am therefore no Courtier? I am courtier, Cap-a-pè; and one that will either push on, or pluck back thy, business there; whereupon I command thee to open thy affair.

Shep. My bufinefs, Sir, is to the King.

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

1

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 difdain."

Clo. This cannot be but 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. The farthel there? what's i'th' farthel? Wherefore that box?

Shep. Sir, there lyes fuch fecrets in this farthel and box, which none muft know but the King; and which he thall know within this hour, if I may come to th fpeech of him..

Aut. Age, thou haft loft thy labour.
Shep. Why, Sir?

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

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

1 Advocate's the court-word for a pheasant.] This fatire, on the bribery of courts, not unpleasant.

Aut:

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 so, Sir?

Aut. Not he alone fhall fuffer what wit can make heavy, and vengeance bitter; but thofe that are germane 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 Sheep-whiftling rogue, a ramtender, to offer to have his daughter come into grace! fome fay, he fhall be fton'd; but that death is too foft for him, fay I: draw our throne into a fheep-coat! all deaths are too few, the fharpest too cafie.

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

Aut. He has a fon, who shall be flay'd alive, then 'nointed over with honey, fet on the head of a wasp's neft, then stand 'till he be three quarters and a dram dead; then recover'd again with Aqua-vitæ, or fame other hot infufion; then, raw as he is, (and in the hot test day prognoftication proclaims) fhall he be fet a gainst a brick-wall, the Sun looking with a fouthward eye upon him, where he is to behold him, with Alies 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 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, befides the King to effect your fuits, here is a man fhall do it.

Clo. He feems to be of great authority; close with him, give him gold; " and tho' authority be a ftub"born Bear, yet he is oft led by the nose with gold;' fhew the infide of your purfe to the outfide of his hand, and no more ado. Remember, ston'd, and flay'd alive

Shep.

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 bufinefs?

Clo. "In fome fort, Sir; but tho' my cafe be a pi"tiful one, I hope I fhall not be flay'd out of it. Aut. Oh, that's the cafe of the shepherd'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 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 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 Shep. and Clown. Aut. If I had a mind to be honeft, I fee, Fortune would not fuffer me; the 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 thefe 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 prefent them, there may be matter in it.

[Exit. ACT

ACT V. SCENE I

Changes to SICILIA.

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

CLEOMINES.

SIR, you have done enough, and have perform'd A faint-like forrow: no fault could you make, Which you have not redeem'd; indeed, paid down More penitence, than done trefpafs. At the laft, Do as the heavens 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 fo ftill think of
The wrong I did myfelf; which was fo much,
That heir-lefs it hath made my Kingdom; and
Destroy'd the fweet'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,
To make a perfect woman; fhe, you kill'd,
Would be unparallel'd.

Leo. I think fo. Kill'd?

Kill'd? fhe I kill'd? I did fo, but thou ftrik'ft me Sorely, to say I did; it is as bitter

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

Cle. 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.

Pau.

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

Dio. If you would not fo,

You pity not the state, nor the remembrance
Of his moft fovereign name; confider little,
What dangers (by his highnefs' 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 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 fhall, Is all as monftrous to our human reason,

1 Than to rejoice, the former Queen IS WELL?] The fpeaker is here giving reafons why the King fhould marry again. One reason is, pity to the State; another, regard to the continuance of the royal family; and the third, comfort and confolation to the King's af fliction. All hitherto is plain, and becoming a Privy-courfelle But now comes in, what he calls, a holy argument for it, and that is a rejoicing that the former Queen is well and at reft. To make this argument of force, we must conclude that the fpeaker went upon this opinion, that a widower can never heartily rejoice that his former wife is at reft, till he has got another. Without doubt Shakespear wrote,

What were more holy,

Than to rejoice the former Queen? THIS WILL. What, fays the Ipeaker, can be a more holy motive to a new choice than that it will glad the fpirit of the former Queen? or she was of fo excellent a difpofition that the happiness of the King and Kingdom, to be procured by it, will give her extreme pleafure. The Poet goes upon the general opinion, that the fpirits of the happy in the other world are concerned for the condition of their furviving friends.

As