The Arden Shakespeare Complete Works

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The Arden Shakespeare Complete Works Page 569

by William Shakespeare


  40

  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.

  POLIXENES That’s likewise part of my intelligence: but,

  45

  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

  50

  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.

  55

  4.3 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,

  5

  With hey! the sweet birds, O how they sing!

  Doth set my pugging tooth an 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,

  10

  Are summer songs for me and my aunts,

  While we lie tumbling in the hay.

  I have served Prince Florizel, and in my time wore

  three-pile, but now I am out of service.

  But shall I go mourn for that, my dear?

  15

  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

  Then my account I well may give,

  And in the stocks avouch it.

  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

  25

  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. A

  30

  prize! a prize!

  Enter Clown.

  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.

  35

  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.

  40

  She hath made me four-and-twenty nosegays for the

  shearers, three-man song-men all, and very good ones;

  but they are most of them means and basses but one

  puritan amongst them, and he sings psalms to horn-

  pipes. I must have saffron to colour the warden pies;

  45

  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’th’

  sun.

  AUTOLYCUS O that ever I was born!

  50

  [grovelling on the ground]

  CLOWN I’th’ name of me!

  AUTOLYCUS O, help me, help me! pluck but off these

  rags; and then, death, death!

  CLOWN Alack, poor soul! thou hast need of more rags to

  lay on thee, rather than have these off.

  55

  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.

  60

  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?

  AUTOLYCUS A footman, sweet sir, a footman.

  65

  CLOWN Indeed, he should be a footman by the

  garments he has 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!

  70

  CLOWN Alas, poor soul!

  AUTOLYCUS O, good sir, softly, good sir! I fear, sir, my

  shoulder-blade is out.

  CLOWN How now? canst stand?

  AUTOLYCUS Softly, dear sir [Picks his pocket.]; good sir,

  75

  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

  80

  hence, unto whom I was going: I shall there have

  money, or anything I want: offer me no money, I pray

  you; that kills my heart.

  CLOWN What manner of fellow was he that robbed you?

  AUTOLYCUS A fellow, sir, that I have known to go about

  85

  with troll-my-dames: I knew him once a servant of the

  prince: I cannot tell, good sir, for which of his virtues

  it was, but he was certainly whipped out of the court.

  CLOWN His vices, you would say; there’s no virtue

  whipped out of the court: they cherish it to make it

  90

  stay there; and yet it will no more but abide.

  AUTOLYCUS Vices I would say, sir. I know this man well;

  he hath been since an ape-bearer, then a process-

  server (a bailiff), then he compassed a motion of the

  Prodigal Son, and married a tinker’s wife within a

  95

  mile where my land and living lies; and, having flown

  over many knavish professions, he settled only in

  rogue. Some call him Autolycus.

  CLOWN Out upon him! prig, for my life, prig: he haunts

  wakes, fairs, and bear-baitings.

  100

  AUTOLYCUS Very true, sir; he, sir, he: that’s the rogue

  that put me into this apparel.

  CLOWN Not a more cowardly rogue in all Bohemia: if

  you had but looked big and spit at him, he’d have run.

  AUTOLYCUS I must confess to you, sir, I am no fighter:

  105

  I am false of heart that way; and that he knew, I

  warrant him.

  CLOWN How do you now?

  AUTOLYCUS Sweet sir, much better than I was: I can

  stand, and walk: I will even take my leave of you, and

  110

  pace softly towards my kinsman’s.

  CLOWN Shall I bring thee on the way?

  AUTOLYCUS No, good-faced sir; no, sweet sir.

  CLOWN Then fare-thee-well: I must go buy spices for

  our sheep-shearing. Exit.

  115

  AUTOLYCUS Prosper you, sweet sir! Your purse is not

&
nbsp; hot enough to purchase your spice. I’ll be with you at

  your sheep-shearing too: if I make not this cheat bring

  out another, and the shearers prove sheep, let me be

  unrolled, and my name put in the book of virtue!

  120

  Song.

  Jog on, jog on, the foot-path way,

  And merrily hent the stile-a:

  A merry heart goes all the day,

  Your sad tires in a mile-a. Exit.

  4.4 Enter FLORIZEL and PERDITA followed, at a little distance, by Shepherd, Clown; POLIXENES, CAMILLO, disguised; MOPSA, DORCAS, servants, shepherds and shepherdesses.

  FLORIZEL

  These your unusual weeds, to each part of you

  Do give a life: no shepherdess, but Flora

  Peering in April’s front. This your sheep-shearing

  Is as a meeting of the petty gods,

  And you the queen on’t.

  PERDITA Sir: my gracious lord,

  5

  To chide at your extremes, it not becomes me –

  O pardon, that I name them! Your high self,

  The gracious mark o’th’ land, you have obscur’d

  With a swain’s wearing, and me, poor lowly maid,

  Most goddess-like prank’d up: but that our feasts

  10

  In every mess have folly, and the feeders

  Digest it with a custom, I should blush

  To see you so attir’d; swoon, I think,

  To show myself a glass.

  FLORIZEL I bless the time

  When my good falcon made her flight across

  15

  Thy father’s ground.

  PERDITA Now Jove afford you cause!

  To me the difference forges dread (your greatness

  Hath not been us’d to fear): even now I tremble

  To think your father, by some accident

  Should pass this way, as you did: O the Fates!

  20

  How would he look, to see his work, so noble,

  Vilely bound up? What would he say? Or how

  Should I, in these my borrowed flaunts, behold

  The sternness of his presence?

  FLORIZEL Apprehend

  Nothing but jollity. The gods themselves,

  25

  Humbling their deities to love, have taken

  The shapes of beasts upon them: Jupiter

  Became a bull, and bellow’d; the green Neptune

  A ram, and bleated; and the fire-rob’d god,

  Golden Apollo, a poor humble swain,

  30

  As I seem now. Their transformations

  Were never for a piece of beauty rarer,

  Nor in a way so chaste, since my desires

  Run not before mine honour, nor my lusts

  Burn hotter than my faith.

  PERDITA O, but sir,

  35

  Your resolution cannot hold when ’tis

  Oppos’d, as it must be, by th’ power of the king:

  One of these two must be necessities,

  Which then will speak, that you must change this purpose,

  Or I my life.

  FLORIZEL Thou dearest Perdita,

  40

  With these forc’d thoughts, I prithee, darken not

  The mirth o’th’ feast. Or I’ll be thine, my fair,

  Or not my father’s. For I cannot be

  Mine own, nor anything to any, if

  I be not thine. To this I am most constant,

  45

  Though destiny say no. Be merry, gentle,

  Strangle such thoughts as these with anything

  That you behold the while. Your guests are coming:

  Lift up your countenance, as it were the day

  Of celebration of that nuptial which

  50

  We two have sworn shall come.

  PERDITA O lady Fortune,

  Stand you auspicious!

  [Shepherd, Clown, Mopsa, Dorcas and others come

  forward, with the disguised Polixenes and Camillo.]

  FLORIZEL See, your guests approach:

  Address yourself to entertain them sprightly,

  And let’s be red with mirth.

  SHEPHERD

  Fie, daughter! when my old wife liv’d, upon

  55

  This day she was both pantler, butler, cook,

  Both dame and servant; welcom’d all, serv’d all;

  Would sing her song and dance her turn; now here

  At upper end o’th’ table, now i’th’ middle;

  On his shoulder, and his; her face o’fire

  60

  With labour, and the thing she took to quench it

  She would to each one sip. You are retired,

  As if you were a feasted one, and not

  The hostess of the meeting: pray you, bid

  These unknown friends to’s welcome; for it is

  65

  A way to make us better friends, more known.

 

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