ACT FOUR
SCENE I. Enter TIME, the Chorus.
TIME I, that please some, try all, both joy and terror
Of good and bad, that makes and unfolds error,
Now take upon me, in the name of Time,
To use my wings. Impute it not a crime
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To me or my swift passage that I slide
Oâer sixteen years, and leave the growth untried
Of that wide gap, since it is in my powâr
To oâerthrow law, and in one self-born hour
To plant and oâerwhelm custom. Let me pass
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The same I am, ere ancientâst order was
Or what is now receivâd. I witness to
The times that brought them in; so shall I do
To thâ freshest things now reigning, and make stale
The glistering of this present, as my tale
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Now seems to it. Your patience this allowing,
I turn my glass, and give my scene such growing
As you had slept between. Leontes leaving â
Thâ effects of his fond jealousies so grieving
That he shuts up himself â imagine me,
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Gentle spectators, that I now may be
In fair Bohemia; and remember well
I mentionâd a son oâ thâ Kingâs, which Florizel
I now name to you; and with speed so pace
To speak of Perdita, now grown in grace
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Equal with wondâring. What of her ensues
I list not prophesy; but let Timeâs news
Be known when âtis brought forth. A shepherdâs daughter,
And what to her adheres, which follows after,
Is thâ argument of Time. Of this allow,
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If ever you have spent time worse ere now;
If never, yet that Time himself doth say
He wishes earnestly you never may.
[Exit.
SCENE II. Bohemia. The palace of Polixenes.
Enter POLIXENES and CAMILLO.
POLIXENES I pray thee, good Camillo, be no more importunate: âtis a sickness denying thee anything; a death to grant this.
CAMILLO It is fifteen years since I saw my country; though I have for the most part been aired abroad, I desire to lay my bones there.
Besides, the penitent King, my master, hath sent for me; to whose feeling sorrows I might be some allay, or I oâerween to think so, which is
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another spur to my departure.
POLIXENES As thou lovâst me, Camillo, wipe not out the rest of thy services by leaving me now. The need I have of thee thine own goodness hath made. Better not to have had thee than thus to want thee; thou, having made me businesses which none without thee can sufficiently manage, must either stay to execute them thyself, or take away with thee the very services thou hast done; which if I have not enough considered â as too much I cannot â to be more thankful to thee shall be my study; and my profit therein the heaping friendships. Of that fatal country Sicilia, prithee, speak no more; whose very naming punishes me with the remembrance of that penitent, as thou callâst him, and reconciled king, my brother; whose loss of his most precious queen and children are even now to be afresh lamented. Say to me, when sawâst thou the Prince Florizel, my son? Kings are no less unhappy, their issue not being gracious, than they are in losing them when they have approved their virtues.
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CAMILLO Sir, it is three days since I saw the Prince. What his happier affairs may be are to me unknown; but I have missingly noted he is of late much retired from court, and is less frequent to his princely exercises than formerly he hath appeared.
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POLIXENES I have considered so much, Camillo, and with some care, so far that I have eyes under my service which look upon his removedness; from whom I have this intelligence, that he is seldom from the house of a most homely shepherd â a man, they say, that from very nothing, and beyond the imagination of his neighbours, is grown into an unspeakable estate.
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CAMILLO I have heard, sir, of such a man, who hath a daughter of most rare note. The report of her is extended more than can be thought to begin from such a cottage.
POLIXENES Thatâs likewise part of my intelligence; but, I fear, the angle that plucks our son thither. Thou shalt accompany us to the place; where we will, not appearing what we are, have some question with the shepherd; from whose simplicity I think it not uneasy to get the cause of my sonâs resort thither. Prithee be my present partner in this business, and lay aside the thoughts of Sicilia.
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CAMILLO I willingly obey your command.
POLIXENES My best Camillo! We must disguise ourselves.
[Exeunt.
SCENE III. Bohemia. A road near the shepherdâs cottage.
Enter AUTOLYCUS, singing.
When daffodils begin to peer,
With heigh! the doxy over the dale,
Why, then comes in the sweet oâ the year,
For the red blood reigns in the winterâs pale.
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The white sheet bleaching on the hedge,
With heigh! the sweet birds, O, how they sing!
Doth set my pugging tooth on edge,
For a quart of ale is a dish for a king.
The lark, that tirra-lirra chants,
With heigh! with heigh! the thrush and the
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jay,
Are summer songs for me and my aunts,
While we lie tumbling in the hay.
I have servâd Prince Florizel, and in my time wore three-pile; but now I am out of service.
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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,
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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 namâd me Autolycus; who, being, as I am, litterâd under Mercury, was likewise a snapper-up of unconsidered trifles.
With die and drab I purchasâd 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!
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a prize!
Enter Clown.
CLOWN Let me see: every âleven wether tods; every tod yields pound and odd shilling; fifteen hundred shorn, what comes the wool to?
AUTOLYCUS [Aside] If the springe hold, the
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cockâs mine.
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CLOWN I cannot doât without counters. Let me see: what am I to buy for our sheep-shearing feast...