To use my wings. Impute it not a crime To me or my swift passage, that I slide O'er sixteen years and leave the growth untried To o'erthrow law and in one self-born hour The times that brought them in; so shall I do To the freshest things now reigning, and make stale Now seems to it. Your patience this allowing, In fair Bohemia; and remember well, I mention'd a son o' the king's, which Florizel I list not prophesy; but let Time's news 10 2C Be known when 't is brought forth. A shepherd's daughter, And what to her adheres, which follows after, Is the argument of Time. Of this allow, If ever you have spent time worse ere now; If never, yet that Time himself doth say 30 [Exit. 92 SCENE II. Enter POLIXENES and CAMILLO. Polixenes. I pray thee, good Camillo, be no more importunate: 't is a sickness denying thee any thing; a death to grant this. Camillo. It is fifteen years since I saw my country; though I have for the most part been aired abroad, I desire to lay my bones there. Besides, the penitent king, my master, hath sent for me; to whose feeling sorrows I might be some allay, or I o'erween to think so, which is another spur to my departure. Polixenes. As thou lovest me, Camillo, wipe not out the rest of thy services 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 businesses which none without thee can sufficiently manage, must either stay to execute them thyself or take away with thee the very services thou hast done; which if I have not enough considered, as too much I cannot, to be more thankful to thee shall be my study, and my profit therein the heaping friendships. Of that fatal country, Sicilia, prithee speak no more; whose very naming punishes me with the remembrance of that penitent, as thou callest him, and reconciled king, my brother; whose loss of his most precious queen and children are even now to be afresh lamented. Say to me, when sawest thou the Prince Florizel, my son? Kings are no less unhappy, their issue not being gracious, than they are in losing them when they have approved their virtues. 25 Camillo. Sir, it is three days since I saw the prince. What his happier affairs may be, are to me unknown; but I have missingly noted, he is of late much retired from court and is less frequent to his princely exercises than formerly he hath appeared. Polixenes. I have considered so much, Camillo, and with some care; so far that I have eyes under my service which look upon his removedness, from whom I have this intelligence, that he is seldom from the house of a most homely shepherd; a man, they say, that from very nothing, and beyond the imagination of his neighbours, is grown into an unspeakable estate. Camillo. I have heard, sir, of such a man, who hath a daughter of most rare note; the report of her is extended more than can be thought to begin from such a cottage. 40 Polixenes. That 's likewise part of my intelligence, but, I fear, the angle that plucks our son thither. Thou shalt accompany us to the place; where we will, not appearing what we are, have some question with the shepherd; from whose simplicity I think it not uneasy to get the cause of my son's resort thither. Prithee, be my present partner in this business, and lay aside the thoughts of Sicilia. Camillo. I willingly obey your command. Polixenes. My best Camillo ! We must disguise ourselves. [Exeunt. SCENE III. A Road near the Shepherd's Cottage. Enter AUTOLYCUS, singing. When daffodils begin to peer, With heigh! the doxy over the dale, Why, then comes in the sweet o' the year; For the red blood reigns in the winter's pale. The white sheet bleaching on the hedge, With heigh! the sweet birds, O, how they sing! Doth set my pugging tooth on edge; For a quart of ale is a dish for a king. The lark, that tirra-lirra chants, With heigh! with heigh! the thrush and the jay, Are summer songs for me and my aunts. While we lie tumbling in the hay. 10 94 I have served Prince Florizel and in my time wore threepile, but now I am out of service; But shall I go mourn for that, my dear? The pale moon shines by night; And when I wander here and there, I then do most go right. If tinkers may have leave to live, And bear the sow-skin budget, 20 My traffic is sheets; when the kite builds, look to lesser linen. My father named me Autolycus; who being, as I am, littered under Mercury, was likewise a snapper-up of unconsidered trifles. With die and drab I purchased this caparison, and my revenue is the silly cheat. Gallows and knock are too powerful on the highway; beating and hanging are terrors to me for the life to come, I sleep out the thought of it. prize! a prize! Enter Clown. - A 30 Clown. Let me see: every 'leven wether tods; every tod yields pound and odd shilling; fifteen hundred shorn,what comes the wool to? Autolycus. [Aside] If the springe hold, the cock's mine. Clown. I cannot do 't without counters. Let me see; what am I to buy for our sheep-shearing feast? Three pound of sugar, five pound of currants, rice,-what will this sister of mine do with rice? But my father hath made her mistress of the feast, and she lays it on. She hath made me four-andtwenty nosegays for the shearers, three-man songmen all, and very good ones; but they are most of them means and bases; but one puritan amongst them, and he sings psalms to hornpipes. I must have saffron to colour the warden pies; mace; dates?-none, that 's out of my note; nutmegs, seven; a race or two of ginger, but that I may beg; four pound of prunes, and as many of raisins o' the sun. Autolycus. O that ever I was born! Clown. I' the name of me— [Grovelling on the ground. Autolycus. O, help me, help me! pluck but off these rags; and then, death, death! 50 Clown. Alack, poor soul! thou hast need of more rags to lay on thee, rather than have these off. Autolycus. O sir, the loathsomeness of them offends me more than the stripes I have received, which are mighty ones and millions. Clown. Alas, poor man! a million of beating may come to a great matter. Autolycus. I am robbed, sir, and beaten; my money and apparel ta'en from me, and these detestable things put upon me. Clown. What, by a horseman, or a footman? 60 Clown. Indeed, he should be a footman by the garments he hast left with thee; if this be a horseman's coat, it hath seen very hot service. Lend me thy hand, I 'll help thee; come, lend me thy hand. Autolycus. O, good sir, tenderly, O! Clown. Alas, poor soul! Autolycus. O, good sir, softly, good sir! I fear, sir, my shoulder-blade is out. 70 Clown. How now! canst stand? Autolycus. [Picking his pocket] Softly, dear sir; good sir, softly. You ha' done me a charitable office. Clown. Dost lack any money? I have a little money for thee. Autolycus. No, good, sweet sir; no, I beseech you, sir. I have a kinsman not past three quarters of a mile hence, unto whom I was going; I shall there have money, or any thing |