Is counted lost for ever, Perdita, I pr'ythee call't; for this ungentle business, That, for thy mother's fault, art thus expos'd it rages, how it takes up the shore! but that's not to the point: O, the most piteous cry of the poor souls! sometimes to see 'em, and not to see 'em: now the ship boring the moon with her main-mast; and anon swallowed with yest and froth, as you'd thrust a cork into a hogshead. And then for the land service,-To see how the bear tore out his shoulderbone! how he cried to me for help, and said, his name was Antigonus, a nobleman:-But to make an end of the ship:-to see how the sea flap-dragoned it :-but, first, how the poor souls roared, and the sea mocked them;-and how the poor gentleman roared, and the bear mocked him, both roaring louder than the sea, or weather. Shep. 'Name of mercy, when was this, boy? Clo. Now, now; I have not winked since I saw these sights: 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, to have helped the old man! Clo, I would you had been by the ship side, to have helped her; there your charity would have lacked footing. [Aside. Shep. Heavy matters! heavy matters! but look thee here, boy. Now bless thyself; thou met'st with things dying, I with things new born. Here's a sight for thee; look thee, a bearing-cloth for a squire's child! Look thee here: take up, take up, boy; open't. So, let's see; It was told me, I should be rich, by the fairies: this is some changeling---open't: What's within, boy? Clo. You're a made old man; if the sins of your youth are forgiven you, you're well to live. Gold! all gold! way. We are lucky, boy; and to be so still, re- Clo. Go you the next way with your findings; I'll go see if the bear be gone from the gentleman, and how much he hath eaten they are never curst, but when they are hungry: if there be any of him left, I'll bury it. Shep. I would, there were no age between ten and three-and-twenty; or that youth would sleep out the rest; for there is nothing in the between but getting wenches with child, wronging the ancientry, Shep. This is fairy gold, boy, and 'twill prove so: stealing, fighting.-Hark you now!--Would any but these boiled brains of nineteen and two-and-up with it, keep it close; home, home, the next10 twenty, hunt this weather? They have scared away two of my best sheep; which, I fear, the wolf will sooner find than the master: if any where I have them, 'tis by the sea-side, browzing of ivy. Good luck, an't be thy will! what have we here? [Taking up the Child.] Mercy on's, a barne; a very pretty barne! A boy, or a child, I wonder? A pretty one; a very pretty one: Sure some scape: though Shep. That's a good deed; If thou may'st disI am not bookish, yet I can read waiting-gentle-cern by that which is left of him, what he is, fetch woman in the scape. This has been some stairwork, some trunk-work, some 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 son come; he holla'd but even now. Whoa, ho, hoa! Enter Clown. Clo. Hilloa, loa! Shep. What, art so near? If thou'lt see a thing to talk on when thou art dead and rotten, come hither. What ailst thou, man? Clo. I have seen two such sights, by sea, and by land; but I am not to say, it is a sea, for it is now the sky; betwixt the firmament and it, you cannot thrust a bodkin's point. Shep. Why, boy, how is it? Clo. I would, you did but see how it chafes, how 1 i. e. description. The writing afterward discovered with Perdita. 2A savage clamour. This clamour was the cry of the dogs and hunters; then seeing the bear, he cries this is the chase, i. e. the animal pursued. me to the sight of him. Clo. Marry, will I: and you shall help to put him i' the ground. Shep. 'Tis a lucky day, boy; and we'll do good [Exeunt. deeds on't. ACT IV. Enter Time, as Chorus. and terror, both joy 12. Of good and bad; that make, and unfold error, 7 A bearing-cloth, is the mantle of fine cloth, in which a child was carried to be baptized. SA changeling. Some child left behind by the fairies, in the room of one which they had stolen. 9 The old copies read mad. The emendation is 3 This is from the novel. It is there said to be 'sea Theobald's. izie, on which they do greatly feed.' 4 A barne. This word is still in use in the northern dialects for a child. It is supposed to be derived from born, things born seeming to answer to the Latin nati. Stevens says that he had been told that in some of our inland counties a child signified a female infant in contradistinction to a male one; but the assertion wants confirmation, and we may rather refer this use of it to the simplicity of the shepherd. 5 i. e. swallowed it, as our ancient topers swallowed flap-dragons. 6 Shakspeare, who knew that he himself designed Antigonus for an old man, has inadvertently given this knowledge to the shepherd, who had never seen him. 10 i. c. nearest. 11 Curst here signifies mischievous. The old adage says, Curst cows have short horns.' 12 Departed time renders many facts obscure, and in that sense is the cause of error. Time to come brings discoveries with it. 13 It is certain that Shakspeare was well acquainted with the lairs of the drama, as they are called, but disregarded, nay wilfully departed from them, and snatch'd a grace beyond the reach of art. His productions are not therefore to be tried by such laws. 14 i. e. leave unexamined the progress of the interme diate time which filled up the gap in Perdita's story, The reasoning of Time is not very clear; he seems to To o'erthrow law, and in one self-born hour And what to her adheres, which follows after, [Exit. SCENE I. The same. A Room in the Palace of Polixenes. Enter POLIXENES and CAMILLO. Pol. I pray thee, good Camillo, be no more importunate: 'tis a sickness, denying thee any thing; a death, to grant this. Cam. It is fifteen years, since I saw my country: though I have, for the most part, been aired abroad, I desire to lay my bones there. Besides, the penitent king, my master, hath sent for me: to whose feeling sorrows I might be some allay, or I o'erween to think so; which is another spur to my departure. Pol. As thou lovest me, Camillo, wipe not out the rest of thy services, 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 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. 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 neighbours, 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. With heigh! the doxy over the dale,- For the red blood reigns in the winter's pale." 10 The lark, that tirra-lirra chants,- Are summer songs for me and my aunts,'1 I have served Prince Florizel, and, in my time, I then do most go right. If tinkers may have leave to live, And bear the sow-skin budget; And in the stocks avouch it. My traffick is sheets; when the kite builds, look to Aut. If the springe hold, the cock's mine. Clo. Let me see ;-Every 'leven wether-tods;15 Cam. Sir, it is three days since I saw the prince every tod yields-pound and odd shilling; fifteen What his happier affairs may be, are to me un-hundred shorn,-What comes the wool to? known: but I have missingly noted," 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 mean, that he who overthrows every thing, and inakes as well as overwhelms custom, may surely infringe the laws of custom as they are made by him. 1 i. e. imagine with me. It is a French idiom which Shakspeare has played upon in the Taming of the Shrew. 4 It should be sirteen, as Time has just stated, and future passages have it. 5 Heaping friendships, friendly offices. 7 Angle is here used for the bait, or line and hook, that draws his son like a fish away. 8 Autolycus was the son of Mercury, and as famous for all the arts of fraud and thievery as his father. [Aside Clo. I cannot do't without counters, 16-Let me see; what am I to buy for our sheep-shearing feast? Three pound of sugar; five pound of currants: rice and red were used for the sake of the antithesis. The glow of spring reigns over the paleness of winter. 10 A puggard was a cant name for some kind of thief 13 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. 14 The silly cheat is one of the slang terms belong. ing to coney-catching or thievery. It is supposed to have meant picking of pockets. 15 Every cleven sheep will produce a tod or twentyeight pounds of wool. The price of a tod of wood was about 20 or 228. in 1581. 9 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 16 Counters were circular pieces of base metal, anEnglish pale, the pale of the church. The words paleciently used by the illiterate to adjust their reckonings. 8 -What will this sister of mine do with rice? | wife within a mile where my land and living lies; But my father hath made her mistress of the feast, and, having flown over many knavish professions, and she lays it on. She hath made me four-and-he settled only in rogue: some call him Autolycus. twenty nosegays for the shearers: three-man song- Clo. Out upon him! Prig, for my life, prig: he men' all, and very good ones; but they are most haunts wakes, fairs, and bear-batings. of them means and bases: but one Puritan Aut. Very true, sir, he sir, he; that's the rogue, amongst them, and he sings psalms to hornpipes. that put me into this apparel. I must have saffron, to colour the warden pies;3 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! [Grovelling on the ground. Clo. I' the name of me,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. O 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? Clo. Indeed, he should be a footman, by the gar- hand. 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? Aut. Sweet sir, much better than I was; I can stand, and walk: I will even take my leave of you, and pace softly towards my kinsman's. Clo. Shall I bring thee on the way? Aut. Prosper you, sweet sir!-[Exit Clown.] Your purse is not hot enough to purchase your spice. I'll be with you at your sheep-shearing too: If I make not this cheat bring out another, and the shearers prove sheep, let me be unrolled,” and my name put in the book of virtue! Jog on, jog on, the foot-path way, Your sad tires in a mile-a. [Exit. SCENE III. The same. A Shepherd's Cottage. Enter FLORIZEL and PERDITA, Flo. These your unusual weeds to each part of you Aut. O, good sir, softly, good sir: I fear, sir, my Do give a life: no shepherdess, but Flora, shoulder-blade is out. Peering in April's front. This your sheep-shearing Is as a meeting of the petty gods, And you the queen on't. 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. 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.4 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. 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 1 i. e. singers of catches in three parts. 2 Means are tenors. 3 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 coloured with cochineal instead of saffron, as of old. 4 Dame Quickly, speaking of Falstaff, says :-'the king hath killed his heart,' 5 Trol-my dames. The old English title of this game was pigeon-holes; as the arches in the board through which the balls are to be rolled resemble the cavities made for pigeons in a dove-house. 6 Abide,' only sojourn, or dwell for a time. 7 He compassed a motion,' &c. ; he obtained a puppet-show, &c. 8 Prig, another cant phrase for the order of thieves. Harman in his Caveat for Cursetor, 1573, calls a horsestealer 'a prigger of prancers; for to prigge in their language is to steale." 9 i. e. dismissed from the society of rogues. Per. Sir, my gracious lord, Flo. ness Hath not been used to fear. Even now I tremble 10 To hent the stile is to take the stile. It comes from the Saxon hentan. 11 i. e. the extravagance of his conduct in disguising himself in shepherd's clothes, while he pranked her up most goddesslike. 12 The gracious mark of the land is the object of all men's notice and expectation. 13 To show myself a glass.' She probably means, that the prince, by the rustic habit he wears, seems as if he had sworn to show her as in a glass how she ought to be dressed, instead of being so goddesslike prank'd up. And were it not for the licence and folly which custom had made familiar at such feasts, as that of sheep-shearing, when mimetic sports were allowable, she should blush to see him so attired. 14 Meaning the difference between his rank and hers. 15 Vilely bound up.' This was a metaphor na. tural enough to a writer, though not exactly suitable in the mouth of Perdita. Shakspeare has repeated it more than once in Romeo and Juliet. Flo. Apprehend Nothing but jollity. The gods themselves, Humbling their deities to love, have taken ́ The shapes of beasts 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 swain, As I seem now: Their transformations Were never for a piece of beauty rarer; Nor in a way so chaste: since my desires Run not before mine honour; nor my lusts Burn hotter than my faith. Per. O but, dear sir, Your resolution cannot hold, when 'tis Oppos'd, as it must be, by the power o' the king: One of these two must be necessities, Which then will speak; that you must change this purpose, Or I my life. Flo. Thou dearest Perdita, With these forc'd' thoughts, I pr'ythee, darken not I be not thine: to this I am most constant, Per. O lady fortune, Stand you auspicious! on, Welcome, sir! [To POL. It is my father's will I should take on me The hostesship o' the day :-You're welcome, sir! [To CAMILLO. Give me those flowers there, Dorcas.-Reverend For sirs. you there's rosemary, and rue; these keep 1 This speech is almost literally taken from the novel. 2 Dear is wanting in the oldest copy. 3 i. e. far-fetched, not arising from present objects. 4 i. e. appearance and smell. Rue, being used in exorcisms, was called herb of grace, and rosemary was supposed to strengthen the memory, it is prescribed for that purpose in the ancient herbals. Ophelia distributes the same plants with the same attributes. 5 For again in the sense of cause. 6 Surely there is no reference here to the impracticable pretence of producing flowers by art to rival those of nature, as Steevens supposed. The allusion is to the common practice of producing by art particular varieties of colours on flowers, especially on carnations. 7 In the folio edition it is spelt Gillyvors. Gelofer or gillofer was the old name for the whole class of carnations, pinks, and sweetwilliains; from the French girofle. There were also stock-gelofers, and wall-gelofers. The variegated gilliflowers or carnations, being considered as a produce of art, were properly called nature's bastards, and being streaked with white and red, Perdita considers them a proper emblem of a painted or immo. dest woman; and therefore declines to meddle with them. Sir, the year growing ancient,Not yet on summer's death, nor on the birth Of trembling winter,-the fairest flowers o'the season Are our carnations, and streak'd gilliflowers, Which some call nature's bastards: of that kind Our rustic garden's barren; and I care not To get slips of them. Pol. Wherefore, gentle maiden, Do you neglect them? For I have heard it said, Pol. Say, there be; Yet nature is made better by no mean, But nature makes that mean: so, o'er that art, Which, you say, adds to nature, is an art That nature makes. You see, sweet maid, we marry A gentler scion to the wildest stock; 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 itself is nature. So it is. Per. Pol. Then make your garden rich in gilliflowers," And do not call them bastards. Per. I'll not pu The dibble in earth to set one slip of them: No more than, were I painted, I would wish This youth should say, 'twere well: and only there fore Desire to breed by me.-Here's flowers for you; Per. Out, alas! I would, I had some flowers o' the spring, that might That come before the swallow dares, and take She connects the gardener's art of varying the colours of these flowers with the art of painting the face, a fashion very prevalent in Shakspeare's time. This is Mr. Douce's very ingenious solution of this riddle, which had embarrassed Mr. Steevens. 8 Some call it sponsus solis,the spowse of the sunne, because it sleeps and is awakened with him.'-Lupien's Notable Things, book vi. 9 See Ovid's Metam. b. v. ut summa vestem laxavit ab ora Collecti flores tunicis cecidere remissis ;' or the whole passage as translated by Golding, and given in the Variorun Shakspeare. 10 Johnson had not sufficient imagination to compre hend this exquisite passage, he thought that the poet had mistaken Juno for Pallas, and says, that sweeter than an eyelid is an odd image! But the eyes of Juno were as remarkable as those of Pallas, and of a beauty never yet Equalled in height of tincture.' The beauties of Greece and other Asiatic nations tinged their eyelids of an obscure violet colour by means of some unguent, which was doubtless perfumed like those for the hair, &c. mentioned by Athenæus. 11 Perhaps the true explanation of this passage may be deduced from the subjoined verses in the original Bright Phoebus in his strength, a malady Flo. What? like a corse? Per. No, like a bank, for love to lie and play on; Not like a corse: or if,-not to be buried, But quick, and in mine arms. Come, take your flowers: Methinks, I play as I have seen them do In Whitsun' pastorals: sure, this robe of mine Flo. What you do, Crowns what you are doing in the present deeds, O Doricles, Your praises are too large but that your youth, Flo. Per. I'll swear for 'em.3 Pol. This is the prettiest low-born lass, that ever Ran on the green-sward: nothing she does, or seems, But smacks of something greater than herself; Too noble for this place. Cam. He tells her something, That makes her blood look out: Good sooth, she is queen of curds and cream. The Clo. Come on, strike up. Dor. Mopsa must be your mistress: marry, garlic, To mend her kissing with. Mop. Now, in good time! Clo. Not a word, a word; we stand upon our Here a dance of Shepherds and Shepherdesses. Pol. Pray, good shepherd, what Fair swain is this, which dances with your daughter? He looks like sooth: He says he loves my daughter; edition of Milton's Lycidas, which he subsequently oinitted, and altered the epithet unwedded to forsaken in the preceding line: Bring the rathe primrose that unwedded dies, Colouring the pule cheek of unenjoy'd love. Every reader will see that the texture and sentiments' are derived from Shakspeare; and it serves as a beautiful illustration of his meaning. 1 Thus Marlow in his Hero and Leander ;Through whose white skin softer than soundest sleep, With damask eyes the ruby blood doth peep. 2 i. e. you as little know how to fear that I am false, as, &c. 3 Johnson would transfer this speech to the king, and Ritson would read swear for one. Mr. Douce has justly observed that no change is necessary. It is no more than a common phrase of acquiescence, like 'I'll warrant you.' 4 i. e. we are now on our good behaviour. 5 A valuable tract of pasturage. 7 That is dexterously, nimbly. 6 Truth. 8 The trade of a milliner was formerly carried on by men exclusively. 9 With a hie dildo dill, and a dildo dee,' is the bur. Serv. O master, if you did but hear the pedler at the door, you would never dance again after a tabor and pipe; no, the bagpipe could not move you: he he utters them as he had eaten ballads, and all men's sings several tunes, faster than you'll tell money; ears grew to his tunes. Clo. He could never come better; he shall come matter, merrily set down, or a very pleasant thing in: I love a ballad but even too well; if it be doleful indeed, and sung lamentably. Serv. He hath songs, for man, or woman, of all sizes; no milliner can so fit his customers with gloves; he has the prettiest love-songs for maids; so without bawdry, which is strange; with such delicate burdens of dildos and fadings; jump her and thump her; and where some stretch-mouth'd rascal would, as it were, mean mischief, and break a foul into the matter, he makes the maid to gap answer, Whoop, do me no harm, good man; puts him off, slights him, with Whoop, do me no harm, good man. 18 Pol. This is a brave fellow. Clo. Believe me thou talkest of an admirable conceited fellow. Has he any unbraided wares?11 Serv. He hath ribbands of all the colours i'the rainbow; points, 12 more than all the lawyers in Bohemia can learnedly handle, though they come lawns: why, he sings them over, as they were gods to him by the gross ; inkles,13 caddisses, 14 cambrics, or goddesses; you would think, a smock were a she-angel; he so chants to the sleeve-hand,' and the work about the square on't.16 Clo. Pr'ythee, bring him in; and let him approach singing. words in his tunes. Per. Forewarn him, that he use no scurrilous Clo. You have of these pedlers, that have more in 'em than you'd think, sister. Per. Ay, good brother, or go about to think. Lawn, as white as driven snow; den of an old ballad or two. Fading is also another burden to a ballad found in Shirley's Bird in a Cage; and perhaps to others. It is also the name given to an Irish dance, probably from fædan, I whistle, as it was danced to the pipes. 10 This was also the burden of an old ballad. 11 i. e. undamaged wares, true and good. This word has sadly perplexed the commentators, who have all left the reader in the dark as to the true meaning. The quotation by Steevens from Any Thing for a Quiet Life' ought to have led to a right explanation:- She says that you sent ware which is not warrantable, braided ware, and that you give not London measure." 12 Points, upon which lies the quibble, were laces with tags. 13 A kind of tape. 14 A kind of ferret or worsted lace. 15 Sleeve-hand, the cuffs, or wristband. 16 The work about the bosom of it. 17 Amber, of which necklaces were made fit to perfume a lady's chamber. 18 These poking-sticks are described by Stubbes in his |