[CAMILLO, FLORIZEL, and PERDITA, come forward. CAM. Nay, but my letters by this means being there So foon as you arrive, fhall clear that doubt. FLO. And those that you'll procure from king Leontes, CAM. Shall fatisfy your father. We'll make an inftrument of this; omit AUT. If they have overheard me now,--why hanging. [Afide. CAM. How now, good fellow? Why shakeft thou fo? Fear not man; here's no harm intended to thee. AUT. I am a poor fellow, fir. CAM. Why, be fo ftill; here's nobody will steal that from thee: Yet, for the outside of thy poverty, we must make an exchange: therefore, discase thee inftantly, (thou must think, there's neceffity in't,) and change garments with this gentleman: Though the pennyworth, on his fide, be the worst, yet hold thee, there's fome boot.4 AUT. I am a poor fellow, fir! I know ye well enough. [Afide. CAM. Nay, pr'ythee, despatch: the gentleman is half flay'd already." 5 4 boot. That is, fomething over and above, or, as we now fay, fomething to boot. JOHNSON. 5 it half lay'd already. ] I fuppofe Camillo means to fay no more, than that Florizel is half tripped already. MALONE. AUT. Are you in earneft, fir?-I fmell the trick of it. FLO. Defpatch, I pr'ythee. [Afide. AUT. Indeed, I have had earneft; but I cannot with confcience take it. CAM. Unbuckle, unbuckle. [FLO. and AUTOL. exchange garments. Fortunate mistress,-let my prophecy Come home to you!--you must retire yourself Nay, you fhall have No hat:-Come, lady, come.-Farewell, my friend, AUT. Adieu, fir. FLO. O Perdita, what have we twain forgot? Pray you, a word. [They converfe apart. CAM. What I do next, fhall be, to tell the king Of this escape, and whither they are bound; [ Afide. 4 over you,] You, which feems to have been accidentally omitted in the old copy, was added by Mr. Rowe. MALONE. 1 I have a woman's longing. FLO. Fortune fpeed us!— Thus we fet on, Camillo, to the fea-fide. CAM. The fwifter fpeed, the better. [Exeunt FLORIZEL, PERDITA, and CAMILLO. AUT. I underfland the business, I hear it: To have an open ear, a quick eye, and a nimble hand, is neceffary for a cut-purfe; a good nofe is requifite also, to smell out work for the other fenfes. I fee, this is the time that the unjust man doth thrive. What an exchange had this been, without boot? what a boot is here, with this exchange? Sure, the gods do this year connive at us, and we may do any thing extempore. The prince himself is about a piece of iniquity, flealing away from his father, with his clog at his heels: If I thought it were not a piece of honefly to acquaint the king withal, I would do't: 5 I hold it the more knavery to 5 If I thought it were not a piece of honesty to acquaint the king withal, I would do't:] The old copy reads-If I thought it were a piece of honefly to acquaint the king withal, I would not See the following note. STEEVENS. do't. The reafoning of Autolycus is obfcure, because fomething is fuppreffed. The prince, fays he, is about a bad action, he is ftealing away from his father: If I thought it were a piece of honefly to acquaint the king, I would not do it, becaufe that would be inconfiftent with my profeffion of a knave; but I know that the betraying the prince to the king would be a piece of knavery with reSpect to the prince, and therefore I might, contently with my character, reveal that matter to the king, though a piece of honefly to him: however, I hold it a greater knavery to conceal the prince's scheme from the king, than to betray the prince; and therefore, in concealing it, I am ftill conftant to my profeffion.-Sir T. Hanmer and all the fubfequent editors read--If I thought it were not a piece of honefty, &c. I would do it: but words feldom firay from their places in fo extraordinary a manner at the prefs: nor indeed do I perceive any need of change. MALONE. I have left Sir T. Hanmer's reading in the text, because, in my opinion, our author, who wrote merely for the ftage, muft have conceal it; and therein am I conftant to my profeffion. Enter Clown and Shepherd. Afide, afide;-here is more matter for a hot brain: Every lane's end, every shop, church, feffion, hanging, yields a careful man work. CLOWN. See, fee; what a man you are now! there is no other way, but to tell the king she's a changeling, and none of your flesh and blood. SHEP. Nay, but hear me. CLOWN. Nay, but hear me. SHEP. Go to then. CLOWN. She being none of your flesh and blood, your fleth and blood has not offended the king; and, fo, your flesh and blood is not to be punish'd by him. Show thofe things you found about her; thofe fecret things, all but what fhe has with her; This being done, let the law go whiftle; I warrant you. SHEP. I will tell the king all, every word, yea, and his fon's pranks too; who, I may fay, is no honest man neither to his father, nor to me, to go about to make me the king's brother-in-law. CLOWN. Indeed, brother-in-law was the furthest off you could have been to him; and then your blood had been the dearer, by I know how much defigned to render himself intelligible without the aid of so long an explanatory clause as Mr. Malone's interpretation demands. 6 STEEVENS. and then your blood had been the dearer, by I know how much an ounce. I fufpe& that a word was omitted at the prefs. We might, I think, fafely read by I know not how much an ounce, Sir T. Hanmer, I find, had made the fame emendation. MALONE. [Afide. AUT. Very wifely; puppies! SHEP. Well; let us to the king; there is that in this fardel, will make him fcratch his beard. AUT. I know not, what impediment this complaint may be to the flight of my mafter. CLOWN. 'Pray heartily he be at palace. AUT. Though I am not naturally honeft, I am fo fometimes by chance: Let me pocket up my pedler's excrement. -[ Takes off his falfe beard.] How now, rufticks? whither are you bound? SHEP. To the palace, an it like your worship. AUT. Your affairs there? what? with whom? the condition of that fardel, the place of your dwelling, your names, your ages, of what having," breeding, and any thing that is fitting to be known, difcover. CLOWN. We are but plain fellows, fir. 8 AUT. A lie; you are rough and hairy: Let me have no lying; it becomes none but tradesmen, and they often give us foldiers the lie: but we pay them for it with ftamped coin, not stabbing steel; therefore they do not give us the lie." 7pedler's - pedler's excrement.] Is pedler's beard. JOHNSON, Again, in Love's Labour's Loft: my dally with my excrement, with muftachio.' Again, in The Comedy of Errors : of his hair, being, as it is, fo plentiful an excrement?" 8 STEEVENS. of what having, ] i. e. eftate, property. So, in The Merry Wives of Windfor: "The gentleman is of no having." STEEVENS. 9 therefore they do not give us the lie.] The meaning is, they are paid for lying, therefore they do not give us the lic, they fell it us. JOHNSON. |
