Bohemia. The Feast. A Lawn before the Shepherd's Cottage.
 Enter FLORIZEL dressed as a countryman, and PERDITA dressed
 as Queen of the Feast and garlanded with flowers.

Florizel	These your unusual weeds to each part of you
	Do give a life - no shepherdess, but Flora
	Peering in April's front. This your sheep-shearing
	Is as a meeting of the petty gods,
	And you the queen on't.

Perdita									Sir, my gracious lord,
	To chide at your extremes, it not becomes me-
	O, pardon that I name them! Your high self,
	The gracious mark o'th' land, you have obscured
	With a swain's wearing, and me, poor lowly maid,
	Most goddesslike pranked up. But that our feasts
	In every mess have folly, and the feeders
	Digest it with a custom, I should blush
	To see you so attired; swoon, I think,
	To show myself a glass.

Florizel								I bless the time
	When my good falcon made her flight across
	Thy father's ground.

Perdita							Now Jove afford you cause!
	To me the difference forges dread; your greatness
	Hath not been used to fear. Even now I tremble
	To think your father, by some accident,
	Should pass this way, as you did. O the Fates!
	How would he look, to see his work, so noble,
	Vilely bound up? What would he say? Or how
	Should I, in these my borrowed flaunts, behold
	The sternness of his presence?

Florizel											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 bellowed; the green Neptune
	A ram, and bleated; and the fire-robed 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.

Perdita									O but, sir,
	Your resolution cannot hold when 'tis
	Opposed, as it must be, by th' power of the king.
	One of these two must be necessities,
	Which then will speak, that you must change this purpose,
	Or I my life.

Florizel				Thou dearest Perdita,
	With these forced thoughts, I prithee, darken not
	The mirth o'th' feast. Or I'll be thine, my fair,
	Or not my father's; for I cannot be
	Mine own, nor anything to any, if
	I be not thine - to this I am most constant,
	Though destiny say no. Be merry, gentle;
	Strangle such thoughts as these with anything
	That you behold the while. Your guests are coming.
	Lift up your countenance, as it were the day
	Of celebration of that nuptial which
	We two have sworn shall come.

Perdita										O lady Fortune,
	Stand you auspicious!

     Enter old SHEPHERD, with POLIXENES and CAMILLO disguised; CLOWN,
                        MOPSA, DORCAS, and OTHERS.

Florizel								See, your guests approach.
	Address yourself to entertain them sprightly,
	And let's be red with mirth.

Shepherd	Fie, daughter, when my old wife lived, upon
	This day she was both pantler, butler, cook,
	Both dame and servant; welcomed all, served all,
	Would sing her song and dance her turn; now here
	At upperend o'th' table, now i'th' middle;
	On his shoulder, and his; her face o'fire
	With labour, and the thing she took to quench it
	She would to each one sip. You are retired,
	As if you were a feasted one and not
	The hostess of the meeting. Pray you, bid
	These unknown friends to's welcome; for it is
	A way to make us better friends, more known.
	Come, quench your blushes and present yourself
	That which you are, mistress o'th' feast. Come on,
	And bid us welcome to your sheep-shearing,
	As your good flock shall prosper.

Perdita							[To POLIXENES.] Sir, welcome.
	It is my father's will I should take on me
	The hostess-ship o'th' day.
						[To CAMILLO.] You're welcome, sir.
	Give me those flowers there, Dorcas. Reverend sirs,
	For you there's rosemary and rue; these keep
	Seeming and savour all the winter long.
	Grace and remembrance be to you both,
	And welcome to our shearing.

Polixenes										Shepherdess,
	- A fair one are you - well you fit our ages
	With flowers of winter.

Perdita								Sir, the year growing ancient,
	Not yet on summer's death nor on the birth
	Of trembling winter, the fairest flowers o'th' season
	Are our carnations and streaked gillyvors,
	Which some call nature's bastards; of that kind
	Our rustic garden's barren, and I care not
	To get slips of them.

Polixenes								Wherefore, gentle maiden,
	Do you neglect them?

Perdita							For I have heard it said
	There is an art which in their piedness shares
	With great creating nature.

Polixenes									Say there be;
	Yet nature is made better by no mean
	But nature makes that mean; so over 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.

Perdita									So it is.

Polixenes	Then make your garden rich in gillyvors,
	And do not call them bastards.

Perdita											I'll not put
	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 therefore
	Desire to breed by me. Here's flowers for you:
	Hot lavender, mints, savory, marjoram,
	The marigold, that goes to bed wi'th' sun
	And with him rises, weeping; these are flowers
	Of middle summer, and I think they are given
	To men of middle age. You're very welcome.
													[She gives them flowers.

Camillo	I should leave grazing, were I of your flock,
	And only live by gazing.

Perdita									Out, alas!
	You'd be so lean that blasts of January
	Would blow you through and through.
							[To FLORIZEL.] Now, my fair'st friend,
	I would I had some flowers o'th' spring that might
	Become your time of day;
		[To MOPSA and DORCAS.] and yours, and yours,
	That wear upon your virgin branches yet
	Your maidenheads growing. O Proserpina,
	For the flowers now that, frighted, thou let'st fall
	From Dis's waggon! - daffodils,
	That come before the swallow dares, and take
	The winds of March with beauty; violets, dim,
	But sweeter than the lids of Juno's eyes
	Or Cytherea's breath; pale primroses
	That die unmarried ere they can behold
	Bright Phoebus in his strength, a malady
	Most incident to maids; bold oxlips and
	The crown imperial; lilies of all kinds,
	The flower-de-luce being one. O, these I lack
	To make you garlands of, and, my sweet friend,
	To strew him o'er and o'er!

Florizel										What, like a corse?

Perdita	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
	Does change my disposition.

Florizel									What you do
	Still betters what is done. When you speak, sweet,
	I'd have you do it ever. When you sing,
	I'd have you buy and sell so, so give alms,
	Pray so, and, for the ord'ring your affairs,
	To sing them too. When you do dance, I wish you
	A wave o'th' sea, that you might ever do
	Nothing but that, move still, still so,
	And own no other function. Each your doing,
	So singular in each particular,
	Crowns what you are doing, in the present deeds,
	That all your acts are queens.

Perdita											O Doricles,
	Your praises are too large. But that your youth,
	And the true blood which peeps fairly through't,
	Do plainly give you out an unstained shepherd,
	With wisdom I might fear, my Doricles,
	You wooed me the false way.

Florizel									I think you have
	As little skill to fear as I have purpose
	To put you to't. But come, our dance, I pray.
	Your hand, my Perdita: so turtles pair
	That never mean to part.

Perdita								I'll swear for 'em.

Polixenes	This is the prettiest low-born lass that ever
	Ran on the greensward. Nothing she does or seems
	But smacks of something greater than herself,
	Too noble for this place.

Camillo									He tells her something
	That makes her blood look out. Good sooth, she is
	The queen of curds and cream.

Clown										Come on, strike up!

Dorcas	Mopsa must be your mistress. Marry, garlic to mend her 
	kissing with!

Mopsa	Now, in good time!

Clown	Not a word, a word. We stand upon our manners.
	Come, strike up!
													[Music.
               Here a dance of Shepherds and Shepherdesses.

Polixenes	Pray, good shepherd, what fair swain is this
	Which dances with your daughter?

Shepherd	They call him Doricles; and boasts himself
	To have a worthy feeding; but I have it
	Upon his own report and I believe it;
	He looks like sooth. He says he loves my daughter;
	I think so too, for never gazed the moon
	Upon the water as he'll stand and read
	As 'twere my daughter's eyes, and, to be plain,
	I think there is not half a kiss to choose
	Who loves another best.

Polixenes									She dances featly.

Shepherd	So she does anything, though I report it
	That should be silent. If young Doricles
	Do light upon her, she shall bring him that
	Which he not dreams of.

                             Enter a SERVANT.

Servant	O master, if you did but hear the pedlar at the door, you 
	would never dance again after a tabor and pipe. No, the 
	bagpipe could not move you. He sings several tunes faster 
	than you'll tell money; he utters them as he had eaten 
	ballads, and all men's ears grew to his tunes.

Clown	He could never come better; he shall come in. I love a 
	ballad but even too well, if it be doleful matter merrily 
	set down, or a very pleasant thing indeed, and sung 
	lamentably.

Servant	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-mouthed rascal would, 
	as it were, mean mischief and break a foul gap into the 
	matter, he makes the maid to answer 'Whoop, do me no harm, 
	good man'; puts him off, slights him, with 'Whoop, do me no 
	harm, good man.'

Polixenes	This is a brave fellow.

Clown	Believe me, thou talkest of an admirable conceited fellow. 
	Has he any unbraided wares?

Servant	He hath ribbons of all the colours i'th' rainbow; points, 
	more than all the lawyers in Bohemia can learnedly handle, 
	though they come to him by th' gross; inkles, caddisses, 
	cambrics, lawns. Why, he sings 'em over as they were gods 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.

Clown	Prithee bring him in; and let him approach singing.

Perdita	Forewarn him that he use no scurrilous words in's tunes.
													[Exit SERVANT.

Clown	You have of these pedlars that have more in them than you'd 
	think, sister.

Perdita	Ay, good brother, or go about to think.

                        Enter AUTOLYCUS, singing.

Autolycus	[Sings.]	Lawn as white as driven snow,
			Cypress black as e'er was crow,
			Gloves as sweet as damask roses,
			Masks for faces and for noses,
			Bugle-bracelet, necklace amber,
			Perfume for a lady's chamber,
			Golden quoifs and stomachers
			For my lads to give their dears;
			Pins and poking-sticks of steel,
			What maids lack from head to heel.
			Come buy of me, come, come buy, come buy;
			Buy, lads, or else your lasses cry. Come buy.

Clown	If I were not in love with Mopsa thou shouldst take no money 
	of me, but, being enthralled as I am, it will also be the 
	bondage of certain ribbons and gloves.

Mopsa	I was promised them against the feast; but they come not too 
	late now.

Dorcas	He hath promised you more than that, or there be liars.

Mopsa	He hath paid you all he promised you. May be he has paid you 
	more, which will shame you to give him again.

Clown	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 of these secrets, but you must be tittle-tattling 
	before all our guests? 'Tis well they are whispering. 
	Clamour your tongues, and not a word more.

Mopsa	I have done. Come, you promised me a tawdry lace and a pair 
	of sweet gloves.

Clown	Have I not told thee how I was cozened by the way and lost 
	all my money?

Autolycus	And indeed, sir, there are cozeners abroad; therefore it 
	behoves men to be wary.

Clown	Fear not thou, man, thou shalt lose nothing here.

Autolycus	I hope so, sir; for I have about me many parcels of charge.

Clown	What hast here? Ballads?

Mopsa	Pray now, buy some. I love a ballad in print a-life, for 
	then we are sure they are true.

Autolycus	Here's one to a very doleful tune, how a usurer's wife was 
	brought to bed of twenty money-bags at a burden, and how she 
	longed to eat adders' heads and toads carbonadoed.

Mopsa	Is it true, think you?

Autolycus	Very true, and but a month old.

Dorcas	Bless me from marrying a usurer!

Autolycus	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?

Mopsa	Pray you now, buy it.

Clown	Come on, lay it by, and let's first see more ballads; we'll 
	buy the other things anon.

Autolycus	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.

Dorcas	Is it true too, think you?

Autolycus	Five justices' hands at it, and witnesses more than my pack 
	will hold.

Clown	Lay it by too. Another.

Autolycus	This is a merry ballad, but a very pretty one.

Mopsa	Let's have some merry ones.

Autolycus	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.

Mopsa	We can both sing it. If thou'lt bear a part thou shalt hear; 
	'tis in three parts.

Dorcas	We had the tune on't a month ago.

Autolycus	I can bear my part; you must know 'tis my occupation. Have 
	at it with you.
													[They sing.

Autolycus	[Sings.]	Get you hence, for I must go
			Where it fits not you to know.

Dorcas	[Sings.]	Whither?

Mopsa	[Sings.]				O whither?

Dorcas	[Sings.]								Whither?

Mopsa	[Sings.]	It becomes thy oath full well
			Thou to me thy secrets tell.

Dorcas	[Sings.]	Me too; let me go thither.

Mopsa	[Sings.]	Or thou goest to th' grange or mill.

Dorcas	[Sings.]	If to either, thou dost ill.

Autolycus	[Sings.]	Neither.

Dorcas	[Sings.]				What, neither?

Autolycus	[Sings.]									Neither.

Dorcas	[Sings.]	Thou hast sworn my love to be.

Mopsa	[Sings.]	Thou hast sworn it more to me.
			Then whither goest? Say, whither?

Clown	We'll have this song out anon by ourselves; my father and 
	the gentlemen are in sad talk, and we'll not trouble them. 
	Come, bring away thy pack after me. Wenches, I'll buy for 
	you both. Pedlar, let's have the first choice. Follow me, 
	girls.
												[Exit with DORCAS and MOPSA.

Autolycus	And you shall pay well for 'em.

	[Sings.]		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?
					Come to the pedlar;
					Money's a meddler
			That doth utter all men's ware-a.
													[Exit.

                              Enter SERVANT.

Servant	Master, there is three carters, three shepherds, 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 o'th' 
	mind, if it be not too rough for some that know little but 
	bowling, it will please plentifully.

Shepherd	Away! We'll none on't. Here has been too much homely foolery 
	already. I know, sir, we weary you.

Polixenes	You weary those that refresh us. Pray, let's see these four 
	threes of herdsmen.

Servant	One three of them, by their own report, sir, hath danced 
	before the king; and not the worst of the three but jumps 
	twelve foot and a half by th' square.

Shepherd	Leave your prating. Since these good men are pleased, let 
	them come in. But quickly now.

Servant	Why, they stay at door, sir.
													[Exit.

                      Here a dance of twelve Satyrs.

Polixenes	[To SHEPHERD.]
	O, father, you'll know more of that hereafter.
	[To CAMILLO.]
	Is it not too far gone? 'Tis time to part them.
	He's simple and tells much.
					[To FLORIZEL.] 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 ransacked
	The pedlar's silken treasury, and have poured it
	To her acceptance. You have let him go
	And nothing marted with him. If your lass
	Interpretation should abuse, and call this
	Your lack of love or bounty, you were straited
	For a reply, at least if you make a care
	Of happy holding her.

Florizel								Old sir, I know
	She prizes not such trifles as these are.
	The gifts she looks from me are packed and locked
	Up in my heart, which I have given already,
	But not delivered. O, hear me breathe my life
	Before this ancient sir, who, it should seem,
	Hath sometime loved. I take thy hand, this hand,
	As soft as dove's down and as white as it,
	Or Ethiopian's tooth, or the fanned snow that's bolted
	By th' northern blasts twice o'er.

Polixenes											What follows this?
	How prettily the young swain seems to wash
	The hand was fair before! I have put you out.
	But to your protestation; let me hear
	What you profess.

Florizel						Do, and be witness to't.

Polixenes	And this my neighbour too?

Florizel									And he, and more
	Than he, and men, the earth, the heavens, and all;
	That were I crowned the most imperial monarch,
	Thereof most worthy, were I the fairest youth
	That ever made eye swerve, had force and knowledge
	More than was ever man's, I would not prize them
	Without her love; for her employ them all,
	Commend them and condemn them to her service,
	Or to their own perdition.

Polixenes									Fairly offered.

Camillo	This shows a sound affection.

Shepherd										But, my daughter,
	Say you the like to him?

Perdita								I cannot speak
	So well, nothing so well; no, nor mean better.
	By th' pattern of mine own thoughts I cut out
	The purity of his.

Shepherd						Take hands, a bargain;
	And, friends unknown, you shall bear witness to't.
	I give my daughter to him, and will make
	Her portion equal his.

Florizel								O, that must be
	I'th' virtue of your daughter. One being dead,
	I shall have more than you can dream of yet;
	Enough then for your wonder. But come on,
	Contract us 'fore these witnesses.

Shepherd											Come, your hand;
	And, daughter, yours.

Polixenes							Soft, swain, awhile, beseech you;
	Have you a father?

Florizel						I have, but what of him?

Polixenes	Knows he of this?

Florizel						He neither does nor shall.

Polixenes	Methinks a father
	Is at the nuptial of his son a guest
	That best becomes the table. Pray you, once more,
	Is not your father grown incapable
	Of reasonable affairs? Is he not stupid
	With age and alt'ring rheums? Can he speak, hear?
	Know man from man? Dispute his own estate?
	Lies he not bed-rid, and again does nothing
	But what he did being childish?

Florizel											No, good sir,
	He has his health, and ampler strength indeed
	Than most have of his age.

Polixenes									By my white beard,
	You offer him, if this be so, a wrong
	Something unfilial. Reason my son
	Should choose himself a wife, but as good reason
	The father, all whose joy is nothing else
	But fair posterity, should hold some counsel
	In such a business.

Florizel								I yield all this;
	But for some other reasons, my grave sir,
	Which 'tis not fit you know, I not acquaint
	My father of this business.

Polixenes									Let him know't.

Florizel	He shall not.

Polixenes					Prithee, let him.

Florizel											No, he must not.

Shepherd	Let him, my son; he shall not need to grieve
	At knowing of thy choice.

Florizel								Come, come, he must not.
	Mark our contract.

Polixenes						Mark your divorce, young sir,
													[Revealing himself.
	Whom son I dare not call. Thou art too base
	To be acknowledged. Thou a sceptre's heir
	That thus affects a sheep-hook!
							[To SHEPHERD.] Thou, old traitor,
	I am sorry that by hanging thee I can
	But shorten thy life one week.
							[To PERDITA.] And thou, fresh piece
	Of excellent witchcraft, who of force must know
	The royal fool thou cop'st with-

Shepherd											O, my heart!

Polixenes	I'll have thy beauty scratched with briers and made
	More homely than thy state.
					[To FLORIZEL.] For thee, fond boy,
	If I may ever know thou dost but sigh
	That thou no more shalt see this knack, as never
	I mean thou shalt, we'll bar thee from succession;
	Not hold thee of our blood, no, not our kin,
	Far than Deucalion off. Mark thou my words.
	Follow us to the court.
				[To SHEPHERD.] Thou churl, for this time,
	Though full of our displeasure, yet we free thee
	From the dead blow of it.
					[To PERDITA.] And you, enchantment,
	Worthy enough a herdsman; yea, him too,
	That makes himself, but for our honour therein,
	Unworthy thee. If ever henceforth thou
	These rural latches to his entrance open,
	Or hoop his body more with thy embraces,
	I will devise a death as cruel for thee
	As thou art tender to't.
													[Exit.
Perdita									Even here undone!
	I was not much afeard, for once or twice
	I was about to speak and tell him plainly,
	The self same sun that shines upon his court
	Hides not his visage from our cottage, but
	Looks on alike. Will't please you, sir, be gone?
	I told you what would come of this. Beseech you,
	Of your own state take care. This dream of mine,
	Being now awake, I'll queen it no inch further,
	But milk my ewes, and weep.

Camillo					[To SHEPHERD.] Why, how now, father!
	Speak ere thou diest.

Shepherd							I cannot speak, nor think,
	Nor dare to know that which I know.
								[To FLORIZEL.] O sir,
	You have undone a man of fourscore three,
	That thought to fill his grave in quiet, yea,
	To die upon the bed my father died,
	To lie close by his honest bones; but now
	Some hangman must put on my shroud and lay me
	Where no priest shovels in dust.
							[To PERDITA.] O cursd wretch!
	That knew'st this was the prince, and wouldst adventure
	To mingle faith with him! Undone, undone!
	If I might die within this hour, I have lived
	To die when I desire.
													[Exit.
Florizel			[To PERDITA.] Why look you so upon me?
	I am but sorry, not afeard; delayed,
	But nothing altered. What I was, I am;
	More straining on for plucking back; not following
	My leash unwillingly.

Camillo			[To FLORIZEL.] Gracious my lord,
	You know your father's temper. At this time
	He will allow no speech, which, I do guess,
	You do not purpose to him, and as hardly
	Will he endure your sight as yet, I fear.
	Then, till the fury of his highness settle,
	Come not before him.

Florizel							I not purpose it.
	I think, Camillo?

Camillo	[Revealing himself.] Even he, my lord.

Perdita	How often have I told you 'twould be thus?
	How often said, my dignity would last
	But till 'twere known?

Florizel								It cannot fail but by
	The violation of my faith; and then
	Let nature crush the sides o'th' earth together
	And mar the seeds within! Lift up thy looks.
	From my succession wipe me, father; I
	Am heir to my affection.

Camillo								Be advised.

Florizel	I am, and by my fancy. If my reason
	Will thereto be obedient, I have reason;
	If not, my senses, better pleased with madness,
	Do bid it welcome.

Camillo						This is desperate, sir.

Florizel	So call it, but it does fulfil my vow;
	I needs must think it honesty. Camillo,
	Not for Bohemia, nor the pomp that may
	Be thereat gleaned, for all the sun sees, or
	The close earth wombs, or the profound seas hides
	In unknown fathoms, will I break my oath
	To this my fair beloved. Therefore, I pray you,
	As you have ever been my father's honoured friend,
	When he shall miss me - as, in faith, I mean not
	To see him any more - cast your good counsels
	Upon his passion. Let myself and fortune
	Tug for the time to come. This you may know,
	And so deliver, I am put to sea
	With her whom here I cannot hold on shore;
	And most opportune to our need, I have
	A vessel rides fast by, but not prepared
	For this design. What course I mean to hold
	Shall nothing benefit your knowledge, nor
	Concern me the reporting.

Camillo									O my lord,
	I would your spirit were easier for advice,
	Or stronger for your need.

Florizel	[Drawing PERDITA aside.]	Hark, Perdita-
	[To CAMILLO.] I'll hear you by and by.

Camillo											He's irremovable,
	Resolved for flight. Now were I happy if
	His going I could frame to serve my turn,
	Save him from danger, do him love and honour,
	Purchase the sight again of dear Sicilia
	And that unhappy king, my master, whom
	I so much thirst to see.

Florizel								Now, good Camillo,
	I am so fraught with curious business that
	I leave out ceremony.

Camillo							Sir, I think
	You have heard of my poor services, i'th' love
	That I have borne your father?

Florizel										Very nobly
	Have you deserved. It is my father's music
	To speak your deeds, not little of his care
	To have them recompensed as thought on.

Camillo											Well, my lord,
	If you may please to think I love the king,
	And through him what's nearest to him, which is
	Your gracious self, embrace but my direction,
	If your more ponderous and settled project
	May suffer alteration. On mine honour,
	I'll point you where you shall have such receiving
	As shall become your highness; where you may
	Enjoy your mistress. from the whom, I see,
	There's no disjunction to be made, but by-
	As heavens forefend! - your ruin. Marry her,
	And with my best endeavours in your absence
	Your discontenting father strive to qualify,
	And bring him up to liking.

Florizel									How, Camillo,
	May this, almost a miracle, be done?
	That I may call thee something more than man,
	And, after that trust to thee.

Camillo										Have you thought on
	A place whereto you'll go?

Florizel									Not any yet,
	But as th' unthought-on accident is guilty
	To what we wildly do, so we profess
	Ourselves to be the slaves of chance, and flies
	Of every wind that blows.

Camillo									Then list to me.
	This follows, if you will not change your purpose
	But undergo this flight: make for Sicilia,
	And there present yourself and your fair princess-
	For so I see she must be - 'fore Leontes.
	She shall be habited as it becomes
	The partner of your bed. Methinks I see
	Leontes opening his free arms and weeping
	His welcomes forth; asks thee there 'Son, forgiveness!'
	As 'twere i'th' father's person; kisses the hands
	Of your fresh princess; o'er and o'er divides him
	'Twixt his unkindness and his kindness; th' one
	He chides to hell, and bids the other grow
	Faster than thought or time.

Florizel										Worthy Camillo,
	What colour for my visitation shall I
	Hold up before him?

Camillo							Sent by the king your father
	To greet him and to give him comforts. Sir,
	The manner of your bearing towards him, with
	What you as from your father shall deliver,
	Things known betwixt us three, I'll write you down;
	The which shall point you forth at every sitting
	What you must say; that he shall not perceive
	But that you have your father's bosom there
	And speak his very heart.

Florizel								I am bound to you.
	There is some sap in this.

Camillo									A course more promising
	Than a wild dedication of yourselves
	To unpathed waters, undreamed shores, most certain
	To miseries enough; no hope to help you,
	But as you shake off one, to take another;
	Nothing so certain as your anchors, who
	Do their best office if they can but stay you
	Where you'll be loath to be. Besides, you know
	Prosperity's the very bond of love,
	Whose fresh complexion, and whose heart, together
	Affliction alters.

Perdita						One of these is true:
	I think affliction may subdue the cheek,
	But not take in the mind.

Camillo									Yea, say you so?
	There shall not at your father's house these seven years
	Be born another such.

Florizel							My good Camillo,
	She is as forward of her breeding as
	She is i'th' rear our birth.

Camillo									I cannot say 'tis pity
	She lacks instructions, for she seems a mistress
	To most that teach.

Perdita						Your pardon, sir; for this
	I'll blush you thanks.

Florizel								My prettiest Perdita!
	But O, the thorns we stand upon! Camillo,
	Preserver of my father, now of me,
	The medicine of our house, how shall we do?
	We are not furnished like Bohemia's son,
	Nor shall appear in Sicilia.

Camillo										My lord,
	Fear none of this. I think you know my fortunes
	Do all lie there. It shall be so my care
	To have you royally appointed, as if
	The scene you play were mine. For instance, sir,
	That you may know you shall not want, one word.
													[They talk apart.

                             Enter AUTOLYCUS.

Autolycus	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 ribbon, glass, 
	pomander, brooch, table-book, ballad, knife, tape, glove, 
	shoe-tie, bracelet, horn-ring, 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 pinched 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 festival purses; and 
	had not the old man come in with a whoo-bub 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.

Camillo	Nay, but my letters, by this means being there
	So soon as you arrive, shall clear that doubt.

Florizel	And those that you'll procure from King Leontes?

Camillo	Shall satisfy your father.

Perdita									Happy be you!
	All that you speak shows fair.

Camillo					[Seeing AUTOLYCUS.] Who have we here?
	We'll make an instrument of this; omit
	Nothing may give us aid.


Autolycus	[Aside.] If they have overheard me now, why - hanging.

Camillo	How now, good fellow! Why shakest thou so? Fear not, man; 
	here's no harm intended to thee.

Autolycus	I am a poor fellow, sir.

Camillo	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 a 
	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.

Autolycus	I am a poor fellow, sir. [Aside.] I know ye well enough.

Camillo	Nay, prithee, dispatch. The gentleman is half flayed 
	already.

Autolycus	Are you in earnest, sir? [Aside.] I smell the trick on't.

Florizel	Dispatch, I prithee.

Autolycus	Indeed, I have had earnest; but I cannot with conscience 
	take it.

Camillo	Unbuckle, unbuckle.
						 [FLORIZEL and AUTOLYCUS exchange garments.

	Fortunate mistress - let my prophecy
	Come home to ye! - you must retire yourself
	Into some covert; take your sweetheart's hat
	And pluck it o'er your brows; muffle your face;
	Dismantle you, and, as you can, disliken
	The truth of your own seeming, that you may-
	For I do fear eyes over - to shipboard
	Get undescried.

Perdita					I see the play so lies
	That I must bear a part.

Camillo								No remedy.
	Have you done there?

Florizel							Should I now meet my father,
	He would not call me son.

Camillo									Nay, you shall have no hat.
									 [Gives Florizel's hat to PERDITA.

	Come, lady, come. Farewell my friend.

Autolycus											Adieu, sir.

Florizel	O Perdita, what have we twain forgot!
	Pray you, a word.
													[They converse apart.

Camillo	[Aside.] What I do next shall be to tell the king
	Of this escape, and whither they are bound;
	Wherein my hope is I shall so prevail
	To force him after; in whose company
	I shall re-view Sicilia, for whose sight
	I have a woman's longing.

Florizel									Fortune speed us!
	Thus we set on, Camillo, to the seaside.

Camillo	The swifter speed, the better.
							  [Exeunt FLORIZEL, PERDITA and CAMILLO.

Autolycus	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 th' 
	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 anything 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.

Clown	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.

Shepherd	Nay, but hear me.

Clown	Nay, but hear me.

Shepherd	Go to, then.

Clown	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.

Shepherd	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.

Clown	Indeed, brother-in-law was the furthest off you could have 
	been to him; and then your blood had been the dearer by I 
	know how much an ounce.

Autolycus	[Aside.] Very wisely, puppies.

Shepherd	Well, let us to the king. There is that in this fardel will 
	make him scratch his beard.

Autolycus	[Aside.] I know not what impediment this complaint may be to 
	the flight of my master.

Clown	Pray heartily he be at palace.

Autolycus	[Aside.] Though I am not naturally honest, I am so sometimes 
	by chance. Let me pocket up my pedlar's excrement.
													[Takes off his false beard.
	How now, rustics! Whither are you bound?

Shepherd	To th' palace, an it like your worship.

Autolycus	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 anything that is fitting to be 
	known, discover.

Clown	We are but plain fellows, sir.

Autolycus	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.

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

Shepherd	Are you a courtier, an't like you, sir?

Autolycus	Whether it like me or no, I am a courtier. Seest 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 toaze from thee thy 
	business, I am therefore no courtier? I am courtier cap-a-
	pe, and one that will either push on or pluck back thy 
	business there; whereupon I command thee to open thy affair.

Shepherd	My business, sir, is to the king.

Autolycus	What advocate hast thou to him?

Shepherd	I know not, an't like you.

Clown	Advocate's the court-word for a pheasant; say you have none.

Shepherd	None, sir; I have no pheasant, cock, nor hen.

Autolycus	How blessed are we that are not simple men!
	Yet nature might have made me as these are,
	Therefore I will not disdain.

Clown	This cannot be but a great courtier.

Shepherd	His garments are rich, but he wears them not handsomely.

Clown	He seems to be the more noble in being fantastical. A great 
	man, I'll warrant; I know by the picking on's teeth.

Autolycus	The fardel there? What's i'th' fardel? Wherefore that box?

Shepherd	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 th' speech of him.

Autolycus	Age, thou hast lost thy labour.

Shepherd	Why, sir?

Autolycus	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.

Shepherd	So 'tis said, sir; about his son, that should have married a 
	shepherd's daughter.

Autolycus	If that shepherd be not in hand-fast, let him fly; the 
	curses he shall have, the tortures he shall feel, will break 
	the back of man, the heart of monster.

Clown	Think you so, sir?

Autolycus	Not he alone shall suffer what wit can make heavy and 
	vengeance bitter; but those that are germane to him, though 
	removed fifty times, shall all come under the hangman; 
	which, though it be great pity, yet it is necessary. An old 
	sheep-whistling rogue, a ram-tender, to offer to have his 
	daughter come into grace! Some say he shall be stoned; but 
	that death is too soft for him, say I. Draw our throne into 
	a sheepcote? All deaths are too few, the sharpest too easy.

Clown	Has the old man e'er a son, sir, do you hear, and't like 
	you, sir?

Autolycus	He has a son, who shall be flayed alive, then 'nointed over 
	with honey, set on the head of a wasps' nest, then stand 
	till he be three quarters and a dram dead; then recovered 
	again with aqua-vitae or some other hot infusion; then, raw 
	as he is, and in the hottest day prognostication proclaims, 
	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 what talk we of these traitorly rascals, 
	whose miseries are to be smiled at, their offences being so 
	capital? Tell me, for you seem to be honest plain men, what 
	you have to the king. Being something gently considered, 
	I'll bring you where he is aboard, tender your persons to 
	his presence, whisper him in your behalfs; and if it be in 
	man besides the king to effect your suits, here is man shall 
	do it.

Clown	[To SHEPHERD.] He seems to be of great authority. Close with 
	him, give him gold; and though authority be a stubborn bear, 
	yet he is oft led by the nose with gold. Show the inside of 
	your purse to the outside of his hand, and no more ado. 
	Remember 'stoned', and 'flayed alive'.

Shepherd	An't please you, sir, 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.

Autolycus	After I have done what I promised?

Shepherd	Ay, sir.

Autolycus	Well, give me the moiety. Are you a party in this business?

Clown	In some sort, sir; but though my case be a pitiful one, I 
	hope I shall not be flayed out of it.

Autolycus	O, that's the case of the shepherd's son. Hang him, he'll be 
	made an example.

Clown	[To SHEPHERD.] Comfort, good comfort. We must to the king 
	and show our strange sights. He must know 'tis none of your 
	daughter nor my sister; we are gone else.
	[To AUTOLYCUS.] Sir, I will give you as much as this old man 
	does when the business is performed, and remain, as he says, 
	your pawn till it be brought you.

Autolycus	I will trust you. Walk before toward the seaside. Go on the 
	right hand; I will but look upon the hedge, and follow you.

Clown	We are blest in this man, as I may say, even blest.

Shepherd	Let's before as he bids us. He was provided to do us good.
													[Exeunt SHEPHERD and CLOWN.

Autolycus	If I had a mind to be honest, I see Fortune would not suffer 
	me: she drops booties in my mouth. I am courted now with a 
	double occasion - gold, and a means to do the prince my 
	master 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 so far officious; for I am
	proof against that title and what shame else belongs to't. 
	To him will I present them. There may be matter in it.
													[Exit.
