,—
With heigh! with, hey!* note the thrush and the jay:—
Are summer songs for me and my aunts5note
,
While we lie tumbling in the hay.
I have served prince Florizel, and, in my time, wore
three-pile6note
; but now I am out of service:
-- 336 --
But shall I go mourn for that, my dear?
The pale moon shines by night:
And when I wander here and there,
I then do most go right.
If tinkers may have leave to live,
And bear the sow-skin budget;
Then my account I well may give,
And in the stocks avouch it.
; when the kite builds, look
to lesser linen. My father named me, Autolycus8note
;
-- 337 --
who, being, as I am, littered under Mercury, was
likewise a snapper-up of unconsidered trifles: With
die, and drab, I purchased this caparison9note; and my
revenue is the silly cheat1note
: Gallows, and knock,
are too powerful on the highway2note: beating, and
-- 338 --
hanging, are terrors to me; for the life to come, I
sleep out the thought of it.—A prize! a prize!
;
every tod yields—pound and odd shilling: fifteen
hundred shorn,—What comes the wool to?
-- 339 --
Aut.
If the springe hold, the cock's mine.
[Aside.
Clo.
I cannot do't without counters4note.—Let me
see; what I am to buy for our sheep-shearing
feast5note? Three pound of sugar; five pound of currants;rice—What will this sister of mine do
with rice? But my father hath made her mistress
of the feast, and she lays it on. She hath made me
four-and-twenty nosegays for the shearers: three-man
song-men all6note
, and very good ones; but they
are most of them means and bases7note
: but one Puritan
amongst them, and he sings psalms to hornpipes.
I must have saffron, to colour the warden
pies8note
; mace,—dates,—none; that's out of my note:
-- 340 --
nutmegs, seven; a race, or two, of ginger; but that
I may beg;—four pound of prunes, and as many ofraisins o' the sun.
O, help me, help me! pluck but off these
rags; and then, death, death!
Clo.
Alack, poor soul! thou hast need of more
rags to lay on thee, rather than have these off.
Aut.
O, sir, the loathsomeness of them offends
me more than the stripes I have received; which
are mighty ones, and millions.
Clo.
Alas, poor man! a million of beating may
come to a great matter.
Aut.
I am robbed, sir, and beaten; my money
and apparel ta'en from me, and these detestable
things put upon me.
Clo.
What, by a horse-man, or a foot-man?
Aut.
A foot-man, sweet sir, a foot-man.
Clo.
Indeed, he should be a foot-man, by the
garments he hath left with thee; if this be a horse-man's
coat, it hath seen very hot service. Lend me
thy hand, I'll help thee: come, lend me thy hand.
[Helping him up.
-- 341 --
Aut.
O! good sir, tenderly, oh!
Clo.
Alas, poor soul.
Aut.
O, good sir, softly, good sir: I fear, sir, my
shoulder-blade is out.
Clo.
How now? canst stand?
Aut.
Softly, dear sir; [Picks his pocket.] good
sir, softly: you ha' done me a charitable office.
Clo.
Dost lack any money? I have a little money
for thee.
Aut.
No, good sweet sir; no, I beseech you, sir:
I have a kinsman not past three quarters of a mile
hence, unto whom I was going; I shall there have
money, or any thing I want: Offer me no money,
I pray you; that kills my heart1note.
Clo.
What manner of fellow was he that robbed
you?
Aut.
A fellow, sir, that I have known to go
about with trol-my-dames2note
[unresolved image link]
: I knew him once a
-- 342 --
servant of the prince; I cannot tell, good sir, for
which of his virtues it was, but he was certainly
whipped out of the court.
Clo.
His vices, you would say; there's no virtue
whipped out of the court: they cherish it, to make
it stay there; and yet it will no more but abide3note
.
Aut.
Vices I would say, sir. I know this man
well: he hath been since an ape-bearer; then a
process-server, a bailiff; then he compassed a motion
of the prodigal son4note, and married a tinker's
wife within a mile where my land and living lies;
and, having flown over many knavish professions, he
settled only in rogue: some call him Autolycus.
Very true, sir; he, sir, he; that's the rogue,
that put me into this apparel.
Clo.
Not a more cowardly rogue in all Bohemia;
if you had but looked big, and spit at him, he'd
have run.
Aut.
I must confess to you, sir, I am no fighter:
-- 343 --
I am false of heart that way; and that he knew, I
warrant him.
Clo.
How do you now?
Aut.
Sweet sir, much better than I was; I can
stand, and walk: I will even take my leave of you,
and pace softly towards my kinsman's.
Clo.
Shall I bring thee on the way?
Aut.
No, good-faced sir; no, sweet sir.
Clo.
Then fare thee well; I must go buy spices
for our sheep-shearing.
Aut.
Prosper you, sweet sir!—[Exit Clown.]Your purse is not hot enough to purchase your
spice. I'll be with you at your sheep-shearing too:
If I make not this cheat bring out another, and the
shearers prove sheep, let me be unrolled, and my
name put in the book of virtue6note!
Jog on, jog on, the foot-path way7note,
And merrily hent the stile-a8note
:
A merry heart goes all the day,
Your sad tires in a mile-a. [Exit.
