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

Clo. This cannot be but a great courtier.
Shep. His garments are rich, but he wears them not
handsomely.

Clo. He seems to be the more noble in being fantas-
tical: a great man, I'll warrant; I know by the
picking on's teeth.

Aut. The fardel there? what 's i' the fardel? Wherefore that box?

Shep. Sir, there lies such secrets in this fardel and

760

box, which none must know but the king; and 770 which he shall know within this hour, if I may come to the speech of him.

Aut. Age, thou hast lost thy labour.

Shep. Why, sir?

Aut. The king is not at the palace; he is gone

aboard a new ship to purge melancholy and air himself: for, if thou beest 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.

780 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, though removed fifty times, shall all come under the hangman: which though it be a great pity, yet it is necessary. An old 790 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 sheep-cote! all deaths are too few, the sharpest too easy. Clo. Has the old man e'er a son, sir, do you hear, an 't like you, sir?

Aut. He has a son who shall be flayed alive; then, 'nointed over with honey, set on the head of a wasp's nest; then stand till he be three quarters 800 and a dram dead; then recovered again with aqua-vitæ 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 810 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.

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: show the inside of your purse to the out-
side of his hand, and no more ado. Remember 820
'stoned,' and' flayed 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?

Shep. Ay, sir.

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

Clo. In some sort, sir: but though my case be a 830 pitiful one, I hope I shall not be flayed out of it. Aut. O, that's the case of the shepherd's son: hang him, he'll be made an example.

Clo. 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. 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.

Aut. I will trust you. Walk before toward the seaside; go on the right hand: I will but look upon the hedge and follow you.

to do us good.

840

Clo. We are blest in this man, as I may say, even blest. Shep. Let's before as he bids us: he was provided [Exeunt Shepherd and Clown. Aut. 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 oc

casion, gold and a means to do the prince my 850
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.

ACT FIFTH.

Scene I.

A room in Leontes' palace.

[Exit.

Enter Leontes, Cleomenes, Dion, Paulina, and Servants.

Cleo. Sir, you have done enough, and have perform'd
A saint-like sorrow: no fault could you make,
Which you have not redeem'd; indeed, paid down
More penitence than done trespass: at the last,
Do as the heavens have done, forget your evil;
With them forgive yourself.

Leon.

Paul.

Whilst I remember
Her and her virtues, I cannot forget
My blemishes in them, and so still think of
The wrong I did myself: which was so much,
That heirless it hath made my kingdom; and
Destroy'd the sweet'st companion that e'er man
Bred his hopes out of.

True, too true, my lord:
If, one by one, you wedded all the world,

ΙΟ

Leon.

Cleo.

Paul.

Dion.

Or from the all that are took something good,
To make a perfect woman, she you kill'd
Would be unparallel'd.

Paul.

She I kill'd! I did so: but thou strikest me
Sorely, to say I did; it is as bitter

Upon thy tongue as in my thought: now, good now,
Say so but seldom,

Not at all, good lady:

20

You might have spoken a thousand things that

would

Have done the time more benefit and graced
Your kindness better.

You are one of those

Would have him wed again.

If you would not so,
You pity not the state, nor the remembrance
Of his most sovereign name; consider little
What dangers, by his highness' fail of issue,
May drop upon his kingdom and devour
Incertain lookers on. What were more holy
Than to rejoice the former queen is well?
What holier than, for royalty's repair,
For present comfort and for future good,
To bless the bed of majesty again
With a sweet fellow to 't?

There is none worthy,
Respecting her that's gone. Besides, the gods
Will have fulfill'd their secret purposes;
For has not the divine Apollo said,

Is 't not the tenor of his oracle,

That King Leontes shall not have an heir

30

Till his lost child be found? which that it shall, 40