Per. Forewarn him, that he use no scurrilous words in his tunes.

Clo. You have of these pedlers, that have more in 'em than you'd think, sister. Per. Ay, good brother, or go about to think.

Enter AUTOLYCUS, singing.
Lawn, as white as driven snow;
Cyprus, 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:
Golden quoifs, 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;
Buy lads, or else your lasses cry:
Come, buy, &c.

Clo. If I were not in love with Mopsa, thou should'st take no money of me; but being enthrall'd as I am, it will also be the bondage of certain ribands and gloves.

Mop. I was promised them against the feast; but they come not too late now.

Dor. He hath promised you more than that, or there be liars.

Mop. He hath paid you all he promised you; may be, he has paid you more; which will shame you to give him again.

Clo. Is there no manners left among maids? will they wear their plackets, where they should bear their faces? Is there not milking-time, when you are going to bed, or kiln-hole, to whistle off these secrets; but you must be tittle-tattling before all our guests? 'Tis well they are whispering: Clamour your tongues, and not a word more.

Mop. I have done. Come, you promised me a tawdry lace, and a pair of sweet gloves.

Clo. Have I not told thee, how I was cozened by the way, and lost all my money?

Aut. And, indeed, sir, there are cozeners abroad; therefore it behoves men to be wary. Clo. Fear not thou, man, thou shalt lose nothing here.

Aut. I hope so, sir; for I have about me many parcels of charge.

Clo. What hast here? ballads? Mop. Pray now, buy some: I love a ballad in print, a'-life; for then we are sure they are true.

Aut. Here's one to a very doleful tune, How a usurer's wife was brought to bed of twenty money-bags at a burden; and how she longed to eat adders' heads, and toads carbonadoed. Mop. Is it true, think you?

Aut. Very true; and but a month old.
Dor. Bless me from marrying a usurer!
Aut. Here's the midwife's name to't, one mis-

tress Taleporter; and five or six honest wives' that were present: Why should I carry lies abroad?

Mop. 'Pray you now, buy it.

Clo. Come on, lay it by: And let's first see more ballads; we'll buy the other things anon.

Aut. Here's another ballad, Of a fish that appeared upon the coast, on Wednesday the fourscore of April, forty thousand fathom above water, and 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.

Dor. Is it true too, think you?

Aut. Five justices' hands at it; and witnesses, more than my pack will hold.

Clo. Lay it by too: Another.

Aut. This is a merry ballad; but a very pretty

one.

Mop. Let's have some merry ones.

Aut. 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 in request, I can tell you.

Mop. We can both sing it; if thou'lt bear a part, thou shalt hear; 'tis in three parts.

Dor. We had the tune on't a month ago. Aut. I can bear my part; you must know, 'tis my occupation: have at it with you.

SONG.

A. Get you hence, for I must go ;
Where, it fits not you to know.

D. Whither? M. O, whither? D. Whither?
M. It becomes thy oath full well,
Thou to me thy secrets tell:

D. Me too, let me go thither.

M. Or thou go'st to the grange, or mill:
D. If to either, thou dost ill.

A. Neither. D. What, neither? A. Neither.
D. Thou hast sworn my love to be;
M. Thou hast sworn it more to me:

Then, whither go'st? say, whither?

Serv. Master, there is three carters, three shepherds, three neat-herds, three swine-herds, that have made themselves all men of hair ;.they call themselves saltiers: 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'the mind, (if it be not too rough for some, that know little but bowling,) it will please plentifully.

Shep. Away! we'll none on't; here has been too much humble foolery already :-I know, sir, we weary you.

Pol. You weary those that refresh us: Pray, let's see these four threes of herdsmen.

Serv. 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 the squire.

Shep. Leave your prating; since these good men are pleased, let them come in ; but quickly

now.

Serv. Why, they stay at door, sir. [Exit. Re-enter Servant, with twelve Rustics habited like Satyrs. They dance, and then exeunt. Pol. O, father, you'll know more of that hereafter.

Is it not too far gone?-'Tis time to part them.He's simple, and tells much. [Aside.]-How now, fair shepherd?

Your heart is full of something, that does take 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

ransack'd

The pedler's silken treasury, and have pour'd it
To her acceptance; you have let him go,
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.

Flo. Old sir, I know

She prizes not such trifles as these are:
The gifts, she looks from me, are pack'd and

lock'd

Up in my heart; which I have given already
But not deliver'd.-O, hear me breathe my life
Before this ancient sir, who, it should seem,
Hath sometime lov'd: I take thy hand; this
hand,

As soft as dove's down, and as white as it ;
Or Ethiopian's tooth, or the fann'd snow,
That's bolted by the northern blasts twice o'er.

Pol. What follows this?

How prettily the young swain seems to wash The hand, was fair before!-I have put you

out:

But, to your protestation; let me hear
What you profess.

Flo. Do, and be witness to't.
Pol. And this my neighbour too?
Flo. And he, and more

Than he, and men ; the earth, the heavens, and all:

That,-were I crown'd the most imperial monarch,

Thereof most worthy; were I the fairest youth That ever made eye swerve; had force, and knowledge,

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.
Pol. Fairly offer'd.

Cam. This shows a sound affection.
Shep. But my daughter,
Say you the like to him?

Per. I cannot speak

So well, nothing so well; no, nor mean better: By the pattern of mine own thoughts I cut out The purity of his.

Shep. Take hands, a bargain ;And, friends unknown, you shall bear witness

to't:

I give my daughter to him, and will make Her portion equal his.

Flo. O, that must be

I'the 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, Contract us 'fore these witnesses.

Shep. Come, your hand ;And, daughter, yours.

Pol. Soft, swain, awhile, 'beseech you;
Have you a father?

Flo. I have: But what of him?
Pol. Knows he of this?

Flo. He neither does, nor shall.

Pol. Methinks, a father

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 altering rheums? Can he speak?

hear?

Flo. Very nobly

Have you deserv'd: it is my father's music,
To speak your deeds: not little of his care
To have them recompens'd as thought on.
Cam. Well, my lord,

If you may please to think I love the king;
And, through him, what is nearest to him, which is
Your gracious self; embrace but my direction,
(If your more ponderous and settled project
May suffer alteration,) on mine honour
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 forefend! your ruin :) marry her;
And (with my best endeavours, in your absence,)
Your discontenting father strive to qualify,
And bring him up to liking.

Flo. How, Camillo,

May this, almost a miracle, be done?

Leontes, opening his free arms, and weeping His welcomes forth: asks thee, the son, forgiveness,

As 'twere i'the father's person: kisses the hands Of your fresh princess: o'er and o'er divides him 'Twixt his unkindness and his kindness; the one He chides to hell, and bids the other grow, Faster than thought, or time.

Flo. Worthy Camillo,

What colour for my visitation shall I
Hold up before him?

Cam. 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,
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.

Flo. I am bound to you: There is some sap in this.

Cam. A course more promising

Than a wild dedication of yourselves

To unpath'd waters, undream'd shores; most

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 you,
Where you'll be loath to be: Besides, you know,
Prosperity is the very bond of love;
Whose fresh complexion and whose heart together

Affliction alters.

Per. One of these is true:

I think, affliction may subdue the cheek, But not take in the mind.

Cam. Yea, say you so?

There shall not, at your father's house, these seven years,

Be born another such.

Flo. My good Camillo,

She is as forward of her breeding, as I'the rear of birth.

Cam. I cannot say, 'tis pity

And, after that, trust to thee.

Cam. Have you thought on

A place, whereto you'll go?

Flo. Not any yet;

But as the 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.

Cam. Then list to me:

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 becomes

The partner of your bed. Methinks, I see
VOL. I.

To most that teach.

Per. Your pardon, sir, for this;

I'll blush you thanks.

Flo. My prettiest Perdita.

But, O, the thorns we stand upon !-Camillo,-
Preserver of my father, now of me;

The medicin of our house!-how shall we do?
We are not furnish'd like Bohemia's son ;
Nor shall appear in Sicily—

Cam. 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,
That you may know you shall not want,-one
word.
They talk aside.

Z

Enter AUTOLYCUS.

Aut. 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 riband, glass, pomander, brooch, table-book, ballad, knife, tape, glove, shoe-tye, 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 bencdiction to the buyer; by which means, I saw whose purse was best in picture; and, 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, that all their other senses stuck in cars: you might have pinched a placket, it was senseless; 'twas nothing to geld a codpiece of a purse; I would have filed keys off, that hung in chains: no hearing, no feeling, but my sir's song, and admiring the nothing of it. So 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 whoobub 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, Florizel, and Perdita, come forward.

Cam. Nay, but my letters by this means being there

So soon as you arrive, shall clear that doubt.
Flo. And those, that you'll procure from king
Leontes,-

Cam. Shall satisfy your father.
Per. Happy be you!
All, that you speak, shows fair.

Cam. Who have we here? [Seeing Autolycus. We'll make an instrument of this; omit Nothing, may give us aid.

Aut. If they have overheard me now, why hanging. Aside. Cam. How now, good fellow? why shakest thou so? Fear not, man; here's no harm intended to thee.

Aut. I am a poor fellow, sir.

Cam. Why, be so still; here's nobody will steal that from thee: Yet, for the outside of thy poverty, we must make an exchange: therefore, discase thee instantly, (thou must think, there's 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.

Aut. I am a poor fellow, sir :-I know ye well enough. Aside. Cam. Nay, pr'ythee, despatch: the gentleman is half flayed already.

Aut. Are you in earnest, sir?—I smell the trick of it.Aside.

Flo. Despatch, I pr'ythee.

Aut. Indeed, I have had earnest ; but I cannot with conscience take it.

Cam. Unbuckle, unbuckle.

[Flo. and Autol. exchange garments.
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, disliken
The truth of your own seeming; that you may,
(For I do fear eyes over you,) to shipboard
Get undescried.

Per. I see, the play so lies,
That I must bear a part.
Cam. No remedy.-
Have you done there?

Flo. Should I now meet my father,
He would not call me son.
Cam. Nay, you shall have

No hat:-Come, lady, come.-Farewell, my

friend.

Aut. Adieu, sir.

Flo. O Perdita, what have we twain forgot?
Pray you, a word. [They converse apart.
Cam. What I do next, shall be, to tell the king
Aside.
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 review Sicilia; for whose sight
I have a woman's longing.

Flo. Fortune speed us!-
Thus we set on, Camillo, to the sea-side.
Cam. The swifter speed, the better.

[Exeunt Florizel, Perdita, and Camille. Aut. Ï ́understand the business, I hear it: To have an open ear, a quick eye, and a nimble hand, is necessary for a cut-purse; a good nose is requisite also, to smell out work for the 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 this year connive at us, and we may do 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 honesty 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 is 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;