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shearers prove sheep, let me be unrolled 18, and my name put in the book of virtue!

Jog on, jog on, the foot-path way,
And merrily hent 19 the stile-a:
A merry heart goes all the day,

Your sad tires in a mile-a.

[Exit.

SCENE III. The same. A Shepherd's Cottage.

Enter FLORIZEL and PERDITA.

Flo. These your unusual weeds to each part of you Do give a life: no shepherdess, but Flora,

Peering in April's front. This your sheep-shearing Is as a meeting of the petty gods,

And you the queen on't.

Sir, my gracious lord,

Per. To chide at your extremes 1, it not becomes me; O, pardon, that I name them: your high self, The gracious mark o' the land, you have obscur'd With a swain's wearing; and me, poor lowly maid, Most goddesslike prank'd up: But that our feasts In every mess have folly, and the feeders Digest it with a custom, I should blush To see you so attired; sworn, I think, To show myself a glass3,

18 i. e. dismissed from the society of rogues.

19 To hent the stile is to take the stile. It comes from the Saxon hentan.

i. e. the extravagance of his conduct in disguising himself in shepherd's clothes, while he pranked her up most goddesslike. 2 The gracious mark of the land is the object of all men's notice and expectation.

3 To show myself a glass.' She probably means,, that the prince, by the rustic habit he wears, seems as if he had sworn to show her as in a glass how she ought to be dressed, instead of being so goddesslike prank'd up. And were it not for the licence and folly which custom had made familiar at such feasts, as that of sheep-sheering, when mimetic sports were allowable, she should blush to see him so attired.

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To me, the difference forges dread; your greatness
Hath not been used to fear. Even now I tremble
To think, your father, by some accident,
Should pass this way, as you did: 0, the fates!
How would he look, to see his work, so noble,
Vilely bound up5? What would he say? Or how
Should I, in these my borrow'd flaunts, behold
The sternness of his presence?

Flo.
Apprehend
Nothing but jollity. The gods themselves,
Humbling their deities to love, have taken
The shapes of beasts upon them: Jupiter
Became a bull, and bellow'd; the green Neptune
A ram, and bleated; and the fire-rob'd god,
Golden Apollo, a poor humble swain,
As I seem now: Their transformations
Were never for a piece of beauty rarer;
Nor in a way so chaste: since my desires
Run not before mine honour; nor my lusts
Burn hotter than my faith.

Per.

O but, dear sir, Your resolution cannot hold, when 'tis

Oppos'd, as it must be, by the power o'the king: One of these two must be necessities,

Which then will speak; that you must change this purpose,

Or I my life.

4 Meaning the difference between his rank and hers.

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5 Vilely bound up.' This was a metaphor natural enough to a writer, though not exactly suitable in the mouth of Perdita. Shakspeare has repeated it more than once in Romeo and Juliet. 6 This speech is almost literally taken from the novel. 7 Dear is wanting in the oldest copy.

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With these forc'd thoughts, I pr'ythee, darken not
The mirth o' the feast: Or I'll be thine, my fair,
Or not my father's: for I cannot be

Mine own, nor any thing to any, if

I be not thine: to this I am most constant,
Though destiny say, no. Be merry, gentle;
Strangle such thoughts as these, with any thing
That behold the while.. Your guests are coming:
you
Lift up your countenance; as it were the day
Of celebration of that nuptial, which

We two have sworn shall come.

Per.

O lady fortune,

Stand you auspicious!

Enter Shepherd, with POLIXENES and CAMILLO, disguised; Clown, MOPSA, DORCAS, and others.

Flo.

See, your guests approach: Address yourself to entertain them sprightly, And let's be red with mirth.

Shep. Fye, daughter! when my old wife liv'd, upon This day, she was both pantler, butler, cook; Both dame and servant: welcom'd all; serv'd all: Would sing her song, and dance her turn: now here, At upper end o'the table, now i' the middle;

On his shoulder, and his: her face o' fire

With labour; and the thing, she took to quench it,
She would to each one sip: You are retir'd,
As if you were a feasted one, and not
The hostess of the meeting: Pray you, bid
These unknown friends to us welcome: for it is
way to make us better friends, more known.
Come, quench your blushes; and present yourself
That which you are, mistress o' the feast: Come on,
8 i. e. far fetched, not arising from present objects.
VOL. IV.

A

H

And bid us welcome to your sheep-shearing,
As your good flock shall prosper.

Per.

It is

my

Welcome, sir! [To POL.

father's will, I should take on me

The hostesship o' the day:-You're welcome, sir!

Give me those flowers there, Dorcas.-Reverend

[To CAMILLO.

and rue;

these keep

sirs, For there's you rosemary, Seeming, and savour9, all the winter long: Grace, and remembrance, be to you both, And welcome to our shearing!

Pol.

(A fair one are you), well you With flowers of winter.

Per.

Shepherdess, fit our ages

Sir, the year growing ancient,Not yet on summer's death, nor on the birth Of trembling winter,—the fairest flowers o' the season Are our carnations, and streak'd gilliflowers, Which some call nature's bastards: of that kind Our rustick garden's barren; and I care not To get slips of them.

Pol.

Do you neglect them?

11

Wherefore, gentle maiden,

Per. For 10 I have heard it said, There is an art11, which, in their piedness, shares With great creating nature.

9 i. e. appearance and smell. Rue, being used in exorcisms, was called herb of grace, and rosemary was supposed to strengthen the memory, it is prescribed for that purpose in the ancient herbals. Ophelia distributes the same plants with the same attributes.

10 For again in the sense of cause.

11 Surely there is no reference here to the impracticable pretence of producing flowers by art to rival those of nature, as Steevens supposed. The allusion is to the common practice of producing by art particular varieties of colours on flowers, especially on carnations.

Pol.

Say, there be;

Yet nature is made better by no mean,

But nature makes that mean: so, o'er that art,
Which, you say, adds to nature, is an art

That nature makes. You see, sweet maid, we marry
A gentler scion to the wildest stock;

And make conceive a bark of baser kind

By bud of nobler race; This is an art

Which does mend nature,-change it rather: but The art itself is nature.

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Pol. Then make your garden rich in gilliflowers 12, And do not call them bastards.

Per.

I'll not put

The dibble in earth to set one slip of them:
No more than, were I painted, I would wish
This youth should say, 'twere well; and only therefore
Desire to breed by me.-Here's flowers for you;
Hot lavender, mints, savory, marjoram;
The marigold, that goes to bed with the sun,
And with him rises weeping 13; these are flowers
Of middle summer, and, I think, they are given
To men of middle age: You are very welcome.

12 In the folio edition it is spelt Gillyvors. Gelofer or gillofer was the old name for the whole class of carnations, pinks, and sweetwilliams; from the French girofle. There were also stockgelofers, and wall-gelofers. The variegated gilliflowers or carnations, being considered as a produce of art, were properly called nature's bastards, and being streaked white and red, Perdita considers them a proper emblem of a painted or immodest woman; and therefore declines to meddle with them. She connects the gardener's art of varying the colours of these flowers with the art of painting the face, a fashion very prevalent in Shakspeare's time. This is Mr. Douce's very ingenious solution of this riddle, which had embarrassed Mr. Steevens.

13Some call it sponsus solis, the spowse of the sunne, because it sleeps and is awakened with him.'-Lupton's Notable Things, book vi.

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