The white sheet bleaching on the hedge,
With bey the faveet birds, O bow they fing !
Doth fet my progging tooth on edge,

For a quart of ale is a difh for a King.
The lark that tirra lyra chaunts,

With bey, with bey the thrush and the jay:
Are fummer fongs for me and my aunts,

While we lye tumbling in the bay.

I have ferved Prince Florizel, and in my time wore threepile, but now I am out of service,

But fball I go mourn for that, my dear?
The pale moon fhines by night:
And when I wander here and there,
I then do go moft right.

If tinkers may have leave to live,
And bear the fow skin budget,
Then my account I well may give,
And in the ftocks avouch it.

My traffic is sheets; when the kite builds, look to leffer linnen. My father nam'd me Autolicus, who being, as I am, litter'd under Mercury, was likewife a fnapper-up of unconfider'd trifles: with die and drab I purchas'd this ca parison, and my revenue is the fly cheat. Gallows and knocks are too powerful on the high-way, beating and hanging are terrors to me: for the life to come, I fleep out the thought of it. A prize! a prize!

Enter Clown.

Clo. Let me fee, every eleventh weather tods, every tod yields a pound and one odd fhilling; fifteen hundred fhorn, what comes the wooll to?

Aut. If the fprindge hold, the cock's mine.

[Afide.

Clo. I cannot do't without compters. Let me fee, what am I to buy for our fheep-fhearing feaft? three pound of fugar, five pound of currants, rice-what will this fifter of mine do with rice? but my father hath made her miftrefs of the feaft, and fhe lays it on. She hath made me four and twenty nose-gays for the fhearers; † three-man fong • Meaning the poor ragged cloaths he had on.

+ Meaning those who fing Catches which are generally in three parts,

men all, and very good ones, but they are most of them means and bafes; but one puritan among them, and he fings pfalms to horn-pipes. I must have faffron to colour the warden-pies, mace-dates-none-that's out of my, note: nutmegs, feven; a race or two of ginger, but that I may beg; four pound of prunes, and as many raifins o'th' fun. Aut. Oh, that ever I was born! [Groveling on the ground. Clo. I' th' name of me

Aut. Oh, help me, help me! pluck but off these rags, and then death, death

Clo. Alack, poor foul, thou haft need of more rags to lay on thee, rather than have thefe off.

Aut. Oh, Sir, the loathfomness of them offends me, more than the ftripes I have receiv'd, which are mighty ones, and millions.

Clo. Alas, poor man! a million of beating may come to a great matter.

Aut. I am robb'd, Sir, and beaten; my mony and appa rel ta'en from me, and these deteftable things put upon me. Clo. What, by a horse-man, or a foot-man ?

Aut. A foot-man, fweet Sir, a foot-man.

Clo. Indeed, he fhould be a foot-man, by the garments he has left with thee; if this be a horfe-man's coat, it hath feen very hot fervice. Lend me thy hand, I'll help thee. Come, lend me thy hand. [Helping him up.

Aut. Oh! good Sir, tenderly, oh!

Clo. Alas, poor foul !

Aut. Oh good Sir, foftly, good Sir: I fear, Sir, my fhoulder-blade is out.

Clo. How now? canft ftand?

Aut. Softly, dear Sir; good Sir, foftly; you ha' done me a charitable office.

Clo. Doft lack any mony? I have a little mony for thee. Aut. No, good fweet Sir: no, I beseech you, Sir; I have a kinfman not paft three quarters of a mile hence, unto whom I was going; I fhall there have mony, or any thing I want; offer me no mony, I pray you; that kills my heart.

Clo. What manner of fellow was he that robb'd you? Ant. A fellow, Sir, that I have known to go about with troll-madams: I knew him once a fervant of the Prince; I

cannot

cannot tell, good Sir, for which of his virtues it he was certainly whipp'd out of the Court.

Clo. His vices, you would fay; there's no virtue whipp'd out of the Court; they cherish it to make it stay there, and yet it will no more but abide.

Aut. Vices I would fay, Sir. I know this man well, he hath been fince an ape-bearer, then a procefs-ferver, a bailiff; then he compaft a motion of the prodigal fon, and married a tinker's wife within a mile where my land and living lyes; and having flown over many knavish profeffions, he fettled only in rogue; fome call him Autolicus. Clo. Out upon him, prig! for my life, prig! he haunts wakes, fairs, and bear-baitings.

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 Bithynia; if you had but look'd big, and spit at him, he'd have run.

Aut. I must confefs to you, Sir, I am no fighter; I am falfe of heart that way, and that he knew, I warrant him. Clo. How do you do now?

Aut. Sweet Sir, much better than I was; I can ftand, and walk; I will even take my leave of you, and pace foftly towards my kinsman's.

Clo. Shall I bring thee on thy way?

Aut. No, good-fac'd Sir; no, fweet Sir.

Clo. Then farewel, I must go to buy fpices for our fheep-fhearing.

1

[Exit.

Aut. Profper you, fweet Sir! Your purfe is not hot enough to purchase your spice. I'll be with you at your fheep-fhearing too: if I make not this cheat bring out another, and the fhearers prove fheep, let me be unroll'd, † and my name put into the book of virtue.

SONG.

Fog on, jog on, the foot-path way,

And merrily bend the file-a.

A merry beart goes all the day,

Your fad tires in a mile-a.

[Exit

A Motion is a Word for a Puppet-fhew.

Alluding to the focieties into which the notorious-cheats

and gipfies inroll themselves.

SCENE.

SCENE IV. The old Shepherd's Houfe.
Enter Florizel and Perdita.

Flo. These your unusual weeds to each part of you Do give a life: no fhepherdefs, but Flora

Peering in April's front. This your sheep-fhearing
Is as a meeting of the petty Gods,

And you the Queen on't.

Per. Sir, my gracious Lord,

To chide at your extreams it not becomes me :
Oh pardon, that I name them: your high self,
The gracious mark o'th' land, you have obscur'd
With a fwain's wearing; and me, poor lowly maid,
Moft Goddess-like prank'd up. But that our feafts
In every mess have folly, and the feeders
Digeft it with a custom; I fhould blush
To fee you so attired, fwoon, I think,
To fhew my felf a glass.

Flo. I blefs the time

When my good falcon made her flight a-cross
Thy father's ground.

Per. Now Jove afford you cause!

To me the difference forges dread, your greatness]
Hath not been us'd to fear; even now I tremble
To think your father, by fome accident,

Should pass this way, as you did: oh the fates
How would he look to fee his work, fo noble,
Vilely bound up! what would he fay! or how
Should I in these my borrow'd flaunts behold
The sternness of his presence!

Flo. Apprehend

Nothing but jollity: the Gods themselves
Humbling their deities to love, have taken
The fhapes of beafts upon them. Jupiter
Became a bull, and bellow'd; the green Neptune
A ram, and bleated; and the fire-rob'd God,
Golden Apollo, a poor humble fwain,

As I feem now.

Their transformations

Were never for a piece of beauty rarer,
Nor in a way so chafte; fince my defires
Run not before mine honour, nor my lufts

Burn

52

Burn hotter than my faith.

Per. O but, dear Sir,

Your refolution cannot hold, when 'tis

Oppos'd, as it must be, by th' power o'th' King.
One of thefe two neceffities must be,

Which then will speak, that you must change this purpose,
Or I my life.

Flo. Thou dearest Perdita,

With thefe forc'd thoughts I pr'ythee darken not
The mirth o' th' feaft; or I'll be thine, my fair,
Or not my father's. For I cannot be
Mine own, nor any thing to any, if

I be not thine. To this I am most constant,
Tho' destiny say no. Be merry, gentleft!
Strangle fuch thoughts as these with any thing
That you behold the while. Your guefts are coming :
Lift up your countenance, as 'twere the day

Of celebration of that nuptial, which

We two have fworn fhall come."

Enter Shepherd, Clown, Mopfa, Dorcas, Servants; with Polixenes and Camillo difguis'd.

Flo. See, your guests approach;

Addrefs your felf to entertain them sprightly,
And let's be red with mirth.

Shep. Fie, daughter; when my old wife liv'd, upon This day fhe was both pantler, butler, cook,

Both dame and fervant; welcom'd all, ferv'd all ;
Would fing her fong, and dance her turn; now here
At upper end o' th' table, now i'th' middle;
On his fhoulder, and his; her face o' fire
With labour; and the things fhe took to quench it
She would to each one fip. You are retired,
As if you were a feafted one, and not
The hoftefs of the meeting: pray you bid
These unknown friends to's welcome, for it is
A way to make us better friends, more known.
Come, quench your blushes, and prefent your felf

That