three and twenty, or that youth would fleep out the reft for there is nothing in the between but getting wenches with child, wronging the ancientry, ftealing, fighting-hark you now-would any but thefe, boil'd brains of nineteen and two and twenty hunt this weather? they have fcar'd away two of my beft theep, which I fear the wolf will fooner find than the mafter; if any where I have them, 'tis by the fea-fide, brouzing of ivy. Good luck, an't be thy will, what have we here? [Taking up the Child,] Mercy on's, a bearne! a very pretty bearne! a boy or a child, I wonder a pretty one, a very pretty one, fure fome icape: tho' I am not bookish, yet I can read waiting-gentlewoman in the 'fcape. This has been fome ftair-work, fome trunk-work, fome behind-door-work: they were warmer that got this, than the poor thing is here. I'll take it up for pity, yet I'll tarry 'till my fon come: he hollow'd but even now. Whoa, ho-hoa!

Clo. Hilloa, loa!

Enter Clown.

Shep. What, art fo near? if thou'lt fee a thing to talk on when thou art dead and rotten, come hither. What ail'ft thou, man?

Clo. I have feen two fuch fights, by fea and by land; but I am not to fay it is a fea, for it is now the fky; betwixt the firmament and it you cannot truft a bodkin's point. Shep. Why, boy, how is it?

Clo. I would you did but fee how it chafes, how it rages, how it rakes up the fhore; but that's not to the point; oh the most piteous cry of the poor fouls, fometimes to fee. 'em, and not to fee 'em: now the fhip boring the moon. with her main-maft, and anon fwallow'd with yeft and froth, as you'd thrust a cork into a hogfhead. And then the land-fight, to fee how the bear tore out his fhoulderbone, how he cry'd to me for help, and faid his name was Antigonus, a nobleman. But to make an end of the fhip, to fee how the fea flap-dragon'd it. But first how the poor fouls roar'd, and the fea mock'd them. And how the poor gentleman roar'd, and the bear mock'd him; both soaring louder than the fea, or the weather.

Shep. 'Name of mercy, when was this, boy?

Clo

Clo. Now, now, I have not winked fince I faw these fights; the men are not yet cold under water, nor the bear half dined on the gentleman'; he's at it now.

Shep. Would I had been by have help'd the nobleman. Clo. I would you had been by the fhip-fide, to have help'd her; but there your charity would have lack'd footing.

Shep. Heavy matters, heavy matters! but look thee here, boy. Now blefs thy felf; thou meet'ft with things dying, Iwith things new born. Here's a fight for thee; look thee, a bearing-cloth for a fquire's child! look thee here; take up, take up, boy, open't; fo, let's fee: it was told me I fhould be rich by the fairies. This is fome changling open't; what's. within, boy?

Clo. You're a made old man; if the fins of your youth are forgiven you, you're well to live. Gold, all gold. 1 Shep. This is fairy gold, boy, and 'twill prove fo. Up with it, keep it clofe: home, home, the next way. We are lucky, boy, and to be so still requires nothing but fecrefie. Let my fheep go: come, good boy, the next way home.

Clo. Go you the next way with your findings. I'll go fee if the bear be gone from the gentleman, and how much he hath eaten; they are never curft, but when they are hungry: if there be any of him left, i'll bury it.

Shep. That's a good deed. If thou may't difcern by that which is left of him, what he is, fetch me to th fight of him.

Clo. Marry will I, and you fhall help to put him i'th' ground. Shep. "Tis a lucky day, boy, and we'll do good deeds on't. [Exeunt.

Time.

I

ACT IV. SCENE I.

Enter Time as Chorus.

That please some, try all, both joy and terror
Of good and bad, that make and unfold error,
Now take upon me, in the name of Time,
To ufe my wings. Impute it not a crime
To me, or my fwift paffage, that I flide
O'er fixteen years, and leave the growth untry'd
Of that wide gap; fince it is in my power
To o'er-throw law, and in one felf-born hour
To plant and o'erwhelm cuftom. Let me pafs

E 3*

The

The fame I am, ere ancient'ft order was,

Or what is now receiv'd. I witness to
The times that brought them in, so shall I do
To th' fresheft things now reigning, and make ftale
The gliftering of this prefent, as my tale
Now feems to it: your patience this allowing,
I turn my glass, and give my fcene fuch growing
As you had flept between. Leontes leaving
Th' effects of his fond jealoufies, fo grieving
That he shuts up himself; imagine me,
Gentle fpectators, that I now may be
In fair Bithynia, and remember well,
There is a fon o' th' King's, whom Florizel
I now name to you, and with speed so pace
To fpeak of Perdita, now grown in grace
Equal with wondring. What of her enfues
I lift not prophefie. But let Time's news
Be known when 'tis brought forth. A fhepherd's daughter,
And what to her adheres, which follows after,
Is th'argument of time; of this allow,
If ever you have spent time worse ere now :
If never, yet that Time himself doth say,
He wishes earnestly you never may.

SCENE IL. Court of Bithynia.
Enter Polixenes and Camillo.

[Exit.

Pol. I pray thee, good Camillo, be no more importunate; 'tis a fickness denying thee any thing, a death to grant this.

Cam. It is fixteen years fince I faw my country; though I have for the most part been aired abroad, I defire to lay my bones there. Befides, the penitent King, my mafter, hath fent for me, to whofe feeling forrows I might be fome allay, or I o'er-ween to think fo, which is another fpur to my departure.

Pol. As thou lov'ft me, Camillo, wipe not out the rest of thy fervices 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 bui neffes, which one, without thee, can fufficiently manage, nuft either flay to execute them thy felf, or take away with thee the very fervices thou haft done which if I

have not enough confidered, as too much I cannot, to be more thankful to thee fhall be my ftudy, and my profit therein, the heaping friendship. Of that fatal country Sicilia pr'ythee fpeak no more, whofe very naming punishes me with the remembrance of that penitent, as thou call'ft him, and reconciled King my brother, whofe lofs of his moft precious Queen and children are even now to be afresh lamented. Say to me, when faw'st thou the Prince Flo rizel my fon? Kings are no lefs unhappy, their iffue not being gracious, than they are in lofing them, when they have approved their virtues.

Cam. Sir, it is three days fince I faw the Prince; what his happier affairs may be, are to me unknown: but I have (mufingly) noted, he is of late much retired from Court, and is lefs frequent to his princely exercises than formerly he hath appear'd.

Pol, I have confider'd fo much, Camillo, and with fome care fo far, that I have eyes under my fervice, which look upon his removednefs; from whom I have this intelligence, that he is feldom from the houfe of a moft homely fhepherd ; a man, they fay, that from very nothing, and beyond the imagination of his neighbours, is grown into an unspeakable estate.

Cam. I have heard, Sir, of fuch a man, who hath a daughter of moft rare note; the report of her is extended more than can be thought to begin from fuch a cottage.

Pol. That's likewife part of my intelligence; and, I fear, the angle that plucks our fon thither. Thou shalt accompany us to the place, where we will (not appearing what we are) have some question with the fhepherd; from whofe fimplicity, I think it not uneafie to get the cause of my fon's refort thither. Pr'ythee be my prefent partner in this bufinefs, and lay afide the thoughts of Sicilia. Cam. I willingly obey your command.

Pol. My best Camillo, we must disguise our selves. [Exeunt. SCENE III. The Country. Enter Autolicus finging.

When daffodils begin to peere,
over the dale,

With bey the doxy

Why then comes in the freet o' th' year:

For the red blood reigns o'er the winter's pale,

The

The white sheet bleaching on the hedge,
With bey the fweet birds, O how they fing!"
Doth fet my progging tooth on edge,

For a quart of ale is a dish for a King.
The lark that tirra lyra chaunts,

With bey, with bey the thrush and the jay:
Are fummer fongs for me and my aunts,

While we lye tumbling in the bay.

I have ferved Prince. Florizel, and in my time wore threepile, but now I am out of service.

But fhall I go mourn for that, my dear?
The pale moon fbines by night:
And when I wander bere and there,
I then do go moft right,

If tinkers may bave leave to live,
And bear the fow-fkin budget,
Then my account I well may give,
And in the frocks avouch it.

My traffic is sheets; when the kite builds, look to leffer linnen. My father nam'd me Autolicus, who being, as I am, litter'd under Mercury, was likewife a fnapper-up of unconfider'd trifles: with die and drab I purchas'd this caparifon, and my revenue is the fly cheat. Gallows and knocks are too powerful on the high-way, beating and hanging are terrors to me: for the life to come, I fleep out the thought of it. A prize! a prize!

Enter Clown.

Clo. Let me fee, every eleventh weather tods, every tod yields a pound and one odd fhilling; fifteen hundred fhorn, what comes the wooll to ?

Aut. If the fprindge hold, the cock's mine.

[Afide Clo. I cannot do't without compters. Let me fee, what am I to buy for our fheep-fhearing feaft? three pound of fugar, five pound of currants, rice what will this fifter of mine do with rice? but my father hath made her mistress of the feaft, and the lays it on. She hath made me four and twenty nofe-gays for the fhearers; † three-man fongMeaning the poor ragged cloaths he had on.

+Meaning those who fing Catches which are generally in three parts.

men