that which is left of him, what he is, fetch me to th fight of him.

Clo. Marry, will I; and you fhall help to put him i'th' ground.

Shep. 'Tis a lucky day, boy, and we'll do good deeds

on't.

Enter Time, as Chorus.

[Exeunt.

Time. I, that please fome, try all, both joy and

terror

Of good and bad, that mask and unfold error; (11)
Now take upon me, in the name of Time,
To use my wings. Impute it not a crime
To me, or my fwift paffage, that I flide
O'er fixteen years, and leave the growth untry'd
Of that wide gap; fince it is in my power
To o'erthrow law, and in one felf-born hour
To plant and o'erwhelm cuftom. Let me pass
The fame I am, ere ancient't order was,
Or what is now receiv'd. I witness to

The times, that brought them in; fo fhall I do
To th' fresheft things now reigning, and make stale
The gliftering of this prefent, as my tale
Now feems to it: your patience this allowing,
I turn my glafs; and give my fcene fuch growing,
As you had flept between. Leentes leaving
Th'effects of his fond jealoufies, fo grieving
That he fhuts up himfelf; imagine me,
Gentle fpectators, that I now may be
In fair Bohemia; and remember well,

I mention here a fon o'th' King's whom Florizel
I now name to you; and with speed so pace
To fpeak of Perdita, now grown in grace

(11) -That make and unfold Error.] This does not in my Opinion take in the Poet's Thought. Time does not make mistakes, and discover them, at different Conjun&tures; but the Poet means, that Time often for a Seafon covers Errors, which he afterwards difplays and brings to Light. I chufe therefore to read;

Equal with wondring. What of her enfues,
I lift not prophefie. But let Time's news

Be known, when 'tis brought forth. A fhepherd's daughter,
And what to her adheres, which follows after,
Is th' argument of time; of this allow,
If ever you have spent time worfe ere now:
If never, yet that Time himself doth say,
He wishes earnestly, you never may:

[Exit.

SCENE, the Court of Bohemia.
Enter Polixenes and Camillo.

POLIXENES.

'tis a fickness denying thee any thing, a death to grant this.

Cam. It is fifteen years fince I faw my country; though I have for the moft part been aired abroad, I defire to lay my bones there. Befides, the penitent King, my mafter, hath fent for me; to whofe feeling forrows I might be fome allay, or I o'erween to think fo, which is another fpur to my departure.

Pol. As thou lov'ft me, Camilla, wipe not out the reft of thy fervices by leaving me now; the need I have of thee, thine own goodness hath made: better not to have had thee, than thus to want thee. Thou having made me bufineffes, which none, without thee, can fufficiently manage, muft either ftay to execute them thy felf, or take away with thee the very services thou haft done; which if I have not enough confider'd, (as too much I cannot,) to be more thankful to thee fhall be my study; and my profit therein, the heaping friendships. Of that fatal country Sicilia, pr'ythee, fpeak no more; whose very naming punishes me with the remembrance of that

penitent,

penitent, as thou call'ft him, and reconciled King my brother, whose lofs of his moft precious Queen and children are even now to be afresh lamented. Say to me, when faw'st thou the Prince Florizel my fon? Kings are no less unhappy, their iffue not being gracious, than they are in lofing them, when they have approved their virtues.

Cam. Sir, it is three days fince I faw the Prince; what his happier affairs may be, are to me unknown : but I have (miffingly) noted, he is of late much retired from court, and is lefs frequent to his princely exercises than formerly he hath appear'd.

Pol. I have confider'd so much, Camillo, and with fome care so far, that I have eyes under my fervice, which look upon his removednefs; from whom I have this intelligence, that he is feldom from the house of a most homely fhepherd; a man, they fay, that from very nothing, and beyond the imagination of his neighbours, is grown into an unfpeakable eftate.

Cam. I have heard, Sir, of fuch a man, who hath a daughter of moft rare note; the report of her is extended more than can be thought to begin from fuch a cottage.

Pol. (12) That's likewise a part of my intelligence; and, I fear, the Engle that plucks our fon thither. Thou fhalt accompany us to the place, where we will (not ap

(12) That's likewise part of my Intelligence; but, I fear the Angle that plucks our Son thither.] The disjunctive here, I think, makes ftark Nonfence of the Context: and the Editors have palm'd an Allufion in the Word Angle, which seems foreign to the Senfe of the Paffage. As, before, in the Taming of the Shrew, Angel is mistakenly put for Engle: so, I suspect, Angle, by the fame eafy Corruption, is here. I have there prov'd the Ufe and Meaning of the Word. I'll proceed briefly to justify the Emendation I have here made, by fhewing how naturally it falls in with the Senfe we fhould expect. Camillo had just told the King, he had heard of fuch a Shepherd, and of a Daughter he had of moft rare Note. Ay, replies the King, that's a Part of my Intelligence too; and, I fear, [that Daughter is] the Siren, the Decoy, the Invitation, that plucks our Son thither.

pearing

pearing what we are) have some question with the shepherd; from whofe fimplicity, I think it not uneafie to get the cause of my fon's refort thither. Pr'ythee, be my present partner in this business, and lay afide the thoughts of Sicilia.

Cam. I willingly obey your command.

Pol. My best Camillo-we must disguise our felves.

SCENE changes to the Country.
Enter Autolicus finging.

THEN daffadils begin to peere,

WHEN

With, heigh! the doxy over the dale,
Why, then comes in the fweet o'th' year;
For the red blood reigns in the winter's pale.
The white sheet bleaching on the hedge,

[Exeunt.

With, hey! the fweet birds, O how they fing! Doth fet my pugging tooth on edge:

For a quart of ale is a difh for a king.

The lark, that tirra-lyra chaunts,

With, hey! with, hey! the thrush and the jay: Are fummer fongs for me and my aunts,

While we lie tumbling in the hay.

I have ferved Prince Florizel, and in my time wore three-pile, but now I am out of service.

But fhall I go mourn for that, my dear?
The pale moon fhines by night:

And when I wander here and there,
I then do go moft right.

If tinkers may have leave to live,
And bear the fow-skin budget;
Then my account I well may give,
And in the flocks avouch it.

My traffick is fheets; when the kite builds, look to leffer linnen. My father nam'd me Autolicus, being litter'd under Mercury; who, as I am, was likewife a fnapperup of unconfider'd trifles: with die and drab, I purchas'd this caparison; and my revenue is the filly cheat. Gallows, and knock, are too powerful on the high-way; VO L. III.

N

beating

beating and hanging are terrors to me: for the life to come, I fleep out the thought of it. A prize!- a prize!

Enter Clown.

Clo. Let me fee,- Every eleven weather tods, every tod yields pound and odd fhilling; fifteen hundred fhorn, what comes the wool too?

Aut. If the fprindge hold, the cock's mine.

[Afide. Clo. I cannot do't without compters. Let me fee, what am I to buy for our fheep-fhearing feaft, three pound of fugar, five pound of currants, rice- what will this fifter of mine do with rice? but my father hath made her mistress of the feaft, and fhe lays it on. She hath made me four and twenty nose-gays for the fhearers; three-man fong-men all, and very good ones, but they are most of them means and bafes; but one Puritan among them, and he fings pfalms to horn-pipes. I muft have faffron to colour the warden-pies, macedates- none- that's out of my note: nutmegs, feven; a race or two of ginger, but that I may beg; four pound of prunes, and as many raifins o'th' fun. Aut. Oh, that ever I was born!

Clo. I'th' name of me

[Groveling on the ground.

Aut. Oh, help me, help me: pluck but off these rags, and then death, death

Clo. Alack, poor foul, thou haft need of more rags to lay on thee, rather than have these off.

Aut. Oh, Sir, the loathfomness of them offends me, more than the stripes I have receiv'd, which are mighty ones, and millions.

Clo. Alas, poor man! a million of beating may come to a great matter.

Aut. I am robb'd, Sir, and beaten; my mony and apparel ta'en from me, and these detestable things put

upon me.

Clo. What, by a horse-man, or a footman ?
Aut. A footman, fweet Sir, a footman.

Cle.