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, Sir.

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 Itamped 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 your felf 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 gate in it the measure of the Court? receives not thy nofe Court-odour from me? reflect I not on thy bafenefs, Court-contempt? think'st thou, for that I infinuate, or toze from thee thy bufinefs, 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, Sir, is to the King.

Aut. What advocate haft thou to him?
Shep. I know not, an't like you.

Clo. Advocate's the Court-word for a pheafant; fay you have none.

Shep. None, Sir; I have no pheafant cock, nor hen. Aut. How blefs'd are we, that are not fimple men! Yet nature might have made me as these are, Therefore I will not disdain.

Clo. This cannot but be a great Courtier.

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

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

Aut

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

Shep. Sir, there lyes fuch fecrets in this farthel and box, which none must know but the King, and which he fhall know within this hour, if I may come to th' speech

of him.

Aut. Age, thou haft loft thy labour.

Shep. Why, Sir?

Aut. The King is not at the palace, he's gone aboard a new ship, to purge melancholy and air himfelf; for if thou be'ft capable of things ferious, thou must know the King is full of grief.

Shep. So 'tis faid, Sir, about his fon that should have married a fhepherd's daughter.

Aut. If that fhepherd be not in hand-faft, let him fly; the curfes he fhall have, the tortures he fhall feel, will break the back of man, the heart of monster.

Clo. Think you fo, Sir?

Aut. Not he alone fhall fuffer what wit can make heavy, and vengeance bitter; but those that are germain to him, tho' remov'd fifty times, fhall all come under the hangman; which, tho' it be great pity, yet it is neceffary. An old fheep-whiftling rogue, a ram-tender, to offer to have his daughter come into grace! fome fay he shall be fton'd; but that death is too foft for him, fay I: draw our throne into a fheep-cote! all deaths are too few, the tharpest too eafie.

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

Aut. He has a fon, who fhall be flay'd alive, then 'nointed over with honey, fet on the head of a wafp's nest, then stand 'till he be three quarters and a dram dead; then recover'd again with Aqua-vita, or fome other hot infufion; then, raw as he is, (and in the hottest day prognoftication proclaims) fhall he be fet against a brick-wall, the fun looking with a fouthward eye upon him, where he is to behold him with flies blown to death. But what talk we of those traitorly rafcals, whofe miferies are to be

fmil'd

fmil'd at, their offences being fo capital? Tell me, (for you feem to be honeft plain men) what you have to the King; being fomething gently confider'd, I'll bring you where he is aboard, tender your perfons to his prefence, whisper him in your behalf; and if it be in man, besides the King, to effect your fuits, here is a man fhall do it.

Clo. He feems to be of great authority; clofe with him, give him gold; and though authority be a ftubborn bear, yet he is oft lead by the nofe with gold; fhew the infide of your purfe to the outfide of his hand, and no more ado: Remember fton'd and flay'd alive.

Shep. An't pleafe 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.

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 fome fort, Sir; but tho' my cafe be a pitiful one, I hope I fhall not be flay'd out of it.

Aut. Oh, that's the cafe of the fhepherd's fon; hang him, he'll be made an example.

Clo. Comfort, good comfort; we muft to the King, and fhew our strange fights; he must know 'tis none of your daughter nor my fifter, we are gone else. Sir, I will give you as much as this old man does, when the bufinefs is perform'd, and remain, as he fays, your pawn 'till it be brought you.

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

Clo. We are blefs'd in this man, as I may fay, even blefs'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 honeft, I fee Fortune would not fuffer me; fhe drops booties in my mouth. I am

courted

courted now with a double occafion: gold, and a means to do the Prince my mafter good; which, who knows how that may turn back to my advancement? I will bring these two moles, these blind ones, aboard him; if he think it fit to fhoar them again, and that the complaint they have to the King concerns him nothing, let him call me rogue, for being fo far officious; for I am proof against that title, and what fhame elfe belongs to't: to him will I present them, there may be matter in it. [Exit.

A CT V.

SCENE I

Changes to Sicilia.

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

SIR

CLEOMINES.

make,

IR, you have done enough, and have perform'd
faint-like forrow: no fault could
Which you have not redeem'd; indeed paid down

A

More penitence, than done trespass.

you

At the last

Do as the heavens have done, forget your evil;

With them forgive your felf.

Leo. Whilft I remember

Her and her virtues, I cannot forget

My blemishes in them, and fo ftill think of
The wrong I did my felf; which was fo much
That heir-lefs it hath made my Kingdom, and
Destroy'd the sweet'ft 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 fomething good,

1 Bred his hopes out of, True

Pau. Too true, my Lord; &.... old edit. Theob, emend.

Το

To make a perfect woman, fhe you kill'd
Wou'd be unparallel'd.

Leo. I think fo.

Kill'd?

She I kill'd? I did fo, but thou ftrik'st me
Sorely, to fay I did; it is as bitter

Upon thy tongue, as in my thought.
Say fo but feldom.

Cleo. Not at all, good Lady;

Now, good now,

You might have spoke a thousand things that would
Have done the time more benefit, and grac❜d

Your kindness better.

Pau. You are one of those

not,

Would have him wed again.
Dion. If you would
You pity not the ftate, nor the remembrance
Of his most fovereign name; confider little,
What dangers (by his Highness' fail of iffue)
May drop upon his kingdom, and devour
Incertain lookers on. What were more holy,
Than to rejoice the 'former Queen? This will.
What holier, than for royalty's repair,
For prefent comfort, and for future good,
To blefs the bed of Majefty again
With a fweet fellow to't?

Pau. There is none worthy,
Refpecting her that's gone; befides, the Gods
Will have fufill'd their fecret purposes:

For has not the divine Apollo faid,

Is't not the tenour of his Oracle,

That King Leontes fhall not have an heir,

'Till his loft child be found? which, that it fhall,
Is all as monftrous to our human reafon,
As my Antigonus to break his grave,
And come again to me; who, on my life,
Did perish with the infant. 'Tis your counsel
My Lord should to the heav'ns be contrary,

2 not fo,

3 former Queen is well?... old. edit. Warb. emend

Oppose