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is less frequent to his princely exercises than formerly he hath appeared.

Pol. I have considered so much, Camillo, and 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 question with the shepherd; from whose simplicity I think it not uneasy to get the cause of my son's resort thither. Prithee, 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 ourselves.

[Exeunt.

SCENE II.-The same. A Road near the Shepherd's

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• The winter's pale. Farmer explains this," the red, the spring blood, now reigns o'er the parts lately under the dominion of winter." Daffodils, as Perdita tells us, come before the swallow dares." The spring which Autolycus describes is the early spring, when winter still holds a partial reign, and the pale-boundarywhich divides it from spring is not yet broken up.

b Pugging. This appears a flash word which the commentators cannot explain. A puggard is a thief.

On. The original has an. It is not clear to us that the article, and not the preposition, is not the proper form of this idiom.

The lark that tirra-lirra chants,

With heigh! with hey!a the thrush and the jay:

Are summer songs for me and my aunts,

While we lie tumbling in the hay.

I have served prince Florizel, and, in my time, wore threepile; but now I am out of service:

But shall I go mourn for that, my dear?

The pale moon shines by night:
And when I wander here and there,

I then do most go right.

If tinkers may have leave to live,
And bear the sow-skin bowget;

Then my account I well may give,

And in the stocks avouch it.

My traffic is sheets; when the kite builds, look to lesser linen. My father named me Autolycus; 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: 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;' every tod yields-pound and odd shilling: fifteen hundred shorn,— What comes the wool to?

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

[Aside.

"Three pound

-What will this

Clo. I cannot do 't without counters.-Let me see; what am I to buy for our sheep-shearing feast? of sugar; five pound of currants; rice "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-and-twenty nosegays for the shearers: three-man songmen all, and very good ones; but they are most of them means and bases: but one Puritan amongst them, and he sings psalms to hornpipes. I must have saffron, to colour

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a The second folio introduces “with hey!" The first has only "with heigh!” b Three-pile-rich velvet.

Autolycus has his eye upon the "white sheets." The kites may take the smaller linen for their nests.

а

the warden pies; a 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 and apparel ta'en from me, and these detestable things put upon me. Clo. What, by a horse-man, or a foot-man?

Aut. A foot-man, sweet sir, a foot-man?

Clo. Indeed, he should be a foot-man, by the garments he hath left with thee; if this be a horse-man's coat, it hath hot service. Lend me thy hand, I'll help thee: come, lend me thy hand.

seen very

Aut. O good sir, tenderly, oh!

Clo. Alas, poor soul!

[Helping him.

Aut. O, good sir, softly, good sir: I fear, sir, my shoulderblade is out.

Clo. How now? canst stand?

Aut. Softly, dear sir; [picks his pocket] good sir, softly; ha' done me a charitable office.

you

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 anything 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 a Warden pies. Warden was the name of a pear.

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trol-my-dames: 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.a

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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 flown 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 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 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

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,
And merrily hent b the stile-a:
A merry heart goes all the day,
Your sad tires in a mile-a.

a Abide-sojourn.

b Hent-take hold of.

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[Exit.

SCENE III.-The same. A Shepherd's Cottage.

Enter FLORIZEL and PERDITA.

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

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

And you the queen on 't.

Per.

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' the land, you have obscur'd
With a swain's wearing; and me, poor lowly maid,
Most goddess-like prank'd 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 attir'd; sworn, I think,
To show myself a glass.

Flo.

I bless the time,

When my good falcon made her flight across

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 some accident,
Should pass this way, as you did: O, the fates!
How would he look, to see his work, so noble,
Vilely bound up? What would he say? Or how
Should I, in these my borrow'd flaunts, behold
The sternness of his presence?

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Nothing but jollity. The gods themselves,
Humbling their deities to love, have taken
The shapes of beasts 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 swain,

a Prank'd up-dressed splendidly-decorated.

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