We'll make an instrument of this; omit
Nothing, may give us aid.

Aut. If they have overheard me now,-why hanging.

[Aside. Cam. How now, good fellow? why shakest thou so? Fear not, man; here's no harm intended to thee.

Aut. I am a poor fellow, sir.

Cam. 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 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.*

Aut. I am a poor fellow, sir:-I know ye well enough. [Aside. Cam. Nay, pr'ythee, despatch: the gentleman is half flayed already."

Aut. Are you in earnest, sir?-I smell the trick of it.[Aside.

Flo. Despatch, I pr'ythee.

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

Cam. Unbuckle, unbuckle.

[FLO. and AUTOL. 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 you,) to shipboard
Get undescried.

boot.] That is, something over and above, or, as we now say, something to boot.

is half flayed already.] i. e. half stripped already.

Per.

I see, the play so lies,

No remedy.

That I must bear a part.
Cam.

Have you done there?
Flo.

Should I now meet my father,

He would not call me son.

Cam.

Nay, you shall have No hat:-Come, lady, come.-Farewell, my friend.

Aut. Adieu, sir.

Flo. O, Perdita, what have we twain forgot?" Pray you, a word.

[They converse apart. Cam. 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 review Sicilia; for whose sight
I have a woman's longing.

[Aside.

Flo. Fortune speed us !— Thus we set on, Camillo, to the sea-side. Cam. The swifter speed, the better.

[Exeunt FLORIZEL, PERDITA, and CAMILLO. Aut. I understand the business, I hear it: To have an open ear, a quick eye, and a nimble hand, is necessary for a cut-purse; a good nose is requisite also, to smell out work for the other senses. I see, 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; stealing away from his father,

6 what have we twain forgot?] This is one of our author's dramatick expedients to introduce a conversation apart, account for a sudden exit, &c. So, in The Merry Wives of Windsor, Dr. Caius suddenly exclaims-" Q'ay j'oublié ?"-and Mrs. Quickly ---“ Out upon't! what have I forgot?" STEEVENS,

with his clog at his heels: If I thought it were not a piece of honesty to acquaint the king withal, I would do't: I hold it the more knavery to conceal it and therein am I constant to my profession.

Enter Clown and Shepherd.

Aside, aside ;—here is more matter for a hot brain: Every lane's end, every shop, church, session, hanging, yields a careful man work.

Clo. See, see; 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.

Clo. Nay, but hear me.
Shep. Go to then.

Clo. She being none of your flesh and blood, your flesh and blood has not offended the king; and, so, your flesh and blood is not to be punished by him. Show those things you found about her; those secret things, all but what she has with her: This being done, let the law go whistle; I warrant you.

Shep. I will tell the king all, every word, yea, and his son's pranks too; who, I may say, is no honest man neither to his father, nor to me, to go about to make me the king's brother-in-law.

Clo. 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 an

ounce.

Aut. Very wisely; puppies!

[Aside. Shep. Well; let us to the king; there is that in this fardel, will make him scratch his beard. Aut. I know not what impediment this complaint may be to the flight of my master.

Clo. 'Pray heartily he be at palace.

Aut. Though I am not naturally honest, I am so sometimes by chance :-Let me pocket up my pedler's excrement.-[Takes off his false beard.] How now, rusticks? 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, discover. Clo. We are but plain fellows, sir.

Aut. A lie; you are rough and hairy: Let me have no lying; it becomes none but tradesmen, and they often give us soldiers the lie: but we pay them for it with stamped coin, not stabbing steel; therefore they do not give us the lie.3

Clo. Your worship had like to have given us one, if you had not taken yourself with the man

ner.9

Shep. Are you a courtier, an't like you, sir?

Aut. Whether it like me, or no, I am a courtier. See'st thou not the air of the court, in these enfoldings? hath not my gait in it, the measure of the court? receives not thy nose court odour from me? reflect I not on thy baseness, court-contempt? Think'st thou, for that I insinuate, or toze' from thee thy business, I am therefore no courtier? I am courtier cap-a-pè; and one that will either push on, or pluck back thy business there: whereupon I command thee to open thy affair.

7

8

of what having,] i. e. estate, property.

therefore they do not give us the lie.] The meaning is, they are paid for lying, therefore they do not give us the lie, they sell it us.

9

1

with the manner.] In the fact.

insinuate, or toze ] To insinuate, and to tease, or toaze, are opposite. The former signifies to introduce itself obliquely into a thing, and the latter to get something out that was knotted up in it.

Shep. My business, sir, is to the king.
Aut. What advocate hast thou to him?
Shep. I know not, an't like you.

Clo. Advocate's the court-word for a pheasant; say, you have none.

Shep. None, sir; I have no pheasant, cock, nor hen.

Aut. How bless'd are we, that are not simple men!

Yet nature might have made me as these are,
Therefore I'll not disdain.

Clo. This cannot be but a great courtier.

Shep. His garments are rich, but he wears them not handsomely.

Clo. He seems to be the more noble in 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 se rious, 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, 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