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 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 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,76 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 77 to him, though removed fifty times, shall all come under the hangman: which though it 78 be great pity, yet it is necessary. An old 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 into a sheep-cote! all deaths are too few, the sharpest too easy. him, say I: draw our throne 76 That is, if he be not at large under bonds to appear and answer on a given day. Hand-fast is here equivalent to main-prize. 77 Germane is related or akin; used both of persons and of things. 78 The doubling of the subject in relative clauses, as which and it in this place, is common in the old writers; and sometimes happens with good writers even now, though probably through inadvertence. So, again, in the next scene: "Which that it shall, is all as monstrous," &c. 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 flay'd alive; then, 'nointed over with honey, set on the head of a wasp's-nest ; there stand till he be three quarters and a dram dead; then recover'd again with aqua-vitæ or some other hot infusion; then, raw as he is, and in the hottest day prognostication proclaims,79 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,80 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. [Aside to Shep.] He seems to be of great authority: close with him; give him gold: an though 81 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 flay'd 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. 79 Meaning the hottest day predicted by the almanac. Malone says, Almanacs were in Shakespeare's time published under this title: 'An Almanack and Prognostigation made for the year of our Lord God 1575.'" 80 “Gently considered” here means liberally bribed. The use of consideration for recompense has been made familiar to readers of romance by old Trapbois, in The Fortunes of Nigel. 81 An though is here equivalent, apparently, to although. Aut. Well, give me the moiety. — Are you a party in this business? Clo. In some sort, sir: but, though my case be a pitiful one, I hope I shall not be flay'd out of it.82 Aut. O, that's the case of the shepherd's son: hang him, he'll be made an example. Clo. [Aside to Shep.] 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 perform'd; 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. Clo. [Aside to Shep.] We are bless'd in this man, as I may say, even bless'd. Shep. [Aside to Clo.] provided to do us good. Let's before, as he bids us : he was [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 but luck may turn 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. 82 The Clown, however uncorrupted with the sophistications of pen and ink, and though he may "have a mark to himself, like an honest plaindealing man," is no clod-pole: his pun on case in this instance is something keen. SCENE I. Sicilia. ACT V. A Room in the Palace of LEONTES. Enter LEONTES, CLEOMENES, DION, PAULINA, and others. 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. Whilst I remember Her and her virtues, I cannot forget Paul. True, too true, my lord: Or from the all that are took something good, Leon. I think so. Kill'd! Kill'd! - 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, Cleo. Not at all, good lady: You might have spoke a thousand things that would Your kindness better. Paul. You are one of those Would have him wed again. If you would not so, Dion. With a sweet fellow to't? Paul. 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 tenour of his oracle, That King Leontes shall not have an heir Is all as monstrous to our human reason As my Antigonus to break his grave Did perish with the infant. 'Tis your counsel My lord should to the Heavens be contrary, Oppose against their wills. [To LEON.] Care not for issue; The crown will find an heir: great Alexander Left his to th'3 worthiest; so his successor 1 Is well is an old phrase for is dead; that is, happy, or at rest. So in Antony and Cleopatra, ii. 5: "We use to say the dead are well." 2 Respecting, here, is in comparison with; the only instance, I think, of the word so used. But the Poet often has in respect of in just the same See vol. v. page 56, note 13. sense. 3 This elision of the, so as to make it coalesce with the preceding word into one syllable, has occurred many times in this play, and ought, perhaps, |