Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB

5

word.

Enter Autolycus.

And there present yourself, and your fair princess [That you may know you shall not want,-one
(For so, I see, she must be) 'fore Leontes;
She shall be habited, as it becomes
The partner of your bed. Methinks, I see
Leontes, opening his tree arms, and weeping
His welcome 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, l' 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

[certain,

To unpath'd waters, undream'd shores; most
To miseri s 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 loth to be: Besides, you know,
Prosperity's the very bond of love;

[They talk aside. 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 counterteit stone, not a ribbon, glass, pomander, brooch, tablebook, ballad, knife, tape, glove, shoe-tye, bracelet, horn-ring, to keep my pack from fasting: they 10throng who should buy first; as if my trinkets had been hallowed, and brought a benediction to the buyer: by which means, I saw whose purse was best in picture; and, what I saw, to my good use, I remember'd. My clown (who wants but some15thing to be a reasonable man) grew so in love with the wenches' song, that he would not stir his petti toes, '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 20 placket', it was senseless; 'twas nothing, to geld a codpiece of a purse; I would have filed keys off, that bung 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 pick'd and cut most of 25 their festival purses: and bad 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 a purse alive in the whole army. [Camillo, Florizel, and Perdita, come forward. Cam. Nay, but my letters by this means being So soon as you arrive, shall clear that doubt. [there Flo. And those that you'll procure from king Cam. Shall satisfy your father. [Leontes,Per. Happy be you!

30

Whose fresh complexion and whose heart toge-35
Affliction alters.

Per. One of these is true:

I think, affliction may subdue the cheek,

[blocks in formation]

[ther

All, that you speak, shews fair.

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

[years, 40 hanging.

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

[blocks in formation]

1

45

Aut. If they have over-heard me now,-why [Aside. Cum. 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: 50 Though the pennyworth, on his side be the worst, yet hold thee, there's some boot.

6

Aut. I am a poor fellow, sir: I know ye well enough. Aside. Cam. Nay, pr'ythee, dispatch, the gentleman is 55 half tlead already.

Aut. Are you in earnest, sir?I smell the trick

of it.

Flo. Dispatch, I pr'ythee.

[Aside.

Aut. Indeed, I have had earnest: but I can.

30 not with conscience take it.

Cam. Unbuckle, unbuckle.

The council-days, in our author's time, were called, in common speech, the sittings. 2 Nothing, i. e. by no means. 'i. e. subdue or overcome. A pomander was a little ball made of perfuines, and worn in the pocket, or about the neck, to prevent infection in times of plague. properly the opening in a woman's petticoat.

[ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]

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; muttle 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 ship-board
Get undescry'd.

Flo. 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.

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.

honest man 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 farthest off you could have been to him; and then your 5 blood had been the dearer by I know how much

10

an ounce.

Aut. Very wisely; puppies! [Aside. Shep. Well; let us to the king; there is that in this farthel, will make him scratch his beard. Aut. I know not, what impediment this com plaint may be to the flight of my master.

Clo. 'Pray heartily, he be at palace.

Aut. Though I am not naturally honest, I am so sometimes by chance:- Let me pocket up my 15 pedler's excrement.-How now, rusticks? whi ther are you bound?

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

Aut. Your affairs there? what? with whom? the condition of that farthel, the place of your 20 dwelling, your names, your ages, of what having, 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 25 have no lying; it becomes none but tradesmen, and they often give us soldiers the he: 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,
you had not taken yourself with the manner.
Shep. Are you a courtier, an't like you, sir?
Aut. Whether it like me, or no, I am a courtier.

ngs? hath not my gait in it the measure of the
court? receives not thy nose court-odour from me?
reflect I not on thy baseness, court-contempt?
Think'st thou, for that I insinuate, or toze from
thee thy business, I am therefore no courtier? I am
courtier, cap-a-pe, and one that will either push
on, or pluck back thy business there; whereupon
command thee to open thy affair.

[Exeunt Flo. Per. and Cam.|30|if Aut. I 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 requi-See'st thou not the air of the court, in these enfoldsite also, to smell out work for the other senses. I see, this is the time that the unjust man doth 35 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 40 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. 43

Enter Clown and Shepherd.
Aside, aside:-here's 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 50
is no other way, but to tell the king she's a
changeling, and none of your flesh and blood.
Shep. Nay, but hear nie.
Clo. Nay, but hear me.
Shep. Go to then.

55

Clo. She being none of your flesh and blood, your flesh and blood has not offended the king and, so, your flesh and blood is not to be punish'd by him. Shew those things you found about her; those secret things, all but what she has with her:60 This being done, let the law go whistle, I warrant you.

Shep. I will tell the king all, every word, yea, and his son's pranks too; who, I may say, is no

Shep. My business, sir, is to the king.
Aut. What advocate hast thou to him?
Shep. I know not, an't like you.

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 will not disdain..

Clo. This cannot be but a great courtier. Shep. His garments are rich, but he wears them not handsomely.

Clo. He seems 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' the farthel? Wherefore that box?

Shop. Sir, there lies such secrets in this farthel, 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.

'That is, pedler's beard. ? To teaze, or toze, is to disentangle wool or flax. It here implies, to

draw out by importunity.

Shep

[blocks in formation]

Clo. Think you so, sir?

Aut. Not he alone shall suffer what wit can make heavy, and vengeance bitter; but those that are germane to him, though removed tifty times, 15 shall all come under the hangman: which, though it be great pity, yet it is necessary. An old sheepwhistling rogue, a ram-tender, to offer to have his daughter come into grace! Some say, he shall be ston'd; but that death is too soft for him, say 1:20 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?

dut. He has a son, who shall be flay'd alive; 25 then 'nointed over with honey, set on the head of a wasp's nest; then stand, till he be three quarters and a dram dead: then recover'd again with aquavitæ, or some other hot infusion: then, raw as he is,and in the hottest day prognostication proclainis', 30 - he shall 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 smil'd at, their offences being so 35 capital? Tell me, (for you seem to be honest plain men) what you have to the king: being something gently consider'd2, I'll bring you where he is aboard, tender your persons to his presence, whis

per

him in your behalfs; and, if it be in man, be-40 sides 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 al

SCENE I,
Sicilia.

stubborn bear, yet he is oft led by the nose with gold: shew the inside of your purse to the outside of his hand, and no more ado: "Remember, ston'd, and flay'd alive.

Shep. An 't please 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 some sort, sir: but though my case be a pitiful one, I hope I shall not be flay'd out of it. Aut. Oh, that's the case of the shepherd's son:--Hang him, he'll be made an example.

Clo. Comfort, good comfort: We must to the king, and shew our strange sights: he must know, 'tis 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 perform'd; 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 hedge, and follow you.

Clo. We are bless'd in this man, as I may say, even bless'd.

Shop. Let's before, as he bid us: he was provided to do us good. [Exeunt Shep. and Clo.

Aut. If I had a mind to be honest, I see, fortune would not suffer me; she drops booties in my mouth. I am courted now on a double occasion; gold, and a means to do the prince my master 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 shore them again,and that the complaint they have to the king concerns him nothing, let him call me, rogue, for being so far officious; 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.

ACT

[blocks in formation]
[ocr errors]

[Exit.

[blocks in formation]

2

'That is, the hottest day foretold in the almanack. The meaning is, "If you will give me a "consideration, or bribe, worthy of a gentleman, I'll bring you, &c."

[ocr errors]

Have done the time more benefit, and grac'd
Your kindness better.

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

Dio. If you would not so,

You pity not the state, 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 royalty's repair,
For present com.ort, and for future good,-
To bless the bed of inajesty again
With a sweet fellow to it?

Paul. There is none worthy,
Respecting her that's gone. Besides, the gods
Will have fulfill'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. 'Tis your counsel,
My lord should to the heavens be contrary,
Oppose against their wills.-Care not for issue;
[To the king.
The crown will find an heir: Great Alexander
Left his to the worthiest; so his successor
Was like to be the best.

Leo. Good Paulina,→→

Who hast the memory of Hermione,
I know, in honour,-Ŏ, that ever I

Had squar'd me to thy counsel! then even now,
I might have look'd upon my queen's full eyes;
Have taken treasure from her lips,-

Paul. And left them

More rich, for what they yielded.

Leo. Thou speak'st truth.

No more such wives; therefore, no wife; one worse,
And better usd, would make her sainted spirit
Again possess her corps; and, on this stage,
(Where we o lend her now) appear soul-vext,
And begin, "Why to me?"

Pant. Had she such power,
She had just such cause.

Leo. She had; and would incense me To murder her I married,

[blocks in formation]
[blocks in formation]

30

And those but mean.

Leo. 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. Oh Hermione,

As every present time dost boast itself
Above a better, gone; so must thy grave

35 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; 'tis shrewdly ebb'd,
40 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,
45 Would she begin a sect, might quench the zeal
Of all professors else; make proselytes

Of who she but bid follow.

Paul. How? not women?

[blocks in formation]

(Jewel of children) seen this hour, he had pair'd Well with this lord; there was not a full month 60 Between their births.

Leo. Pr'ythee, no more; cease; thou know'st,
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 reason.-They are come.

Affront here signifies to meet,

Enter

Act 5. Scene 1.]

WINTER'S TALE.

Enter Florizel, Perdita, Cleomenes, 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 ou brother,
As I did him; and speak of soi, ethig, wildly
Most dear y welcome!
By us perform'd before.

And your fair princess, goddess!-O alas!
I lost a couple, that 'twixt heaven an 1 earth
Might thus have stood, begetting wonder, as
You, gracious couple, do; and then I lost
(All mine own folly) the society,
Amity too, of your brave father; whom,
Though bearing misery, I desire my lite
Once more to look on.

Flo. Sir, by his command

Bohemia greets you from himself, by me;
Desires you to attach his son; who has
(His diguity and duty both cast off)
Fled from his father, from his hopes, and with
5A shepherd's daughter.

Leo. Where's Bohemia? speak.

Lord. Here in your city; I now came from him:
speak amazedly; and it becomes

My marvel, and my message. To your court
10 Whiles he was hastening, (in the chase, it seems,
Of this fair couple) meets he on the way

13

Have I here touched Sicilia; and from him,
Give you all greetings, that a king, at friend,
Can send his brother: and, but infirmity [seiz'd 20
(Which waits upon worn times) hath something
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 scepters,
And those that bear them, living.

Leo. Oh, my brother!

[stin

(Good gentleman) the wrongs I have done thee,]
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 the earth. And hath he too
Expos'd this paragon to the fearful usage
(At least, ungentle) of the dreadful Neptune,
To greet a man not worth her pains; much less
The adventure of her person?

Flo. Good my lord,

She came from Libya.

Leo. Where the warlike Smalos,

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,
father
To execute the charge my
gave me,
For visiting your highness: My best train
I have from your Sicilian shores dismissed;
Who for Bohemia bend, to signify
Not only my success in Libya, sír,
wife's, in safety
But my arrival, and my
Here, where we are.

Leo. The blessed gods

Purge all infection from our air, whilst you
Do climate here! You have a holy father,
A graceful gentleman; against whose person,
So sacred as it is, I have done sin :

25

30

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.
Leo. Who? Camillo?

[now

Lord. Camillo, sir; I spake with him; who
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. Oh, my poor father!

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

Leo. You are marry'd ?

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.

Leo. My lord,

35 Is this the daughter of a king?
Flo. She is,

wife.
When once she is my

Leo. That once, I see,by your good father's speed,
Will come on very slowly. I am sorry,
40 Most sorry, you have broken from his liking,
Where you were ty'd 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:

45 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
50 Step forth mine advocate; at your request,
My father will grant precious things, as trifles.
Leo. Would he do so, I'd beg your precious
[mistress,
Which he counts but a trifle.

Paul. Sir, my liege,

55 Your eye hath too much youth in't: not a month
Fore your queen dy'd, she was more worth such
Than what you look on now.
Leo. I thought of her,

For which the heavens, taking angry note,
Have left me issue-less; and your father's bless'd
(As he from heaven merits it) with you,
Worthy his goodness. What might I have been, 60
Might I a son and daughter now have look'd on,
Such goodly things as you?

Enter a Lord.

[blocks in formation]

[gazes

Even in these looks I made.--But your petition
[To Florizel.

Is yet unanswer'd: I will to your father;
Your honour not o'erthrown by your desires,

I am friend to them and you: upon which errand
now go toward him; therefore follow me,

[ocr errors]

65 And mark what way I make: Come, good my lord.

[Exeunt.

1 That is, in high descent.

SCENE

« ZurückWeiter »