a

To have them recompens’d, as thought on.

Cam. Well, my lord,
If you may please to think I love the king,
And, through him, what is nearest to him, which is
Your gracious self, embrace but my direction,
If

your more ponderous and settled project
May suffer alteration; on mine honour,
I'll point you where you shall have such receiving
As shall become your highness, where you may
Enjoy your mistress; from the whom, 'I fee,
There's no disjunction to be made, but by
(As heav'ns forefend !) your ruin. Marry her ;
And, with my best endeavours, in your absence,
Your discontented father I will strive
To qualify and bring him up to liking.

Flo. How, Camillo,
May this, almost a miracle, be done?
That I may call thee something more than man;
And, after that, trust to thee.

Cam. Have you thought on
A place whereto you'll go?

Flo. Not any yet :
But as th’unthought-on accident is guilty
Towards what we wildly do, so we profess
Ourselves to be the saves of chance, and flies
Of every wind that blows.

Cam. Then list to me:
This follows, if you will not change your purpose,
But undergo this flight; make for Sicilia,
And there present yourself

, and your fair princess
(For so, I see, she must be) 'fore Leontes;
She shall be habited as it becomes
The
partner

of

your bed. Methinks, I see
Leontes opening his free arms, and weeping
His welcomes forth; asks thee, the son, forgiveness,
As’ twere i'th' father's person; kisses the hands

Of

very heart.

Of your fresh princess; o'er and o’er divides him
'Twixt his unkindness, and his kindness: th' one
He chides to hell, and bids the other grow
Faster than thought, or time.

Flo. Worthy Camillo,
What colour for my visitation shall I
Hold

up

before him?
Cam. Sent by the king your father
To greet him, and to give him comforts. Sir,
The manner of your bearing towards him, with
What you, as from your father, shall deliver,
Things known betwixt us three, I'll write you down;
The which shall point you forth, at every sitting,
What you must say; that he shall not perceive,
But that

you
have
your

father's bofom there, And speak his

Fl. I am bound to you:
There is some sap in this.

Cam. A course more promising
Than a wild dedication of yourselves
To unpath'd waters, undreain'd shores; most certain,
To miseries enough: no hope to help you,
But as you shake off one, to take another :
Nothing so certain as your anchors, which
Do their best office, if they can but stay you
Where you'll be loath to be: besides, you know,
Prosperity's the very bond of love,
Whose fresh complexion and whose heart together
Affliction alters.

Per. One of these is true:
I think, affliction may subdue the cheek,
But not take in the mind.

Cam. Yea, say you so?
There shall not at your father's house, these seven years,
Be born another such.

а

Flo. My good Camillo,
She is as forward of her breeding, as
I'th' rear of birth.

Cam. I cannot say, 'tis pity
She lacks instructions, for the seems a mistress
To most that teach.

Per. Your pardon, fir; for this
I'll blush

you

thanks.
Flo. My prettiest Perdita -
But o, the thorns we stand upon! Camillo,
Preserver of my father, now of me;
The medicine of our house; how shall we do?
We are not furnish'd like Bithynia's son,
Nor shall appear in Sicily –

Cam. My lord,
Fear none of this: I think, you know my fortunes
Do all lie there: it shall be so my care
To have you royally appointed, as if
The scene you play were mine. For instance, sir,
That you may know you shall not want; one word.

[they talk aside.

as if

Enter Autolicus. Aut. Ha, ha, what a fool honesty is! and trust, his sworn brother, a very simple gentleman! I have sold all my trumpery; not a counterfeit stone, not a riband, glass, pomander, brooch, tablebook, ballad, knife, tape, glove, shoetye, bracelet, hornring, to keep my pack from fafting : they throng who should buy first; my

trinkets had been hallowed, and brought a benediction to the buyer : by which means, I saw whose purse was best in picture; and, what I saw, to my good use, I remember’d. My good clown (who wants but something to be a reasonable man) grew fo in love with the wenches' song, that he would not stir his pettitoes till he had both tune and words; which so drew the rest of the herd to me, that all their other senses stuck in ears; you might have pinch'd a placket, it was senseless; 'twas nothing to 'geld a codpiece of a purse; I would have filed keys off that hung in chains: no hearing, no feeling, but my fir's song, and admiring the nothing of it. So that, in this time of lethargy, I pick'd and cut most of their festival purses: and had not the old man come in with a whoo-bub against his daughter and the king's son, and scar’d my choughs from the chaff, I had not left a purse alive in the whole army.

Camillo, Florizel, and Perdita come forward.
Cam. Nay, but my letters by this means being there,
So soon as you arrive, shall clear that doubt.

Flo. And those that you'll procure from king Leontes
Cam. Shall satisfy your father.

Per. Happy be you!
All that you speak shows fair.
Cam. Who have we here?

[Seeing Autol.
We'll make an instrument of this; omit
Nothing may give us aid.

Aut. If they have over-heard me now: why, hanging. [asde.

Cam. How now, good fellow? come, why shak'st thou so? Fear not, man; here's no harm intended to thee.

Aut. I am a poor fellow, fir.

Cam. Why, be so still: Here's

s no body will steal that from thee; yet for the outside of thy poverty, we must make an exchange: therefore, discase thee instantly, (thou must think, there's a necessity in't) and change garments with this gentleman: though the pennyworth on his lide be the worst, yet, hold thee, there's some boot.

Aut. I am a poor fellow, fir: I know ye well enough. [aside.

Cam. Nay, pr’ythee, despatch: the gentleman is half flead already

Aut. Are you in earnest, sir? I smell the trick on't. [afde.
Flo. Despatch, I pr’ythee.

Aut.

Aut. Indeed, I have had earnest; but I cannot with conscience take it.

Cam. Unbuckle, unbuckle.
Fortunate mistress, (let my prophecy
Come home to ye !) you must retire yourself
Into some covert: take your sweetheart's hat,
And pluck it o'er your brows; muffle your face,
Dismantle you; and, as you can, disliken
The truth of your own seeming; that you may
(For I do fear eyes over you) to shipboard
Get undescry'd.

Per. I fee, the play so lies
That I must bear a part.

Cam. No remedy. Have you

done there?
Flo. Should I now meet my father,
He would not call me fon.

Cam. Nay, you shall have
No hat: come, lady, come. Farewel, my friend.

Aut. Adieu, fir.

Flo. O, Perdita, what have we twain forgot? Pray you, a word.

Cam. What I do next, shall be to tell the king [afde. Of this escape, and whither they are bound; Wherein, my hope is, I shall so prevail To force him after: in whose company I shall review Sicilia ; for whose fight I have a woman's longing.

Flo. Fortune speed us ! Thus we set on, Camillo, to th' seaside. [Ex. Flo. and Per. Cam. The swifter speed, the better.

[Exit.

Aut. I understand the business; I heard it: to have an open ear, a quick eye, and a nimble hand, is necessary for a cutpurse; Vol. II.

D d d d

a good