What, neither?
AUTOLYCUS
Neither.
DORCAS
Thou hast sworn my love to be;
MOPSA
Thou hast sworn it more to me;
Then whither goest?—say, whither?
CLOWN
We’ll have this song out anon by ourselves; my father and the gentlemen are in sad talk, and we’ll not trouble them.—Come, bring away thy pack after me.—Wenches, I’ll buy for you both:—Pedlar, let’s have the first choice.—Follow me, girls.
[Exit with DORCAS and MOPSA.]
AUTOLYCUS.
[Aside.] And you shall pay well for ‘em.
Will you buy any tape,
Or lace for your cape,
My dainty duck, my dear-a?
Any silk, any thread,
Any toys for your head,
Of the new’st and fin’st, fin’st wear-a?
Come to the pedlar;
Money’s a meddler
That doth utter all men’s ware-a.
[Exit.]
[Re-enter Servant.]
SERVANT
Master, there is three carters, three shepherds, three neat-herds, three swine-herds, that have made themselves all men of hair; they call themselves saltiers: and they have dance which the wenches say is a gallimaufry of gambols, because they are not in’t; but they themselves are o’ the mind (if it be not too rough for some that know little but bowling) it will please plentifully.
SHEPHERD
Away! we’ll none on’t; here has been too much homely foolery already.—I know, sir, we weary you.
POLIXENES
You weary those that refresh us: pray, let’s see these four threes of herdsmen.
SERVANT
One three of them, by their own report, sir, hath danced before the king; and not the worst of the three but jumps twelve foot and a half by the squire.
SHEPHERD
Leave your prating: since these good men are pleased, let them come in; but quickly now.
SERVANT
Why, they stay at door, sir.
[Exit.]
[Enter Twelve Rustics, habited like Satyrs. They dance, and then exeunt.]
POLIXENES
O, father, you’ll know more of that hereafter.—
[To CAMILLO.] Is it not too far gone?—‘Tis time to part them.—
He’s simple and tells much. [To FLORIZEL.] How now, fair shepherd!
Your heart is full of something that does take
Your mind from feasting. Sooth, when I was young
And handed love as you do, I was wont
To load my she with knacks: I would have ransack’d
The pedlar’s silken treasury and have pour’d it
To her acceptance; you have let him go,
And nothing marted with him. If your lass
Interpretation should abuse, and call this
Your lack of love or bounty, you were straited
For a reply, at least if you make a care
Of happy holding her.
FLORIZEL
Old sir, I know
She prizes not such trifles as these are:
The gifts she looks from me are pack’d and lock’d
Up in my heart; which I have given already,
But not deliver’d.—O, hear me breathe my life
Before this ancient sir, who, it should seem,
Hath sometime lov’d,—I take thy hand! this hand,
As soft as dove’s down, and as white as it,
Or Ethiopian’s tooth, or the fann’d snow that’s bolted
By the northern blasts twice o’er.
POLIXENES
What follows this?—
How prettily the young swain seems to wash
The hand was fair before!—I have put you out:
But to your protestation; let me hear
What you profess.
FLORIZEL
Do, and be witness to’t.
POLIXENES
And this my neighbour, too?
FLORIZEL
And he, and more
Than he, and men,—the earth, the heavens, and all:—
That,—were I crown’d the most imperial monarch,
Thereof most worthy; were I the fairest youth
That ever made eye swerve; had force and knowledge
More than was ever man’s,—I would not prize them
Without her love: for her employ them all;
Commend them, and condemn them to her service,
Or to their own perdition.
POLIXENES
Fairly offer’d.
CAMILLO
This shows a sound affection.
SHEPHERD
But, my daughter,
Say you the like to him?
PERDITA
I cannot speak
So well, nothing so well; no, nor mean better:
By the pattern of mine own thoughts I cut out
The purity of his.
SHEPHERD
Take hands, a bargain!—
And, friends unknown, you shall bear witness to’t:
I give my daughter to him, and will make
Her portion equal his.
FLORIZEL
O, that must be
I’ the virtue of your daughter: one being dead,
I shall have more than you can dream of yet;
Enough then for your wonder: but come on,
Contract us ‘fore these witnesses.
SHEPHERD
Come, your hand;—
And, daughter, yours.
POLIXENES
Soft, swain, awhile, beseech you;
Have you a father?
FLORIZEL
I have; but what of him?
POLIXENES
Knows he of this?
FLORIZEL
He neither does nor shall.