The lark, that tirra-lirra chants, With heigh! with heigh! the thrush and the jay', While we lie tumbling in the hay. I have served prince Florizel, and, in my time, wore threepile; but now I am out of service : But shall I go mourn for that, my dear? The pale moon shines by night; And when I wander here and there, If tinkers may have leave to live, My traffic is sheets; when the kite builds, look to lesser linen. My father named me, Autolycus; who, being, as I am, littered under Mercury, was likewise a snapper-up of unconsidered trifles. With die and drab I purchased this caparison, and my revenue is the silly cheat. Gallows and knock are too powerful on the highway: beating and hanging are terrors to me': for the life to come, I sleep out the thought of it.-A prize! a prize! misprinted for prigging or thieving. The Clown afterwards uses the word "prig" for a thief. However, "a puggard was a well known kind of cheat, and hence Autolycus may have obtained his participle. We leave it therefore "pugging," although it is amended to prigging in the corr. fo. 1632. 7 With heigh! WITH HEIGH! the thrush and the jay,] The first folio has only "with heigh!" the repetition, necessary for the metre and tune, is from the second folio. for me and my AUNTS,] "Aunt" was most commonly used for a bawd or procuress, but sometimes for a prostitute. See Dyce's Middleton, i. 441, iii. 16, &c. Richardson has no such sense of the word "Aunt." 9 and, in my time, wore THREE-PILE;] i. e. Three-pile velvet,-velvet of the richest description. We have had velvet of two pile and a half mentioned in "All's Well that Ends Well," A. iv. sc. 5, p. 613. And in the stocks avouch it.] It will require no proof that these three distinct fragments, sung by Autolycus, could not go to the same tune; and the old corrector of the fo. 1632 marks the fact in his margin, that the first three stanzas were sung to one tune, the fourth to another tune, and the fifth to a third tune. We are, nevertheless, still no nearer the tunes themselves. Much information on the subject may be obtained from the 2nd edit. of Chappell's "National English Airs," a considerable portion of which is devoted to the music of the scraps of ballads, and of the songs in Shakespeare. * - beating, and hanging, are terrors to me:] He should rather have said, "hanging and beating," in order to correspond with "gallows and knock." VOL. III. F Enter Clown. Clo. Let me see :-Every 'leven wether tods; every tod yields-pound and odd shilling: fifteen hundred shorn, what comes the wool to ? Aut. [Aside.] If the springe hold, the cock's mine. Clo. I cannot do't without counters.-Let me see; what am I to buy for our sheep-shearing feast? "Three pound of sugar; five pound of currants; rice "-What will this sister of mine do with rice? But my father hath made her mistress of the feast, and she lays it on. She hath made me four-andtwenty nosegays for the shearers; three-man song-men all', and very good ones, but they are most of them means and bases: but one Puritan amongst them, and he sings psalms to hornpipes. I must have saffron, to colour the warden pies; mace,-dates,-none; that's out of my note: "nutmegs, seven: a race or two of ginger;" but that I may beg:"four pound of pruens, and as many of raisins o' the sun." Aut. O, that ever I was born! [Grovelling on the ground. Clo. I' the name of me! Aut. O, help me, help me! pluck but off these rags, and then, death, death! Clo. Alack, poor soul! thou hast need of more rags to lay on thee, rather than have these off. Aut. O, sir! the loathsomeness of them offends me more than the stripes I have received, which are mighty ones, and millions. Clo. Alas, poor man! a million of beating may come to a great matter. Aut. I am robbed, sir, and beaten; my money and apparel ta'en from me, and these detestable things put upon me. Clo. What, by a horse-man, or a foot-man ? Aut. A foot-man, sweet sir, a foot-man. Clo. Indeed, he should be a foot-man, by the garments he hath left with thee: if this be a horse-man'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 sir, tenderly, O! Clo. Alas, poor soul! 3 4 tods;] A tod, according to Percy, is twenty-eight pounds of wool. three-man song-men all,] i. e. Singers of songs in three parts, or for three men; but the Clown complains that there are too few treble voices among them, most being "means and bases." Aut. O, good sir! softly, good sir. I fear, sir, my shoulderblade is out. Clo. How now? canst stand? Aut. Softly, dear sir: [Cuts his purse'.] good sir, softly. You ha' done me a charitable office. Clo. Dost lack any money? I have a little money for thee. Aut. No, good, sweet sir: no, I beseech you, sir. I have a kinsman not past three quarters of a mile hence, unto whom I 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 robbed you? Aut. A fellow, sir, that I have known to go about with trol-my-dames". I knew him once a servant of the prince: I cannot tell, good sir, for which of his virtues it was, but he was certainly whipped out of the court. Clo. His vices, you would say: there's no virtue whipped out of the court: they cherish it to make it stay there, and yet it will no more, not abide. Aut. Vices I would say, sir. I know this man well: he hath been since an ape-bearer; then a process-server, a 5 Cuts his purse.] Such is the stage-direction in the corr. fo. 1632: in other words, picks his pocket, which is the modern phrase to which it has ordinarily been altered. We preserve the old form. 6 — TROL-MY-DAMES:] An old French game, called 'trou-madame, from the hole into which the ball was to be driven. It seems to have been very similar to what we now call bagatelle. In English, says Steevens, the game was also of old called pidgeon-holes, when the ball had to pass through the arches of a wooden bridge placed across the board. 7 — and yet it will no more, Nor abide.] The text derived from the old impressions has always been, "and yet it will no more but abide," and the interpretation has universally been, "it will do no more than remain for a time;" "only sojourn or dwell for a time" are the words of the last editor. Nevertheless, this interpretation is clearly wrong, for where can it be shown that to "abide" means only to remain for a time? On the contrary, it means most emphatically to continue permanently: Johnson says to "abide" is "to dwell in a place, not remove, to stay, to remain, to be immoveable;" and Richardson tells us the same. Can the old text then be right, and have not all been in error in assigning to "yet it will no more but abide" the sense that virtue will remain at court only for a time? Certainly; yet what must have been the language of Shakespeare is restored in a moment by a very slight change, the converse of that in "Love's Labour's Lost," A. v. sc. 2, p. 174, where "but" has been, time out of mind, misprinted not: in the passage before us "not" has been misprinted but; and instead of saying that virtue will "but abide," we ought to say "not abide," and print the text as we have given it above, "and yet it will no more, not abide," meaning that however virtue may be cherished at court, it will not any the more stay, or "abide" there. bailiff; then he compassed a motion of the prodigal son', and married a tinker's wife within a mile where my land and living lies; and, having flown over many knavish professions, he settled only in rogue: some call him Autolycus. Clo. Out upon him! Prig, for my life, prig': he haunts wakes, fairs, and bear-baitings. Aut. Very true, sir; he, sir, he: that's the rogue, that put me into this apparel. Clo. Not a more cowardly rogue in all Bohemia: if you had but looked big, and spit at him, he'd have run. Aut. I must confess to you, sir, I am no fighter: I am false of heart that way, and that he knew, I warrant him. Clo. How do you now? Aut. Sweet sir, much better than I was: I can stand, and walk. I will even take my leave of you, and pace softly towards my kinsman's. Clo. Shall I bring thee on the way? Aut. No, good-faced sir; no, sweet sir. Clo. Then fare thee well. I must go buy spices for our sheep-shearing. Aut. Prosper you, sweet sir!-[Exit Clown.] Your purse is not hot enough to purchase your spice. I'll be with you at your sheep-shearing too. If I make not this cheat bring out another, and the shearers prove sheep, let me be enrolled', and my name put in the book of virtue ! Jog on, jog on, the foot-path way3, And merrily hent the stile-a3: Your sad tires in a mile-a. [Exit. 8 - a MOTION of the prodigal son,] A "motion" was technical for a puppetshow, of which the history of the prodigal son was here the subject. 9 Prig, for my life, prig.] Very old authorities may be cited to show that a "prig" was the cant name for a thief, and that "prigging" was thieving. See a previous note, p. 64. 1 - let me be ENROLLED.] It is unrolled in the old copies, but what Autolycus means is that, if he did not perform these cheating exploits, he should deserve to have his name "enrolled" in the book of virtue as an incapable thief, and consequently excluded from "the fraternity of vagabonds." "Enrolled" is from the corr. fo. 1632. 2 Jog on, jog on, &c.] These lines, Reed observes, are part of a catch printed in "An Antidote against Melancholy, made up in Pills, compounded of witty Ballads, Jovial Songs, and merry Catches," 1661, 4to, p. 69. "A merry heart lives long-a" is a quotation by Mrs. Merrythought, in "The Knight of the Burning Pestle:" see Dyce's Beaumont and Fletcher, Vol. ii. p. 148. 3 And merrily HENT the stile-a:] To "hent" is to take, but properly to take with the hand: the word occurs in "Measure for Measure," A. iv. sc. 6. SCENE III'. The Same. A Shepherd's Cottage. Enter FLORIZEL and PERDITA. Flo. These, your unusual weeds, to each part of you Peering in April's front'. This, your sheep-shearing, And you the queen on't. Per. 7 Digest it with a custom, I should blush When my good falcon made her flight across Per. Now, Jove afford you cause! * Scene III.] This is Scena Quarta in the old copies, and the two previous scenes have been called secunda and tertia, the address of Time being considered by the editor of the first folio as a scene. 5 no shepherdess, but Flora Peering in April's front.] So in " Pandosto :"-" Which attire became her so gallantly, as shee seemed to be the goddesse Flora her selfe for beauty." Shakespeare's Library, Part i. p. 29. • SURE, my gracious lord,] We have here a repetition of the blunder pointed out on p. 27 of this play, where sir is misprinted for "sure." The emendation is from the corr. fo. 1632; and instead of Herr, it is Traun in the German edition. 7 Digest IT] The necessary word it was inserted in the second folio. 8 SO WORN, I think,] In the old copies it is "sworn, I think," but indisputably a misprint for so worn, which is the emendation in the corr. fo. 1632. Such too was the suggestion of Jackson in his "Shakespeare Restored." Perdita tells Florizel that he is disguised as a shepherd, while she is pranked up like a goddess, and that his humble attire is worn, as it were, to show her in a glass how simply she ought to be dressed. We did not expect to see Sir T. Hanmer's swoon revived in our day, as if Perdita meant to say that she should be ready to faint at the sight: neither was it then at all usual to spell swoon as we now spell it, but swound and sound: these words could hardly be misprinted sworn. |