welcome.
678 CAMILLO.
679 This is desperate, sir.
680 FLORIZEL.
681 So call it: but it does fulfil my vow.
682 I needs must think it honesty. Camillo,
683 Not for Bohemia, nor the pomp that may
684 Be thereat glean’d; for all the sun sees or
685 The close earth wombs, or the profound seas hides
686 In unknown fathoms, will I break my oath
687 To this my fair belov’d. Therefore, I pray you,
688 As you have ever been my father’s honour’d friend,
689 When he shall miss me,—as, in faith, I mean not
690 To see him any more,—cast your good counsels
691 Upon his passion: let myself and fortune
692 Tug for the time to come. This you may know,
693 And so deliver, I am put to sea
694 With her whom here I cannot hold on shore;
695 And, most opportune to her need, I have
696 A vessel rides fast by, but not prepar’d
697 For this design. What course I mean to hold
698 Shall nothing benefit your knowledge, nor
699 Concern me the reporting.
700 CAMILLO.
701 O my lord,
702 I would your spirit were easier for advice,
703 Or stronger for your need.
704 FLORIZEL.
705 Hark, Perdita. [_Takes her aside._]
706 [_To Camillo._] I’ll hear you by and by.
707 CAMILLO.
708 He’s irremovable,
709 Resolv’d for flight. Now were I happy if
710 His going I could frame to serve my turn,
711 Save him from danger, do him love and honour,
712 Purchase the sight again of dear Sicilia
713 And that unhappy king, my master, whom
714 I so much thirst to see.
715 FLORIZEL.
716 Now, good Camillo,
717 I am so fraught with curious business that
718 I leave out ceremony.
719 CAMILLO.
720 Sir, I think
721 You have heard of my poor services, i’ th’ love
722 That I have borne your father?
723 FLORIZEL.
724 Very nobly
725 Have you deserv’d: it is my father’s music
726 To speak your deeds, not little of his care
727 To have them recompens’d as thought on.
728 CAMILLO.
729 Well, my lord,
730 If you may please to think I love the king,
731 And, through him, what’s nearest to him, which is
732 Your gracious self, embrace but my direction,
733 If your more ponderous and settled project
734 May suffer alteration. On mine honour,
735 I’ll point you where you shall have such receiving
736 As shall become your highness; where you may
737 Enjoy your mistress; from the whom, I see,
738 There’s no disjunction to be made, but by,
739 As heavens forfend, your ruin. Marry her,
740 And with my best endeavours in your absence
741 Your discontenting father strive to qualify
742 And bring him up to liking.
743 FLORIZEL.
744 How, Camillo,
745 May this, almost a miracle, be done?
746 That I may call thee something more than man,
747 And after that trust to thee.
748 CAMILLO.
749 Have you thought on
750 A place whereto you’ll go?
751 FLORIZEL.
752 Not any yet.
753 But as th’ unthought-on accident is guilty
754 To what we wildly do, so we profess
755 Ourselves to be the slaves of chance, and flies
756 Of every wind that blows.
757 CAMILLO.
758 Then list to me:
759 This follows, if you will not change your purpose,
760 But undergo this flight, make for Sicilia,
761 And there present yourself and your fair princess,
762 For so, I see, she must be, ’fore Leontes:
763 She shall be habited as it becomes
764 The partner of your bed. Methinks I see
765 Leontes opening his free arms and weeping
766 His welcomes forth; asks thee, the son, forgiveness,
767 As ’twere i’ th’ father’s person; kisses the hands
768 Of your fresh princess; o’er and o’er divides him
769 ’Twixt his unkindness and his kindness. Th’ one
770 He chides to hell, and bids the other grow
771 Faster than thought or time.
772 FLORIZEL.
773 Worthy Camillo,
774 What colour for my visitation shall I
775 Hold up before him?
776 CAMILLO.
777 Sent by the king your father
778 To greet him and to give him comforts. Sir,
779 The manner of your bearing towards him, with
780 What you (as from your father) shall deliver,
781 Things known betwixt us three, I’ll write you down,
782 The which shall point you forth at every sitting
783 What you must say; that he shall not perceive
784 But that you have your father’s bosom there
785 And speak his very heart.
786 FLORIZEL.
787 I am bound to you:
788 There is some sap in this.
789 CAMILLO.
790 A course more promising
791 Than a wild dedication of yourselves
792 To unpath’d waters, undream’d shores, most certain
793 To miseries enough: no hope to help you,
794 But as you shake off one to take another:
795 Nothing so certain as your anchors, who
796 Do their best office if they can but stay you
797 Where you’ll be loath to be. Besides, you know
798 Prosperity’s the very bond of love,
799 Whose fresh complexion and whose heart together
800 Affliction alters.
801 PERDITA.
802 One of these is true:
803 I think affliction may subdue the cheek,
804 But not take in the mind.
805 CAMILLO.
806 Yea, say you so?
807 There shall not at your father’s house, these seven years
808 Be born another such.
809 FLORIZEL.
810 My good Camillo,
811 She is as forward of her breeding as
812 She is i’ th’ rear our birth.
813 CAMILLO.
814 I cannot say ’tis pity
815 She lacks instructions, for she seems a mistress
816 To most that teach.
817 PERDITA.
818 Your pardon, sir; for this
819 I’ll blush you thanks.
820 FLORIZEL.
821 My prettiest Perdita!
822 But, O, the thorns we stand upon! Camillo,
823 Preserver of my father, now of me,
824 The medicine of our house, how shall we do?
825 We are not furnish’d like Bohemia’s son,
826 Nor shall appear in Sicilia.
827 CAMILLO.
828 My lord,
829 Fear none of this. I think you know my fortunes
830 Do all lie there: it shall be so my care
831 To have you royally appointed as if
832 The scene you play were mine. For instance, sir,
833 That you may know you shall not want,—one word.
834 [_They talk aside._]
835 Enter Autolycus.
836 AUTOLYCUS.
837 Ha, ha! what a fool Honesty is! and Trust, his sworn brother, a very
838 simple gentleman! I have sold all my trumpery. Not a counterfeit stone,
839 not a ribbon, glass, pomander, brooch, table-book, ballad, knife, tape,
840 glove, shoe-tie, bracelet, horn-ring, to keep my pack from fasting.
841 They throng who should buy first, as if my trinkets had been hallowed
842 and brought a benediction to the buyer: by which means I saw whose
843 purse was best in picture; and what I saw, to my good use I remembered.
844 My clown (who wants but something to be a reasonable man) grew so in
845 love with the wenches’ song that he would not stir his pettitoes till
846 he had both tune and words; which so drew the rest of the herd to me
847 that all their other senses stuck in ears: you might have pinched a
848 placket, it was senseless; ’twas nothing to geld a codpiece of a purse;
849 I would have filed keys off that hung in chains: no hearing, no
850 feeling, but my sir’s song, and admiring the nothing of it. So that in
851 this time of lethargy I picked and cut most of their festival purses;
852 and had not the old man come in with a whoobub against his daughter and
853 the king’s son, and scared my choughs from the chaff, I had not left a
854 purse alive in the whole army.
855 Camillo, Florizel and Perdita come forward.
856 CAMILLO.
857 Nay, but my letters, by this means being there
858 So soon as you arrive, shall clear that doubt.
859 FLORIZEL.
860 And those that you’ll procure from king Leontes?
861 CAMILLO.
862 Shall satisfy your father.
863 PERDITA.
864 Happy be you!
865 All that you speak shows fair.
866 CAMILLO.
867 [_Seeing Autolycus._] Who have we here?
868 We’ll make an instrument of this; omit
869 Nothing may give us aid.
870 AUTOLYCUS.
871 [_Aside._] If they have overheard me now,—why, hanging.
872 CAMILLO.
873 How now, good fellow! why shakest thou so? Fear not, man; here’s no
874 harm intended to thee.
875 AUTOLYCUS.
876 I am a poor fellow, sir.
877 CAMILLO.
878 Why, be so still; here’s nobody will steal that from thee: yet, for the
879 outside of thy poverty we must make an exchange; therefore discase thee
880 instantly,—thou must think there’s a necessity in’t—and change garments
881 with this gentleman: though the pennyworth on his side be the worst,
882 yet hold thee, there’s some boot.
883 [_Giving money._]
884 AUTOLYCUS.
885 I am a poor fellow, sir: [_Aside._] I know ye well enough.
886 CAMILLO.
887 Nay, prithee dispatch: the gentleman is half flayed already.
888 AUTOLYCUS.
889 Are you in earnest, sir? [_Aside._] I smell the trick on’t.
890 FLORIZEL.
891 Dispatch, I prithee.
892 AUTOLYCUS.
893 Indeed, I have had earnest; but I cannot with conscience take it.
894 CAMILLO.
895 Unbuckle, unbuckle.
896 [_Florizel and Autolycus exchange garments._]
897 Fortunate mistress,—let my prophecy
898 Come home to you!—you must retire yourself
899 Into some covert. Take your sweetheart’s hat
900 And pluck it o’er your brows, muffle your face,
901 Dismantle you; and, as you can, disliken
902 The truth of your own seeming; that you may
903 (For I do fear eyes over) to shipboard
904 Get undescried.
905 PERDITA.
906 I see the play so lies
907 That I must bear a part.
908 CAMILLO.
909 No remedy.
910 Have you done there?
911 FLORIZEL.
912 Should I now meet my father,
913 He would not call me son.
914 CAMILLO.
915 Nay, you shall have no hat. [_Giving it to Perdita._]
916 Come, lady, come. Farewell, my friend.
917 AUTOLYCUS.
918 Adieu, sir.
919 FLORIZEL.
920 O Perdita, what have we twain forgot?
921 Pray you a word.
922 [_They converse apart._]
923 CAMILLO.
924 [_Aside._] What I do next, shall be to tell the king
925 Of this escape, and whither they are bound;
926 Wherein my hope is I shall so prevail
927 To force him after: in whose company
928 I shall re-view Sicilia; for whose sight
929 I have a woman’s longing.
930 FLORIZEL.
931 Fortune speed us!
932 Thus we set on, Camillo, to the sea-side.
933 CAMILLO.
934 The swifter speed the better.
935 [_Exeunt Florizel, Perdita and Camillo._]
936 AUTOLYCUS.
937 I understand the business, I hear it. To have an open ear, a quick eye,
938 and a nimble hand, is necessary for a cut-purse; a good nose is
939 requisite also, to smell out work for the other senses. I see this is
940 the time that the unjust man doth thrive. What an exchange had this
941 been without boot! What a boot is here with this exchange! Sure the
942 gods do this year connive at us, and we may do anything extempore. The
943 prince himself is about a piece of iniquity, stealing away from his
944 father with his clog at his heels: if I thought it were a piece of
945 honesty to acquaint the king withal, I would not do’t: I hold it the
946 more knavery to conceal it; and therein am I constant to my profession.
947 Enter Clown and Shepherd.
948 Aside, aside; here is more matter for a hot brain: every lane’s end,
949 every shop, church, session, hanging, yields a careful man work.
950 CLOWN.
951 See, see; what a man you are now! There is no other way but to tell the
952 king she’s a changeling, and none of your flesh and blood.
953 SHEPHERD.
954 Nay, but hear me.
955 CLOWN.
956 Nay, but hear me.
957 SHEPHERD.
958 Go to, then.
959 CLOWN.
960 She being none of your flesh and blood, your flesh and blood has not
961 offended the king; and so your flesh and blood is not to be punished by
962 him. Show those things you found about her, those secret things, all
963 but what she has with her: this being done, let the law go whistle, I
964 warrant you.
965 SHEPHERD.
966 I will tell the king all, every word, yea, and his son’s pranks too;
967 who, I may say, is no honest man neither to his father nor to me, to go
968 about to make me the king’s brother-in-law.
969 CLOWN.
970 Indeed, brother-in-law was the farthest off you could have been to him,
971 and then your blood had been the dearer by I know how much an ounce.
972 AUTOLYCUS.
973 [_Aside._] Very wisely, puppies!
974 SHEPHERD.
975 Well, let us to the king: there is that in this fardel will make him
976 scratch his beard.
977 AUTOLYCUS.
978 [_Aside._] I know not what impediment this complaint may be to the
979 flight of my master.
980 CLOWN.
981 Pray heartily he be at’ palace.
982 AUTOLYCUS.
983 [_Aside._] Though I am not naturally honest, I am so sometimes by
984 chance. Let me pocket up my pedlar’s excrement. [_Takes off his false
985 beard._] How now, rustics! whither are you bound?
986 SHEPHERD.
987 To the palace, an it like your worship.
988 AUTOLYCUS.
989 Your affairs there, what, with whom, the condition of that fardel, the
990 place of your dwelling, your names, your ages, of what having,
991 breeding, and anything that is fitting to be known? discover!
992 CLOWN.
993 We are but plain fellows, sir.
994 AUTOLYCUS.
995 A lie; you are rough and hairy. Let me have no lying. It becomes none
996 but tradesmen, and they often give us soldiers the lie; but we pay them
997 for it with stamped coin, not stabbing steel; therefore they do not
998 give us the lie.
999 CLOWN.
1000 Your worship had like to have given us one, if you had not taken
1001 yourself with the manner.
1002 SHEPHERD.
1003 Are you a courtier, an ’t like you, sir?
1004 AUTOLYCUS.
1005 Whether it like me or no, I am a courtier. Seest thou not the air of
1006 the court in these enfoldings? hath not my gait in it the measure of
1007 the court? receives not thy nose court-odour from me? reflect I not on
1008 thy baseness court-contempt? Think’st thou, for that I insinuate, or
1009 toaze from thee thy business, I am therefore no courtier? I am courtier
1010 _cap-a-pe_, and one that will either push on or pluck back thy business
1011 there. Whereupon I command thee to open thy affair.
1012 SHEPHERD.
1013 My business, sir, is to the king.
1014 AUTOLYCUS.
1015 What advocate hast thou to him?
1016 SHEPHERD.
1017 I know not, an ’t like you.
1018 CLOWN.
1019 Advocate’s the court-word for a pheasant. Say you have none.
1020 SHEPHERD.
1021 None, sir; I have no pheasant, cock nor hen.
1022 AUTOLYCUS.
1023 How bless’d are we that are not simple men!
1024 Yet nature might have made me as these are,
1025 Therefore I will not disdain.
1026 CLOWN.
1027 This cannot be but a great courtier.
1028 SHEPHERD.
1029 His garments are rich, but he wears them not handsomely.
1030 CLOWN.
1031 He seems to be the more noble in being fantastical: a great man, I’ll
1032 warrant; I know by the picking on’s teeth.
1033 AUTOLYCUS.
1034 The fardel there? What’s i’ th’ fardel? Wherefore that box?
1035 SHEPHERD.
1036 Sir, there lies such secrets in this fardel and box which none must
1037 know but the king; and which he shall know within this hour, if I may
1038 come to th’ speech of him.
1039 AUTOLYCUS.
1040 Age, thou hast lost thy labour.
1041 SHEPHERD.
1042 Why, sir?
1043 AUTOLYCUS.
1044 The king is not at the palace; he is gone aboard a new ship to purge
1045 melancholy and air himself: for, if thou beest capable of things
1046 serious, thou must know the king is full of grief.
1047 SHEPHERD.
1048 So ’tis said, sir; about his son, that should have married a shepherd’s
1049 daughter.
1050 AUTOLYCUS.
1051 If that shepherd be not in hand-fast, let him fly. The curses he shall
1052 have, the tortures he shall feel, will break the back of man, the heart
1053 of monster.
1054 CLOWN.
1055 Think you so, sir?
1056 AUTOLYCUS.
1057 Not he alone shall suffer what wit can make heavy and vengeance bitter;
1058 but those that are germane to him, though removed fifty times, shall
1059 all come under the hangman: which, though it be great pity, yet it is
1060 necessary. An old sheep-whistling rogue, a ram-tender, to offer to have
1061 his daughter come into grace! Some say he shall be stoned; but that
1062 death is too soft for him, say I. Draw our throne into a sheepcote! All
1063 deaths are too few, the sharpest too easy.
1064 CLOWN.
1065 Has the old man e’er a son, sir, do you hear, an ’t like you, sir?
1066 AUTOLYCUS.
1067 He has a son, who shall be flayed alive; then ’nointed over with honey,
1068 set on the head of a wasp’s nest; then stand till he be three quarters
1069 and a dram dead; then recovered again with aqua-vitæ or some other hot
1070 infusion; then, raw as he is, and in the hottest day prognostication
1071 proclaims, shall he be set against a brick wall, the sun looking with a
1072 southward eye upon him, where he is to behold him with flies blown to
1073 death. But what talk we of these traitorly rascals, whose miseries are
1074 to be smiled at, their offences being so capital? Tell me (for you seem
1075 to be honest plain men) what you have to the king. Being something
1076 gently considered, I’ll bring you where he is aboard, tender your
1077 persons to his presence, whisper him in your behalfs; and if it be in
1078 man besides the king to effect your suits, here is man shall do it.
1079 CLOWN.
1080 He seems to be of great authority: close with him, give him gold; and
1081 though authority be a stubborn bear, yet he is oft led by the nose with
1082 gold: show the inside of your purse to the outside of his hand, and no
1083 more ado. Remember: “ston’d” and “flayed alive”.
1084 SHEPHERD.
1085 An ’t please you, sir, to undertake the business for us, here is that
1086 gold I have. I’ll make it as much more, and leave this young man in
1087 pawn till I bring it you.
1088 AUTOLYCUS.
1089 After I have done what I promised?
1090 SHEPHERD.
1091 Ay, sir.
1092 AUTOLYCUS.
1093 Well, give me the moiety. Are you a party in this business?
1094 CLOWN.
1095 In some sort, sir: but though my case be a pitiful one, I hope I shall
1096 not be flayed out of it.
1097 AUTOLYCUS.
1098 O, that’s the case of the shepherd’s son. Hang him, he’ll be made an
1099 example.
1100 CLOWN.
1101 Comfort, good comfort! We must to the king and show our strange sights.
1102 He must know ’tis none of your daughter nor my sister; we are gone
1103 else. Sir, I will give you as much as this old man does when the
1104 business is performed, and remain, as he says, your pawn till it be
1105 brought you.
1106 AUTOLYCUS.
1107 I will trust you. Walk before toward the sea-side; go on the
1108 right-hand. I will but look upon the hedge, and follow you.
1109 CLOWN.
1110 We are blessed in this man, as I may say, even blessed.
1111 SHEPHERD.
1112 Let’s before, as he bids us. He was provided to do us good.
1113 [_Exeunt Shepherd and Clown._]
1114 AUTOLYCUS.
1115 If I had a mind to be honest, I see Fortune would not suffer me: she
1116 drops booties in my mouth. I am courted now with a double occasion:
1117 gold, and a means to do the prince my master good; which who knows how
1118 that may turn back to my advancement? I will bring these two moles,
1119 these blind ones, aboard him. If he think it fit to shore them again
1120 and that the complaint they have to the king concerns him nothing, let
1121 him call me rogue for being so far officious; for I am proof against
1122 that title and what shame else belongs to ’t. To him will I present
1123 them. There may be matter in it.
1124 [_Exit._]