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You know your father's temper: at this time
He will allow no speech,-which, I do guess,
You do not purpose to him;-and as hardly
Will he endure your sight as yet, I fear:
Then, till the fury of his highness settle,
Come not before him.

Flo. I not purpose it.

I think, Camillo.

Cum. Even he, my lord.

Per. How often have I told you, 'twould be How often said, my dignity would last [thus? But till 'twere known?

Flo. It cannot fail, but by

The violation of any faith; And then

Let nature crush the sides o'the earth together, And mar the seeds within!-Lift up thy looks:

From my succession wipe me, father! I
Am heir to my affection.

Cam. Be advis'd.

Flo. I am; and by my fancy: if my reason Will thereto be obedient, I have reason; If not, my senses, better pleas'd with madness, Do bid it welcome.

Cam. This is desperate, Sir.

Flo. So call it: but it does fulfil my vow;
I needs must think it honesty. Camillo,
Not for Bohemia, nor the pomp that may
Be thereat glean'd; for all the sun sees, or
The close earth wombs, or the profound seas
hide

In unknown fathoms, will I break my oath
To this my fair belov'd: Therefore, I pray you,
As you have e'er been my father's honour'd
friend,
[not
When he shall miss me, (as, in faith, I mean
To see him any more,) cast your good counsels
Upon his passion; Let myself and fortune,
Tug for the time to come. This you may know,
And so deliver,-I am put to sea
With her, whom here I cannot hold on shore;
And, most opportune to our need, I have
A vessel rides fast by, but not prepar'd
For this design. What course I mean to hold,
Shall nothing benefit your knowledge, nor
Concern me the reporting.
Cam. O, my lord,

I would your spirit were easier for advice,
Or stronger for your need.

Flo. Hark, Perdita.

I'll hear you by and by.

Cam. He's irremovable,

[Takes her aside. [To CAMILLO.

Resolv'd for flight: Now were I happy, if
His going I could frame to serve my turn;
Save him from danger, do him love and honour;
Purchase the sight again of dear Sicilia,
And that unhappy king, my master, whom
I so much thirst to see.

Flo. Now, good Camillo,

I am so fraught with curious business, that I leave out ceremony.

Cam. Sir, I think,

[Going.

You have heard of my poor services, i'the love That I have borne your father?

Flo. Very nobly

Have you deserv'd: it is my father's music, To speak your deeds; not little of his care To have them recompens'd as thought on. Cam. Well, my lord,

If you may please to think I love the king;

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And, through him, what is nearest to him, which is

Your gracious self; embrace but my direction, (If your more ponderous and settled project May suffer alteration,) on mine honour I'll point you where you shall have such receiving [may As shall become your highness; where you Enjoy your mistress; (from the whom, I see, There's no disjunction to be made, but by, As heavens forefend! your ruin :) marry her; And (with my best endeavours, in your absence,)

Your discontenting* father strive to qualify, And bring him up to liking.

Flo. How, Camillo,

May this, almost a miracle, be done?
That I may call thee something more than man,
And, after that, trust to thee.

Cam. Have you thought on
A place, whereto you'll go?
Flo. Not any yet:

But as the unthought-on accident is guilty
To what we wildly do; so we profess
Ourselves to be the slaves of chance, and flies
Of every wind that blows.

Cam. Then list to me: [purpose, This follows,-if you will not change your But undergo this flight;-Make for Sicilia; And there present yourself, and your fair princess,

(For so, I see, she must be,) 'fore Leontes; She shall be habited, as it becomes The partner of your bed. Methinks, I see Leontes, opening his free arms, and weeping His welcomes forth: asks thee, the son, forgiveness, [hands As 'twere i'the father's person: kisses the Of your fresh princess: o'er and o'er divides [one Twixt his unkindness and his kindness; the He chides to hell, and bids the other grow, Faster than thought, or time.

him

Flo. Worthy Camillo,
What colour for my visitation shall I
Hold up before him?

Cam. Sent by the king your father To greet him, and to give him comforts. Sir, The manner of your bearing towards him, with What you, as from your father, shall deliver, Things known betwixt us three, I'll write you down: [ting,t

The which shall point you forth at every sitWhat you must say; that he shall not perceive,

But that you have your father's bosom there, And speak his very heart.

Flo. I am bound to you: There is some sap in this.

Cam. A course more promising

Than a wild dedication of yourselves [certain,
To unpath'd waters, undream'd shores; most
To miseries enough: no hope to help you;
But, as you shake off one, to take another:
Nothing so certain as your anchors: who
Do their best office, if they can but stay you
Where you'll be loath to be: Besides, you
Prosperity's the very bond of love; [know,
Whose fresh complexion and whose heart to-
Affliction alters.
[gether

Per. One of these is true:

I think, affliction may subdue the cheek,
But not take ing the mind.

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I'the rear of birth.

Cam. I cannot say, 'tis pity

Aut. I am a poor fellow, Sir.

Cam. Why, be so still; here's nobody will steal that from thee: Yet, for the outside of thy poverty, we must make an exchange: 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,

She lacks instructions; for she seems a mistress there's some boot.*

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Aut. Ha, ha! what a fool honesty is! and trust, his sworn brother, a very simple gentleman! I have sold all my trumpery; not a counterfeit stone, not a riband, glass, pomander,* brooch, table-book, ballad, knife, tape, glove, shoe-tye, bracelet, horn-ring, to keep my pack from fasting: they throng who should buy first; as if my trinkets had been hallowed, and brought a benediction to the buyer: by which means, I saw whose purse was best in picture; and, what I saw, to my good use, I remembered. My clown (who wants but something to be a reasonable man,) grew so in love with the wenches' song, that he would not stir his pettitoes, till he had both tune and words; which so drew the rest of the herd to me, that all their other senses stuck in ears: you might have pinched a placket, it was senseless; 'twas nothing, to geld a codpiece of a purse; I would have filed keys off, that hung in chains: no hearing, no feeling, but my Sir's song, and admiring the nothing of it. So that, in this time of lethargy, I picked and cut most of their festival purses: and had not the old man come in with a whoobub against his daughter and the king's son, and scared my choughst from the chaff, I had not left a purse alive in the whole army.

[CAMILLO, FLORIZEL, and PERDITA, come forward.

Cum. Nay, but my letters by this means being there

So soon as you arrive, shall clear that doubt.
Flo. And those that you'll procure from king
Leontes,-

Cam. Shall satisfy your father.
Per. Happy be you!

All, that you speak, shows fair. Cam. Who have we here?

[Seeing AUTOLYCUS. We'll make an instrument of this; omit Nothing, may give us aid.

Aut. If they have overheard me now,-why hanging. [Aside. Cum. How now, good fellow? Why shakest thou so? Fear not, man; here's no harm intended to thee.

Aut. I am a poor fellow, Sir:-I know ye well enough. [Aside. Cam. Nay, pr'ythee, despatch: the gentleman is half flayedt already.

Aut. Are you in earnest, Sir?—I smell the trick of it. [Aside.

-

Flo. Despatch, I pr'ythee. Aut. Indeed, I have had earnest ; but I cannot with conscience take it.

Cam. Unbuckle, unbuckle.

[FLO, and AUTOL, exchange garments. Fortunate mistress,-let my prophecy Come home to you!-you must retire yourself Into some covert: take your sweetheart's hat, And pluck it o'er your brows; muflle your face; Dismantle you: and as you can, disliken The truth of your own seeming; that you may, (For I do fear eyes over you,) to shipboard Get undescried.

Per. I see, the play so lies, That I must bear a part.

Cam. No remedy.Have you done there?

Flo. Should I now meet my father, He would not call me son.

[friend. -Farewell, my

Cam. Nay, you shall have
No hat:- Come, lady, come.-
Aut. Adieu, Sir.
Flo. O Perdita, what have we twain forgot?
Pray you, a word. [They converse apart.
Cam. What I do next, shall be, to tell the
king
[Aside.
Of this escape, and whither they are bound;
Wherein, my hope is, I shall so prevail,
To force him after: in whose company
I shall review Sicilia; for whose sight
I have a woman's longing.

Flo. Fortune speed us!-
Thus we set on, Camillo, to the sea-side.
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: Every lane's end, every shop, church, session, hanging, yields a careful man work.

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

A little ball made of perfumes, and worn to prevent blood. infection in times of plague. + Birds.

◆ Something over and above.

+ Stripped.

Shep. Nay, tut hear me. Clo. Nay, but hear me. Shep. Go to then.

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 sacred 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 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 com plaint 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 pedlar'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 titting to be known, discover.

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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.

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. 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 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 Clo. We are but plain fellows, Sir. of a wasp's nest; then stand, till he be three Aut. A lie; you are rough and hairy: Let quarters and a dram dead: then recovered me have no lying; it becomes none but trades- again with aqua-vitæ, or some other hot infumen, and they often give us soldiers the lie: but sion: then, raw as he is, and in the hottest day we pay them for it with stamped coin, not stab-prognostication proclaims,+ shall he be set bing steel; therefore they do not give us the lie.

Clo. Your worship had like to have given us one, if you had not 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. See'st 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 tozen from thee thy business, I am therefore no courtier? I am courtier, capa-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

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against a brick-wall, the sun looking with a southward eye upon him; where he is to behold him, with thes blown to death. But what talk we of these traitorly rascals, whose miseries are to be smiled at, their offences being so capital? Tell me, (for you seem to be honest plain men,) what you have to the king: being something gently considered,‡ I'll bring you where he is aboard, tender your persons to his 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. 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? Shep. Ay, Sir.

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

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300

WINTER'S TALE.

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 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. see, Aut. If I had a mind to be honest, 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 oflicious; for I am proof against that title, and what shame else belongs to't: To him will I present them, there may be mat[Exit.

:

ter in it.

ACT V.

To bless the bed of majesty again
With a sweet fellow to't?

Paul. There is none wortny,
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 shall,
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
[To LEONTES.
issue;
The crown will find an heir: Great Alexan-
der

Left his to the worthiest; so his successor
Was like to be the best.

for

[now,

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
I might have look'd upon my queen's full eyes;
Have taken treasure from her lips,-
Paul. And left them
More rich, for what they yielded.
Leon. Thou speak'st truth.

[worse,

No more such wives; therefore, no wife: one SCENE I-Sicilia.-A Room in the Palace of And better us'd, would make her sainted spirit

LEONTES.

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

Cleo. Sir, you have done enough, and have

perform'd

down

A saint-like sorrow: no fault could you make, Which you have not redeem'd; indeed, paid [last, More penitence, than done trespass: At the 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
Bred his hopes out of.

Paul. True, too true, my lord:

[man

If, one by one, you wedded all the world,
Or, from the all that are, took something good,
To make a perfect woman; she, you kill'd,
Would be unparallel'd.

Leon. I think so. Kill'd!

She I kill'd? I did so: but thou strik'st me
Sorely, to say I did; it is as bitter
Upon my tongue, as in my thought: Now, good
Say so but seldom.

Cleo. Not at all, good lady:

now,

You might have spoken a thousand things that

would

Have done the time more benefit, and grac'd
Your kindness better.

Paul. You are one of those,
Would have him wed again.

Dion. If you would not so,

You pity not the state, nor the remembrance
Of his most sovereign dame; consider little,
What dangers, by his Highness' fail of issue,
May drop upon his kingdom, and devour
Incertain lookers-on. What were more holy,
Than to rejoice, the former queen is well?*
What holier, than,-for royalty's repair,
For present comfort and for future good,-

At rest, dead.

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Paul. Will you swear
Never to marry, but by my free leave?
Leon. Never, Paulina; so be bless'd my
spirit!

Paul. Then, good my lords, bear witness to
his oath,

Cleo. You tempt him over-much.

Paul. Unless another,

As like Hermione as is her picture,
Affront; his eye.

Cleo. Good madam,

Paul. I have done.

Yet, if my lord will marry,-if you will, Sir,
No remedy, but you will; give me the office
To choose you a queen: but she shall not be

so young

As was your former; but she shall be such,
As, walk'd your first queen's ghost, it should
To see her in your arms.
[take joy

Leon. My true Paulina,

We shall not marry, till thou bidd'st us.
Paul. That

Shall be, when your first queen's again in
[breath;
Never till then.

Enter a GENTLEMAN.

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Paul. O Hermione,

[I think,

As every present time doth boast itself
Above a better, gone; so must thy grave
Give way to what's seen now. Sir, you your-
self

Have said, and writ so, (but your writing now
Is colder than that theme,*) She had not been,
Nor was not to be equall'd-thus your verse
Flow'd with her beauty once; 'tis shrewdly
To say, you have seen a better. [ebb'd,

Gent. Pardon, madam :

The one I have almost forgot; (your pardon,)
The other, when she has obtain'd your eye,
Will have your tongue too. This is such a
creature,

Would she begin a sect, might quench the zeal
Of all professors else: make proselytes
Of who she but bid follow.

Paul. How? not women?

Gent. Women will love her, that she is a

woman

More worth than any man; men, that she is The rarest of all women.

Leon. Go, Cleomenes;

Yourself, assisted with your honour'd friends, Bring them to our embracement.-Still 'tis strange,

[Exeunt CLEOMENES, LORDS, and GENTLEMEN. He thus should steal upon us.

Paul. Had our prince, [pair'd (Jewel of children,) seen this hour, he had Well with this lord; there was not full a month Between their births.

Leon. Pythee, no more; thou know'st, He dies to me again, when talk'd of: sure, 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;
For she did print your royal father off,
Conceiving you: Were I but twenty-one,
Your father's image is so hit in you,
His very air, that I should call you brother,
As I did him; and speak of something, wildly
By us perform'd before. Most dearly welcome!
And you fair princess, goddess!-Ó, alas!
I lost a couple, that 'twixt heaven and earth
Might thus have stood, begetting wonder, as
You, gracious couple, do! and then I lost
(All mine own folly,) the society,
Amity too, of your brave father; whom,
Though bearing misery, I desire my life'
Once more to look upon.

Flo. By his command

Have I here touch'd Sicilia: and from him Give you all greetings, that a king, a friend, Can send his brother: and, but infirmity

I. e. Than the corse of Hermione, the subject of your writing

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whose daughter

[thence His tears proclaim'd his, parting with her: (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;
Who for Bohemia bend, to signify
Not only my success in Libya, Sir,
But my arrival, and my wife's, in safety
Here, where we are.

Leon. The blessed gods

Purge all infection from our air, whilst you
Do climate here! You have a holy father,
A graceful* gentleman; against whose person,
So sacred as it is, I have done sin:

For which the heavens, taking angry note, Have left me issueless; and your father's bless'd,

(As he from heaven merits it,) with you, Worthy his goodness. What might I have been, Might I a son and daughter now have look'd Such goodly things as you?

Enter a LORD.

Lord. Most noble Sir,

[on,

That, which I shall report, will bear no credit,
Were not the proof so nigh. Please you, great
Sir,

Bohemia greets you from himself, by me:
Desires you to attacht his son; who has
Fled from his father, from his hopes, and with
(His dignity and duty both cast off,)
A shepherd's daughter.

[hin.

Leon. Where's Bohemia? speak. Lord. Here in the city; I now came from I speak amazedly; and it becomes My marvel, and my message. To your court Whiles he was hast'ning, (in the chase, it seems, Of this fair couple,) meets he on the way The father of this seeming lady, and Her brother, having both their country quitted With this young prince.

Flo. Camillo has betray'd me;

Whose honour, and whose honesty, till now, Endur'd all weathers.

Lord. Lay't so, to his charge; He's with the king your father. Leon. Who? Camillo?

Lord. Camillo, Sir; I spake with him; who

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