Of your fresh princess; o'er and o'er divides him
'Twixt his unkindness and his kindness: th' one
He chides to hell, and bids the other grow
Faster than thought, or time.
Flo.

Worthy Camillo,
What colour for my visitation shall I
Hold

up

before him?
Cam.

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.
Flo.

I am bound to you.
There is some sap in this.
Cam.

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 loth to be. Besides, you know,
Prosperity's the very bond of love,
Whose fresh complexion, and whose heart together,
Affliction alters.
Per.

One of these is true :
I think, affliction may subdue the cheek,
But not take in the mind.
Cam.

Yea, say you so ?
There shall not, at your father's house, these seven

years,
Be born another such.
Flo.

My good Camillo,

VOL. III.

LI

She is as forward of her breeding, as
She is i' the rear our birth.
Cam.

I cannot say, 'tis pity
She lacks instructions, for she seems a mistress
To most that teach.
Per.

Your pardon, sir; for this
I'll blush you thanks.
Flo.

My prettiest Perdita.-
But, 0, 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-
Cam.

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.

Enter AUTOLYCUS.

Aut. 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

6 – pomander,] A pomander was a ball of perfumes, and worn in the pocket, or about the neck.

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 sense-
less; '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 a whoo-bubS 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.
Cam. Nay, but my letters, by this means being there
So soon as you arrive, shall clear that doubt.
Flo. And those that you'll procure from king Leon-

tes?
Cam. Shall satisfy your father.
Per.

Happy be you!
All that you speak shows fair.
Cam.

Whom have we here?

[Seeing AUTOLYCUS.
We'll make an instrument of this: omit
Nothing may give us aid.

Aut. If they have overheard me now,—why hanging.
Cam. How now, good fellow! Why shakest thou

Fear not, man; here's no harm intended to thee.
Aut. I am a poor fellow, sir.

Cam. Why, be so still; here's nobody will steal that from thee: yet, for the outside of thy poverty, we must

so ?

7

8

I would have filed keys off,] “I would have fill'd keys of” in the old copies of 1623 and 1632, but corrected in the third folio of 1664.

- with a wh00-BUB-] So spelt in the original, supporting the etymology of whoop-up given by some lexicographers. The meaning, of course, is what we now call a hubbub; and in this form we meet with it in several writers of the time of Shakespeare. In 1619, Barnabe Rich (regarding whom see the Introduction to “ Twelfth-Night ") published a tract, which he calls “ The Irish Hubbub, or English Hue and Cry,” which fortifies Todd's opinion, that “it seems clearly to have implied 'the whoop is up,' the hue and cry is making.”

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.

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

Cam. Nay, pr’ythee, dispatch : the gentleman is half flayed already

Aut. Are you in earnest, sir?-[Aside.] I smell the trick of it.

Flo. Dispatch, I pr’ythee.

Aut. Indeed, I have had earnest; but I cannot with conscience take it. Cam. Unbuckle, unbuckle.—

[Flo. and Autol. 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 ever) to ship-board"
Get undescried.
Per.

I see, the play so lies,
That I must bear a part.
Cam.

No remedy.—
Have
you

done there? Flo.

Should I now meet my father, He would not call me son. Cam.

Nay, you shall have no hat.

10

Come, lady, come.-Farewell, my friend.
Aut.

Adieu, sir.
Flo. O Perdita! what have we twain forgot?
Pray you, a word.

[They converse apart.
Cam. 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 review Sicilia, for whose sight
I have a woman's longing.
Flo.

Fortune speed us !-
Thus we set on, Camillo, to the sea-side.
Cam. The swifter speed, the better.

[Ereunt FLORIZEL, PERDITA, and CAMILLO. Aut. 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 any thing 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.

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.

Clo. See, see, what a man you are now! There is

- I would not do't :) The meaning seems very evident, though Malone and Steevens differed about it. Autolycus says, “I would not acquaint the king with what I know, because it would be a piece of honesty, and inconsistent with my profession. I hold it the more knavery to conceal it.”

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