Aut. This is a merry ballad ; but á very pretty one. Come, buy of me, come; come buy, come buy ; Come buy, &c. Clo. If I were not in love with Mopsa, thou shouldst take no money of me; but being enthrall'd as I am, it will also be the bondage of certain ribands and gloves. Mop. I was promis'd them against the feast; but they come not too late now. Dor. He hath promised you more than that, or there be liars. Mop. He hath paid you all he promised you: may be, he has paid you more; which will shame you to give him again. Clo. Is there no manners left among maids? will they wear their plackets, where they should bear their faces? Is there not milking-time, when you are going to bed, or kiln-hole, to whistle off these secrets; but you must be tittle-tattling before all our guests? "Tis well, they are whispering: Clamour your tongues,2 and not a word more. Mop. I have done. Come, you promised me a tawdry lace,' and a pair of sweet gloves.4 Clo. Have I not told thee, how I was cozened by the way, and lost all my money? Aut. And, indeed, sir, there are cozeners abroad; therefore it behooves men to be wary. Clo. Fear not thou man, thou shalt lose nothing here. Aut. I hope so, sir; for I have about me many parcels of charge. Clo. What hast here? ballads? Mop. 'Pray now, buy some: I love a ballad in print, a'-life; for then we are sure they are true. Aut. Here's one to a very doleful tune, How a usurer's wife was brought to bed of twenty moneybags at a burden; and how she longed to eat adders' heads, and toads carbonadoed. Mop. Is it true, think you? Aut. Very true; and but a month old. Aut. Why, this is a passing merry one; and goes to the tune of Two maids wooing a man: there's scarce a maid westward, but she sings it; 'tis in request, I can tell you. Aut. Here's the midwife's name to't, one mistress Taleporter; and five or six honest wives', that were present: Why should I carry lies abroad? Mop. 'Pray you now, buy it. Clo. Come on, lay it by: And let's first see more ballads; we'll buy the other things anon. Mop. We can both sing it; if thou'lt bear a part, thou shalt hear; 'tis in three parts. Aut. Here's another ballad, of a fish, that appeared upon the coast, on Wednesday the fourscore of April, forty thousand fathom above water, and sung this ballad against the hard hearts of maids; it was thought, she was a woman, and was turned into a cold fish, for she would not exchange flesh with one that loved her: The ballad is very pitiful and as true." Dor. Is it true, think you? Aut. Five justices' hands at it; and witnesses, more than my pack will hold. Clo. Lay it by too: another. Dor. We had the tune on't a month ago. A. Get you hence, for I must go ; D. Whither? M. O, whither ? D. Whither? D. Me too, let me go thither. A. Neither. D. What, neither? A. Neither. Then, whither go'st? say, whither ? Clo. We'll have this song out anon by ourselves: My father and the gentleman are in sad talk, and we'll not trouble them: Come, bring away thy pack after me. Wenches, I'll buy for you both:-Pedler, let's have the first choice.-Follow me, girls. Aut. And you shall pay well for 'em. [Aside. Will you buy any tape, Or lace for your cape, My dainty duck, my dear-a? Any silk, any thread, Any toys for your head, Of the new'st, and fin'st, fin'st wear-a? Money's a medler, That doth utter all men's ware-a. [Exeunt Clown, AUT. DORC. and MOPIA. Enter a Servant. Serv. Master, there is three carters, three shep herds, three neat-herds, three swine-herds, that have made themselves all men of hair; they call themselves saltiers: and they have a dance which the wenches say is a gallimaufry of gambols, because they are not in't; but they themselves are othe mind, (if it be not too rough for some, that know little but bowling,) it will please plentifully. Shep. Away! we'll none on't; here has been too much homely foolery already :—I know, sir, we weary you. Pol. You weary those that refresh us: Pray, let's see these four threes of herdsmen. Serv. One three of them, by their own report, sir, hath danced before the king; and not the worst of having been in her youth much addicted to wearing fine at the fair of St. Audrey, where gay toys of all sorts necklaces; or it probably implies that they were bought were sold. This fair was held in the Isle of Ely on the Saint's day, the 17th of October; Harpsfield, who tells the story of the saint, describes the necklace:- Solent Angliæ nostræ mulieres torquem quendam, extenuit subtili serica confectum, collo gestare quam Ethelrede torquem appellamus (tawdry lace) forsan in ejus quod diximus memoriam.-Hist. Eccles. Angl. p. 96. Anatomie of Abuses, Part ii :- They be made of yron and steele, and some of brasse, kept as bright as silver, yea, some of silver itselfe; and it is well, if in processe of time, they grow not to be of gold. The fashion whereafter they be made, I cannot resemble to any thing so well as to a squirt or a little squibbe, which little children used to squirt water out withal; and when they come to starching and setting off their ruffes, then must this instrument be heated in the fire, the better to stiffen the ruff. Stowe informs us that about the six-by Shakspeare; they were very much esteemed, and a 4 Sweet, or perfumed gloves, are often mentioned teenth yeare of the queene (Elizabeth) began the making frequent present in the poet's time. of steele poking-sticks, and until that time all lawndresses used setting sticks made of wood or bone.' 1 The kiln-hole generally means the fireplace for drying malt; still a noted gossiping place. 5 All extraordinary events were then turned into A strange report of a monstrous fish that appeared in ballads. In 1604 was entered on the Stationers' bookis highly probable that Shakspeare alludes, the form of a woman from her waist upward." To this 6 i. e. serious. 2 An expression taken from bell-ringing; now con-it tracted to clam. The bells are said to be clammed, when, after a course of rounds or changes, they are all pulled off at once, and give a general clash or clam, by 7' A sale or utterance of ware. Exactus.'-—Baret. which the peal is concluded. As this clam is succeeded skins. A dance of satyrs was no unusual entertainment 8 It is most probable that they were dressed in goat by a silence, it exactly suits the sense of the passage.-in Shakspeare's time, or even at an earlier period. A 3 A tawdry lace was a sort of necklace worn by coun-kind, which had like to have proved fatal to some of the very curious relation of a disguising or mummery of this try wenches; so named after St. Audrey (Ethelreda) actors in it, is related by Froissart as occurring in the who is said to have died of a swelling in her throat, court of France in 1392. which she considered as a particular judgment, for 9 Satyrs. Nares. Is it not too far gone?-Tis time to part them.He's simple, and tells much. [Aside.]-How now, fair shepherd? Your heart is full of something, that does take Your mind from feasting. Sooth, when I was young, And handed love, as you do, I was wont To load my she with knacks: I would have ransack'd The pedler's silken treasury, and have pour'd it Flo. Old sir, I know She prizes not such trifles as these are: How prettily the young swain seems to wash Flo. Do, and be witness to't. Pol. And this my neighbour too? " Flo. And he, and more More than was ever man's,-I would not prize them, Pol. Fairly offer'd. Cam. This shows a sound affection. Shep. Say you the like to him? Per. But, my daughter, I cannot speak So well, nothing so well; no, nor mean better: By the pattern of my own thoughts I cut out The purity of his. Shep. Take hands, a bargain; Is, at the nuptial of his son, a guest Know man from man? dispute his own estate? No, good sir; He has his health, and ampler strength, indeed, Than most have of his age. Mark your divorce, young sir, [Discovering himself. Whom son I dare not call; thou art too base To be acknowledg'd: Thou a sceptre's heir, That thus affect'st a sheep-hook!-Thou, old traitor, I am sorry that, by hanging thee, I can but Shorten thy life one week.-And thou, fresh piece Of excellent witchcraft; who, of force, must know The royal fool thou cop'st with ;— Shep. O, my heart! Pol. I'll have thy beauty scratch'd with briars, and made More homely than thy state.-For thee, fond boy,If I may ever know, thou dost but sigh, That thou no more shalt never see this knack, (as never I mean thou shalt,) we'll bar thee from succession; ment,- Worthy enough a herdsman; yea, him too, And, friends unknown, you shall bear witness to't: Unworthy thee,-if ever, henceforth, thou Even here undone I was not much afeard: for once, or twice, I was about to speak; and tell him plainly, The selfsame sun, that shines upon his court, Hides not his visage from our cottage, but Looks on alike.Will't please you, sir, be gone? [TO FLORIZEL. 9 Warburton remarks that Perdita's character is here finely sustained. To have made her quite astonished at the king's discovery of himself had not become her birth; and to have given her presence of mind to have made this reply to the king, had not become her educa tion.' 10 To look on, or look upon, without any substantive 7 Far, in the old spelling farre, i. e. farther. The annexed, is a mode of expression which, though now ancient comparative of fer was ferrer. 8 The old copy reads hope unusual, appears to have been legitimate in Shakspeare's ume. Why, how now, father, I told you what would come of this: 'Beseech you, I would your spirit were easier for advice Speak, ere thou diest. Even he, my lord. Flo. Now, good Camillo, I am so fraught with curious business, that Cam. [Going. Sir, I think Very nobly Cam. Well, my lord, If you may please to think I love the king; I'll point you where you shall have such receiving How, Camillo, Per. How often have I told you, 'twould be thus? May this, almost a miracle, be done? Cam. This is desperate, sir. O, my lord, That I may call thee something more than man, Cam. A place, whereto you'll go? Have you thought on Flo. Cam. Then list to me: This follows,-if you will not change your purpose, The partner of your bed. Methinks, I see ness, As 'twere i' the father's person: kisses the hands Flo. Cam. Sent by the king your father 10 5 Our need. The old copy reads her. The emen. dation is Theobald's. 6 Discontenting for discontented. 7 This unthought-on accident is the unexpected discovery made by Polixenes. 8 Guilty to, though it sound harsh to our ears, was the phraseology of Shakspeare. 9 The old copy reads, thee there son.' The correc tion was made in the third folio. 10 The council-days were called sittings, in Shak speare's time. Cam. My lord, Fear none of this: I think, you know, my fortunes Enter AUTOLYCUS. festival purses; and had not the old man come in with a whoobub 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. Cam. Shall satisfy your father. All, that you speak, shows fair. Happy be you! Who have we here? why, [Aside. Aut. If they have overheard me now, hanging. Cam. How now, good fellow? Why shakest thou so? 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 make an exchange: therefore, discase thee instantly, (thou must think, there's 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;-I know ye we.. enough. [Aside. Cam. Nay, pr'ythee, despatch: the gentleman is half flayed already. Aut. Are you in earnest, sir ?—I smell the trick [Aside. of it. Flo. Despatch, I pr'ythee. Cam. Unbuckle, unbuckle. Fortunate mistress,-let [They talk aside. 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,2 brooch, table-book, ballad, knife, tape, glove, shoe-tie, bracelet, hornring, 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 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 pinch'd a placket,* it was senseless; '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 1 To take in, is to conquer, to get the better of. 2 Pomanders were little balls of perfumed paste, worn in the pocket, or hung about the neck, and even sometimes suspended to the wrist, according to Philips. They were used as amulets against the plague or other infections, as well as for mere articles of luxury. Va rious receipts for making them may be found in old books of housewifery, and even in one or two old plays. They have recently been revived and made into a variety of ornamental forms under the name of Amulets. Fumigating pastilles are another modification of the pomander. The name is derived from pomme d'ambre, I know not on what authority, for in all the old French dictionaries they are called pommes de senteur. Philipe says pomamber, Dutch. 3 This alludes to the beads often sold by the Roman. [FLO. and AUTOL. exchange garments. my prophecy Come home to you!-you must retire yourself Into some covert; take your sweetheart's hat, Dismantle you: and as you can, disliken And pluck it o'er your brows; muffle your face, The truth of (For I do fear eyes over you) to shipboard your own seeming; that you may Get undescried. Per. I see, the play so lies, That I must bear a part. Cam. Have you done there? Flo. No remedy.Should I now meet my father, He would not call me son. No hat:-Come, lady, come.-Farewell, my friend. Pray you, a word. ists, as made particularly efficacious by the touch of some relic. 4 Stevens has been very facetious about a placket, and has explained it to be the opening in a woman's petticoat. It was no such thing, it was nothing more than a stomacher; as appears by Florio's Dictionary, under the word Torace: The breast or bulke of a man: also the middle space between the necke and the thighs: also a placket, a stomacher. Thomas gives the same explanation of Thoraca, except that he spells the word placcard. 5 Boot is advantage, profit. We now say something to boot, something beside the articles exchanged for each other. 6 Stripped. Flo. Fortune speed us!- [Exeunt FLO. PER. and Cam. 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 no other way, but to tell the king she's a changeling, and none of your flesh and blood. Shep. Nay, but hear me. Clo. Nay, but hear me. Clo. She being none of your flesh and blood, your flesh and blood has not offended the king: and, so, your flesh and blood is not to be punished by him. Show those things you found about her: those secret things, all but what she has with her: This being done, let the law go whistle; I warrant you. Shep. I will tell the king all, every word, yea, and his son's pranks too: who, I may say, is no honest man neither to his father, nor to me, to go about to make me the king's brother-in-law. Clo. Indeed, brother-in-law was the farthest off you could have been to him; and then your blood had been the dearer, by I know how much an ounce. Aut. Very wisely; puppies! [Aside Shep. Well; let us to the king; there is that in this fardel, will make him scratch his beard. Aut. I know not what impediment this complaint may be to the flight of my master. Clo. 'Pray heartily, he be at palace. Aut. Though I am not naturally honest, I am so sometimes by chance:-Let me pocket up my pedler's excrement. [Takes off his false beard.] How now, rustics? whither are you bound? Shep. To the palace, an it like your worship. Aut. Your affairs there? what? with whom? the condition of that fardel, the place of your dwelling, your names, your ages, of what having, breeding, and any thing that is fitting to be known, discover. Clo. We are but plain fellows, sir. Shep. Are you a courtier, an't like you, sir? Aut. Whether it like me, or no, I am a courtier. See'st thou not the air of the court, in these enfoldings? hath not my gait in it, the measure of the court? receives not thy nose court-odour from me? reflect I not on thy baseness, court-contempt? Think'st thou, for that I insinuate, or toze" from thee thy business, I am therefore no courtier? I am courtier, cap-a-pie; and one that will either push on, or pluck back thy business there: whereupon Í command thee to open thy affair. Aut. A lie; you are rough and hairy: Let me have no lying; it becomes none but tradesmen, and they often give us soldiers the lie: but we pay them for it with stamped coin, not stabbing steel; therefore they do not give us the lie. if Clo. Your worship had like to have given us one, you had not taken yourself with the manner." Shep. My business, sir, is to the king. Clo. Advocate's the court word for a pheasant; say you have none. Shep. None, sir; I have no pheasant, cock, nor hen.1 1 Steevens reads, "If I thought it were not a piece of honesty to acquaint the king withal, I would do it.' The transposition of the word not was made by Hanmer; it does not render the passage more intelligible, and as we can extract a meaning out of the passage as it originally stood, I do not think so violent a transposition admissible. 2 We should probably read, 'by I know not how much an ounce,' 3 Thus in the Comedy of Errors: Why is time such a niggard of his hair, being as it is so plentiful an excrement? 4 Fardel is a bundle, a pack or burthen. A pack that a man doth bear with him in the way,' says Baret. 5 i. e. estate, property. 6 The meaning is, they are paid for lying, therefore they do not give us the lie. Aut. How bless'd are we, that are not simple men! Yet nature might have made me as these are, Clo. This cannot but be a great courtier Shep. His garments are rich, but he wears them not handsomely. Clo. He seems to be the more noble in being fantastical; a great man, I'll warrant; I know, by the picking on's teeth. Aut. The fardel there? what's the fardel? Wherefore that box? Shep. Sir, there lies such secrets in this fardel, and box, which none must know but the king ; and which he shall know within this hour, if I may come to the speech of him. Aut. Age, thou hast lost thy labour. Aut. The king is not at the palace; he is gone aboard a new ship to purge melancholy, and air himself: For, if thou be'st capable of things serious, thou must know, the king is full of grief. Shep. So 'tis said, sir; about his son, that should have married a shepherd's daughter. Aut. If that shepherd be not in hand-fast, let him fly; the curses he shall have, the tortures be shall feel, will break the back of man, the heart of monster. Clo. Think you so, sir? Aut. Not he alone shall suffer what wit can make heavy, and vengeance bitter; but those that are germane11 to him, though removed fifty times, shal all come under the hangman: which though it be great pity, yet it is necessary. An old sheep-whist ling rogue, a ram-tender, to offer to have his danghbut that death is too soft for him, say I: Draw our ter come into grace! Some say he shall be stoned; throne into a sheep-cote! all deaths are too few, the sharpest too easy. Clo. Has the old man e'er a son, sir, do you hear, an't like you, sir? Aut. He has a son, who shall be flayed alive; then, 'nointed over with honey, set on the head of a wasp's nest; then stand, till he be three quarters and a dram dead: then recovered again with aquavitæ, or some other hot infusion: then raw as he is, and in the hottest day prognostication proclaims, 12 shall he be set against a brick wall, the sun looking with a southward eye upon him; where he is to behold him, with flies blown to death. But 7 That is, in the fact. Vide Love's Labour's Lost, Act i. Sc. 1. 8 The measure, the stately tread of courtiers. 9 Think'st thou because I wind myself into, er draw from thee thy business, I am therefore no cour tier? To toze is to pluck or draw out. As to tore of teize wool, Carpere lanam. See the old dictionaries. 10 Malone says, 'perhaps in the first of these speeches we should read, a present, which the old shepherd mistakes for a pheasant. The clowns perhaps thought courtiers as corruptible as some justices then were, of whom it is said, for half a dozen of chickens they would dispense with a whole dozen of penal statutes." 11 Germane, related. 12 The hottest day foretold in the almanack. |