The lark that tirra lyra chaunts,

With hey, with hey the thrush and the jay:

Are fummer fongs for me and my aunts,
While we lie tumbling in the bay.

I have served prince Florizel, and in my time wore three-pile, but now I am out of fervice;

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

If tinkers may have leave to live,
And bear the fow-fkin budget,
Then my account I well may give,
And in the frocks avouch it.

My traffick is sheets; when the kite builds, look to leffer linen. My father nam'd me Autolicus; who being, as am, litter'd under Mercury, was likewife a fnapper-up of unconfider'd trifles: with die and drab I purchas'd this caparifon; and my revenue is the fly cheat. Gallows and knocks are too powerful on the highway, beating and hanging are terrours to me: for the life to come, I fleep out the thought of it. A prize! a prize!

Enter Clown.

Clo. Let me fee, every eleventh weather tods, every tod yields a pound and one odd fhilling; fifteen hundred fhorn, what comes the wooll to?

VOL. II.

a

Aut. If the fprindge hold, the cock's mine.

[afide.

Clo. I cannot do't without counters. Let me fee; what am I to buy for our sheepfhearing feaft? three pound of fugar, five pound of currants, rice-what will this fifter of mine do with rice? but my father hath made her miftress of the feast, and she Meaning the ragged cloths be lad on. Aaaa

lays

lays it on. She hath made me four and twenty nosegays for the fhearers; three-man fongmen all, and very good ones, but they are most of them means, and bafes; but one puritan among them, and he fings pfalms to hornpipes. I must have faffron to colour the warden-pipes; mace dates that's out of my note: nutmegs, feven; a race or two of ginger; but that I may beg; four pound of prunes, and as many raifins o' th' fun.

none

Aut. O, that ever I was born!

[groveling on the ground.

Clo. I' th' name of me—

a

Aut. O, help me, help me! pluck but off these rags; and then death, death

--

Clo. Alack, poor foul, thou haft need of more rags to lay on thee, rather than have these off.

Aut. O, fir, the loathfomness of them offends me, more than the stripes I have receiv'd; which are mighty ones, and millions. Clo. Alas, poor man! a million of beating may come to a great

matter.

Aut. I am robb'd, fir, and beaten; my money and apparel ta'en from me, and these deteftable things put upon me.

Clo. What, by a horfeman, or a footman?

Aut. A footman, sweet fir, a footman.

Clo. 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. [helping him up.

Aut. O! good fir, tenderly, oh!

Clo. Alas, poor foul!

Aut. O, good fir, foftly, good fir: I fear, fir,

is out.

Clo. How now? canft ftand?

Aut. Softly, dear fir; good fir, softly: you ha' done me a charitable office.

my fhoulderblade

Clo. Doft lack any money? I have a little money for thee. Aut. No, good fweet fir: no, I beseech you, fir; I have a kinsman not paft three quarters of a mile hence, unto whom I

• Meaning, those who fing catches which are generally in three parts.

was

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 robb'd you?

Aut. A fellow, fir, that I have known to go about with trollmadams: I knew him once a fervant of the prince; I cannot tell, good fir, for which of his virtues it was, but he was certainly whipp'd out of the court.

Clo. His vices, you would fay; there's no virtue whipp'd out of the court; they cherish it to make it stay there, and yet it will no more but abide.

Aut. Vices I would fay, fir. I know this man well; then he hath been fince an ape-bearer, then a process-server, a bailiff; then he compass'd a motion of the prodigal fon, and married a tinker's wife within a mile where my land and living lies; and, having flown over many knavish profeffions, he fettled only in rogue: fome call him Autolicus.

Clo. Out upon him, prig! for my life, prig! he haunts wakes, fairs, and bear-baitings.

Aut. Very true, fir; he, fir, he; that's the rogue that put me into this apparel.

Clo. Not a more cowardly rogue in all Bithynia; if you had but look'd big, and fpit at him, he'd have run.

Aut. I must confefs to you, fir, I am no fighter; I am false of heart that way; and that he knew, I warrant him.

Clo. How do you do now?

Aut. Sweet fir, much better than I was; I can stand, and walk: I will even take my leave of you, and pace foftly towards

my kinfman's.

Clo. Shall I bring thee on thy way?

Aut. No, good-fac'd fir; no, fweet fir.

Clo. Then farewel; I must go to buy fpices for our sheepfhearing. [Exit. Aut. Profper you, fweet fir! Your purfe is not hot enough to purchase your spice. I'll be with you at your fheepfhearing too : if I make not this cheat bring out another, and the fhearers prove

sheep,

A motion is a word for a puppet-show.
Aaa 2

.

fheep, let me be unroll'd, and my name put into the book of

virtue.

a

Song.

Fog on, jog on, the footpath way,
And merrily bend the file-a:
A merry heart goes all the day,
Your fad tires in a mile-a.

SCENE IV.

The old fhepherd's house.

Enter Florizel, and Perdita.

Flo. These your unufual weeds to each part

Do give a life: no fhepherdefs, but Flora

Peering in april's front. This your sheepshearing
Is as a meeting of the petty gods,

And you the queen on't.

of you

Per. 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 obscur'd
With a fwain's wearing; and me, poor lowly maid,
Most goddess-like prank'd up. But that our feasts
In every mefs have folly, and the feeders
Digest it with a cuftom; I fhould blush
To fee you fo attired; fwoon, I think,
To fhow myself a glass.

Flo. I blefs the time

When my good falcon made her flight across
Thy father's ground.

a

Per. Now Jove afford you caufe!

To me the difference forges dread; your greatness

Hath not been us'd to fear: even now I tremble

Alluding to the focieties into which the notorious cheats and gipfies enroll themselves.

[Exit.

To

To think, your father, by fome accident,
Should pass this way, as you did: o the fates!
How would he look to fee his work, fo noble,
Vilely bound up! what would he say! or how
Should I, in these my borrow'd flaunts, behold
The fternness of his prefence!

Flo. Apprehend

Nothing but jollity: the gods themselves,
Humbling their deities to love, have taken
The shapes of beafts 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 fwain,
As I feem now. Their transformations
Were never for a piece of beauty rarer,
Nor in a way fo chafte; fince my defires
Run not before mine honour, nor my lufts
Burn hotter than my faith.

Per. O but, dear fir,

Your refolution cannot hold, when 'tis

Oppos'd, as it must be, by th' pow'r o'th' king:

One of these two neceflities must be,

Which then will speak, that you must change this purpose,
Or I my life.

Flo. Thou deareft Perdita,

With thefe forc'd thoughts, I pr'ythee, darken not
The mirth o'th' feaft: or I'll be thine, my fair,
Or not my father's: for I cannot be
Mine own, nor any thing to any, if

I be not thine: to this I am most constant,
Though destiny say, no. Be merry, gentlest !
Strangle fuch thoughts as these with any thing
That you behold the while. Your guests are coming:
Lift up your countenance, as 'twere the day
Of celebration of that nuptial, which

We two have fworn fhall come.

Per.