SCENE II.
The Same. A Road near the Shepherd's Cottage.
Enter Autolycus, singing.
When daffodils begin to peer, 11Q0492—
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 pale.
The white sheet bleaching on the hedge,—
With, heigh! the sweet birds, O, how they sing!—
Doth set my pugging tooth on edge8 note;
For a quart of ale is a dish for a king.
The lark, that tirra-lirra chants,—
With heigh! with heigh9 note! the thrush and the jay,
Are summer songs for me and my aunts,
While we lie tumbling in the hay.
-- 489 --
I have served prince Florizel, and, in my time, wore
three-pile10 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 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.
My traffic is sheets; when the kite builds, look to
lesser linen. My father named me, Autolycus; who,
being, as I am, littered under Mercury, was likewise
a snapper-up of unconsidered trifles. With die, and
drab, I purchased this caparison, and my revenue is the
silly cheat. Gallows, and knock, are too powerful on
the highway: 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 wether tods11 note; every
tod yields—pound and odd shilling: fifteen hundred
shorn,—what comes the wool to?
Aut. [Aside.]
If the springe hold, the cock's mine.
Clo.
I cannot do't without counters.—Let me see;
what I am 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 nosegays for the
shearers; three-man song-men all1 note, and very good
-- 490 --
ones, but they are most of them means and bases:
but one Puritan amongst them, and he sings psalms to
hornpipes. I must have saffron, to colour the warden
pies; 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 of
raisins o' the sun.”
Aut.
O, that ever I was born!
[Grovelling on the ground. 11Q0493
Clo.
I' the name of me!—
Aut.
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.
Aut.
O! good sir, tenderly, O!
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.
-- 491 --
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 no money, I pray you:
that kills my heart.
Clo.
What manner of fellow was he that robbed
you?
Aut.
A fellow, sir, that I have known to go about
with trol-my-dames2 note: I knew him once a 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 abide3 note.
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 son4 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 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: if
you had but looked big, and spit at him, he'd have run.
-- 492 --
Aut.
I must confess to you, sir, I am no fighter: 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, 11Q0494 and my name put in the
book of virtue!
Jog on, jog on, the foot-path way5 note,
And merrily hent the stile-a6 note:
A merry heart goes all the day,
Your sad tires in a mile-a.
[Exit.
7 note
J. Payne Collier [1842–1844], The works of William Shakespeare. The text formed from an entirely new collation of the old editions: with the various readings, notes, a life of the poet, and a history of the Early English stage. By J. Payne Collier, Esq. F.S.A. In eight volumes (Whittaker & Co. [etc.], London) [word count] [S10101].
