WINTER'S TALE. A moiety of the throne, a great king's daughter, To your own conscience, sir, before Polixenes Leon. Her. More than mistress of, To you, and toward your friend; whose love had Even since it could speak, from an infant, freely, Leon. You knew of his departure, as you know You speak a language that I understand hot: Thy brat hath been cast out, like to itself, Her. The crown and comfort of my life, your favour, Starr'd most unluckily, is from my breast, (1) Is within the reach. (2) They who have done like you. (3) Ill-starred; born under an inauspicious planet. 289 The innocent milk in its most innocent mouth, This your request [Exeunt certain Officers. Re-enter Officers with Cleomenes and Dion. Offi. You here shall swear upon this sword of justice, Been both at Delphos; and from thence have This seal'd-up oracle, by the hand deliver'd blameless, Camillo a true subject, Leontes a jeal Lords. Now blessed be the great Apollo! Leon. Hast thou read truth? I have too much believ'd mine own suspicion :- [Exeunt Paulina and Ladies, with Her. New woo my queen; recall the good Camillo; My friend Polixenes; which had been done, Paul. Re-enter Paulina. Wo the while! 1 Lord. What fit is this, good lady? Not dropp'd down yet. Prevail not, go and see: if you can bring Leon. In storm perpetual, could not move the gods Paul. Should be past grief: Do not receive affliction Leon. [Exeunt. SCENE III-Bohemia. A desert country near the sea. Enter Antigonus, with the child; and a Mariner. Ant. Thou art perfect3 then, our ship hath touch'd upon The deserts of Bohemia? Mar. Ant. Their sacred wills be done!-Go, get Mar. Make your best haste; and go not Mar. Go thou away: I am glad at heart Ant. [Exit. Come, poor babe: I have heard (but not believ'd,) the spirits of the dead My cabin where I lay thrice bow'd before me; (3) Well-assured. Did this break from her: Good Antigonus, I pr'ythee, call't; for this ungentle business, That, for thy mother's fault, art thus expos'd have A lullaby too rough: I never saw the sky; betwixt the firmament and it, you cannot thrust a bodkin's point. Shep. Why, boy, how is it? Clo. I would, you did but see how it chafes, how it rages, how it takes up the shore! but that's not to the point: O, the most piteous cry of the poor souls! sometimes to see 'em, and not to see 'em : now the ship boring the moon with her main-mast; and anon swallowed with yest and froth, as you'd thrust a cork into a hogshead. And then for the land service,-To see how the bear tore out his shoulder-bone; how he cried to me for help, and said, his name was Antigonus, a nobleman:-But to make an end of the ship:-to see how the sea flap-dragoned it :-but, first, how the poor souls roared, and the sea mocked them;-and how the poor gentleman roar'd, and the bear mocked him, both roaring louder than the sea, or weather. Shep. 'Name of mercy, when was this, boy? Clo. Now, now; I have not winked since I saw these sights: the men are not yet cold under water, nor the bear half dined on the gentleman; he's at it now. Shep. Would I had been by, to have helped the old man! Clo. I would you had been by the ship-side, to have helped her; there your charity would have lacked footing. [Aside. Shep. Heavy matters! heavy matters! but look thee here, boy. Now bless thyself; thou met'st with things dying, I with things new born. Here's a sight for thee; look thee, a bearing-cloths for a squire's child! Look thee here; take up, take up, boy; open't. So, let's see; It was told me, should be rich by the fairies: this is some changeling 6-open't: What's within, boy? Clo. You're a made old man; if the sins of your youth are forgiven you, you're well to live. Gold! all gold! Shep. This is fairy gold, boy, and 'twill prove so. up with it, keep it close; home, home, the next? way. We are lucky, boy; and to be so still requires nothing but secrecy.-Let my sheep go:Come, good boy, the next way home. Clo. Go you the next way with your findings; I'll go see if the bear be gone from the gentleman, and how much he hath eaten : they are never curst, but when they are hungry: if there be any of him left, I'll bury it. Shep. I would, there were no age between ten and three-and-twenty; or that youth would sleep out the rest: for there is nothing in the between but getting wenches with child, wronging the ancientry, stealing, fighting.Hark you now! Would any but these boiled brains of nineteen, and two-and-twenty, hunt this weather? They have scared away two of my best sheep; which, I fear, the wolf will sooner find, than the master: if any where I have them, 'tis by the sea-side, browzing on ivy. Good luck, an't be thy will! what have we here? [Taking up the child.] Mercy on's, a barne; a very pretty barne! A boy, or a child,3 Ime to the sight of him. wonder? A pretty one; a very pretty one: Sure, some scape: though I am not bookish, yet I can read waiting-gentlewoman in the scape. This has been some stair-work, some trunk-work, some behind-door-work: they were warmer that got this, than the poor thing is here. I'll take it up for pity: yet I'll tarry till my son come; he hollaed but even now. Whoa, ho hoa! Enter Clown. Clo. Hilloa, loa! Shep. What, art so near? If thou'lt see a thing to talk on when thou art dead and rotten, come hither. What ailest thou, man? Clo. I have seen two such sights, by sea, and by land;--but I am not to say, it is a sea, for it is now (1) The writing afterward discovered with Perdita. Child. (3) Female infant. (4) Swallowed. (5) The mantle in which a child was carried to be baptized. Shep. That's a good deed: If thou may'st discern by that which is left of him, what he is, fetch Clo. Marry, will I; and you shall help to put him i'the ground. Shep. 'Tis a lucky day, boy; and we'll do good deeds on't. [Exeunt. Time. ACT IV. Enter Time, as Chorus. I,—that please some, try all; both joy, Of good and bad; that make, and unfold error,→→→ (6) Some child left behind by the fairies, in the room of one which they had stolen. (7) Nearest. (8) Mischievous. Of that wide gap; since it is in my power And what to her adheres, which follows after, Cam. It is fifteen years, since I saw my country: though I have, for the most part, been aired abroad, with some care; so far, that I have eyes under my service, which look upon his removedness: from whom I have this intelligence; That he is seldom from the house of a most homely shepherd; a man, they say, that from very nothing, and beyond the imagination of his neighbours, is grown into an unspeakable estate. Cam. I have heard, sir, of such a man, who hath a daughter of most rare note: the report of her is extended more, than can be thought to begin from such a cottage. Pol. That's likewise part of my intelligence. But, I fear the angle that plucks our son thither. Thou shalt accompany us to the place: where we will, not appearing what we are, have some questions with the shepherd; from whose simplicity, I think it not uneasy to get the cause of my son's resort thither. Pr'y thee, be my present partner in this business, and lay aside the thoughts of Sicilia. Cam. I willingly obey your command. Pol. My best Camillo !-We must disguise our[Exeunt. SCENE II-The same. A road near the Shepherd's cottage. Enter Autolycus, singing. When daffodils begin to peer, selves. With, heigh! the doxy over the dale,- For the red blood reigns in the winter's pale. For a quart of ale is a dish for a king. I desire to lay my bones there. Besides, the peni-Are summer-songs for me and my aunts,11 With, hey! with, hey! the thrush and the jay : have served prince Florizel, and, in my time, wore But shall I go mourn for that, my dear? If tinkers may have leave to live, And bear the sow-skin budget; And in the stocks avouch it. Pol. As thou lovest me, Camillo, wipe not out the rest of thy services, by leaving me now: the need I have of thee, thine own goodness hath made; better not to have had thee, than thus to want thee thou, having made me businesses, which mone without thee can sufficiently manage, must either stay to execute them thyself, or take away with thee the very services thou hast done which if I have not enough considered (as too much I cannot,) to be more thankful to thee, shall be my My traffic is sheets; when the kite builds, look to study; and my profit therein, the heaping friend-lesser linen. My father named me, Autoly cus; ships. Of that fatal country, Sicilia, pry thee speak no more: whose very naming punishes me with the remembrance of that penitent, as thou call'st him. and reconciled king, my brother; whose loss of his most precious queen, and children, are even now to be afresh lamented. Say to me, when saw'st thou the prince Florizel my son? Kings are no less unhappy, their issue not being gracious, than they are in losing them, when they have approved their virtues. who, being, as I am, littered under Mercury, was likewise a snapper-up of unconsidered trifles: With die, and drab, I purchased this caparison; and my revenue is the silly cheat :13 Gallows, and knock, are too powerful on the highway: beating, and hanging, are terrors to me; for the life to come, I sleep out the thought of it.-A prize! a prize! Enter Clown. Clo. Let me see :-Every 'leven wether-tods ;14 Cam. Sir, it is three days, since I saw the prince every tod yields-pound and odd shilling fifteen What his happier affairs may be, are to me un-hundred shorn,-What comes the wool to? known; but I have, missingly, noted,' he is of late much retired from court: and is less frequent to his princely exercises, than formerly he hath appeared. Pol. I have considered so much, Camillo; and (1) i. e. Leave unexamined the progress of the intermediate time which filled up the gap in Perdita's story. (2) Imagine for me. (3) Subject. (4) Approve. Think too highly. (6) Friendly offices. Observed at intervals. (8) Talk. Aut. If the springe hold, the cock's mine. [Aside. (9) i. e. The spring blood reigns over the parts lately under the dominion of winter. (10) Thievish. (11) Doxies. (12) Rich velvet. (13) Picking pockets. (14) Every eleven sheep will produce a tod or twenty-eight pounds of wool. (15) Circular pieces of base metal, anciently used by the illiterate, to adjust their reckonings. see; what I am to buy for our sheep-shearing feast? | Three pound of sugar; five pound of currants; rice- -What will this sister of mine do with rice? But my father hath made her mistress of the feast, and she lays it on. She hath made me four-andtwenty nosegays for the shearers: three-man songmen! all, and very good ones; but they are most of them means2 and bases: but one Puritan amongst them, and he sings psalms to hornpipes. I must have saffron, to colour the warden3 pies; mace,dates,-none; that's out of my note: nutmegs, seven; a race, or two, of ginger; but that I may beg-four pound of prunes, and as many of raisins o'the sun. Aut. O, that ever I was born! [Grovelling on the ground. Clo. I'the name of me,Aut. O, help me, help me! pluck but off these rags; and then, death, death! Clo. Alack, poor soul! thou hast need of more rags to lay on thee, rather than have these off. Aut. O, sir, the loathsomeness of them offends me more than the stripes I have received; which are mighty ones and millions. Clo. Alas, poor man! a million of beating may come to a great matter. Aut. I am robbed, sir, and beaten; my money Aut. Very true, sir; he, sir, he; that's the rogue, that put me into this apparel. Clo. Not a more cowardly rogue in all Bohemia; if you had but looked big, and spit at him, he'd have run. Aut. I must confess to you, sir, I am no fighter: I am false of heart that way; and that he knew, I warrant him. Clo. How do you now? Aut. Sweet sir, much better than I was; I can stand, and walk: I will even take my leave of you, and pace softly towards my kinsman's. Clo. Shall I bring thee on the way? Aut. No, good-faced sir; no, sweet sir. Clo. Then fare thee well; I must go buy spices for our sheep-shearing. Aut. Prosper you, sweet sir!-[Exit Clown.] Your purse is not hot enough to purchase your spice. I'll be with you at your sheep-shearing too: If I make not this cheat bring out another, and the shearers prove sheep, let me be unrolled, and my name put in the book of virtue ! Jog on, jog on, the foot-path way, [Exit. and apparel ta'en from me, and these detestable SCENE III-The same. A shepherd's cottage. things put upon me. Clo. What, by a horse-man, or a foot-man? Aut. A foot-man, sweet sir, a foot-man. Enter Florizel and Perdita. Flo. These your unusual weeds to each part of you Clo. Indeed, he should be a foot-man, by the Do give a life: no shepherdess; but Flora, garments he has left with thee; if this be a horse-Peering in April's front. This your sheep-shearing man's coat, it hath seen very hot service. Lend me Is as a meeting of the petty gods, thy hand, I'll help thee: come, lend me thy hand. And you the queen on't. [Helping him up. Per. Sir, my gracious lord, To chide at your extremes,9 it not becomes me; O, pardon, that I name them: your high self, Aut. O! good sir, tenderly, oh! Clo. Alas, poor soul. Aut. O, good sir, softly, good sir: I fear, sir, The gracious mark 10 o'the land, you have obscur'd my shoulder-blade is out. Clo. How now? canst stand? Aut. Softly, dear sir; [Picks his pocket.] good sir, softly you ha' done me a charitable office. Clo. Dost lack any money? I have a little money for thee. Aut. No, good sweet sir; no, I beseech you, sir: I have a kinsman not past three-quarters of a mile hence, unto whom I was going; I shall there have money, or any thing I want: Offer me no money, I pray you; that kills my heart. Clo. What manner of fellow was he that robbed you? Aut. A fellow, sir, that I have known to go about with trol-my-dames 4 I knew him once a servant of the prince; I cannot tell, good sir, for which of his virtues it was, but he was certainly whipped out of the court. Clo. His vices, you would say; there's no virtue whipped out of the court: they cherish it, to make it stay there; and yet it will no more but abide. Aut. Vices I would say, sir. I know this man well: he hath been since an ape-bearer; then a process-server, a bailiff; then he compassed a motion of the prodigal son, and married a tinker's wife within a mile where my land and living lies; and, having down over many knavish professions, he settled only in rogue: some call him Autolycus. Clo. Out upon him! Prig, for my life, prig: he haunts wakes, fairs, and ber-baitings. (1) Singers of catches in three parts. Tenors. (3) A species of pears. With a swain's wearing; and me, poor lowly maid, Flo. Apprehend Nothing but jollity. The gods themselves, (5) Sojourn. (6) Puppet-show. (4) The machine used in the game of pigeon-(10) Object of all men's notice. holes. (7) Thief. (11) Dressed with ostentation. (12) i. e. Of station. |