I needs must think it honesty. Camillo,
Not for Bohemia, nor the pomp

that may

Be thereat glean'd; for all the sun sees, or
The close earth wombs, or the profound seas hide
In unknown fathoms, will I break my oath
To this my fair belov'd: Therefore, I pray you,
As you have e'er been my father's honour'd friend,
When he shall miss me, (as, in faith, I mean not
To see him any more,) cast your good counsels
Upon his passion; Let myself and fortune,
Tug for the time to come. This you may know,
And so deliver,-I am put to sea

With her, whom here I cannot hold on shore ;
And, most opportune to our need, I have
A vessel rides fast by, but not prepar'd

For this design. What course I mean to hold,
Shall nothing benefit your knowledge, nor
Concern me the reporting.

Cam.

O, my lord,

I would your spirit were easter for advice,
Or stronger for your need.

Flo.

Hark, Perdita.[Takes her aside. [TO CAMILLO.

I'll hear you by and by.

Cam.

He's irremovable,

Resolv'd for flight: Now were I happy, if
His going I could frame to serve my turn;
Save him from danger, do him love and honour;
Purchase the sight again of dear Sicilia,

And that unhappy king, my master, whom
I so much thirst to see.

Flo.

I am so fraught with curious business, that

I leave out ceremony.

Cam.

Now, good Camillo,

[Going.

Sir, I think,

You have heard of my poor services, i'the love
That I have borne you father?

Flo.

Very nobly

Have you deserv'd it is my father's musick,
To speak your deeds; not little of his care
To have them recompens'd as thought on.
Cam.

Well, my lord,
If you may please to think I love the king;
And, through him, what is nearest to him, which is
Your gracious self; embrace but my direction,
(If your more ponderous and settled project
May suffer alteration,) on mine honour

I'll point you where you shall have such receiving
As shall become your highness; where you may
Enjoy your mistress; (from the whom, I see,
There's no disjunction to be made, but by,
As heavens forefend! your ruin :) marry her;
And (with my best endeavours, in your absence,)
Your discontenting father strive to qualify,
And bring him up to liking.

Flo.

How, Camillo,

May this, almost a miracle, be done?

That I may call thee something more than man,

And, after that, trust to thee.

Cam.

A place, whereto you'll go?

Flo.

Have you thought on

Not any yet:

But as the unthought-on accident is guilty

To what we wildly do ;' so we profess

Ourselves to be the slaves of chance, and flies
Of every wind that blows.

Cam.

Then list to me:

This follows,-if you will not change your purpose,

• Your discontenting father strive to qualify.] Discontenting is In our author's language the same as discontented. 'But as the unthought-on accident is guilty

To what we wildly do ;] Guilty to, though it sounds harsh to our ears, was the phraseology of the time, or at least of Shakspeare; and this is one of those passages that should caution us not to disturb his text merely because the language appears different from that now in use. MALONE.

But undergo this flight ;-Make for Sicilia;
And there present yourself, and your fair princess,
(For so, I see, she must be,) 'fore Leontes;
She shall be habited, as it becomes

The partner of your bed. Methinks, I see
Leontes, opening his free arms, and weeping
His welcomes forth: asks thee, the son, forgiveness,
As 'twere i'the father's person: kisses the hands
Of your fresh princess: o'er and o'er divides him
"Twixt his unkindness and his kindness; the one
He chides to hell, and bids the other grow,
Faster than thought, or time.

Flo.

Worthy Camillo,
What colour for my visitation shall I
Hold up before him?

What

Cam. Sent by the king your father To greet him, and to give him comforts. Sir, The manner of your bearing towards him, with you, as from your father, shall deliver, Things known betwixt us three, I'll write you down: The which shall point you forth at every sitting, What you must say; that he shall not perceive, But that you have your father's bosom there, And speak his very heart.

Flo.

There is some sap in this.
Cam.

I am bound to you:

A course more promising

Than a wild dedication of yourselves

To unpath'd waters, undream'd shores; most certain,
To miseries enough: no hope to help you;
But, as you shake off one, to take another:
Nothing so certain as your anchors; who
Do their best office, if they can but stay you
Where you'll be loath to be: Besides, you know,
Prosperity's the very bond of love;

Whose fresh complexion and whose heart together
Affliction alters.

Per.

One of these is true:

I think, affliction may subdue the cheek,

But not take in the mind.2

Cam.

Yea, say you so?

There shall not, at your father's house, these seven

My good Camillo,

She is as forward of her breeding, as

I'the rear of birth.

Cam.

I cannot 'tis pity

say,

She lacks instructions; for she seems a mistress

To most that teach.

Per.

I'll blush you thanks.

Your pardon, sir, for this:

Flo. My prettiest Perdita.

But, O, the thorns we stand upon!-Camillo,-
Preserver of my father, now of me;

The medicin of our house!-how shall we do?
We are not furnish'd like Bohemia's son ;

Nor shall appear in Sicily

Cam.

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

That

The scene you play, were mine. For instance, sir, you may know you shall not want,-one word. [They talk aside.

Enter AUTOLYCUS.

Aut. 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

But not take in the mind.] To take in anciently meant to conquer, to get the better of.

a riband, glass, pomander, brooch, table-book, ballad, knife, tape, glove, shoe-tye, bracelet, hornring, 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 a 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.

Cam. Nay, but my letters by this means being

there

So soon as you arrive, shall clear that doubt.

Flo. And those that you'll procure from king Leontes,

Cam. Shall satisfy your father.

Per.

All, that you speak, shows fair.

3

Cam.

Happy be you!

Who have we here?

[Seeing AUTOLYCUS.

pomander,] A pomander was a little ball made of perfumes, and worn in the pocket, or about the neck, to prevent infection in times of plague.