Aut. Oh, help me, help me: plack but off the fe rags, and then death, death

Clo. Alack, poor foul, thou haft need of more rags to lay on thee, rather than have thefe off.

Aut. Oh, Sir, the loathfomenefs of them offends me, more than the stripes I have receiv'd, which are mighty ones, and millions.

Clo. Alas, poor man! a million of beating may come to a great matter.

Aut. I am robb'd, Sir, and beaten : my money and apparel ta'en from me, and these deteftable things put upon me.

Clo. What, by a horfe-man, or a foot-man?

Aut. A foot-man, fweet Sir, a foot-man?

Clo. Indeed, he should be a foot-man, by the garments he has left with thee; if this be a horse-man's coat, it hath feen very hot fervice. Lend me thy hand, I'll help thee. Come, lend me thy hand.

Aut. Oh! good Sir, tenderly, oh!
Clo. Alas, poor foul.

[Helping him up.

Aut. O good Sir, foftly, good Sir: I fear, Sir, my fhoulder-blade is out.

Clo. How now? canft ftand?

Aut. Softly, dear Sir; good Sir, foftly; you ha' done me a charitable office.

Clo.Doft lack any money? I have a little money for thee. Aut. No, good fweet Sir; no, I befeech you, Sir; I have a kinfman not paft three quarters of a mile hence, anto whom I was going; I fhall there have money, or any thing I want offer me no money, I pray you; that kills my heart.

Clo. What manner of fellow was he, that robb'd you? Aut. A fellow, Sir, that I have known to go about with trol-my-dames: I knew him once a fervant of the Prince; I cannot tell, good Sir, for which of his virtues it was, but he was certainly whipp'd out of the court.

Clo His vices, you would fay; there's no virtue whipp'd out of the court; they cherish it to make it stay there, and yet it will no more but abide.

N 5

Aut.

Aut. Vices I would fay, Sir. I know this man well, he hath been fince an ape-bearer, then a procefs-ferver, a bailiff; then he compafs'd a motion of the prodigal Yon, and married a tinker's wife within a mile where my land and living lies; and, having flown over many knavifh profeffions, he fettled only in rogue; fome call him Autolicus.

Clo. Out upon him, prig! 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 look'd big, and fpit at him, he'd have run. Aut. I must confefs 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?

Aut. Sweet Sir, much better than I was; I can fland, and walk; I will even take my leave of you, and pace foftly towards my kinfman's.

Clo. Shall I bring thee on thy way?

Aut. No, good-fac'd Sir; no, fweet Sir.

Clo. Then, farewel, I must go buy fpices for our fheep-fhearing.

[Exit. Aut. Profper you, fweet Sir! your purfe is not hot enough to purchase your fpice. I'll be with you at your sheep-fhearing too: if I make not this cheat bring out another, and the fhearers prove fheep, (25) let me be unroll'd, and my name put into the book of virtue!

SONG.

Jog on, jog on, the foot-path way,

And merrily hent the file-a.

A merry heart goes all the day,

Your fad tires in a mile-a.

[Exit.

(25) Let me be unroll'd, and my name put in the book of virtue.] Begging gypfies, &c. in the time of our Author were in gangs, that had fomething of the regularity of an incorporated body. This is al luded to here. From this noble fociety he wishes he may be unroll'd, if he does not do fo, and se.

Mr. Warburton.
SCENE

SCENE, the profpect of a Shepherd's Cott.

Enter Florizel and Perdita.

Flo.THESE your unufual weeds to each part of you

Do give a life: no fhepherdefs, but Flora

Peering in April's front. This your sheep-fhearing
Is as a meeting of the petty gods,

And you the Queen on't.

Per. Sir, my gracious Lord,

To chide at your extreams it not becomes me:
Oh pardon, that I name them: your high felf,
The gracious mark o'th' land, you have obfcur'd
With a fwain's wearing; and me, poor lowly maid,
Moft goddess-like prank'd up. But that our feas
In every mefs have folly, and the feeders
Digeft it with a custom, I should blush

To fee you fo attired; fworn, I think,
To fhew myself a glafs.

Flo. I blefs the time,

When my good falcon made her flight a-cross
Thy father's ground.

Per. Now Jove afford you caufe!

To me the difference forges dread; (your greatnefs
Hath not been us'd to fear;) even now I tremble
To think, your father, by fome accident,

Should pass this way, as you did: oh, the fates!
How would he look, to fee his work, fo noble,
Vilely bound up! what would he fay! or how
Should I in thefe my borrow'd flaunts behold
The fternness of his prefence?

Flo. Apprehend

Nothing but jollity: the gods themselves,
Humbling their deities to love, have taken
The shapes of beafts 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 fwain,

As I feem now. Their transformations
Were never for a piece of beauty rarer,
N 6

Nor

Nor in a way so chafte: fince my defires
Run not before mine honour, nor my lufts
Burn hotter than my faith.

Per. O, but, dear Sir,

Your refolution cannot hold, when 'tis

Oppos'd, as it must be, by th' power o'th' King.
One of these two must be neceffities,

Which then will speak, that you must change this purpose,
Or I my life.

Flo. Thou deareft Perdita,

With thefe forc'd thoughts, I pr'ythee, darken not
The mirth o'th' feaft; or I'll be thine, my fair,
Or not my father's. For I cannot be

Mine own, nor any thing to any, if

I be not thine. To this I am most constant,
Tho' deftiny fay no. Be merry, (Gentle,)
Strangle fuch thoughts as thefe, with any thing
That you behold the while. Your guefts are coming:
Lift up your countenance, as 'twere the day

Of celebration of that nuptial, which

We two have fworn fhall come.

Per. O lady Fortune,

Stand you aufpicious!

Enter Shepherd, Clown, Mopfa, Dorcas, Servants; and Polixenes and Camillo difguis'd.

Flo. See, your guests approach;

Addrefs yourself to entertain them fprightly,
And let's be red with mirth.

Shep. Fy, daughter; when my old wife liv'd, upon This day he was both pantler, butler, cook,

Both dame and fervant; welcom'd all, ferv'd all;
Would fing her fong, and dance her turn; now here
At upper end o'th' table, now i'th' middle:
On his fhoulder, and his; her face o' fire
With labour; and the thing fhe took to quench it
She would to each one fip. You are retired,
As if you were a feasted one, and not
The hoftefs of the meeting: pray you, bid
These unknown friends to's welcome, for it is

A

A way to make us better friends, more known.
Come, quench your blufhes, and prefent yourself
That which you are, miftrefs o'th' feaft.
Come on,
And bid us welcome to your sheep-fhearing,
As your good flock fhall profper.

Per. Sirs, welcome.

[T. Pol. and Cam.

It is my father's will, I should take on me

The hoftefsfhip o'th' day; you're welcome, Sirs.

Give me thofe flowers there, Dorcas.-Reverend Sirs,
For you there's rofemary and rue, these keep
Seeming and favour all the winter long :

Grace and remembrance be unto you both,
And welcome to our fhearing!

Pol. Shepherdefs,

(A fair one are you,) well you fit our ages With flowers of winter.

Per. Sir, the year growing ancient,

Not yet on fummer's death, nor on the birth
Of trembling winter, the faireft flowers o'th' feafon
Are our carnations, and ftreak'd gilly-flowers,
Which fome call Nature's bastards: of that kind
Our ruftick garden's barren, and I care not

To get flips of them.

Pol. Wherefore, gentle maiden,

Do you neglect them?

Per. For I have heard it faid,

There is an art, which in their pideness shares
With great creating Nature.

Pol. Say, there be;

Yet Nature is made better by no mean,

But Nature makes that mean; fo over that art,

Which, you fay, adds to Nature, is an art

That Nature makes; you fee, fweet maid, we marry

A gentler fcyon to the wildeft ftock;

And make conceive a bark of baser kind

By bud of nobler race.

This is an art,

Which does mend Nature, change it rather; but

The art itfelf is Nature.

Per. So it is.

Pol. Then make your garden rich in gilly-flowers,

And