Bohemia. A Road near the Shepherd's Cottage.
 Enter AUTOLYCUS, singing.

Autolycus	[Sings.]	When daffodils begin to peer,
				With heigh, the doxy over the dale,
			Why then comes in the sweet o'the year,
				For the red blood reigns in the winter's pale.

			The white sheet bleaching on the hedge,
				With heigh, the sweet birds, O how they sing!
			Doth set my pugging tooth an edge,
				For a quart of ale is a dish for a king.

			The lark, that tirra-lirra chants,
				With heigh, with heigh, the thrush and the jay,
			Are summer songs for me and my aunts,
				While we lie tumbling in the hay.

	I have served Prince Florizel, and in my time wore three-
	pile, but now I am out of service.

			But shall I go mourn for that, my dear?
				The pale moon shines by night;
			And when I wander here and there,
				I then do most go right.

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

	My traffic is sheets; when the kite builds, look to lesser 
	linen. My father named me Autolycus; who, being as I am, 
	littered under Mercury, was likewise a snapper-up of 
	unconsidered trifles. With die and drab I purchased this 
	caparison, and my revenue is the silly cheat. Gallows and 
	knock are too powerful on the highway; beating and hanging 
	are terrors to me. For the life to come, I sleep out the 
	thought of it. A prize, a prize!

                               Enter CLOWN.

Clown	Let me see. Every 'leven wether tods; every tod yields pound 
	and odd shilling; fifteen hundred shorn, what comes the wool 
	to?

Autolycus	[Aside.] If the springe hold, the cock's mine.

Clown	I cannot do't without counters. Let me see; what am I to buy 
	for our sheep-shearing feast? Three pound of sugar, five 
	pound of currants, rice - what will this sister of mine do 
	with rice? But my father hath made her mistress of the 
	feast, and she lays it on. She hath made me four-and-twenty 
	nosegays for the shearers, three-man song-men all, and very 
	good ones; but they are most of them means and basses, but 
	one puritan amongst them, and he sings psalms to hornpipes. 
	I must have saffron to colour the warden pies; 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'th' sun.

Autolycus	O that ever I was born!
													[Grovelling on the ground.

Clown	I'th' name of me!

Autolycus	O, help me, help me! Pluck but off these rags, and then, 
	death, death!

Clown	Alack, poor soul, thou hast need of more rags to lay on 
	thee, rather than have these off.

Autolycus	O sir, the loathsomeness of them offends me more than the 
	stripes I have received, which are mighty ones and millions.

Clown	Alas, poor man, a million of beating may come to a great 
	matter.

Autolycus	I am robbed, sir, and beaten; my money and apparel ta'en 
	from me, and these detestable things put upon me.

Clown	What, by a horseman or a footman?

Autolycus	A footman, sweet sir, a footman.

Clown	Indeed, he should be a footman by the garments he has left 
	with thee. If this be a horseman's coat, it hath seen very 
	hot service. Lend me thy hand, I'll help thee. Come, lend me 
	thy hand.

Autolycus	O, good sir, tenderly - O!

Clown	Alas, poor soul!

Autolycus	O, good sir, softly, good sir! I fear, sir, my shoulder-
	blade is out.

Clown	How now? Canst stand?

Autolycus	Softly, dear sir; [Picks his pocket.] good sir, softly. You 
	ha' done me a charitable office.

Clown	Dost lack any money? I have a little money for thee.

Autolycus	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 anything I want. Offer 
	me no money, I pray you. That kills my heart.

Clown	What manner of fellow was he that robbed you?

Autolycus	A fellow, sir, that I have known to go about with troll-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.

Clown	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.

Autolycus	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 wife within a mile where my land and living lies; 
	and having flown over many knavish professions, he settled 
	only in rogue. Some call him Autolycus.

Clown	Out upon him! Prig, for my life, prig! He haunts wakes, 
	fairs, and bear-baitings.

Autolycus	Very true, sir; he, sir, he. That's the rogue that put me 
	into this apparel.

Clown	Not a more cowardly rogue in all Bohemia. If you had but 
	looked big and spit at him, he'd have run.

Autolycus	I must confess to you, sir, I am no fighter. I am false of 
	heart that way; and that he knew, I warrant him.

Clown	How do you now?

Autolycus	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.

Clown	Shall I bring thee on the way?

Autolycus	No, good-faced sir; no, sweet sir.

Clown	Then fare thee well; I must go buy spices for our sheep-
	shearing.
													[Exit.

Autolycus	Prosper you, sweet sir. 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.

	[Sings.]	Jog on, jog on, the footpath way,
				And merrily hent the stile-a;
			A merry heart goes all the day,
				Your sad tires in a mile-a.
													[Exit.
