Enter Florizell ⌜and⌝ Perdita.FLORIZELL These your unusual weeds to each part of you Does give a life—no shepherdess, but Flora Peering in April’s front. This your sheep-shearing Is as a meeting of the petty gods,5 And you the queen on ’t.PERDITA Sir, my gracious lord, To chide at your extremes it not becomes me; O, pardon that I name them! Your high self, The gracious mark o’ th’ land, you have obscured10 With a swain’s wearing, and me, poor lowly maid, Most goddesslike pranked up. But that our feasts In every mess have folly, and the feeders Digest ⌜it⌝ with a custom, I should blush To see you so attired, ⌜swoon,⌝ I think,15 To show myself a glass.FLORIZELL I bless the time When my good falcon made her flight across Thy father’s ground.PERDITA Now Jove afford you cause.20 To me the difference forges dread. Your greatness
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Hath not been used to fear. Even now I tremble To think your father by some accident Should pass this way as you did. O the Fates, How would he look to see his work, so noble,25 Vilely bound up? What would he say? Or how Should I, in these my borrowed flaunts, behold The sternness of his presence?FLORIZELL Apprehend Nothing but jollity. The gods themselves,30 Humbling their deities to love, have taken The shapes of beasts upon them. Jupiter Became a bull, and bellowed; the green Neptune A ram, and bleated; and the fire-robed god, Golden Apollo, a poor humble swain,35 As I seem now. Their transformations Were never for a piece of beauty rarer, Nor in a way so chaste, since my desires Run not before mine honor, nor my lusts Burn hotter than my faith.PERDITA 40 O, but sir, Your resolution cannot hold when ’tis Opposed, as it must be, by th’ power of the King. One of these two must be necessities, Which then will speak: that you must change this45 purpose Or I my life.FLORIZELL Thou dear’st Perdita, With these forced thoughts I prithee darken not The mirth o’ th’ feast. Or I’ll be thine, my fair,50 Or not my father’s. For I cannot be Mine own, nor anything to any, if I be not thine. To this I am most constant, Though destiny say no. Be merry, gentle. Strangle such thoughts as these with anything55 That you behold the while. Your guests are coming.
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Lift up your countenance as it were the day Of celebration of that nuptial which We two have sworn shall come.PERDITA O Lady Fortune,60 Stand you auspicious!FLORIZELL See, your guests approach. Address yourself to entertain them sprightly, And let’s be red with mirth.⌜Enter⌝ Shepherd, ⌜Shepherd’s Son,⌝ Mopsa, Dorcas,
⌜Shepherds and Shepherdesses,⌝ Servants, ⌜Musicians,
and⌝ Polixenes ⌜and⌝ Camillo ⌜in disguise.⌝SHEPHERD Fie, daughter, when my old wife lived, upon65 This day she was both pantler, butler, cook, Both dame and servant; welcomed all; served all; Would sing her song and dance her turn, now here At upper end o’ th’ table, now i’ th’ middle; On his shoulder, and his; her face afire70 With labor, and the thing she took to quench it She would to each one sip. You are retired As if you were a feasted one and not The hostess of the meeting. Pray you bid These unknown friends to ’s welcome, for it is75 A way to make us better friends, more known. Come, quench your blushes and present yourself That which you are, mistress o’ th’ feast. Come on, And bid us welcome to your sheep-shearing, As your good flock shall prosper.PERDITA, ⌜to Polixenes⌝ 80 Sir, welcome. It is my father’s will I should take on me The hostess-ship o’ th’ day. ⌜To Camillo.⌝ You’re welcome, sir.— Give me those flowers there, Dorcas.—Reverend85 sirs,
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For you there’s rosemary and rue. These keep Seeming and savor all the winter long. Grace and remembrance be to you both, And welcome to our shearing.POLIXENES 90 Shepherdess— A fair one are you—well you fit our ages With flowers of winter.PERDITA Sir, the year growing ancient, Not yet on summer’s death nor on the birth95 Of trembling winter, the fairest flowers o’ th’ season Are our carnations and streaked gillyvors, Which some call nature’s bastards. Of that kind Our rustic garden’s barren, and I care not To get slips of them.POLIXENES 100 Wherefore, gentle maiden, Do you neglect them?PERDITA For I have heard it said There is an art which in their piedness shares With great creating nature.POLIXENES 105 Say there be; Yet nature is made better by no mean But nature makes that mean. So, over that art Which you say adds to nature is an art That nature makes. You see, sweet maid, we marry110 A gentler scion to the wildest stock, And make conceive a bark of baser kind By bud of nobler race. This is an art Which does mend nature, change it rather, but The art itself is nature.PERDITA 115 So it is.POLIXENES Then make ⌜your⌝ garden rich in gillyvors, And do not call them bastards.PERDITA I’ll not put The dibble in earth to set one slip of them,
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120 No more than, were I painted, I would wish This youth should say ’twere well, and only therefore Desire to breed by me. Here’s flowers for you: Hot lavender, mints, savory, marjoram,125 The marigold, that goes to bed wi’ th’ sun And with him rises weeping. These are flowers Of middle summer, and I think they are given To men of middle age. You’re very welcome.CAMILLO I should leave grazing, were I of your flock,130 And only live by gazing.PERDITA Out, alas! You’d be so lean that blasts of January Would blow you through and through. (⌜To
Florizell.⌝) Now, my fair’st friend,135 I would I had some flowers o’ th’ spring, that might Become your time of day, (⌜to the Shepherdesses⌝) and yours, and yours, That wear upon your virgin branches yet Your maidenheads growing. O Proserpina,140 For the flowers now that, frighted, thou let’st fall From Dis’s wagon! Daffodils, That come before the swallow dares, and take The winds of March with beauty; violets dim, But sweeter than the lids of Juno’s eyes145 Or Cytherea’s breath; pale primroses, That die unmarried ere they can behold Bright Phoebus in his strength—a malady Most incident to maids; bold oxlips and The crown imperial; lilies of all kinds,150 The flower-de-luce being one—O, these I lack To make you garlands of, and my sweet friend, To strew him o’er and o’er.FLORIZELL What, like a corse?
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PERDITA No, like a bank for love to lie and play on,155 Not like a corse; or if, not to be buried, But quick and in mine arms. Come, take your flowers. Methinks I play as I have seen them do In Whitsun pastorals. Sure this robe of mine160 Does change my disposition.FLORIZELL What you do Still betters what is done. When you speak, sweet, I’d have you do it ever. When you sing, I’d have you buy and sell so, so give alms,165 Pray so; and for the ord’ring your affairs, To sing them too. When you do dance, I wish you A wave o’ th’ sea, that you might ever do Nothing but that, move still, still so, And own no other function. Each your doing,170 So singular in each particular, Crowns what you are doing in the present deeds, That all your acts are queens.PERDITA O Doricles, Your praises are too large. But that your youth175 And the true blood which peeps fairly through ’t Do plainly give you out an unstained shepherd, With wisdom I might fear, my Doricles, You wooed me the false way.FLORIZELL I think you have180 As little skill to fear as I have purpose To put you to ’t. But come, our dance, I pray. Your hand, my Perdita. So turtles pair That never mean to part.PERDITA I’ll swear for ’em.POLIXENES, ⌜to Camillo⌝ 185 This is the prettiest lowborn lass that ever Ran on the greensward. Nothing she does or seems But smacks of something greater than herself, Too noble for this place.
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CAMILLO He tells her something190 That makes her blood look ⌜out.⌝ Good sooth, she is The queen of curds and cream.SHEPHERD’S SON, ⌜to Musicians⌝ Come on, strike up.DORCAS Mopsa must be your mistress? Marry, garlic To mend her kissing with.MOPSA 195 Now, in good time!SHEPHERD’S SON Not a word, a word. We stand upon our manners.— Come, strike up. ⌜Music begins.⌝Here a Dance of Shepherds and Shepherdesses.POLIXENES Pray, good shepherd, what fair swain is this Which dances with your daughter?SHEPHERD 200 They call him Doricles, and boasts himself To have a worthy feeding. But I have it Upon his own report, and I believe it. He looks like sooth. He says he loves my daughter. I think so too, for never gazed the moon205 Upon the water as he’ll stand and read, As ’twere, my daughter’s eyes. And, to be plain, I think there is not half a kiss to choose Who loves another best.POLIXENES She dances featly.SHEPHERD 210 So she does anything, though I report it That should be silent. If young Doricles Do light upon her, she shall bring him that Which he not dreams of.Enter ⌜a⌝ Servant.SERVANT O, master, if you did but hear the peddler at215 the door, you would never dance again after a tabor and pipe; no, the bagpipe could not move you. He
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sings several tunes faster than you’ll tell money. He utters them as he had eaten ballads and all men’s ears grew to his tunes.SHEPHERD’S SON 220He could never come better. He shall come in. I love a ballad but even too well if it be doleful matter merrily set down, or a very pleasant thing indeed and sung lamentably.SERVANT He hath songs for man or woman, of all sizes.225 No milliner can so fit his customers with gloves. He has the prettiest love songs for maids, so without bawdry, which is strange, with such delicate burdens of dildos and fadings, “Jump her and thump her.” And where some stretch-mouthed rascal230 would, as it were, mean mischief and break a foul gap into the matter, he makes the maid to answer “Whoop, do me no harm, good man”; puts him off, slights him, with “Whoop, do me no harm, good man.”POLIXENES 235This is a brave fellow.SHEPHERD’S SON Believe me, thou talkest of an admirable conceited fellow. Has he any unbraided wares?SERVANT He hath ribbons of all the colors i’ th’ rainbow;240 points more than all the lawyers in Bohemia can learnedly handle, though they come to him by th’ gross; inkles, caddises, cambrics, lawns—why, he sings ’em over as they were gods or goddesses. You would think a smock were a she-angel, he so245 chants to the sleeve-hand and the work about the square on ’t.SHEPHERD’S SON Prithee bring him in, and let him approach singing.PERDITA Forewarn him that he use no scurrilous words250 in ’s tunes.⌜Servant exits.⌝SHEPHERD’S SON You have of these peddlers that have more in them than you’d think, sister.
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PERDITA Ay, good brother, or go about to think.Enter Autolycus, ⌜wearing a false beard,⌝ singing.⌜AUTOLYCUS⌝ Lawn as white as driven snow,
255 Cypress black as e’er was crow,
Gloves as sweet as damask roses,
Masks for faces and for noses,
Bugle bracelet, necklace amber,
Perfume for a lady’s chamber,
260 Golden coifs and stomachers
For my lads to give their dears,
Pins and poking-sticks of steel,
What maids lack from head to heel,
Come buy of me, come. Come buy, come buy.
265 Buy, lads, or else your lasses cry.
Come buy.SHEPHERD’S SON If I were not in love with Mopsa, thou shouldst take no money of me; but being enthralled as I am, it will also be the bondage of certain270 ribbons and gloves.MOPSA I was promised them against the feast, but they come not too late now.DORCAS He hath promised you more than that, or there be liars.MOPSA 275He hath paid you all he promised you. Maybe he has paid you more, which will shame you to give him again.SHEPHERD’S SON Is there no manners left among maids? Will they wear their plackets where they280 should bear their faces? Is there not milking time, when you are going to bed, or kiln-hole, to whistle of these secrets, but you must be tittle-tattling before all our guests? ’Tis well they are whisp’ring. Clamor your tongues, and not a word more.
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MOPSA 285I have done. Come, you promised me a tawdry lace and a pair of sweet gloves.SHEPHERD’S SON Have I not told thee how I was cozened by the way and lost all my money?AUTOLYCUS And indeed, sir, there are cozeners abroad;290 therefore it behooves men to be wary.SHEPHERD’S SON Fear not thou, man. Thou shalt lose nothing here.AUTOLYCUS I hope so, sir, for I have about me many parcels of charge.SHEPHERD’S SON 295What hast here? Ballads?MOPSA Pray now, buy some. I love a ballad in print alife, for then we are sure they are true.AUTOLYCUS Here’s one to a very doleful tune, how a usurer’s wife was brought to bed of twenty moneybags300 at a burden, and how she longed to eat adders’ heads and toads carbonadoed.MOPSA Is it true, think you?AUTOLYCUS Very true, and but a month old.DORCAS Bless me from marrying a usurer!AUTOLYCUS 305Here’s the midwife’s name to ’t, one Mistress Taleporter, and five or six honest wives that were present. Why should I carry lies abroad?MOPSA, ⌜to Shepherd’s Son⌝ Pray you now, buy it.SHEPHERD’S SON, ⌜to Autolycus⌝ Come on, lay it by, and310 let’s first see more ballads. We’ll buy the other things anon.AUTOLYCUS Here’s another ballad, of a fish that appeared upon the coast on Wednesday the fourscore of April, forty thousand fathom above water, and315 sung this ballad against the hard hearts of maids. It was thought she was a woman, and was turned into a cold fish for she would not exchange flesh with one that loved her. The ballad is very pitiful, and as true.DORCAS 320Is it true too, think you?
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AUTOLYCUS Five justices’ hands at it, and witnesses more than my pack will hold.SHEPHERD’S SON Lay it by too. Another.AUTOLYCUS This is a merry ballad, but a very pretty325 one.MOPSA Let’s have some merry ones.AUTOLYCUS Why, this is a passing merry one and goes to the tune of “
Two Maids Wooing a Man.”
There’s scarce a maid westward but she sings it. ’Tis in330 request, I can tell you.MOPSA We can both sing it. If thou ’lt bear a part, thou shalt hear; ’tis in three parts.DORCAS We had the tune on ’t a month ago.AUTOLYCUS I can bear my part. You must know ’tis my335 occupation. Have at it with you.
Song.
AUTOLYCUS Get you hence, for I must go
Where it fits not you to know.DORCAS Whither?MOPSA O, whither?DORCAS 340 Whither?MOPSA It becomes thy oath full well
Thou to me thy secrets tell.DORCAS Me too. Let me go thither.MOPSA Or thou goest to th’ grange or mill.DORCAS 345 If to either, thou dost ill.AUTOLYCUS Neither.DORCAS What, neither?AUTOLYCUS Neither.DORCAS Thou hast sworn my love to be.MOPSA 350 Thou hast sworn it more to me.
Then whither goest? Say whither.SHEPHERD’S SON We’ll have this song out anon by ourselves. My father and the gentlemen are in sad
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talk, and we’ll not trouble them. Come, bring away355 thy pack after me.—Wenches, I’ll buy for you both.—Peddler, let’s have the first choice.—Follow me, girls.⌜He exits with Mopsa, Dorcas, Shepherds and
Shepherdesses.⌝AUTOLYCUS And you shall pay well for ’em.
Song.
Will you buy any tape,
360 Or lace for your cape,
My dainty duck, my dear-a?
Any silk, any thread,
Any toys for your head,
Of the new’st and fin’st, fin’st wear-a?
365 Come to the peddler.
Money’s a meddler
That doth utter all men’s ware-a.He exits.⌜Enter a Servant.⌝SERVANT, ⌜to Shepherd⌝ Master, there is three carters, three shepherds, three neatherds, three swineherds,370 that have made themselves all men of hair. They call themselves saultiers, and they have a dance which the wenches say is a gallimaufry of gambols, because they are not in ’t, but they themselves are o’ th’ mind, if it be not too rough for375 some that know little but bowling, it will please plentifully.SHEPHERD Away! We’ll none on ’t. Here has been too much homely foolery already.—I know, sir, we weary you.POLIXENES 380You weary those that refresh us. Pray, let’s see these four threes of herdsmen.
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SERVANT One three of them, by their own report, sir, hath danced before the King, and not the worst of the three but jumps twelve foot and a half by th’385 square.SHEPHERD Leave your prating. Since these good men are pleased, let them come in—but quickly now.SERVANT Why, they stay at door, sir.⌜He admits the herdsmen.⌝Here a Dance of twelve ⌜herdsmen, dressed as⌝ Satyrs.⌜Herdsmen, Musicians, and Servants exit.⌝POLIXENES, ⌜to Shepherd⌝ O father, you’ll know more of that hereafter.390 ⌜Aside to Camillo.⌝ Is it not too far gone? ’Tis time to part them. He’s simple, and tells much. ⌜To Florizell.⌝ How now, fair shepherd? Your heart is full of something that does take395 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 ransacked The peddler’s silken treasury and have poured it To her acceptance. You have let him go400 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.FLORIZELL 405 Old sir, I know She prizes not such trifles as these are. The gifts she looks from me are packed and locked Up in my heart, which I have given already, But not delivered. ⌜To Perdita.⌝ O, hear me breathe410 my life Before this ancient sir, ⌜who,⌝ it should seem,
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Hath sometime loved. I take thy hand, this hand As soft as dove’s down and as white as it, Or Ethiopian’s tooth, or the fanned snow that’s415 bolted By th’ northern blasts twice o’er.POLIXENES What follows this?— How prettily th’ young swain seems to wash The hand was fair before.—I have put you out.420 But to your protestation. Let me hear What you profess.FLORIZELL Do, and be witness to ’t.POLIXENES And this my neighbor too?FLORIZELL And he, and more425 Than he, and men—the Earth, the heavens, and all— That were I crowned the most imperial monarch, Thereof most worthy, were I the fairest youth That ever made eye swerve, had force and knowledge430 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.POLIXENES Fairly offered.CAMILLO 435 This shows a sound affection.SHEPHERD But my daughter, Say you the like to him?PERDITA I cannot speak So well, nothing so well, no, nor mean better.440 By th’ pattern of mine own thoughts I cut out The purity of his.SHEPHERD Take hands, a bargain.— And, friends unknown, you shall bear witness to ’t: I give my daughter to him and will make445 Her portion equal his.
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FLORIZELL O, that must be I’ th’ virtue of your daughter. One being dead, I shall have more than you can dream of yet, Enough then for your wonder. But come on,450 Contract us fore these witnesses.SHEPHERD Come, your hand— And daughter, yours.POLIXENES, ⌜To Florizell⌝ Soft, swain, awhile, beseech you.455 Have you a father?FLORIZELL I have, but what of him?POLIXENES Knows he of this?FLORIZELL He neither does nor shall.POLIXENES Methinks a father460 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 alt’ring rheums? Can he speak? Hear?465 Know man from man? Dispute his own estate? Lies he not bedrid, and again does nothing But what he did being childish?FLORIZELL No, good sir. He has his health and ampler strength indeed470 Than most have of his age.POLIXENES 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 reason475 The father, all whose joy is nothing else But fair posterity, should hold some counsel In such a business.FLORIZELL I yield all this; But for some other reasons, my grave sir,
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480 Which ’tis not fit you know, I not acquaint My father of this business.POLIXENES Let him know ’t.FLORIZELL He shall not.POLIXENES Prithee let him.FLORIZELL 485 No, he must not.SHEPHERD Let him, my son. He shall not need to grieve At knowing of thy choice.FLORIZELL Come, come, he must not. Mark our contract.POLIXENES, ⌜removing his disguise⌝ 490 Mark your divorce, young sir, Whom son I dare not call. Thou art too base To be ⌜acknowledged.⌝ Thou a scepter’s heir That thus affects a sheep-hook!—Thou, old traitor,495 I am sorry that by hanging thee I can But shorten thy life one week.—And thou, fresh piece Of excellent witchcraft, whom of force must know The royal fool thou cop’st with—SHEPHERD 500 O, my heart!POLIXENES I’ll have thy beauty scratched with briers 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 never505 I mean thou shalt—we’ll bar thee from succession, Not hold thee of our blood, no, not our kin, ⌜Far’r⌝ than Deucalion off. Mark thou my words. Follow us to the court. ⌜To Shepherd.⌝ Thou, churl, for this time,510 Though full of our displeasure, yet we free thee From the dead blow of it.—And you, enchantment, Worthy enough a herdsman—yea, him too,
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That makes himself, but for our honor therein, Unworthy thee—if ever henceforth thou515 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.He exits.PERDITA Even here undone.520 I was not much afeard, for once or twice I was about to speak and tell him plainly The selfsame sun that shines upon his court Hides not his visage from our cottage but Looks on alike. ⌜To Florizell.⌝ Will ’t please you, sir,525 be gone? I told you what would come of this. Beseech you, Of your own state take care. This dream of mine— Being now awake, I’ll queen it no inch farther, But milk my ewes and weep.CAMILLO, ⌜to Shepherd⌝ 530 Why, how now, father? Speak ere thou diest.SHEPHERD I cannot speak, nor think, Nor dare to know that which I know. ⌜To Florizell.⌝ O sir,535 You have undone a man of fourscore three, That thought to fill his grave in quiet, yea, To die upon the bed my father died, To lie close by his honest bones; but now Some hangman must put on my shroud and lay me540 Where no priest shovels in dust. ⌜To Perdita.⌝ O cursèd wretch, That knew’st this was the Prince, and wouldst adventure To mingle faith with him!—Undone, undone!545 If I might die within this hour, I have lived To die when I desire.He exits.FLORIZELL, ⌜to Perdita⌝ Why look you so upon me? I am but sorry, not afeard; delayed,
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But nothing altered. What I was, I am,550 More straining on for plucking back, not following My leash unwillingly.CAMILLO Gracious my lord, You know ⌜your⌝ father’s temper. At this time He will allow no speech, which I do guess555 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.FLORIZELL I not purpose it.560 I think Camillo?CAMILLO, ⌜removing his disguise⌝ Even he, my lord.PERDITA, ⌜to Florizell⌝ How often have I told you ’twould be thus? How often said my dignity would last But till ’twere known?FLORIZELL 565 It cannot fail but by The violation of my faith; and then Let nature crush the sides o’ th’ Earth together And mar the seeds within. Lift up thy looks. From my succession wipe me, father. I570 Am heir to my affection.CAMILLO Be advised.FLORIZELL I am, and by my fancy. If my reason Will thereto be obedient, I have reason. If not, my senses, better pleased with madness,575 Do bid it welcome.CAMILLO This is desperate, sir.FLORIZELL So call it; but it does fulfill my vow. I needs must think it honesty. Camillo, Not for Bohemia nor the pomp that may580 Be thereat gleaned, for all the sun sees or The close earth wombs or the profound seas hides
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In unknown fathoms, will I break my oath To this my fair beloved. Therefore, I pray you, As you have ever been my father’s honored friend,585 When he shall miss me, as in faith I mean not To see him anymore, 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 sea590 With her who here I cannot hold on shore. And most opportune to ⌜our⌝ need I have A vessel rides fast by, but not prepared For this design. What course I mean to hold Shall nothing benefit your knowledge, nor595 Concern me the reporting.CAMILLO O my lord, I would your spirit were easier for advice Or stronger for your need.FLORIZELL Hark, Perdita.—600 I’ll hear you by and by.⌜Florizell and Perdita walk aside.⌝CAMILLO He’s irremovable, Resolved for flight. Now were I happy if His going I could frame to serve my turn, Save him from danger, do him love and honor,605 Purchase the sight again of dear Sicilia And that unhappy king, my master, whom I so much thirst to see.FLORIZELL, ⌜coming forward⌝ Now, good Camillo, I am so fraught with curious business that610 I leave out ceremony.CAMILLO Sir, I think You have heard of my poor services i’ th’ love That I have borne your father?FLORIZELL Very nobly615 Have you deserved. It is my father’s music
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To speak your deeds, not little of his care To have them recompensed as thought on.CAMILLO Well, my lord,620 If you may please to think I love the King And, through him, what’s nearest to him, which is Your gracious self, embrace but my direction, If your more ponderous and settled project May suffer alteration. On mine honor,625 I’ll point you where you shall have such receiving As shall become your Highness, where you may Enjoy your mistress—from the whom I see There’s no disjunction to be made but by, As heavens forfend, your ruin—marry her,630 And with my best endeavors in your absence, Your discontenting father strive to qualify And bring him up to liking.FLORIZELL How, Camillo, May this, almost a miracle, be done,635 That I may call thee something more than man, And after that trust to thee?CAMILLO Have you thought on A place whereto you’ll go?FLORIZELL Not any yet.640 But as th’ 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.CAMILLO Then list to me.645 This follows: if you will not change your purpose 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 becomes650 The partner of your bed. Methinks I see
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Leontes opening his free arms and weeping His welcomes forth, asks thee, ⌜the⌝ son, forgiveness, As ’twere i’ th’ father’s person; kisses the hands Of your fresh princess; o’er and o’er divides him655 ’Twixt his unkindness and his kindness. Th’ one He chides to hell and bids the other grow Faster than thought or time.FLORIZELL Worthy Camillo, What color for my visitation shall I660 Hold up before him?CAMILLO 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,665 Things known betwixt us three, I’ll write you down, The which shall point you forth at every sitting What you must say, that he shall not perceive But that you have your father’s bosom there And speak his very heart.FLORIZELL 670 I am bound to you. There is some sap in this.CAMILLO A course more promising Than a wild dedication of yourselves To unpathed waters, undreamed shores, most675 certain 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 you680 Where you’ll be loath to be. Besides, you know Prosperity’s the very bond of love, Whose fresh complexion and whose heart together Affliction alters.PERDITA One of these is true.685 I think affliction may subdue the cheek But not take in the mind.
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CAMILLO Yea, say you so? There shall not at your father’s house these seven years690 Be born another such.FLORIZELL My good Camillo, She’s as forward of her breeding as she is I’ th’ rear our birth.CAMILLO I cannot say ’tis pity695 She lacks instructions, for she seems a mistress To most that teach.PERDITA Your pardon, sir. For this I’ll blush you thanks.FLORIZELL My prettiest Perdita.700 But O, the thorns we stand upon!—Camillo, Preserver of my father, now of me, The medicine of our house, how shall we do? We are not furnished like Bohemia’s son, Nor shall appear in Sicilia.CAMILLO 705 My lord, Fear none of this. I think you know my fortunes Do all lie there. It shall be so my care To have you royally appointed as if The scene you play were mine. For instance, sir,710 That you may know you shall not want, one word.⌜They step aside and talk.⌝Enter Autolycus.AUTOLYCUS 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 ribbon, glass, pomander, brooch, table book, ballad,715 knife, tape, glove, shoe tie, 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
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720 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 that725 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 ⌜could⌝ have ⌜filed⌝ keys off that hung in chains. No hearing, no feeling, but my sir’s song and admiring the nothing of it. So730 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 hubbub against his daughter and the King’s son, and scared my choughs from the chaff, I had not left a purse alive in the whole army.⌜Camillo, Florizell, and Perdita come forward.⌝CAMILLO, ⌜to Florizell⌝ 735 Nay, but my letters, by this means being there So soon as you arrive, shall clear that doubt.FLORIZELL And those that you’ll procure from King Leontes—CAMILLO Shall satisfy your father.PERDITA Happy be you!740 All that you speak shows fair.CAMILLO, ⌜noticing Autolycus⌝ Who have we here? We’ll make an instrument of this, omit Nothing may give us aid.AUTOLYCUS, ⌜aside⌝ If they have overheard me now, why, hanging.CAMILLO 745How now, good fellow? Why shak’st thou so? Fear not, man. Here’s no harm intended to thee.AUTOLYCUS I am a poor fellow, sir.CAMILLO Why, be so still. Here’s nobody will steal that from thee. Yet for the outside of thy poverty we
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750 must make an exchange. Therefore discase thee instantly—thou must think there’s a necessity in ’t—and change garments with this gentleman. Though the pennyworth on his side be the worst, yet hold thee, there’s some boot.⌜He hands Autolycus money.⌝AUTOLYCUS 755I am a poor fellow, sir. ⌜Aside.⌝ I know you well enough.CAMILLO Nay, prithee, dispatch. The gentleman is half flayed already.AUTOLYCUS Are you in earnest, sir? ⌜Aside.⌝ I smell the760 trick on ’t.FLORIZELL Dispatch, I prithee.AUTOLYCUS Indeed, I have had earnest, but I cannot with conscience take it.CAMILLO Unbuckle, unbuckle.⌜Florizell and Autolycus exchange garments.⌝765 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, muffle your face, Dismantle you, and, as you can, disliken770 The truth of your own seeming, that you may— For I do fear eyes over—to shipboard Get undescried.PERDITA I see the play so lies That I must bear a part.CAMILLO 775 No remedy.— Have you done there?FLORIZELL Should I now meet my father, He would not call me son.CAMILLO Nay, you shall have no hat.⌜He gives Florizell’s hat to Perdita.⌝780 Come, lady, come.—Farewell, my friend.AUTOLYCUS Adieu, sir.
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FLORIZELL O Perdita, what have we twain forgot? Pray you, a word.⌜They talk aside.⌝CAMILLO, ⌜aside⌝ What I do next shall be to tell the King785 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 re-view Sicilia, for whose sight I have a woman’s longing.FLORIZELL 790 Fortune speed us!— Thus we set on, Camillo, to th’ seaside.CAMILLO The swifter speed the better.⌜Camillo, Florizell, and Perdita⌝ exit.AUTOLYCUS I understand the business; I hear it. To have an open ear, a quick eye, and a nimble hand is795 necessary for a cutpurse; a good nose is requisite also, to smell out work for th’ 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 this800 year connive at us, and we may do anything 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 a piece of honesty to acquaint the King withal, I would not do ’t. I hold it805 the more knavery to conceal it, and therein am I constant to my profession.Enter ⌜Shepherd’s Son⌝ and Shepherd, ⌜carrying the
bundle and the box.⌝ Aside, aside! Here is more matter for a hot brain. Every lane’s end, every shop, church, session, hanging, yields a careful man work.⌜He moves aside.⌝
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SHEPHERD’S SON, ⌜to Shepherd⌝ 810See, see, what a man you are now! There is no other way but to tell the King she’s a changeling and none of your flesh and blood.SHEPHERD Nay, but hear me.SHEPHERD’S SON 815Nay, but hear me!SHEPHERD Go to, then.SHEPHERD’S SON 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 be820 punished by him. Show those things you found about her, those secret things, all but what she has with her. This being done, let the law go whistle, I warrant you.SHEPHERD I will tell the King all, every word, yea, and825 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.SHEPHERD’S SON Indeed, brother-in-law was the farthest off you could have been to him, and then your830 blood had been the dearer by I know how much an ounce.AUTOLYCUS, ⌜aside⌝ Very wisely, puppies.SHEPHERD Well, let us to the King. There is that in this fardel will make him scratch his beard.AUTOLYCUS, ⌜aside⌝ 835I know not what impediment this complaint may be to the flight of my master.SHEPHERD’S SON Pray heartily he be at’ palace.AUTOLYCUS, ⌜aside⌝ Though I am not naturally honest, I am so sometimes by chance. Let me pocket up my840 peddler’s excrement. (⌜He removes his false beard.⌝) How now, rustics, whither are you bound?SHEPHERD To th’ palace, an it like your Worship.AUTOLYCUS Your affairs there? What, with whom, the condition of that fardel, the place of your dwelling,
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845 your names, your ages, of what having, breeding, and anything that is fitting to be known, discover!SHEPHERD’S SON We are but plain fellows, sir.AUTOLYCUS A lie; you are rough and hairy. Let me have no lying. It becomes none but tradesmen, and they850 often give us soldiers the lie, but we pay them for it with stamped coin, not stabbing steel; therefore they do not give us the lie.SHEPHERD’S SON Your Worship had like to have given us one, if you had not taken yourself with the855 manner.SHEPHERD Are you a courtier, an ’t like you, sir?AUTOLYCUS Whether it like me or no, I am a courtier. Seest thou not the air of the court in these enfoldings? Hath not my gait in it the measure of the860 court? Receives not thy nose court odor from me? Reflect I not on thy baseness court contempt? Think’st thou, for that I insinuate ⌜and⌝ toze from thee thy business, I am therefore no courtier? I am courtier cap-a-pie; and one that will either push on865 or pluck back thy business there. Whereupon I command thee to open thy affair.SHEPHERD My business, sir, is to the King.AUTOLYCUS What advocate hast thou to him?SHEPHERD I know not, an ’t like you.SHEPHERD’S SON, ⌜aside to Shepherd⌝ 870Advocate’s the court word for a pheasant. Say you have none.SHEPHERD, ⌜to Autolycus⌝ None, sir. I have no pheasant, cock nor hen.AUTOLYCUS How blest are we that are not simple men!875 Yet Nature might have made me as these are. Therefore I will not disdain.SHEPHERD’S SON, ⌜to Shepherd⌝ This cannot be but a great courtier.
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SHEPHERD His garments are rich, but he wears them880 not handsomely.SHEPHERD’S SON He seems to be the more noble in being fantastical. A great man, I’ll warrant. I know by the picking on ’s teeth.AUTOLYCUS The fardel there. What’s i’ th’ fardel?885 Wherefore that box?SHEPHERD 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 th’ speech of him.AUTOLYCUS 890Age, thou hast lost thy labor.SHEPHERD Why, sir?AUTOLYCUS The King is not at the palace. He is gone aboard a new ship to purge melancholy and air himself, for, if thou beest capable of things serious,895 thou must know the King is full of grief.SHEPHERD So ’tis said, sir—about his son, that should have married a shepherd’s daughter.AUTOLYCUS If that shepherd be not in handfast, let him fly. The curses he shall have, the tortures he shall900 feel, will break the back of man, the heart of monster.SHEPHERD’S SON Think you so, sir?AUTOLYCUS Not he alone shall suffer what wit can make heavy and vengeance bitter; but those that are905 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, but910 that death is too soft for him, say I. Draw our throne into a sheepcote? All deaths are too few, the sharpest too easy.SHEPHERD’S SON Has the old man e’er a son, sir, do you hear, an ’t like you, sir?
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AUTOLYCUS 915He has a son, who shall be flayed alive; then ’nointed over with honey, set on the head of a wasps’-nest; then stand till he be three-quarters and a dram dead, then recovered again with aqua vitae or some other hot infusion; then, raw as he is, and920 in the hottest day prognostication proclaims, shall he be set against a brick wall, the sun looking with a southward eye upon him, where he is to behold him with flies blown to death. But what talk we of these traitorly rascals, whose miseries are to be smiled at,925 their offenses 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 be930 in man besides the King to effect your suits, here is man shall do it.SHEPHERD’S SON, ⌜to Shepherd⌝ He seems to be of great authority. Close with him, give him gold; and though authority be a stubborn bear, yet he is oft935 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.”SHEPHERD, ⌜to Autolycus⌝ An ’t please you, sir, to undertake the business for us, here is that gold I940 have. I’ll make it as much more, and leave this young man in pawn till I bring it you.AUTOLYCUS After I have done what I promised?SHEPHERD Ay, sir.AUTOLYCUS Well, give me the moiety. ⌜Shepherd hands
him money.⌝ 945Are you a party in this business?SHEPHERD’S SON In some sort, sir; but though my case be a pitiful one, I hope I shall not be flayed out of it.AUTOLYCUS O, that’s the case of the shepherd’s son! Hang him, he’ll be made an example.SHEPHERD’S SON, ⌜to Shepherd⌝ 950Comfort, good comfort.
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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 is955 performed, and remain, as he says, your pawn till it be brought you.AUTOLYCUS I will trust you. Walk before toward the seaside. Go on the right hand. I will but look upon the hedge, and follow you.SHEPHERD’S SON, ⌜to Shepherd⌝ 960We are blessed in this man, as I may say, even blessed.SHEPHERD Let’s before, as he bids us. He was provided to do us good.⌜Shepherd and his son exit.⌝AUTOLYCUS If I had a mind to be honest, I see Fortune965 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, these970 blind ones, aboard him. If he think it fit to shore them again and that the complaint they have to the King concerns him nothing, let him call me rogue for being so far officious, for I am proof against that title and what shame else belongs to ’t. To him will I975 present them. There may be matter in it.⌜He exits.⌝
The Winter’s Tale
