Pol. That's likewise part of my intelligence, but, I fear, the angle that plucks our son thither. Thou shalt accompany us to the place, where we will, not appearing what we are, have some question with the shepherd; from whose simplicity, I think it not uneasy to get the cause of my son's resort thither. Pr'ythee, be my present partner in this business, and lay aside the thoughts of Sicilia. Cam. I willingly obey your command. Pol. My best Camillo !-We must disguise ourselves. [Exeunt. SCENE II. The Same. A Road near the Shepherd's Cottage. Enter AUTOLYCUS, singing. 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 on edges; 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. 8 Doth set my PUGGING tooth on edge ;] It is very likely that "pugging" is misprinted for prigging or thieving. The clown afterwards uses the word "prig" for a thief. However, "a puggard" was a well known kind of cheat; and hence Autolycus may have obtained his participle. • With heigh! WITH HEIGH! the thrush and the jay:] The first folio has only "with heigh!" the repetition, necessary for the metre, is from the second folio. 1 I have served prince Florizel, and, in my time, wore three-pile1o; but now I am out of service: But shall I go mourn for that, my dear? If tinkers may have leave to live, 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. Clo. Let me see:-Every 'leven wether tods"; every tod yields-pound and odd shilling: fifteen hundred shorn,-what comes the wool to? Aut. [Aside.] If the springe hold, the cock's mine. Clo. I cannot do't without counters.-Let me see; what I am 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 10 — and, in my time, wore THREE-PILE ;] i. e. Three-pile velvet,-velvet of the richest description. 11 1 tods ;] A tod, according to Percy, is twenty-eight pounds of wool. three-man song-men all,] . e. Singers of songs in three parts, or for three men. - ones, but they are most of them means and bases: 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' the sun." Aut. O, that ever I was born! Clo. I' the name of me! [Grovelling on the ground. Aut. O, help me, help me! pluck but off these rags, and then, death, death! Clo. Alack, poor soul! thou hast need of more rags to lay on thee, rather than have these off. Aut. O, sir! the loathsomeness of them offends me more than the stripes I have received, which are mighty ones, and millions. Clo. Alas, poor man! a million of beating may come to a great matter. Aut. I am robbed, sir, and beaten; my money and apparel ta'en from me, and these detestable things put upon me. Clo. What, by a horse-man, or a foot-man? Aut. A foot-man, sweet sir, a foot-man. Clo. Indeed, he should be a foot-man, by the garments he hath left with thee: if this be a horse-man's coat, it hath seen very hot service. Lend me thy hand, I'll help thee: come; lend me thy hand. Aut. O good sir, tenderly, O! Clo. Alas, poor soul! [Helping him up. Aut. O, good sir! softly, good sir. I fear, sir, my shoulder-blade is out. Clo. How now? canst stand? Aut. Softly, dear sir: [Picks his pocket.] good sir, softly. You ha' done me a charitable office. Clo. Dost lack any money? I have a little money for thee. Aut. 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 any thing I want. Offer me no money, I pray you: that kills my heart. Clo. What manner of fellow was he that robbed you? Aut. A fellow, sir, that I have known to go about with trol-my-dames2: 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. Clo. 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 abide3. Aut. Vices I would say, sir. I know this man well: he hath been since an ape-bearer; then a processserver, a bailiff; then he compassed a motion of the prodigal son1, 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. Clo. Out upon him! Prig, for my life, prig: he haunts wakes, fairs, and bear-baitings. Aut. Very true, sir; he, sir, he: that's the rogue, that put me into this apparel. Clo. Not a more cowardly rogue in all Bohemia: if you had but looked big, and spit at him, he'd have run. 2 A fellow, sir, that I have known to go about with TROL-MY-DAMES :] An old French game, called trou-madame, from the hole into which the ball was to be driven. It seems to have been very similar to what we now call bagatelle. In English, says Steevens, the game was also of old called pidgeon-holes, when the ball had to pass through the arches of a wooden bridge across the board. 3 - it will no more but ABIDE.] i. e. It will do no more than remain there for a time. 4 a MOTION of the prodigal son,] A"motion" was technical for a puppetshow, of which the history of the prodigal son was here the subject. Aut. I must confess to you, sir, I am no fighter: I am false of heart that way, and that he knew, I warrant him. Clo. How do you now? Aut. 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. Clo. Shall I bring thee on the way? Aut. No, good-faced sir; no, sweet sir. Clo. Then fare thee well. I must go buy spices for our sheep-shearing. Aut. Prosper you, sweet sir!-[Exit Clown.] 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 ! Jog on, jog on, the foot-path ways, And merrily hent the stile-ao: A merry heart goes all the day, Your sad tires in a mile-a. [Exit. SCENE III.' The Same. A Shepherd's Cottage. Enter FLORIZEL and PERDITA. Flo. These, your unusual weeds, to each part of Do give a life: no shepherdess, but Flora you 5 Jog on, jog on, &c.] These lines, Reed observes, are part of a catch printed in "An Antidote against Melancholy, made up in Pills, compounded of witty Ballads, Jovial Songs, and merry Catches," 1661, 4to, p. 69. "A merry heart lives long-a" is a quotation by Mrs. Merrythought, in "The Knight of the Burning Pestle." See Dyce's Beaumont and Fletcher, Vol. ii. p. 148. • And merrily HENT the stile-a:] To hent is to take. See Vol. ii. p. 87, note 6. 7 Scene III.] This is Scena Quarta in the old copies, and the two previous scenes have been called secunda and tertia, the address of Time being considered by the editor of the first folio as one scene. |