But, 0, the thorns we stand upon ! Camillo,
Preserver of my father, now of me,
The medicine of our house, how shall we do ?
We ar^ not fnrnish'd like Bohemia's son,



384 THE WIM'KK S TALE. ACT IV

Nor shall appear 't 1 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 true.* For instance, sir.
That you may know you shall not want. one word.

[They talk apart
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-tie, bracelet, horn-ring, to keep my pack
from fasting : they thronged who should buy first ; as if
my trinkets had been hallowed, and brought a bene-
diction 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 some-
thing 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
ears : you might have pinched a placket, it was sense-
less : '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 whoo-bub* 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 '11 procure from king Leon-
tes?

Cam. Shall satisfy your falher.

Per. Happy be you !

All that you speak shows fair.

Cam. Whom have we here ? [Seeing AUTOLYCCS.

1 appear in Sicilia : in f. e. a mine : in f. e. 3 A ball of per
fume,. * Hubbub,



BC. in. THE WINTER'S TALE. 385

We '11 make an instrument of this : omit
Nothing may give us aid.

Aut . If they have overheard me now, why hanging.

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, disease thee instantly,
thou must think, there 's a necessity in 't) and change
garments with this gentleman. Though the penny-
worth on his side be the worst, yet hold thee, there 's
some boot. [ Giving money*

Aut. I am a poor fellow, sir. [Aside.] I know ye
well enough.

Cam. Nay, pr'ythee, dispatch : the gentleman is half
flayed already.

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

Flo. Dispatch, 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 ever 5 ) to ship-board
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.

[Gives it to PKRDITA.'
Come, lady, come. Farewell, my friend.

Aut. Adieu, sir.

Not in f. e. Old copies : over; ever, is the MS. emendation of
I ord F. Egerton's folio, 1623. ' Not in f. e.

VOL. in. 25



386 THE WINTER'S TALE. ACT iv

Flo. Perdita ! what have we twain forgot ?
Pray you, a word. [They talk apart

Cam. What I do next shall be to tell the king
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 CAMILLO.

Aut. I understand the business ; I hear it. To have
an open ear. a quick eye, and a nimble hand, is neces-
sary 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 ex-
change 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 a piece of honesty to acquaint the king
withal, I would not 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, chnrch, 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 Vood.

Shep. Nay, but hear me.

Clo. Nay, but hear me.

Shep. Go to, then.

Clo. She being none of your flesh and blood, yonr
flesh and blood has not offended the king ; and so yoar
flesh and blood is not to be punished by him. Show
those things you found about her : those secret things,
all but what she has with her. This being done, let
the law go whistle ; I warrant you.

Ship. I will tell the king all, every word, yea, and
his son's prauks too ; who, I may say, is no honest man,



80. nr. THE WINTER'S TALE. 387

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 furthest off you
could have been to him : and then your blood had been
the dearer, by I know how much an ounce.

Aut. [Aside.] Very wisely, puppies !

Shep. Well, let us to the king : there is that in this
fardel will make him scratch his beard.

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

Clo. Pray heartily he be at palace.

Aut. [Aside.] Though I am not naturally honest,
I am so sometimes by chance : let me pocket up my
pedler's excrement 1 . [Takes off his false beard] How
now, rustics ! whither are you bound ?

Shep. To the palace, an it like your worship.

Aut. Your affairs there? what? with whom? the
condition of that fardel, the place of your dwelling,
your names, your ages, of what having 8 , breeding, and
any thing that is fitting to be known? discover.

Clo. We are but plain fellows, sir.

Aut. A lie : you are rough and hairy. Let me have
no lying: it becomes none but tradesmen, and they
often give us soldiers the lie ; but we pay them for it
with stamped coin, not stabbing steel : therefore, they
do not give us the lie.

Clo. Your worship had like to have given us one, if
you had not taken yourself with the manner 3 .

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

Aut. Whether it like me, or no, I am a courtier.
Seest thou not the air of the court in these enfoldings ?
hath not my gait in it the measure of the court ? re-
ceives not thy nose court-odour from me ? reflect I not
on thy baseness court-contempt? Think' st thou, for
that I insinuate, or touze* from thee thy business. I am
therefore no courtier ? I am courtier, cap-a-pie ; and
one that will either push on, or pluck back thy business
there: whereupon, I command thee to open thy
affair.

Shep. My business, sir, is to the king.

Aut. What advocate hast thou to him ?

Shep. I know not, an 't like you.

Hair, nails, and feathers, were BO called. Estate In th
act. * Pull.



388 THE WINTER 8 TALE. ACT IV.

Clo. Advocate's the court- word for a pheasant ;
say, you have none.

Shep. None, sir : 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 '11 not disdain.

Clo. This cannot but be a great courtier.

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

Clo. He seems to be the more noble in being fan-
tastical : a great man, I '11 warrant ; I know, by the
picking on 's teeth.

Aut. The fardel there? what's i' the fardel? Where-
fore that box ?

Shep. Sir, there lie such secrets in this fardel, and
box, which none must know but the king ; and which
he shall know within this hour, if I may come to the
speech of him.

Aut. Age, thou hast lost thy labour.

Shep. Why, sir ?

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 't is said, sir ; about his son, that should
have married a shepherd's daughter.

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

Clo. Think you so, sir ?

Aut. Not he alone shall suffer what wit can make
heavy, and vengeance bitter, but those that are ger-
mane to him, though removed fifty times, shall all come
under the hangman : 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 stoned ; but that death
is too soft for him, say I. Draw our throne into a
sheep-cote ? all deaths are too few, the sharpest too easy.

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

1 A pi easant was a common present from countrymen to great
people.



THE WINTERS TALE.



389



Aut. He has a son, who shall be flayed alive, then,
'nointed over with honey, set on the head of a wasp'a
nest ; there stand, till he be three quarters and a dram
dead : then recovered again with aqua vitae, 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 flies
blown to death. But what talk we of these traitorly
rascals, whose miseries are to be smiled 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 considered, I '11 bring you where
he is aboard, tender your persons to his presence,
whisper him in your behalfs ; and, if it be in man,
besides the king, to effect your suits, here is man shall
do it.

Clo. He seems to be of great authority : close with
him, give him gold ; and though authority be a stub-
born 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, stoned, and
flayed alive !

Shcp. An 't please you, sir, to undertake the business
for us, here is that gold I have : I '11 make it as much
more, and leave this young man in pawn, till I bring
it you.

Aut. After I have done what I promised ?

Shep. Ay, sir.

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

Clo. In some sort, sir : but though my case be a
pitiful one, I hope I shall not be flayed out of it.

Aut. ! that 's the case of the shepherd's son .
hang him, he '11 be made an example.

Clo. Comfort, good comfort ! We must to the king,
and show our strange sights : he must know, 't is 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 performed ; and remain, as he says,
your pawn, till it be brought you.

Aut . I will trust you. Walk before toward the sea-
side : go on the right hand ; I will but look upon the
hed<;e, and follow you.



390 THE WINTER'S TALE. ACT v.

Clo. We are blessed in this man, as I may say;
even blessed.

Shep. Let 's before, as he bids us. He was provided
to do us good . {Exeunt Shepherd and Clown.

Aut. If i l,kd a mind to be honest, I se* fortune
\rould not suffer me : she drops booties in my mouth.
I am courted now with a double occasion goli, and a
means to do the prince my master good ; which, who
knows how that may turn luck 1 to 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 offi-
cious ; 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. [Exit.



ACT V.

SCENE I. Sicilia. A Room in the Palace of LKONTES.

Enter LEONTES, CLEOMENES, DION, PAULINA, and
Others.

Cleo. Sir, you have done enough, and have perform'd
A saint-like sorrow : no fault could you make.
Which you have not redeem'd ; indeed, paid down
More penitence than done trespass. At the last,
Do. as the heavens have done, forget your evil ;
With them, forgive yourself.

Leon. Whilst I remembei

Her, and her virtues, I cannot forget
My blemishes in them, and so still think of
The wrong I did myself: which was so much,
That hcirless it hath made my kingdom, and
Desfroy'd the sweet'st companion, that e'er man
Bred his hopes out of : true. 2

Paul. 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

1 back : in f. e. 2 Theobald, and most mod. eds. transfer this word
W the beginning of the next speech.



so. i. THE WINTER'S TALE. 391

Would be unparalleFd.

Leon. I think so. Kill'd :

She I kill'd ? I did so but thou strik'st me
Sorely, to say I did : it is as bitter
Upon thy tongue, as in my thought. Now, good now,
Say so but seldom.

Cleo. Not at all, good lady :

You might have spoken a thousand things that wou d
Have done the time more benefit, and grac'd
Your kindness better.

Paul. You are one of those,

Would have him wed again.

Dion. If you would not so,

You pity not the state, nor the remembrance
Of his most sovereign name 1 ; consider little
What dangers, by his highness' fail of issue,
May drop upon his kingdom, and devour
Incertain lookers-on. What were more holy,
Than to rejoice the former queen is well ?
What holier than, for royalty's repair,
For present comfort, and for future good,
To bless the bed of majesty again
With a sweet fellow to''t?

Paul. There is none worthy,

Respecting her that 's gone. Besides, the gods
Will have fulfil I'd their secret purposes ;
For has not the divine Apollo said,
Is 't not the tenour of his oracle,
That king Leontes shall not have an heir,
Till his lost child be found ? which, that it shall,
Is all as monstrous to our human reason,
As my Antigonus to break his grave,
And come again to me : who, on my life,
Did perish with the infant. 'T is your counsel,
My lord should to the heavens be contrary,
Oppose against their wills. Care not for issue ;
The crown will find an heir : Great Alexander
Left his to the worthiest, so his successor
Was like to be the best.

Leon. Good Paulina,

Who hast the memory of Hermione,
[ know, in honour, 0, that ever I
Had squar'd me to thy counsel ! then, even now,

1 So old copies : most mod. eds. read . .lame.



392 THE WINTER'S TALE. ACT v.

I might have look'd upon my queen's full eyes,
Hav,e take a treasure from her lips,

Paul. And left them

More rich, for what they yielded.

Leon. Thou speak'st truth

No more such wives ; therefore, no wife : one worse,
And better us'd, would make her sainted spirit
Again possess her corpse ; and, on this stage,
(Where we offenders now appear) soul-vex'd,
Begin, "And why to me?"

Paul. Had she such power,

She had just cause.

Leon. She had ; and would incense me

To murder her I married.

Paul. I should so :

Were I the ghost that walk'd. I 'd hid you mark
Her eye, and tell me for what dull part in 't
You chose her ? then I'd shriek, that even your ears
Should rift to hear me, and the words that follow'd
Should be. " Remember mine."

Leon. Stars, stars !

And all eyes else dead coals. Fear thou no wife :
I '11 have no wife. Paulina.

Paul. Will you swear

Never to marry, but by my free leave ?

Leon. Never, Paulina ; so be bless'd my spirit !

Paul. Then, good my lords, bear witness to his oath

Cleo. You tempt him over-much.

Paul. Unless another,

As like Hermione as is her picture,
Affront his eye.

Cleo. Good madam. I have done.

Paul Yet, if my lord will marry, if you will, sir
No remedy, but you will give me the office
To choose you a queen. She shall not be so young
A s was your former : but she shall be such
As. walk'd your first queen's ghost, it should take joy
To see her in your arms.

Leon. My true Paulina,

We shall not marry, till thou bidd'st us.

Paul. That

Shall be when your first queen 's again in breath :
Never till then



sc. i THE WINTER'S TALE. 393

Enter a Gentleman.

Gent. One that gives out himself prince Florizel,
Son of Polixenes, with his princess, (she
The fairest I have yet beheld,) desires access
To your high presence.

Leon. What ! with him ? he comes not

Like to his father's greatness : his approach,
So out of circumstance and sudden, tells us
'T is not a visitation fram'd, but forc'd
By need, and accident. What train ?

Gent. But few,

And those but mean.

Leon. His princess, say you, with him ?

Gent. Ay; the most peerless piece of earth, I think,
That e'er the sun shone bright on.

Paul. Hermione !

As every present time doth boast itself
Above a better, gone, so must thy grace 1
Give way to what 's seen now. Sir, you yourself
Have said and writ so, but your writing now
Is colder than that theme She had not been,
Nor was not to be equall'd ; thus your verse
Flow'd with her beauty once : 't is shrewdly ebb'd,
To say you have seen a better.

Gent. Pardon, madam

The one I have almost forgot, (your pardon)
The other, when she has obtain'd your eye,
Will have your tongue too. This is a creature,
Would she begin a sect, might quench the zeal
Of all professors else, make proselytes
Of whom she did but follow.

Paul. How ! not women ?

Gent. Women will love her, that she is a wornnn
More worth than any man : men, that she is
The rarest of all women.

Leon. Go, Cleomenes :

Yourself, assisted with your honour'd friends,
Bring them to our embracemeut. Still 't is strange.

[Exeunt CLEOMENES, Lords, and Gentleman
He should thus steal upon us.

Paul. Had our Prince

(Jewel of children) seen this hour, he had pair'd

1OW copies: prave ; grace, is the MS. emendation of Lord F
Egerton's foJio, KfcW.



394 THE WINTER'S TALE. ACT v.

Well with this lord : there was not full a month
Between their births.

Leon. Prythee, no more : cease ! thou know'sl,
He dies to me again, when talk'd of : sure,
When I shall see this gentleman, thy speeches
Will bring me to consider that, which may
Unfurnish me of leason. They are come.
Re-enter CLEOI.I&NES, with FLORIZEL, PERDITA. and

Others.

Your mother was most true to wedlock, prince,
For she did print your royal father off,
Conceiving you. Were I but twenty-one,
Your father's image is so hit in you.
His very air, that I should call you brother.
As I did him; and speak of something, wildly
By us perform'd before. Most dearly welcome !
And your fair princess, goddess ! 0, alas !
I lost a couple, that 'twixt heaven and earth
Might thus have stood, begetting wonder as,
You. gracious couple, do. And then I lost
(All mine OWTI folly) the society,
Amity too, of your brave father ; whom,
Though bearing misery, I desire my life
Once more to look on him.

Flo. By his command

Have I here touch'd Sicilia ; and from him
Give you all greetings, that a king, as 1 friend,
Can send his brother ; and. but infirmity
(Which waits upon worn times) hath something seiz'd
His wish'd ability, he had himself
The lands and waters 'twixt your throne and his
Measur'd to look upon you. whom he loves
(He bade me say so) more than all the sceptres,
And those that bear them, living

Leon. 0, my brother !

Good gentleman, the wrongs I have done thee stir
Afresh within me ; and these thy offices.
So rarely kind, are as interpreters
Of my behind-hand slackness. Welcome hither,
As is the spring to th' earth. And hath he, too,
Expos'd this paragon to the fearful usage
(At least ungentle) of the dreadful Neptune,

1 Old copies : at ; as, is the MS. emendation of Lord F. Egerton'i
folio, 1623.



sc. i. THE WINTER'S TALE. 395

To greet a man not worth her pains, much less
Th' adventure of her person ?

Flo. Good, my lord,

She came from Libya.

Leon. Where the warlike Smalus,

That noble, honour'd lord, is fear'd, and lov'd ?

Flo. Most royal sir, from thence ; from him, whose

daughter

His tears proclaim'd his, parting with her : thence
(A prosperous south-wind friendly) we have cross'd,
To execute the charge my father gave me,
For visiting your highness. My best train
I have from your Sicilian shores dismiss'd,
Who for Bohemia bend, to signify,
Not only my success in Libya, sir,
But my arrival, and my wife's, in safety
Here, where we are.

Leon. The blessed gods

Purge all infection from our air, whilst you
Do climate here ! You have a noble 1 father,
A graceful gentleman, against whose person,
So sacred as it is, I have done sin ;
For which the heavens, taking angry note,
Have left me issueless ; and your father 's bless' d
(As he from heaven merits it) witi: you,
Worthy his goodness. What might I have been,
Might I a son and daughter now have look'd on,
Such goodly things as you ?

Enter a Lord.

Lord. Most noble sir,

That which I shall report will bear no credit,
Were not the proof so nigh. Please you, great sir,
Bohemia greets you from himself by me ;
Desires you to attach his son, who has
(His dignity and duty both cast off)
Fled from his father, from his hopes, and with
A shepherd's daughter.

Leon. Where 's Bohemia ? speak.

Lord. Here in your city ; I now came from him :
I speak arnazedly, and it becomes
My marvel, and my message. To your court
vVhiles he was hastening (in the chase, it seems,
Of this fair couple) meets he on the way
i holy : in f. e.



396 THE WINTER'S TALE. ACT v

The father of this seeming lady, and

Her brother, having both their country quitted

With this young prince.

Flo. Camillo has betray'd me,

Whose honour, and whose honesty, till now,
Endur'd all weathers.

Lord. Lay 't so to his charge :

He 's with the king your father.

Leon. Who? Camillo?

Lori. Camillo, sir: I spake with him, who now
Has these poor men in question. Never saw I
Wretches so quake : they kneel, they kiss the earth,
Forswear themselves as often as they speak :
Bohemia stops his ears, and threatens them
With divers deaths in death.

Per. 0, my poor father !

The heaven sets spies upon us, will not have
Our contract celebrated.

Leon. You are married ?

Flo. We are not. sir, nor are we like to be ;
The stars, I see, will kiss the valleys first :
The odds for high and low 's alike.

Leon. My lord,

Is this the daughter of a king?

Flo. She is,

When once she is my wife.

Leon. That once, I see, by your good father's speed
Will come on very slowly. I am sorry,
Most sorry, you have broken from his liking,
Where you were tied in duty ; and as sorry,
Your choice is not so rich in worth as beauty,
That you might well enjoy her.

Flo. Dear, look up :

Though fortune, visible an enemy,
Should chase us with my father, power no jot
Hath she to change our loves. Beseech you, sir,
Remember since you ow'd no more to time
Than I do now ; with thought of such affections,
Siep forth mine advocate : at your request,
My father will grant precious things as trifles.

Leon. Would he do so, I 'd beg your precious mis-

tress,
Which he counts but a trifle.

Paul. Sir, my liege,



sc. ii. in H WINTER'S TALE. 39?

Your eye hath too much youth in 't : not a month
'Fore your queen died, she was more worth such gazes
Than what you look on now.

Leon. I thought of her,

Even in these looks I made. But your petition

[To FLORIZEI,.

Is yet unanswer'd. T will to your father :
Your honour not o'erthrown by your desires,
I am a friend to them, and you ; upon which errand
I now go toward him. Therefore, follow me,
And mark what way I make. Come, good my lord.

[Exeunt.

SCENE II. The Same. Before the Palace.