pluck back thy business there; whereupon I command thee

to open thy affair.

SHEP. My business, fir, 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, fir, I have no pheasant cock, nor hen.
AUT. How blefs'd are we, that are not fimple men!
Yet nature might have made me as thefe are,
Therefore, I will not disdain.

CLO. This cannot be but a great courtier.

SHEP. His garments are rich, but he wears them not handfomely.

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. The farthel there? what's i'th' farthel?

Wherefore that box?

SHEP. Sir, there lies fuch fecrets in this farthel and that box, which none must know but the king; and which he fhall know within this hour, if I may come to th' fpeech of him.

AUT. Age, thou haft loft thy labour.

SHEP. Why, fir.

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'ft capable of things ferious, thou must know, the king is full of grief.

SHEP. So 'tis faid, fir, about his fon that should have married a shepherd's daughter.

AUT, If that shepherd be not in hand-fast, let him fly;

the curfes he shall have, the tortures he fhall feel, will break the back of man, the heart of monster.

CLO. Think you so, fir?

AUT. Not he alone shall suffer what wit can make heavy, and vengeance bitter; but those that are germane to him, tho' remov'd fifty times, fhall all come under the hangman; which tho' it be great pity, yet is neceffary. An old fheepwhistling 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 fheepcoat! all deaths are too few, the sharpeft too easy. CLO. Has the old man e'er a fon, Sir, do you hear an't like you, fir?

AUT. He has a fon, who fhall be flay'd alive, then 'nointed over with honey, fet on the head of a wasp's neft, then ftand 'till he be three quarters and a dram dead; then recover'd again with Aqua-vitæ, or fome other hot infufion; then, raw as he is, and in the hottest day prognoftication proclaims, shall be set 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 these traitorly rafcals, whofe miferies are to be fmil'd at, their offences being fo capital? Tell me, (for you seem to be honest plain men) what you have to the king; being something gently confider'd, I'll bring you where he is aboard, tender your perfons to his presence, whisper him in your behalf, and if it be in man befides the king to effect your fuits, here is a man fhall do it.

CLO. He seems to be of great authority; close with him, give him gold; and though authority be a stubborn bear, yet he is oft led by the nofe with gold; fhew the inside of

your purse to the outfide of his hand, and no more ado. Remember, fton'd, and flay'd alive.

SHEP. An't please you, fir, 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, fir..

AUT. Well, give me the moiety. Are you a party in this bufinefs?

CLO. In fome fort, fir; 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 must to the king, and fhew our strange fights; he muft know, 'tis none of your daughter, nor my fifter; we are gone elfe. Sir, I will give you as much as this old man does, when the business is perform'd: and remain, as he fays, your pawn 'till it be brought

you.

AUT. I will truft you, walk before toward the fea-fide, go on the right hand; I will but look upon the hedge, and follow you.

CLO. We are bleffed 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 Shep. and Clo. 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 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, thefe blind ones, aboard him; if he think it fit to fhore 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 shame elfe belongs to't: to him will I present them, there may be matter in it.

[Exit.

ACT V.

SCENE I.

Changes to Sicilia.

Enter Leontes, Cleomenes, Dion, Paulina, and fervants.

CLEOMENES.

IR, you have done enough, and have perform'd

SIR

A faint-like forrow: 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 heav'ns have done, forget your evil; With them, forgive yourself.

LEO. Whilft I remember

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 heir-lefs it hath made my kingdom; and
Destroy'd the sweet'ft companion, that e'er man
Bred his hopes out of..

PAUL. True, too true, my lord;

If one by one you wedded all the world,

Or, from the all that are, took fomething good,
To make a perfect woman; she, you kill'd

Would be unparallel'd.

LEO, I think fo. Kill'd?

Kill'd? the I kill'd? I did fo, but thou strik'st me

Sorely, to fay I did? it is as bitter

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

CLEO. Not at all, good lady;

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

PAUL. You are one of those,
Would have him wed again.

D10. If you would not so,

You pity not the ftate, nor the remembrance
Of his most sovereign name; 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 loyalty's repair,
For prefent comfort, and for future good,
To blefs the bed of majesty again
With a fweet fellow to't?.

PAUL. There is none worthy,

Refpecting her that's gone. Befides, the gods
Will have fulfill'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 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. 'Tis your council,
My lord fhould to the heav'ns be contrary;