Let Nature crush the fides o'th' earth together,
And mar the Seeds within!- Lift up thy looks!——
From my fucceffion wipe me, father, I

Am heir to my affection.

Cam. Be advis'd.

Flo. I am, and by my fancy; if my reason
Will thereto be obedient, I have reason;
If not, my fenfes, better pleas'd with madness,
Do bid it welcome.

Cam. This is defperate, Sir.

Flo. So call it, but it does fulfil my vow;
I needs must think it honefty. Camillo,
Not for Bohemia, nor the Pomp that may
Be thereat glean'd; for all the Sun fees, or
The clofe Earth wombs, or the profound Seas hide
In unknown fadoms, will I break my oath
To this my Fair belov'd: therefore, I pray you,
As you have ever been my father's friend,
When he shall mifs me, (as, in faith, I mean not
To fee him any more) caft your good counsels
Upon his paffion; let my felf and fortune

Tug for the time to come. This you may know,
And fo deliver, I am put to Sea

With her, whom here I cannot hold on fhore;
And, moft opportune to our Need, I have
A veffel rides faft by, but not prepar'd

For this defign. What course I mean to hold
Shall nothing benefit your knowledge, nor
Concern me the reporting.

Cam. O my lord,

I would your fpirit were easier for advice,
Or stronger for your need.

Flo. Hark, Perdita.

I'll hear you by and by.

Cam. He's irrémovable,

[To Cam.

Refolv'd for flight: now were I happy, if
His Going I could frame to ferve my turn;
Save him from danger, do him love and honour;
Purchase the fight again of dear Sicilia,

And that unhappy King, my mafter, whom
I fo much thirft to fee.

Flo. Now, good Camillo;

I am fo fraught with curious business, that
I leave out ceremony.

Cam. Sir, I think,

You have heard of my poor fervices, i' th' love
That I have born your father?

Flo. Very nobly

Have you deferv'd: it is my father's mufick
To speak your deeds, not little of his care
To have them recompenc'd, as thought on.
Cam. Well, my lord,

[Afide.

If you may please to think I love the King,
And thorough him, what's nearest to him, which is
Your gracious felf, embrace but my direction;
(If your more ponderous and fettled project
May fuffer alteration,) on mine honour,

I'll point you where you fhall have fuch receiving
As thall become your Highness, where you may
Enjoy your mistrefs; from the whom, I fee,
There's no disjunction to be made, but by
(As, heav'ns forefend!) your ruin. Marry her,
And with my beft endeavours, in your absence,
Your discontented father I'll ftrive to qualifie,
And bring him up to liking.

Flo. How, Camillo,

May this, almoft a miracle, be done?

That I may call thee fomething more than man,
And after That truft to thee?

Cam. Have you thought on

A place whereto you'll go?

Flo. Not any yet:

But as th'unthought-on accident is guilty
Of what we wildly do, fo we profess

Our felves to be the flaves of chance, and flies

Of every wind that blows.

Cam. Then lift to me:

This follows, if you will not change your purpose,
But undergo this flight, make for Sicilia;

And

And there present your felf, and your fair Princess
(For fo, I fee, the muft be) 'fore Leontes;
She fhall be habited, as it becomes

The partner of your bed. Methinks, I fee
Leontes opening his free arms, and weeping
His welcomes forth; asks thee, the fon, forgiveness,
As 'twere i'th' father's perfon; kiffes the hands
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
Fafter than thought or time.

Flo. Worthy Camillo,

What colour for my vifitation fhall 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'; (28)

The which hall point you forth at every fitting,
What you must fay; that he fhall not perceive,
But that you have your father's bofom there,
And speak his very heart.

Flo. I am bound to you:
There is some fap in this.

Cam. A courfe more promifing

Than a wild dedication of your felves

To unpath'd waters, undream'd fhores; moft certain,
To miferies enough: no hope to help you,
But as you shake off one, to take another:
Nothing fo certain as your anchors, who

(28) Things known betwixt us three I'll write you down,
The which shall point you forth at ev'ry fitting,

What you must fay;-] Every Sitting, methinks, gives but a very poor Idea. Every fitting, as I have ventur❜d to correct the Text, means, ev'ry convenient Opportunity; every Juncture, when it is fit to speak of fuch, or fuch, a Point. So, in the Tempeft.

For 'tis a Chronicle of day by day,

Not a Relation for a Breakfast, nor
Befitting this firf Meeting.

Do

Do their best office, if they can but stay you
Where you'll be loth to be: befides, you know,
Profperity's the very bond of love,

Whose fresh complexion and whofe heart together
Affliction alters.

Per. One of these is true:

I think, affliction may fubdue the cheek,
But not take in the mind.

Cam. Yea, fay you fo?

There fhall not at your father's house, these seven

years,

Be born another fuch.

Flo. My good Camillo,

She is as forward of her Breeding, as

She is i'th' rear o' our birth,

Cam. I cannot fay, 'tis Pity

She lacks inftructions, for the feems a mistress
To moft that teach.

Per. Your pardon, Sir, for this:

I'll blufh you thanks.

Flo. My prettiest Perdita →→→→→→→→

But, oh, the thorns we ftand upon! Camillo,

Preferver of my father, now of me;

The medicine of our House! how fhall we do?

We are not furnish'd like Bohemia's fon,

Nor shall appear in Sicily

Cam. My lord,

Fear none of this: I think, you know, my fortunes
Do all lye there: it fhall be fo my care

To have you royally appointed, as if

The Scene, you play, were mine. For inftance, Sir, That you may know you fhall not want; one word. -[They talk afide.

Enter Autolicus.

Aut. Ha ha, what a fool Honefty is! and Trust, his worn brother, a very fimple gentleman! I have fold all my trumpery; (29) not a counterfeit ftone,

not

(29) Not a counterfeit Stone, not a ribbon, &c. to keep my pack from fastning]. But these Wares, all together, would not keep the Pack

from

not a ribbon, glass, pomander, browch, table-book, ballad, knife, tape, glove, fhooe-tye, bracelet, hornring to keep my Pack from fafting: they throng who fhould buy firft, as if my trinkets had been hallowed, and brought a benediction to the buyer; by which means, I faw whose purfe was beft in picture; and what I faw, to my good ufe, I remember'd. My good Clown (who wants but fomething to be a reafonable man) grew fo in love with the wenches fong, that he would not ftir his pettitoes 'till he had both tune and words; which fo drew the rest of the herd to me, that all their other senses stuck in ears; you might have pinch'd a placket, it was fenfeless; 'twas nothing to geld a codpiece of a purfe; I would have filed keys off, that hung in chains: no hearing, no feeling, but my Sir's fong, and admiring the nothing of it. So that in this time of lethargy, I pick'd and cut most of their festival purses: and had not the old man come in with a whoo-bub against his daughter and the King's fon, and scar'd my choughs from the chaff, I had not left a purse alive in the whole army.

[Camillo, Flor, and Perd. come forward. Cam. Nay; but my letters by this means being there, So foon as you arrive, fhall clear that Doubt.

Flor. And thofe that you'll procure from King Le

ontes

Cam. Shall fatisfie your father.

Per. Happy be you!

All that you speak fhews fair.
Cam. Who have we here?

We'll make an inftrument of this; omit
Nothing may give us aid.

[Seeing Autol.

from fastning, unless they crouded it fo, that it could not shut close. The Error is as old as the 2d Folio Edition, and from thence continued down. Mr. Pope, who pretends to have collated Impreffions, might have obferv'd that the ft Folio has it, as I have corrected, fafting. The Metaphor is taken from those who have no Provifion left. His Pack, as it would hold a great deal, might be call'd a devouring Pack: and being now emptied of all its Food, it might figuratively be faid to have nothing left to tap its Stomach.

Aut.