+

may do

a good nose is requisite also, to smell out work for th’other fenfes,
I fee, 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

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 honefty 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's 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 blood.

Shep. Nay, but 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 fo your flesh and blood is
not to be punish'd by him. Show those things you found about
her, those secret things, all but what fhe 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 farthest off could
have been to him; and then your blood had been the dearer by
I know not how much an ounce.
Aut. Very wisely, puppies

[afide.
Shep. Well; let us to the king: there is that in this farthel
will make him scratch his beard.

Aut. I know not what impediment this complaint may be to the flight of my master.

you

: Clo.

1

Clo. 'Pray heartily, he be at the palace.

Aut. Though I am not naturally honest, I am so sometimes by chance: let me pocket up my pedler's excrement*. How now, rustiques, whither are you bound?

Shep. To th' palace, an it like your worship.

Aut. Your affairs there? what'? with whom the condition of that farthel, the place of your dwelling, your names, your age, of what having, breeding, and any thing that is fitting for to be known, discover.

Clo. We are but plain fellows, fir.

Aut. A lie; you are rough and hairy: let me have no lying; it becomes none but tradesmen, and they often give us foldiers the lie: but we pay them for it with stamped coin, not stabbing steel; therefore they do give us the lie. Clo. Your worship had like to have given us one, if you

had not taken yourself with the manour.

Shep. Are you a courtier, an't like you, sir?

Aut. Whether it like me, or no, I am a courtier. Seeft 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 toze from thee thy business, I am therefore no courtier? I am courtier cap-a-pe; and one that will either push on, or push back thy business there, whereupon I command thee to open thy affair.

Shep. My business, fir, 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

en!

Shep. None, fir; 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 will not disdain.
Clo. This cannot but be a great courtier.
• Meaning his falfe beard.

D d d d 2

Shep.

Shep. His garments are rich, but he wears them not handsomly.

Clo. He seems to be the more noble in being fantastical: a great man, I'll warrant; I know by the picking on's teeth.

Aut. The farthel there; what's i'th' farthel ? Wherefore that box?

Shep. Sir, there lies such secrets in this farthel 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.

Aut. Age, thou hast loft thy labour,
Shep. Why, fir?

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, fir, about his son that should have married a shepherd's daughter.

Aut. If that Îhepherd be not in hand-fast, let him Ay; the curses he shall have, the tortures he shall feel, will break the back of man, the heart of monster.

Clo. Think you so, fir?

Aut. Not he alone shall suffer what wit can make heavy, and vengeance bitter; but those that are german to him, though remov’d fifty times, shall all come under the hangmán; 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 ston'd; but that death is too soft for him, say I: draw our throne into a sheepcot ! all deaths are too few, the sharpest too easy.

Clo. Has the old man e’er a son, fir, do you hear, an't like

Aut. He has a son, who shall be ftay'd alive, then ’nointed over with honey, set on the head of a wasp’s nest, then stand till he be three quarters and a dram dead, then recover'd again with aqua-vitæ, or some other hot infusion; then, raw as he is, (and 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 Aies blown to death. But

you, sir?

1

what

what talk we of these traitorly rascals, whose miseries are to be smil'd 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 consider’d, I'll bring you where he is aboard, tender your persons to his presence, whisper him in your behalf; and if it be in man, besides the king, to effect your suits, here is a 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, ston'd and flay'd 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.

Áut. After I have done what I promised ?
Shep. Ay, fir.

Aut. Well, give me the moiety. Are you a party in this business?

Clo. In some fort, sir, but though my case be a pitiful one, I hope, I shall not be flay'd 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 king, and show our strange fights; 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 perform’d; and remain, as he says, your pawn till it be brought you.

Aut. I will trust you: walk before toward the seaside; go on the right hand, I will but look upon the hedge, and follow you.

Clo. We are bless’d in this man, as I may say, even bless’d.

Shep. Let's before, as he bids us; he was provided to do us good.

[Exeunt Shepherd and Clown. Aut. If I had a mind to be honest, I see, 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

SIR

you make,

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 officious; for I am proof against that title, and what shame else belongs to't: to him will I present them, there may be matter in it. ***************************** ******* ACT V. SCENE I.

Sicilia.
Enter Leontes, Cleomines, Dion, Paulina, and Servants,

CLE OMIN E S.
IR, you have done enough, and have perform’d

A faintlike sorrow: no fault could
Which you have not redeem'd; indeed, pay'd down
More penitence, than done trespass: at the last,
Do as the heavens have done, forget your evil ;
With them forgive yourself.

Leo. Whilft I remember
Her, and her virtues, I cannot forget
My blemishes in them, and so ftill 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 man
Bred his hopes out of.

Pau. True, too true, my lord :
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
Wou'd be unparallel’d.

Leo. I think so. Kill'd!
She I kill'd! I did so: but thou strik’ft me
Sorely, to say I did; it is as bitter
Upon thy tongue, as in my thought: now, good now,

Cleo. Say so but feldom.