SCENE II.
The Country.
Enter Autolycus 3 note
singing.
When daffodils begin to peer,—
With, heigh! the doxy over the dale,—
Why, then comes in the sweet o'the year;
For the red blood reigns in the winter's pale4 note
.
-- 366 --
The white sheet bleaching on the hedge,—
With, hey! the sweet birds, O, how they sing!—
Doth set my pugging tooth on edge5 note
;
For a quart of ale is a dish for a king.
The lark, that tirra-lirra chaunts,—
With, hey! with, hey! the thrush and the jay:—
Are summer songs for me and my aunts6 note
,
While we lie tumbling in the hay.
-- 367 --
I have serv'd prince Florizel, and, in my time, wore
three-pile7 note
; but now I am out of service:
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 go most right.
If tinkers may have leave to live,
And bear the sow-skin budget;
Then my account I well give,
And in the stocks avouch it.
8 note
My traffick is sheets; when the kite builds, look
to
lesser linen. 9 note
My father nam'd me, Autolycus; who,
-- 368 --
being, as I am, litter'd under Mercury, was likewise
a snapper-up of unconsider'd trifles: With die, and
drab, I purchas'd this caparison1 note; and my revenue is
the silly cheat2 note
: 3 noteGallows, and knock, are too
powerful on the high-way: beating, and hanging, are
terrors to me; for the life to come, I sleep out the
thought of it.—A prize! a prize!
Enter Clown.
Clo.
Let me see:—Every 'leven weather tods4 note;
every tod yields pound and odd shilling: fifteen hundred
shorn,—What comes the wool to?
Aut.
If the springe hold, the cock's mine.
[Aside.
Clo.
I cannot do't without counters.—Let me see;
-- 369 --
what am I to buy for our sheep-shearing feast? 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 nose-gays
for the shearers: three-man song-men all5 note
, and
very good ones; but they are most of them means6 note,
and bases: but one puritan among them, and he
sings psalms to horn-pipes. I must have saffron, to
colour the warden-pies7 note
; mace—dates—none; that's
out of my note: nutmegs, seven; a race, or two, of ginger;
—but that I may beg;—four pound of prunes, and
as many raisins o' the sun.
Ant.
Oh, that ever I was born!
[Groveling on the ground.
Clo.
I'the name of 8 note me,—
Aut.
Oh, 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.
-- 370 --
Aut.
Oh, sir, the loathsomeness of them offends
me, more than the stripes I have receiv'd; which are
mighty ones, and millions.
Clo.
Alas, poor man! a million of beating may
come to a great matter.
Aut.
I am robb'd, 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.
Aut.
Oh! 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; good 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 heart.
Clo.
What manner of fellow was he that robb'd
you?
Aut.
A fellow, sir, that I have known to go about
with trol-my-dames9 note
: I knew him once a servant of
-- 371 --
the prince; I cannot tell, good sir, for which of his
virtues it was, but he was certainly whip'd out of the
court.
Clo.
His vices, you would say; there's no virtue
whip'd out of the court: they cherish it, to make it
stay there; and yet it will no more but1 note abide.
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 compass'd a motion of the prodigal
son2 note, 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 a rogue:
some call him Autolycus.
Clo.
Out upon him! Prig, for my life, prig: he
haunts wakes, fairs, and bear-baitings.
Aut.
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;
-- 372 --
if you had but look'd big, and spit at him, he'd have
run.
Aut.
I must confess to you, sir, I am no fighter:
I am false at 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 thy way?
Aut.
No, good-fac'd sir; no, sweet sir.
Clo.
Then fare thee well; I must go to buy spices
for our sheep-shearing.
[Exit.
Aut.
Prosper you, sweet sir!—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 unroll'd, and my name put into the book of
virtue3 note!
Jog on, jog on, the foot-path way,
And merrily bent the stile-a4 note
:
A merry heart goes all the day,
Your sad tires in a mile-a.
[Exit.
-- 373 --
Samuel Johnson [1778], The plays of William Shakspeare. In ten volumes. With the corrections and illustrations of various commentators; to which are added notes by Samuel Johnson and George Steevens. The second edition, Revised and Augmented (Printed for C. Bathurst [and] W. Strahan [etc.], London) [word count] [S10901].
