Whose fresh complexion and whose heart together
Affliction alters.
PERDITA
One of these is true:
I think affliction may subdue the cheek,
But not take in the mind.
CAMILLO
Yea, say you so?
There shall not at your father’s house, these seven years
Be born another such.
FLORIZEL
My good Camillo,
She is as forward of her breeding as
She is i’ the rear our birth.
CAMILLO
I cannot say ‘tis pity
She lacks instruction; for she seems a mistress
To most that teach.
PERDITA
Your pardon, sir; for this:
I’ll blush you thanks.
FLORIZEL
My prettiest Perdita!—
But, O, the thorns we stand upon!—Camillo,—
Preserver of my father, now of me;
The medicine of our house!—how shall we do?
We are not furnish’d like Bohemia’s son;
Nor shall appear in Sicilia.
CAMILLO
My lord,
Fear none of this: I think you know my fortunes
Do all lie there: it shall be so my care
To have you royally appointed as if
The scene you play were mine. For instance, sir,
That you may know you shall not want,—one word.
[They talk aside.]
[Re-enter AUTOLYCUS.]
AUTOLYCUS
Ha, ha! what a fool Honesty is! and Trust, his sworn brother, a very simple gentleman! I have sold all my trumpery; not a counterfeit stone, not a riband, glass, pomander, brooch, table-book, ballad, knife, tape, glove, shoe-tie, bracelet, horn-ring, to keep my pack from fasting;—they throng who should buy first, as if my trinkets had been hallowed, and brought a benediction to the buyer: by which means I saw whose purse was best in picture; and what I saw, to my good use I remembered. My clown (who wants but something to be a reasonable man) grew so in love with the wenches’ song that he would not stir his pettitoes till he had both tune and words; which so drew the rest of the herd to me that all their other senses stuck in ears: you might have pinched a placket,—it was senseless; ‘twas nothing to geld a codpiece of a purse; I would have filed keys off that hung in chains: no hearing, no feeling, but my sir’s song, and admiring the nothing of it. So that, in this time of lethargy, I picked and cut most of their festival purses; and had not the old man come in with whoobub against his daughter and the king’s son, and scared my choughs from the chaff, I had not left a purse alive in the whole army.
[CAMILLO, FLORIZEL, and PERDITA come forward.]
CAMILLO
Nay, but my letters, by this means being there
So soon as you arrive, shall clear that doubt.
FLORIZEL
And those that you’ll procure from king Leontes,—
CAMILLO
Shall satisfy your father.
PERDITA
Happy be you!
All that you speak shows fair.
CAMILLO
[Seeing AUTOLYCUS.] Who have we here?
We’ll make an instrument of this; omit
Nothing may give us aid.
AUTOLYCUS
[Aside.] If they have overheard me now,—why, hanging.
CAMILLO
How now, good fellow! why shakest thou so? Fear not, man; here’s no harm intended to thee.
AUTOLYCUS
I am a poor fellow, sir.
CAMILLO
Why, be so still; here’s nobody will steal that from thee: yet, for the outside of thy poverty we must make an exchange; therefore discase thee instantly,—thou must think there’s a necessity in’t,—and change garments with this gentleman: though the pennyworth on his side be the worst, yet hold thee, there’s some boot. [Giving money.]
AUTOLYCUS
I am a poor fellow, sir:—[Aside.] I know ye well enough.
CAMILLO
Nay, pr’ythee dispatch: the gentleman is half flay’d already.
AUTOLYCUS
Are you in earnest, sir?—[Aside.] I smell the trick on’t.
FLORIZEL
Dispatch, I pr’ythee.
AUTOLYCUS
Indeed, I have had earnest; but I cannot with conscience take it.
CAMILLO
Unbuckle, unbuckle.
[FLORIZEL and AUTOLYCUS exchange garments.]
Fortunate mistress,—let my prophecy
Come home to you!—you must retire yourself
Into some covert; take your sweetheart’s hat
And pluck it o’er your brows, muffle your face,
Dismantle you; and, as you can, disliken
The truth of your own seeming; that you may,—
For I do fear eyes over,—to shipboard
Get undescried.
PERDITA
I see the play so lies
That I must bear a part.
CAMILLO
No remedy.—
Have you done there?
FLORIZEL
Should I now meet my father,
He would not call me son.
CAMILLO
Nay, you shall have no hat.—[Giving it to PERDITA.]
Come, lady, come.—Farewell, my friend.
AUTOLYCUS
Adieu, sir.
FLORIZEL
O Perdita, what have we twain forgot!
Pray you a word.
[They converse apart.]
CAMILLO
[Aside.] What I do next, shall be to tell the king
Of this escape, and whither they are bound;
Wherein, my hope is, I shall so prevail
To force him after: in whose company
I shall re-view Sicilia; for whose sight
I have a woman’s longing.
FLORIZEL
Fortune speed us!—
Thus we set on, Camillo, to the seaside.
CAMILLO