Section 13:
ACT IV, SCENE IV, Lines 441-846 The same. A Shepherd's Cottage.

PERDITA.:

Even here undone!

I was not much afeard: for once or twice

I was about to speak, and tell him plainly

The self-same sun that shines upon his court

Hides not his visage from our cottage, but

Looks on alike.—[To FLORIZEL.]Will't please you, sir, be gone?

I told you what would come of this! Beseech you,

Of your own state take care: this dream of mine,

Being now awake, I'll queen it no inch further,

But milk my ewes, and weep.

CAMILLO.:

Why, how now, father!

Speak ere thou diest.

SHEPHERD.:

I cannot speak, nor think,

Nor dare to know that which I know.—[To FLORIZEL.]O, sir,

You have undone a man of fourscore-three,

That thought to fill his grave in quiet; yea,

To die upon the bed my father died,

To lie close by his honest bones! but now

Some hangman must put on my shroud, and lay me

Where no priest shovels in dust.—[To PERDITA.]O cursed wretch,

That knew'st this was the prince, and wouldst adventure

To mingle faith with him!,—Undone, undone!

If I might die within this hour, I have liv'd

To die when I desire.

[Exit.]

FLORIZEL.:

Why look you so upon me?

I am but sorry, not afeard; delay'd,

But nothing alt'red: what I was, I am:

More straining on for plucking back; not following

My leash unwillingly.

CAMILLO.:

Gracious, my lord,

You know your father's temper: at this time

He will allow no speech,—which I do guess

You do not purpose to him,—and as hardly

Will he endure your sight as yet, I fear:

Then, till the fury of his highness settle,

Come not before him.

FLORIZEL.:

I not purpose it.

I think Camillo?

CAMILLO.:

Even he, my lord.

PERDITA.:

How often have I told you 'twould be thus!

How often said my dignity would last

But till 'twere known!

FLORIZEL.:

It cannot fail but by

The violation of my faith; and then

Let nature crush the sides o' the earth together

And mar the seeds within!—Lift up thy looks.—

From my succession wipe me, father; I

Am heir to my affection.

CAMILLO.:

Be advis'd.

FLORIZEL.:

I am,—and by my fancy; if my reason

Will thereto be obedient, I have reason;

If not, my senses, better pleas'd with madness,

Do bid it welcome.

CAMILLO.:

This is desperate, sir.

FLORIZEL.:

So call it: but it does fulfil my vow:

I needs must think it honesty. Camillo,

Not for Bohemia, nor the pomp that may

Be thereat glean'd; for all the sun sees or

The close earth wombs, or the profound seas hide

In unknown fathoms, will I break my oath

To this my fair belov'd: therefore, I pray you,

As you have ever been my father's honour'd friend

When he shall miss me,—as, in faith, I mean not

To see him any more,—cast your good counsels

Upon his passion: let myself and fortune

Tug for the time to come. This you may know,

And so deliver,—I am put to sea

With her, who here I cannot hold on shore;

And, most opportune to her need, I have

A vessel rides fast by, but not prepar'd

For this design. What course I mean to hold

Shall nothing benefit your knowledge, nor

Concern me the reporting.

CAMILLO.:

O, my lord,

I would your spirit were easier for advice,

Or stronger for your need.

FLORIZEL.:

Hark, Perdita.—[Takes her aside.][To CAMILLO.]I'll hear you by and by.

CAMILLO.:

He's irremovable,

Resolv'd for flight. Now were I happy if

His going I could frame to serve my turn;

Save him from danger, do him love and honour;

Purchase the sight again of dear Sicilia

And that unhappy king, my master, whom

I so much thirst to see.

FLORIZEL.:

Now, good Camillo,

I am so fraught with curious business that

I leave out ceremony.

CAMILLO.:

Sir, I think

You have heard of my poor services, i' the love

That I have borne your father?

FLORIZEL.:

Very nobly

Have you deserv'd: it is my father's music

To speak your deeds; not little of his care

To have them recompens'd as thought on.

CAMILLO.:

Well, my lord,

If you may please to think I love the king,

And, through him, what's nearest to him, which is

Your gracious self, embrace but my direction,—

If your more ponderous and settled project

May suffer alteration,—on mine honour,

I'll point you where you shall have such receiving

As shall become your highness; where you may

Enjoy your mistress,—from the whom, I see,

There's no disjunction to be made, but by,

As heavens forfend! your ruin,—marry her;

And,—with my best endeavours in your absence—

Your discontenting father strive to qualify,

And bring him up to liking.

FLORIZEL.:

How, Camillo,

May this, almost a miracle, be done?

That I may call thee something more than man,

And, after that, trust to thee.

CAMILLO.:

Have you thought on

A place whereto you'll go?

FLORIZEL.:

Not any yet;

But as the unthought-on accident is guilty

To what we wildly do; so we profess

Ourselves to be the slaves of chance, and flies

Of every wind that blows.

CAMILLO.:

Then list to me:

This follows,—if you will not change your purpose,

But undergo this flight,—make for Sicilia;

And there present yourself and your fair princess,—

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 free arms, and weeping

His welcomes 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.

FLORIZEL.:

Worthy Camillo,

What colour for my visitation shall I

Hold up before him?

CAMILLO.:

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, I'll 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.

FLORIZEL.:

I am bound to you:

There is some sap in this.

CAMILLO.:

A course more promising

Than a wild dedication of yourselves

To unpath'd waters, undream'd shores, most certain

To miseries 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 loath to be: besides, you know

Prosperity's the very bond of love,

Whose fresh complexion and whose heart together

Affliction alters.

PERDITA.:

One of these is true:

I think affliction may subdue the cheek,

But not take in the mind.

CAMILLO.:

Yea, say you so?

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

Be born another such.

FLORIZEL.:

My good Camillo,

She is as forward of her breeding as

She is i' the rear our birth.

CAMILLO.:

I cannot say 'tis pity

She lacks instruction; for she seems a mistress

To most that teach.

PERDITA.:

Your pardon, sir; for this:

I'll blush you thanks.

FLORIZEL.:

My prettiest Perdita!—

But, O, the thorns we stand upon!—Camillo,—

Preserver of my father, now of me;

The medicine of our house!—how shall we do?

We are not furnish'd like Bohemia's son;

Nor shall appear in Sicilia.

CAMILLO.:

My lord,

Fear none of this: I think you know my fortunes

Do all lie there: it shall be so my care

To have you royally appointed as if

The scene you play were mine. For instance, sir,

That you may know you shall not want,—one word.

[They talk aside.]

[Re-enter AUTOLYCUS.]

AUTOLYCUS.:

Ha, ha! what a fool Honesty is! and Trust, his sworn

brother, a very simple gentleman! I have sold all my trumpery;

not a counterfeit stone, not a riband, glass, pomander, brooch,

table-book, ballad, knife, tape, glove, shoe-tie, bracelet,

horn-ring, to keep my pack from fasting;—they throng 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 remembered. My

clown (who wants but something to be a reasonable man) grew so in

love with the wenches' song that he would not stir his pettitoes

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 placket,—it was senseless; 'twas nothing to geld

a codpiece of a purse; I would have filed keys off that hung 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 picked

and cut most of their festival purses; and had not the old man

come in with whoobub against his daughter and the king's son, and

scared my choughs from the chaff, I had not left a purse alive in

the whole army.

[CAMILLO, FLORIZEL, and PERDITA come forward.]

CAMILLO.:

Nay, but my letters, by this means being there

So soon as you arrive, shall clear that doubt.

FLORIZEL.:

And those that you'll procure from king Leontes,—

CAMILLO.:

Shall satisfy your father.

PERDITA.:

Happy be you!

All that you speak shows fair.

CAMILLO.:

[seeing AUTOLYCUS.] Who have we here?

We'll make an instrument of this; omit

Nothing may give us aid.

AUTOLYCUS.:

[Aside.] If they have overheard me now,—why, hanging.

CAMILLO.:

How now, good fellow! why shakest thou so? Fear not, man; here's

no harm intended to thee.

AUTOLYCUS.:

I am a poor fellow, sir.

CAMILLO.:

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 a

necessity in't,—and change garments with this gentleman: though

the pennyworth on his side be the worst, yet hold thee, there's

some boot.[Giving money.]

AUTOLYCUS.:

I am a poor fellow, sir:—[Aside.]I know ye well enough.

CAMILLO.:

Nay, pr'ythee dispatch: the gentleman is half flay'd already.

AUTOLYCUS.:

Are you in camest, sir?—[Aside.]I smell the trick on't.

FLORIZEL.:

Dispatch, I pr'ythee.

AUTOLYCUS.:

Indeed, I have had earnest; but I cannot with conscience

take it.

CAMILLO.:

Unbuckle, unbuckle.

[FLORIZEL and AUTOLYCUS exchange garments.]

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, muffle your face,

Dismantle you; and, as you can, disliken

The truth of your own seeming; that you may,—

For I do fear eyes over,—to shipboard

Get undescried.

PERDITA.:

I see the play so lies

That I must bear a part.

CAMILLO.:

No remedy.—

Have you done there?

FLORIZEL.:

Should I now meet my father,

He would not call me son.

CAMILLO.:

Nay, you shall have no hat.—

[Giving it to PERDITA.]

Come, lady, come.—Farewell, my friend.

AUTOLYCUS.:

Adieu, sir.

FLORIZEL.:

O Perdita, what have we twain forgot!

Pray you a word.

[They converse apart.]

CAMILLO.:

[Aside.] What I do next, shall be to tell the king

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 re-view Sicilia; for whose sight

I have a woman's longing.

FLORIZEL.:

Fortune speed us!—

Thus we set on, Camillo, to the sea-side.

CAMILLO.:

The swifter speed the better.

[Exeunt FLORIZEL, PERDITA, and CAMILLO.]

AUTOLYCUS.:

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 requisite also, to smell out work for

the other senses. I see this is the time that the unjust man doth

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 anything extempore. The prince himself is

about a piece of iniquity,—stealing away from his father with

his clog at his heels: if I thought it were a piece of honesty to

acquaint the king withal, I would not do't: I hold it the more

knavery to conceal it; and therein am I constant to my

profession.

[Re-enter CLOWN and SHEPHERD.]

Aside, aside;—here is more matter for a hot brain: every lane's

end, every shop, church, session, hanging, yields a careful man

work.

CLOWN.:

See, see; what a man you are now! There is no other way but

to tell the king she's a changeling, and none of your flesh and

blood.

SHEPHERD.:

Nay, but hear me.

CLOWN.:

Nay, but hear me.

SHEPHERD.:

Go to, then.

CLOWN.:

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 punished by him. Show those things you found about her; those

secret things,—all but what she has with her: this being done,

let the law go whistle; I warrant you.

SHEPHERD.:

I will tell the king all, every word,—yea, and his son's

pranks too; who, I may say, is no honest man neither to his

father nor to me, to go about to make me the king's

brother-in-law.

CLOWN.:

Indeed, brother-in-law was the farthest off you could have

been to him; and then your blood had been the dearer by I know

how much an ounce.

AUTOLYCUS.:

[Aside.] Very wisely, puppies!

SHEPHERD.:

Well, let us to the king: there is that in this fardel

will make him scratch his beard!

AUTOLYCUS.:

[Aside.] I know not what impediment this complaint may

be to the flight of my master.

CLOWN.:

Pray heartily he be at palace.

AUTOLYCUS.:

Though I am not naturally honest, I am so sometimes by chance.

Let me pocket up my pedlar's excrement.[Aside, and takes off hisfalse beard.]—How now, rustics! whither are you bound?

SHEPHERD.:

To the palace, an it like your worship.

AUTOLYCUS.:

Your affairs there, what, with whom, the condition of that

fardel, the place of your dwelling, your names, your ages, of

what having, breeding, and anything that is fitting to be known?

discover.

CLOWN.:

We are but plain fellows, sir.

AUTOLYCUS.:

A lie: you are rough and hairy. Let me have no lying; it becomes

none but tradesmen, and they often give us soldiers the lie: but

we pay them for it with stamped coin, not stabbing steel;

therefore they do not give us the lie.

CLOWN.:

Your worship had like to have given us one, if you had not

taken yourself with the manner.

SHEPHERD.:

Are you a courtier, an't like you, sir?

AUTOLYCUS.:

Whether it like me or no, I am a courtier. Seest thou not the air

of the court in these enfoldings? 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, that toaze 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 I

command the to open thy affair.

SHEPHERD.:

My business, sir, is to the king.

AUTOLYCUS.:

What advocate hast thou to him?

SHEPHERD.:

I know not, an't like you.

CLOWN.:

Advocate's the court-word for a pheasant, say you have none.

SHEPHERD.:

None, sir; I have no pheasant, cock nor hen.

AUTOLYCUS.:

How bless'd are we that are not simple men!

Yet nature might have made me as these are,

Therefore I will not disdain.

CLOWN.:

This cannot be but a great courtier.

SHEPHERD.:

His garments are rich, but he wears them not handsomely.

CLOWN.:

He seems to be the more noble in being fantastical: a great man,

I'll warrant; I know by the picking on's teeth.

AUTOLYCUS.:

The fardel there? what's i' the fardel? Wherefore that box?

SHEPHERD.:

Sir, there lies such secrets in this fardel 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.

AUTOLYCUS.:

Age, thou hast lost thy labour.

SHEPHERD.:

Why, sir?

AUTOLYCUS.:

The king is not at the palace; he is gone aboard a new ship to

purge melancholy and air himself: for, if thou beest capable of

things serious, thou must know the king is full of grief.

SHEPHERD.:

So 'tis said, sir,—about his son, that should have married a

shepherd's daughter.

AUTOLYCUS.:

If that shepherd be not in hand-fast, let him fly: the curses he

shall have, the tortures he shall feel, will break the back of

man, the heart of monster.

CLOWN.:

Think you so, sir?

AUTOLYCUS.:

Not he alone shall suffer what wit can make heavy and vengeance

bitter; but those that are germane to him, though removed fifty

times, shall all come under the hangman: which, though it be

great pity, yet it is necessary. An old sheep-whistling rogue, a

ram-tender, to offer to have his daughter come into grace! Some

say he shall be stoned; but that death is too soft for him, say

I. Draw our throne into a sheep-cote!—all deaths are too few,

the sharpest too easy.

CLOWN.:

Has the old man e'er a son, sir, do you hear, an't like you, sir?

AUTOLYCUS.:

He has a son,—who shall be flayed alive; 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 recovered again with

aqua-vitae or some other hot infusion; then, raw as he is, and in

the hottest day prognostication proclaims, shall he 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

smiled at, their offences being so capital? Tell me,—for you

seem to be honest plain men, what you have to the king: being

something gently considered, I'll bring you where he is aboard,

tender your persons to his presence, whisper him in your behalfs;

and if it be in man besides the king to effect your suits, here

is man shall do it.

CLOWN.:

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

nose with gold: show the inside of your purse to the outside of

his hand, and no more ado. Remember,—ston'd and flayed alive.

SHEPHERD.:

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.

AUTOLYCUS.:

After I have done what I promised?

SHEPHERD.:

Ay, sir.

AUTOLYCUS.:

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

CLOWN.:

In some sort, sir: but though my case be a pitiful one, I hope I

shall not be flayed out of it.

AUTOLYCUS.:

O, that's the case of the shepherd's son. Hang him, he'll be made

an example.

CLOWN.:

Comfort, good comfort! We must to the king and show 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 performed; and remain, as he says, your pawn

till it be brought you.

AUTOLYCUS.:

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.

CLOWN.:

We are blessed in this man, as I may say, even blessed.

SHEPHERD.:

Let's before, as he bids us: he was provided to do us good.

[Exeunt Shepherd and Clown.]

AUTOLYCUS.:

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 with 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.

[Exit.]