Aut. A lie; you are rough and hairy. Let me have no lying; it becomes none but tradesmen, and they often give us soldiers the lie; but we pay them for it with stamped coin, not stabbing steel; therefore they do not give us the lie.1 Clown. Your worship had like to have given us one, if you had not taken yourself with the manner.? Shep. Are you a courtier, an 't 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 gait in it the measure of the court? 3 receives not thy nose court-odor from me? reflect I not on thy baseness court-contempt ? Thinkest thou, for that I insinuate or toze 4 from thee thy business, I am therefore no courtier? I am courtier, cap-à-pé; and one that will either push on, or pluck back thy business there: whereupon I command thee to open thy affair. Shep. My business, sir, is to the king. Aut. What advocate hast thou to him? Clown. Advocate's the court-word for a pheasant: have none. say, you Shep. None, sir; I have no pheasant, cock, nor hen. Aut. How bless'd are we, that are not simple men! Yet Nature might have made me as these are ; Therefore I'll not disdain. i. e. they sell it us. The stately tread of courtiers. 2 In the fact. Cajole or force. Clown. This cannot be but a great courtier. Shep. His garments are rich, but he wears them not handsomely. Clown. 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 fardel there; what's i' the fardel? Wherefore that box? Shep. Sir, there lies such secrets in this fardel and box, which none must know but the king; and which he shall know within this hour, if I may come to the speech of him. Aut. Age, thou hast lost thy labor. 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 be'st 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. Clown. Think you so, sir? Aut. Not he alone shall suffer what wit can make heavy, and vengeance bitter; but those that are germane 1 to him, though removed fifty times, shall Related. all come under the hangman; which, though it be great pity, yet it is necessary. An old sheepwhistling 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. Clown. 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 and a dram dead; then recovered again with aquavitæ, or some other hot infusion; then, raw as he is, and in the hottest day prognostication proclaims,1 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 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. Clown. He seems to be of great authority: close 1 The hottest day foretold in the almanack. * Being handsomely bribed. 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 outside of his hand, and no more ado. Remember, 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? Aut. Well, give me the moiety. party in this business? Are you a Clown. In some sort, sir: but though my case be a 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. Clown. 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 sea-side; go on the right hand; I will but look upon the hedge, and follow you. Clown. We are blessed in this man, as I may say, even blessed. Shep. Let's before, as he bids us: he was provided to do us good. [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 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 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. [Exit. ACT V. SCENE I. Sicilia. A room in the palace of Leontes. Enter LEONTES, CLEOMENES, DION, PAULINA, and others. Cle. 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. Whilst I remember Her and her virtues, I cannot forget My blemishes in them, and so still think of |
