William Shakespeare: The Complete Works 2nd Edition (521 page)
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Authors: William Shakespeare
Tags: #Drama, #Literary Criticism, #Shakespeare
BOOK: William Shakespeare: The Complete Works 2nd Edition
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FLORIZEL
Now, good Camillo,
I am so fraught with curious business that
I leave out ceremony.
I leave out ceremony.
CAMILLO
Sir, I think
You have heard of my poor services i’th’ love
That I have borne your father?
That I have borne your father?
FLORIZEL
Very nobly
Have you deserved. It is my father’s music
To speak your deeds, not little of his care
To have them recompensed as thought on.
To speak your deeds, not little of his care
To have them recompensed as thought on.
CAMILLO
Well, my lord,
If you may please to think I love the King,
And through him what’s 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 forfend, your ruin—marry her,
And with my best endeavours in your absence
Your discontenting father strive to qualify
And bring him up to liking.
And through him what’s 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 forfend, your ruin—marry her,
And with my best endeavours in your absence
Your discontenting father strive to qualify
And bring him up to liking.
FLORIZEL
How, Camillo,
May this, almost a miracle, be done?—
That I may call thee something more than man,
And after that trust to thee.
That I may call thee something more than man,
And after that trust to thee.
CAMILLO
Have you thought on
A place whereto you’ll go?
FLORIZEL
Not any yet.
But as th’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.
To what we wildly do, so we profess
Ourselves to be the slaves of chance, and flies
Of every wind that blows.
CAMILLO
Then list to me.
This follows, if you will not change your purpose
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 there ‘Son, forgiveness!’
As ‘twere i’th’ father’s person, kisses the hands
Of your fresh princess; o‘er and o’er divides him
‘Twixt his unkindness and his kindness. Th’one
He chides to hell, and bids the other grow
Faster than thought or time.
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 there ‘Son, forgiveness!’
As ‘twere i’th’ father’s person, kisses the hands
Of your fresh princess; o‘er and o’er divides him
‘Twixt his unkindness and his kindness. Th’one
He chides to hell, and bids the other grow
Faster than thought or time.
FLORIZEL
Worthy Camillo,
What colour for my visitation shall I
Hold up before him?
Hold up before him?
CAMILLO
Sent by the King your father
To greet him, and to give him comforts. Sir,
The manner of your bearing towards him, with
What 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.
The manner of your bearing towards him, with
What 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.
FLORIZEL
I am bound to you.
There is some sap in this.
CAMILLO
A course more promising
Than a wild dedication of yourselves
To unpathed waters, undreamed 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.
To unpathed waters, undreamed 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.
PERDITA
One of these is true.
I think affliction may subdue the cheek
But not take in the mind.
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.
years
Be born another such.
FLORIZEL
My good Camillo,
She’s as forward of her breeding as
She is i’th’ rear our birth.
She is i’th’ rear our birth.
CAMILLO I cannot say ’tis pity
She lacks instructions, for she seems a mistress
To most that teach.
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 furnished like Bohemia’s son,
Nor shall appear so in Sicilia.
Preserver of my father, now of me,
The medicine of our house, how shall we do?
We are not furnished like Bohemia’s son,
Nor shall appear so 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.
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 speak apart.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 ribbon, 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 could 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 hubbub 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.
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?
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!
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 instantty—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, (
giving him money
) there’s some boot.
giving him money
) there’s some boot.
AUTOLYCUS I am a poor fellow, sir. (
Aside
) I know ye well enough.
Aside
) I know ye well enough.
CAMILLO Nay prithee, dispatch—the gentleman is half flayed already.
AUTOLYCUS Are you in earnest, sir? (
Aside
) I smell the trick on’t.
Aside
) I smell the trick on’t.
FLORIZEL Dispatch, I prithee.
AUTOLYCUS Indeed, I have had earnest, but I cannot with conscience take it.
CAMILLO Unbuckle, unbuckle.
Florizel and Autolycus exchange clothes
(
To Perdita
) Fortunate mistress—let my prophecy
Come home to ye!—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.
To Perdita
) Fortunate mistress—let my prophecy
Come home to ye!—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.
(
To Florizel
) Have you done there?
To Florizel
) Have you done there?
FLORIZEL
Should I now meet my father
He would not call me son.
CAMILLO
Nay, you shall have no hat.
He gives the hat to Perdita
Come, lady, come. Farewell, my friend.
AUTOLYCUS Adieu, sir.
FLORIZEL
O Perdita, what have we twain forgot!
Pray you, a word.
Pray you, a word.
They speak aside
CAMILLO (
aside
)
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.
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 th’ seaside.
CAMILLO The swifter speed the better.
Exeunt Florizel, Perdita, and Camillo
AUTOLYCUS I understand the business, I hear it. To have an open ear, a quick eye, and a nimble hand is necessary for a cutpurse. A good nose is requisite also, to smell out work for th’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 anything extempore. The Prince himself is about a piece of iniquity, stealing away from his father with his clog at his heels. If I thought it were a piece of honesty to acquaint the King withal, I would not do’t. I hold it the more knavery to conceal it, and therein am I constant to my profession.
Enter the Clown and the Old Shepherd, carrying a fardel and a box
Aside, aside! Here is more matter for a hot brain. Every lane’s end, every shop, church, session, hanging, yields a careful man work.
CLOWN 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.
OLD SHEPHERD Nay, but hear me.
CLOWN Nay, but hear
me.
me.
OLD SHEPHERD Go to, then.
CLOWN 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.
OLD SHEPHERD 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.
CLOWN Indeed, brother-in-law was the farthest off you could have been to him, and then your blood had been the dearer by I know not how much an ounce. AUTOLYCUS (
aside
) Very wisely, puppies.
aside
) Very wisely, puppies.
OLD SHEPHERD Well, let us to the King. There is that in this fardel will make him scratch his beard.
AUTOLYCUS (
aside
) I know not what impediment this complaint may be to the flight of my master.
aside
) I know not what impediment this complaint may be to the flight of my master.
CLOWN Pray heartily he be at’ palace.
AUTOLYCUS (
aside
) Though I am not naturally honest, I am so sometimes by chance. Let me pocket up my pedlar’s excrement.
aside
) Though I am not naturally honest, I am so sometimes by chance. Let me pocket up my pedlar’s excrement.
He removes his false beard
—How now, rustics, whither are you bound?
OLD SHEPHERD To th’ palace, an it like your worship.
AUTOLYCUS 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 anything that is fitting to be known, discover.
CLOWN We are but plain fellows, sir.
AUTOLYCUS 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.
give
us the lie.
CLOWN Your worship had like to have given us one if you had not taken yourself with the manner.
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