Thou, not to have had thee, than thus to want thee. 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, pr'ythee speak no more; whose very naming punishes me with the remembrance of that penitent, as thou call'st 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 saw'st 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. Cam. 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,1 he is of late much retired from court; and is less frequent to his princely exercises, than formerly he hath appeared. Pol. 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 neighbors, is grown into an unspeakable estate. Cam. 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. Pol. 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 1 Missingly noted, observed at intervals. 2 Angle is here used for bait, or line and hook. VOL. III. 8 son's resort thither. to get the cause of my son's resort thither. Pr'ythee, be my present partner in this business, and lay aside the thoughts of Sicilia. Cam. I willingly obey your command. Pol. My best Camillo!- We must disguise ourselves. [Exeunt. SCENE II. The same. A Road near the Shep herd'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.2 The white sheet bleaching on the hedge, With, hey! the sweet birds, O how they sing !— Doth set my pugging tooth on edge; 3 For a quart of ale is a dish for a king. The lark, that tirra-lirra chants, With, hey! with, hey! the thrush and the jay,— Are summer songs for me and my aunts,1 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? 1 Autolycus was the son of Mercury, and as famous for all the arts of fraud and thievery as his father. 2 i. e. "the red, the spring blood now reigns over the parts lately under the dominion of winter." A pale was a division, a place set apart from another, as the English pale, the pale of the church. The words pale and red were used for the sake of the antithesis. The glow of spring reigns over the paleness of winter. 3 A puggard was a cant name for some kind of thief. 4 Aunt was a cant word for a bawd or trull. 5 i. e. rich velvet, so called. If tinkers may have leave to live, 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 dye, 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 prize! A prize! Enter Clown. Clo. Let me see;-Every 'leven wether-tods;3 every tod yields-pound and odd shilling; fifteen hundred shorn,-what comes the wool to? Aut. If the springe hold, the cock's mine. [Aside. Clo. I cannot do't without counters.1-Let me see; what am I to buy for our sheep-shearing feast? Three pound of sugar; five pound of currants; rice 5 -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-and-twenty 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 6 1 Autolycus means that his practice was to steal sheets; leaving the smaller linen to be carried away by the kites, who will sometimes carry it off to line their nests. 2 The silly cheat is one of the slang terms belonging to cony-catching or thievery. It is supposed to have meant picking of pockets. 3 Every eleven sheep will produce a tod or twenty-eight pounds of wool. The price of a tod of wool was about 20 or 22s. in 1581. 4 Counters were circular pieces of base metal, anciently used by the illiterate to adjust their reckonings. 5 i. e. singers of catches in three parts. 6 Means are tenors. color the warden pies;1 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. Aut. O that ever I was born! Clo. I'the name of me,— [Grovelling on the ground. Aut. O, help me, help me! pluck but off these rags; and then, death, death! Clo. Alack, poor soul! thou hast need of more rags to lay on thee, rather than have these off. Aut. Ŏ, sir, the loathsomeness of them offends me more than the stripes I have received; which are mighty ones and millions. Clo. Alas, poor man! a million of beating may come to a great matter. Aut. I am robbed, sir, and beaten; my money and apparel ta'en from me, and these detestable things put upon me. Clo. What, by a horse-man, or a foot-man? Aut. A foot-man, sweet sir, a foot-man. Clo. Indeed, he should be a footman, by the garments he hath left with thee; if this be a horse-man's coat, it hath seen very hot service. Lend me thy hand; I'll help thee! come, lend me thy hand. Aut. O, good sir, tenderly, oh! Clo. Alas, poor soul! [Helping him up. Aut. O, good sir, softly, good sir. I fear, sir, my shoulder-blade is out. Clo. How now? canst stand? Aut. Softly, dear sir; [Picks his pocket.] good sir, softly. You ha' done me a charitable office. Clo. Dost lack any money? I have a little money for thee. 1 Wardens are a large sort of pear, called in French Poires de Garde, because, being a late, hard pear, they may be kept very long. It is said that their name is derived from the Anglo-Saxon wearden, to preserve. They are now called baking-pears, and are generally colored with cochineal instead of saffron, as of old. Aut. 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 I want. Offer me no money, I pray you; that kills my heart.1 Clo. What manner of fellow was he that robbed you? Aut. A fellow, sir, that I have known to go about with trol-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. Clo. His vices, you would say; there's no virtue whipped out of the court. They cherish it, to make it stay there; and yet it will no more but abide.3 4 Aut. 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 mile where my land and living lies; and, having flown over many knavish professions, he settled only in rogue. Some call him Autolycus. Clo. Out upon him! Prig,5 for my life, prig: he haunts wakes, fairs, and bear-baitings. Aut. Very true, sir; he, sir, he; that's the rogue that put me into this apparel. Clo. Not a more cowardly rogue in all Bohemia; if you had but looked big, and spit at him, he'd have run. Aut. I must confess to you, sir, I am no fighter. I am false of heart that way; and that he knew, I warrant him. Clo. How do you now? 1 Dame Quickly, speaking of Falstaff, says "The king hath killed his heart." 2 "Trol-my dames." The old English title of this game was pigeonholes; as the arches in the board through which the balls are to be rolled resemble the cavities made for pigeons in a dove-house. 3 "Abide," only sojourn, or dwell for a time. 4 "He compassed a motion," &c.; he obtained a puppet-show, &c. 5 Prig, another cant phrase for the order of thieves. |