But fhall I go mourn for that, my dear?
The pale moon fhines by night:

And when I wander bere and there,
I then do go moft right.

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

k

"My traffick is fheets; when the kite builds, look to i leffer linen. My father nam'd me, Autolycus; who, being, as I am, litter'd under Mercury, was likewise a snapperup of 'unconfider'd trifles: " With die, and drab, I purchas'd this caparison! and my revenue is the filly cheat: Gallows, and knock, 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 'leven weather ° tods; every tod yields pound and odd fhilling: fifteen hundred fhorn, -What comes the wool to?

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

[Afide.

Clo. I cannot do't without counters. -Let me fee; what am I to buy for our fheep-fhearing feaft? Three pound of Jugar; five pound of currants; rice-What will this fifter

My traffick is fheets ;]—I am a dealer in, make it my practice to fteal fheets.

i leffer linen.]—'tis faid, the female is, at that period, apt to pilfer it for the furniture of her neft.

* litter'd under Mercury,]-born under that planet.

1 unconfidered]—infignificant.

With die, and drab, I purchas'd this caparison; &c.]-By gaming and gallantry I am reduced to thefe tattered garments; and my prefent fupport depends upon low thievery: the dread of refiftance in the attack, and death on the difcovery deter me from highway robbery. • tods ;]-produce a tod, 28.

Every living.
Springe]-gin, fnare.

of

of mine do with rice? But my father hath made her miftress of the feast, and fhe lays it on. She hath made me four and twenty nofe-gays for the fhearers: three-man fong-men all, and very good ones; but they are most of them means, and bafes: but one puritan among them, and he fings pfalms to horn-pipes. I must have saffron, to colour the warden-pies; mace-dates-none; that's out of my note: nutmegs, feven; a race, or two, of ginger; -but that I may beg;-four pound of prunes, and as many raifins o'the fun.

Aut. Oh, that ever I was born! [Groveling on the ground. Clo. I'the name of me,

Aut. Oh, help me, help me! pluck but off these 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, fir, the loathfomeness 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, fir, and beaten; my money and apparel ta'en from me, and these deteftable things put upon me.

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

Aut. A foot-man, fweet fir, a foot-man.

Clo. Indeed, he fhould be a foot-man, by the garments he hath 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 fir, tenderly, oh!

Clo. Alas, poor foul.

[Helping him up.

a three-man fong-men]-fingers of catches in three parts.

means,]-trebles.

• awarden]-pear.

Aut.

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

Clo. How now? canft ftand?

Aut. Softly, dear fir; [Picks his pocket] good fir, foftly: you ha' done me a charitable office.

Clo. Doft lack any money? I have a little money for thee.

Aut. No, good fweet fir; no, I beseech you, fir: I have a kinfman not paft three quarters of a mile hence, unto 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, fir, that I have known to go about with 'trol-my-dames: I knew him once a fervant of the prince; I cannot tell, good fir, for which of his virtues it was, but he was certainly whip'd out of the court.

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

Aut. Vices I would fay, fir. I know this man well: he hath been fince an ape-bearer; then a procefs-ferver, a bailiff; then he compass'd " a motion of the prodigal fon, and married a tinker's wife within a mile where my land and living lies; and, having flown over many knavish profeflions, he fettled only in a rogue: fome call him Autolycus.

Clo. Out upon him! Prig, for my life, prig: he haunts wakes, fairs, and bear-baitings.

Aut. Very true, fir; he, fir, he; that's the rogue, that put me into this apparel.

trol-my-dames :]-trou-madame tables, or pigeon-holes.

▾ abide.]-fojourn there for a while; barely endure the air of it. "a motion]-puppet-shew.

Prig,]-The cant term for a thief.

Clo. Not a more cowardly rogue in all Bohemia; if you had but look'd big, and spit at him, he'd have run.

Aut. I must confefs to you, fir, I am no fighter: I am falfe at heart that way; and that he knew, I warrant him. Clo. How do you now?

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

Clo. Shall I bring thee on thy way!

Aut. No, good-fac'd fir; no, sweet fir.

Clo. Then fare thee well; I must go to buy fpices for our sheep-fhearing. [Exit. Aut. Profper you, fweet fir!-Your purfe is not hot enough to purchase your spice. I'll be with you at your fheep-fhearing too: If I make not this cheat bring out another, and the shearers prove sheep, let me * be unroll'd, and my name put into the book of virtue!

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

And merrily bent the ftile-a:
A merry heart goes all the day,
Your fad tires in a mile-a.

SCENE

A Shepherd's Cot.

[Exit.

III.

Enter Florizel and Perdita.

Flo. These your unufual weeds to each part of

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,

you

Per.

Per. Sir, my gracious lord,

To chide at your extremes, it not becomes me;
Oh, pardon, that I name them: your high self,
The gracious mark o'the land, you have obscur'd
With a fwain's wearing; and me, poor lowly maid,
Moft goddess-like prank'd up: But that our feasts
In every mefs have folly, and the feeders

b

Digeft it with a custom, I fhould blush

To fee

с

you fo attired; fwoon, I think,

To fhew myself a glass.

Flo. I blefs the time,

When my good falcon made her flight across

Thy father's ground.

Per. Now Jove afford you cause!

To me, the difference forges dread; your greatness
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,

d

Vilely bound up? What would he fay? Or how
Should I, in these my borrow'd flaunts, behold
The fternness of his presence?

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;

2

extremes,]-extravagant conduct on this occafion.

a mark o'the land,]-the object of general notice and expectation.

b

prank'd up :]-trick'd out.

a Vilely bound up?]-Thus coarsely clad.

Sf 2