Clo. I cannot do't without counters 9.-Let me see; what am I to buy for our sheep-shearing feast? Three pound of sugar; five pound of currants; rice 10 -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 11 and bases: but one Puritan amongst them, and he sings psalms to hornpipes. I must have saffron, to colour the warden pies 12; 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. 9 Counters were circular pieces of base metal, anciently used by the illiterate to adjust their reckonings. 10 i. e. singers of catches in three parts. 11 Means are tenors. 12 Wardens are a large sort of pear, called in French Poires de Garde, because, being a late hard pear, they may be kept very long. It is said that their name is derived from the Anglo Saxon wearden, to preserve. They are now called baking-pears, and are generally coloured with cochineal instead of saffron as of old. Clo. What, by a horse-man, or a foot-man? Clo. Indeed, he should be a footman, by the garments he hath 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. [Helping him up. Aut. O! good sir, tenderly, oh! Clo. Alas, poor soul! 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 13. Clo. What manner of fellow was he that robbed you? Aut. A fellow, sir, that I have known to go about with trol-my dames 14: 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. 13 Dame Quickly, speaking of Falstaff, says: the king hath killed his heart.' 14 Trol my dames.' The old English title of this game was pigeon-holes; as the arches in the board through which the balls are to be rolled resemble the cavities made for pigeons in a dove-house. In Jones's Treatise on Buckstone Bathes' The ladyes, &c. if the weather be not agreeable, may have in the ende of a benche eleven holes made, into the which to troule pummits: the pastime troule in madame is called.' It is a corruption of trou-madame; and was also called trunkes according to Cotgrave. 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 abide 15. Aut. Vices I would I know this man sir. say, well: he hath been since an ape-bearer; then a process-server, a bailiff; then he compassed a motion 16 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. Clo. Out upon him! Prig 17, 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. 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 15Abide,' only sojourn, or dwell for a time. 16 He compassed a motion,' &c.; he obtained a puppet show, &c. 17 Prig, another cant phrase for the order of thieves. Harman in his Caveat for Cursetor, 1573, calls a horse-stealer 'a prigger of prancers; for to prigge in their language is to steale.' shearers prove sheep, let me be unrolled 18, and my name put in the book of virtue! Jog on, jog on, the foot-path way, 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 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. Sir, my gracious lord, Per. To chide at your extremes 1, it not becomes me; O, pardon, that I name them: your high self, The gracious mark2 o' the land, you have obscur'd With a swain's wearing; and me, poor lowly maid, Most goddesslike prank'd 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; sworn, I think, To show myself a glass 3. 18 i. e. dismissed from the society of rogues. 19 To hent the stile is to take the stile. It comes from the Saxon hentan. 1i. e. the extravagance of his conduct in disguising himself in shepherd's clothes, while he pranked her up most goddesslike. 2 The gracious mark of the land is the object of all men's notice and expectation. 3 To show myself a glass.' She probably means, that the prince, by the rustic habit he wears, seems as if he had sworn to show her as in a glass how she ought to be dressed, instead of being so goddesslike prank'd up. And were it not for the licence and folly which custom had made familiar at such feasts, as that of sheep-sheering, when mimetic sports were allowable, she should blush to see him so attired. Flo. I bless the time, When my good falcon made her flight across Thy father's ground. Per. To me, the difference Now Jove afford you cause! 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: 0, the fates! How would he look, to see his work, so noble, Vilely bound up5? What would he say? Or how Should I, in these my borrow'd flaunts, behold The sternness of his presence? Flo. 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 bellow'd; the green Neptune A ram, and bleated; and the fire-rob'd 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. Per. O but, dear sir, Your resolution cannot hold, when 'tis Oppos'd, as it must be, by the power o'the king: One of these two must be necessities, Which then will speak; that you must change this purpose, Or I my life. 4 Meaning the difference between his rank and hers. 5 Vilely bound up.' This was a metaphor natural enough to writer, though not exactly suitable in the mouth of Perdita. hakspeare has repeated it more than once in Romeo and Juliet. 6 This speech is almost literally taken from the novel. 7 Dear is wanting in the oldest copy. |