your flesh and blood is not to be punish'd by him. Shew 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. Shep. 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. Clo. Indeed, brother-in-law was the farthest off you could have been to him; and then your blood had been the dearer by I know how much an ounce. Aut. Very wisely, puppies! [Afide Shep. Well; let us to the King; there is That in this Farthel will make him scratch his beard. Aut. I know not, what impediment this Complaint may be to the flight of my mafter. Clo. 'Pray heartily, he be at the Palace. Aut. Tho' I am not naturally honest, I am so sometimes by chance: let me pocket up my Pedler's excrement. How now, rustiques, whither are you bound? Shep. To th' Palace, an it like your Worship. Aut. Your affairs there, what, with whom, the condition of that farthel, the place of your dwelling, your names, your age, of what having, breeding, and any thing that is fitting for to be known, discover. Clo. We are but plain fellows, Sir. Aut. A lie; you are rough and hairy; let me have no lying; it becomes none but tradesmen, and they often give us foldiers the lie; but we pay them for it with stamped coin, not stabbing steel, therefore they do not give us the lie. Clo. Your Worship had like to have given us one, if you had not taken your self with the manner. Shep. Are you a Courtier, an like you, Sir? Aut. Whether it like me, or no, I am a Courtier. Seest thou not the air of the Court in these enfoldings? hath not my gate in it the measure of the Court? re ceives not thy nose court-odour from me? reflect I not, on thy baseness, court-contempt? think'st thou, for that I infinuate, or toze from thee thy business, I am there therefore no Courtier? I am courtier, Cap-a-pè; and one that will either push on, or pluck back thy bufiness there; whereupon I command thee to open thy affair. Shep. My business, Sir, is to the King. Shep. I know not, an't like you. Clo. Advocate's the court-word for a pheasant; say, you have none. Shep. None, Sir; I have no pheasant cock, nor hen. Yet Nature might have made me as these are, Clo. This cannot be but a great Courtier. Shep. His garments are rich, but he wears them not handfomly. Clo. He seems to be the more noble in being fantastical; a Great man, I'll warrant; I know, by the picking on's teeth. Aut. The farthel there? what's i'th' farthel? Wherefore that box ? Shep. Sir, there lyes such secrets in this farthel 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. Aut. Age, thou hast loft thy labour. Aut. The King is not at the Palace; he is gone aboard a new ship, to purge melancholy and air himself; for if thou be'ft capable of things serious, thou must know, the King is full of grief. Shep. So 'tis said, Sir, about his son that should have married a shepherd's daughter. Aut. 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. Clo. Think you so, Sir? Aut. Not he alone shall suffer what wit can make heavy, and vengeance bitter; but those that are germane to him, tho' remov'd fifty times, shall all come under Ο 2 under the hangman; which tho' 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! fome say, he shall be ston'd; but that death is too foft for him, fay I: draw our throne into a sheep-coat! all deaths are too few, the sharpest too eafie. Clo. Has the old man e'er a son, Sir, do you hear, an't like you, Sir? Aut. He has a fon, who shall be flay'd alive, then 'nointed over with honey, set on the head of a wafp's nest, then stand 'till he be three quarters and a dram dead; then recover'd again with Aqua-vita, or fome other hot infusion; then, raw as he is, (and in the hot test day prognostication proclaims) shall he be set 1gainst a brick-wall, the Sun looking with a fouthward 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 smil'd at, their offences being so capital? Tell me, (for you seem to be honeft plain men) what you have to the King; being fomething gently confider'd, I'll bring you where he is aboard, tender your persons to his prefence, whisper him in your behalf, and if it be in man, besides the King to effect your suits, here is a man shall do it. Clo. 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; shew the inside of your purse to the outside of his hand, and no more ado. Remember, ston'd, and flay'd alive. Shep. 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. Aut. After I have done what I promised ? Aut. Well, give me the moiety. Are you a party in this business ? Clo. In fome fort, Sir; but tho' my case be a pitiful one, I hope, I shall not be flay'd out of it. Aut. Aut. Oh, that's the case of the shepherd's fon; hang him, he'll be made an example. Clo. Comfort, good comfort; we must to the King, and fhew our strange sights; he must know, 'tis none of your daughter, nor my sister; we are gone else. Sir, I will give you as much as this old man does, when the business is perform'd; and remain, as he says, your Pawn till it be brought you. Aut. I will trust you, walk before toward the sea-fide, go on the right hand; I will but look upon the hedge, and follow you. Clo. We are bless'd in this man, as I may say, even bless'd. Shep. Let's before, as he bids us; he was provided to do us good. [Exeunt Shep. and Clown. Aut. If I had a mind to be honest, I see, Fortune would not fuffer 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 shoar 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 ACT V. SCENE changes to Sicilia. Enter Leontes, Cleomines, Dion, Paulina, and Servants. S CLEOMINES. IR, you have done enough, and have perform'd More penitence, than done trespass. At the laft, Leo. Whilst I remember Her and her virtues, I cannot forget Pau. True, too true, my lord; Leo. I think so. Kill'd? Kill'd? she I kill'd? I did so, but thou strik'st me (16) Destroy'd the sweet'st Companion, that e'er Man Bred his hopes out of, true. Pau. Too true, my Lord.] A very light Examination will con vince ev'ry intelligent Reader, that, true, here has jump'd out of its place in all the Editions. What the King would fay, is absolutely complete without it: and the placing it, where the printed Copies have done, is an Embarrassment to the Senfe. These two Reasons, I hope, will be sufficient to justify my Transposition. Upon |