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Clo. Your worship had like to have given us one, if you had not taken yourself with the manner.

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Shep. Are you a courtier, an't like you, fir?

Aut. Whether it like me, or no, I am a courtier. See'ft thou not the air of the court, in thefe enfoldings? hath not my gait in it, the meafure of the court? receives not thy nose court-odour from me? reflect I not on thy baseness, court-contempt? Think'ft thou, for that I infinuate, ortoze from thee thy bufinefs, I am therefore no courtier? I am courtier, cap-a-pè; and one that will either push on, or pluck back thy business there: whereupon I command thee to open thy affair.

Shep. My business, fir, is to the king.

Aut. What advocate haft thou to him?
Shep. I know not, an't like you.

Clo. Advocate's the court-word for a pheafant; fay, you have none.

Shep. None, fir; I have no pheafant, cock, nor hen. Aut. How blefs'd are we, that are not fimple men! Yet nature might have made me as these are, Therefore I will not difdain.

Clo. This cannot be but a great courtier.

Shep. His garments are rich, but he wears them not handfomely.

Clo. He feems to be the more noble in being fantaftical a great man, I'll warrant; I know, by the picking

on's teeth.

Aut. The farthel there? what's i'the farthel?

Wherefore that box?

Shep. Sir, there lies fuch fecrets in this farthel, and box, which none must know but the king; and which he fhall know within this hour, if I may come to the speech of him.

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taken yourself with the manner.]-caught yourself tripping.

toze]-draw out by importunity.

Aut.

Aut. Age, thou haft lost thy labour.
Shep. Why, fir?

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 faid, fir; about his fon, that fhould have married a fhepherd's daughter.

Aut. If that fhepherd be not 'in hand-faft, let him fly; the curfes he fhall have, the tortures he fhall feel, will break the back of man, the heart of monster.

Clo. Think you so, fir?

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Aut. Not he alone shall suffer what wit can make heavy, and vengeance bitter; but those that are germane to him, though removed fifty times, fhall all come under the hangman which though it be great pity, yet it is neceffary. An old fheep-whistling rogue, a ram-tender, to offer to have his daughter come into grace! Some say, he fhall be fton'd; but that death is too foft for him, fay I: Draw our throne into a fheep-cote! all deaths are too few, the sharpest too easy.

Clo. Has the old man e'er a fon, fir, do you hear, an't like you, fir?

Aut. He has a fon, who fhall be flay'd alive; then, 'nointed over with honey, fet on the head of a wasp's nest; then stand, till he be three quarters and a dram dead: then recover'd again with aqua-vitæ, or some other hot infufion; then, raw as he is, and in the hottest day prognoftication proclaims, fhall he be set against a brick-wall, the fun looking with a fouthward eye upon him; where he is to behold him, with flies blown to death. But what

f in hand-faft,]-hold, cuftody. germane]-akin, related.

h prognoftication proclaims,]-that is foretold in the almanack.

talk

talk we of these traitorly rascals, whose miseries are to be fmil'd at, their offences being fo capital? Tell me, (for you seem to be honest plain men) what you have to the king: being fomething' gently confider'd, I'll bring you where he is aboard, tender your perfons to his presence, whisper him in your behalfs; and, if it be in man, befides the king, to effect your fuits, here is man fhall do it.

Clo. He feems to be of great authority: close with him, give him gold; and though authority be a ftubborn bear, yet he is oft led by the nofe with gold: fhew the infide of your purse to the outside of his hand, and no more ado: Remember, fton'd, and flay'd alive.

Shep. An't please you, fir, to undertake the business for us, here is that gold I have; I'll make it as much more; and leave this young man in pawn, 'till I bring it you. Aut. After I have done what I promised?

Shep. Ay, fir.

Aut. Well, give me the moiety :-Are you a party in this bufinefs?

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Clo. In fome fort, fir: but though my cafe be a pitiful one, I hope I fhall not be flay'd out of it.

Aut. Oh, that's the cafe of the fhepherd's fon :Hang him, he'll be made an example.

Clo. Comfort, good comfort: We must to the king, and fhew our strange fights: he must know, 'tis none of your daughter, nor my fifter; we are gone else. Sir, I will give you as much as this old man does, when the bufinefs is perform'd; and remain, as he says, your pawn, 'till it be brought you.

Aut. I will truft you. Walk before toward the fea-fide; go on the right hand; I will but look upon the hedge, and follow you.

gently confider'd,]-genteely fee'd. k cafe-kin, hide.

Clo.

Clo. We are blefs'd in this man, as I may fay, even blefs'd.

Shep. Let's before, as he bids us: he was provided to do us good. [Exeunt Shep. and Cle. Aut. If I had a mind to be honest, I fee, fortune would not fuffer me; fhe drops booties in my mouth. I am courted now with a double occafion; gold, and a means to do the prince my mafter good; which, who knows how that may turn back to my advancement? I will bring these two moles, these blind ones, aboard him: if he think it fit to shore them again, and that the complaint they have to the king concerns him nothing, let him call me rogue, for being fo far officious; for I am proof against that title, and what fhame elfe belongs to't: To him will I present them, there may be matter in it.

[Exit.

ACT V. SCENE I.

Sicilia.

Enter Leontes, Cleomenes, Dion, Paulina, and Servants.

Cle. Sir, you have done enough, and have perform'd A faint-like forrow: no fault could you make, Which you have not redeem'd; indeed, paid down More penitence, than done trefpass: At the last, Do, as the heavens have done; forget your evil With them, forgive yourself.

Leo. Whilft I remember

Her, and her virtues, I cannot forget
My blemishes in them; and fo ftill think of
The wrong I did myself: which was so much,
That heirless it hath made my kingdom; and

Destroy'd

Destroy'd the sweet'ft companion, that e'er man
Bred his hopes out of.

Paul. True, too true, my lord:

If, one by one, you wedded all the world,
Or, from the all that are, took fomething good,
To make a perfect woman; fhe, you kill'd,
Would be unparallel'd.

Leo. I think fo. Kill'd!

She I kill'd? I did fo: but thou ftrik'ft me

Sorely, to fay I did; it is as bitter

Upon thy tongue, as in my thought: Now, good now, Say fo but feldom.

Cle. Not at all, good lady:

You might have spoke a thousand things, that would
Have done the time more benefit, and grac'd
Your kindness better.

Paul. You are one of those,
Would have him wed again.

Dio. If you would not so,

You pity not the ftate, nor the remembrance
Of his most sovereign name: confider little,
What dangers, by his highness' fail of iffue,
May drop upon his kingdom, and devour
'Incertain lookers on. What were more holy,
Than to rejoice, the former queen " is well?
What holier, than,-" for royalty's repair,
For prefent comfort, and for future good,-
To blefs the bed of majefty again
With a fweet fellow to't?

Paul. There is none worthy,

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Respecting her that's gone. Befides, the gods

1 Incertain lookers on.]-Innocent perfons involved in doubts and con

tefts about the rightful heir to the crown.

mis well?]-refts in peace-former queen? This will.

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for royalty's repair,]-to repair the breach in the fucceffion.

VOL. II.

U u

Will

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