THE WINTER'S TALE. Sidney Lee

bond of love,

       Whose fresh complexion and whose heart together

       Affliction alters.

       PERDITA

       One of these is true:

       I think affliction may subdue the cheek,

       But not take in the mind.

       CAMILLO

       Yea, say you so?

       There shall not at your father’s house, these seven years

       Be born another such.

       FLORIZEL

       My good Camillo,

       She is as forward of her breeding as

       She is i’ the rear our birth.

       CAMILLO

       I cannot say ‘tis pity

       She lacks instruction; for she seems a mistress

       To most that teach.

       PERDITA

       Your pardon, sir; for this:

       I’ll blush you thanks.

       FLORIZEL

       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 Bohemia’s son;

       Nor shall appear in Sicilia.

       CAMILLO

       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.]

       [Re-enter AUTOLYCUS.]

       AUTOLYCUS

       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, table-book, ballad, knife, tape, glove, shoe-tie, bracelet, horn-ring, to keep my pack from fasting;—they throng who should buy first, as if 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 remembered. My clown (who wants but something to be a reasonable man) grew so 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 pinched 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 sir’s song, and admiring the nothing of it. So that, in this time of lethargy, I picked and cut most of their festival purses; and had not the old man come in with whoobub against his daughter and the king’s son, and scared my choughs from the chaff, I had not left a purse alive in the whole army.

       [CAMILLO, FLORIZEL, and PERDITA come forward.]

       CAMILLO

       Nay, but my letters, by this means being there

       So soon as you arrive, shall clear that doubt.

       FLORIZEL

       And those that you’ll procure from king Leontes,—

       CAMILLO

       Shall satisfy your father.

       PERDITA

       Happy be you!

       All that you speak shows fair.

       CAMILLO

       [Seeing AUTOLYCUS.] Who have we here?

       We’ll make an instrument of this; omit

       Nothing may give us aid.

       AUTOLYCUS

       [Aside.] If they have overheard me now,—why, hanging.

       CAMILLO

       How now, good fellow! why shakest thou so? Fear not, man; here’s no harm intended to thee.

       AUTOLYCUS

       I am a poor fellow, sir.

       CAMILLO

       Why, be so still; here’s nobody 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 side be the worst, yet hold thee, there’s some boot. [Giving money.]

       AUTOLYCUS

       I am a poor fellow, sir:—[Aside.] I know ye well enough.

       CAMILLO

       Nay, pr’ythee dispatch: the gentleman is half flay’d already.

       AUTOLYCUS

       Are you in earnest, sir?—[Aside.] I smell the trick on’t.

       FLORIZEL

       Dispatch, I pr’ythee.

       AUTOLYCUS

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

       CAMILLO

       Unbuckle, unbuckle.

       [FLORIZEL and AUTOLYCUS exchange garments.]

       Fortunate mistress,—let my prophecy

       Come home to you!—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,—to shipboard

       Get undescried.

       PERDITA

       I see the play so lies

       That I must bear a part.

       CAMILLO

       No remedy.—

       Have you done there?

       FLORIZEL

       Should I now meet my father,

       He would not call me son.

       CAMILLO

       Nay, you shall have no hat.—[Giving it to PERDITA.]

       Come, lady, come.—Farewell, my friend.

       AUTOLYCUS

       Adieu, sir.

       FLORIZEL

       O Perdita, what have we twain forgot!

       Pray you a word.

       [They converse apart.]

       CAMILLO

       [Aside.] What I do next, shall be to tell the king

       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 re-view Sicilia; for whose sight

       I have a woman’s longing.

       FLORIZEL

       Fortune speed us!—

       Thus we set on, Camillo, to the seaside.

       CAMILLO