SCENE III. A road near the Shepherd's cottage. Winter's Tale  Shakespeare homepage  |  Winter's Tale  | Act 4, Scene 3 

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 Enter AUTOLYCUS, singing  AUTOLYCUS  When daffodils begin to peer, 

 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 edge; 

 For a quart of ale is a dish for a king. 

 The lark, that tirra-lyra chants, 

 With heigh! with heigh! the thrush and the jay, 

 Are summer songs for me and my aunts, 

 While we lie tumbling in the hay. 

 I have served Prince Florizel and in my time 

 wore three-pile; 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  Clown  Let me see: every 'leven wether tods; every tod 

 yields pound and odd shilling; fifteen hundred 

 shorn. what comes the wool to? 

 AUTOLYCUS  [Aside] 

 If the springe hold, the cock's mine. 

 Clown  I cannot do't without counters. Let me see; what am 

 I 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 nose-gays for 

 the shearers, three-man-song-men all, and very good 

 ones; but they are most of them means and bases; but 

 one puritan amongst them, and he sings psalms to 

 horn-pipes. 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. 

 AUTOLYCUS  O that ever I was born! 



 Grovelling on the ground  Clown  I' the name of me-- 

 AUTOLYCUS  O, help me, help me! pluck but off these rags; and 

 then, death, death! 

 Clown  Alack, poor soul! thou hast need of more rags to lay 

 on thee, rather than have these off. 

 AUTOLYCUS  O sir, the loathsomeness of them offends me more 

 than the stripes I have received, which are mighty 

 ones and millions. 

 Clown  Alas, poor man! a million of beating may come to a 

 great matter. 

 AUTOLYCUS  I am robbed, sir, and beaten; my money and apparel 

 ta'en from me, and these detestable things put upon 

 me. 

 Clown  What, by a horseman, or a footman? 

 AUTOLYCUS  A footman, sweet sir, a footman. 

 Clown  Indeed, he should be a footman by the garments he 

 has left with thee: if this be a horseman's coat, 

 it hath seen very hot service. Lend me thy hand, 

 I'll help thee: come, lend me thy hand. 

 AUTOLYCUS  O, good sir, tenderly, O! 

 Clown  Alas, poor soul! 

 AUTOLYCUS  O, good sir, softly, good sir! I fear, sir, my 

 shoulder-blade is out. 

 Clown  How now! canst stand? 

 AUTOLYCUS  [Picking his pocket] 

 Softly, dear sir; good sir, softly. You ha' done me 

 a charitable office. 

 Clown  Dost lack any money? I have a little money for thee. 

 AUTOLYCUS  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 me no money, I pray you; 

 that kills my heart. 

 Clown  What manner of fellow was he that robbed you? 

 AUTOLYCUS  A fellow, sir, that I have known to go about with 

 troll-my-dames; 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. 

 Clown  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 abide. 

 AUTOLYCUS  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 Son, 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. 

 Clown  Out upon him! prig, for my life, prig: he haunts 

 wakes, fairs and bear-baitings. 

 AUTOLYCUS  Very true, sir; he, sir, he; that's the rogue that 

 put me into this apparel. 

 Clown  Not a more cowardly rogue in all Bohemia: if you had 

 but looked big and spit at him, he'ld have run. 

 AUTOLYCUS  I must confess to you, sir, I am no fighter: I am 

 false of heart that way; and that he knew, I warrant 

 him. 

 Clown  How do you now? 

 AUTOLYCUS  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. 

 Clown  Shall I bring thee on the way? 

 AUTOLYCUS  No, good-faced sir; no, sweet sir. 

 Clown  Then fare thee well: I must go buy spices for our 

 sheep-shearing. 

 AUTOLYCUS  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 and my name 

 put in the book of virtue! 



 Sings  Jog on, jog on, the foot-path way, 

 And merrily hent the stile-a: 

 A merry heart goes all the day, 

 Your sad tires in a mile-a. 



 Exit  Shakespeare homepage  |  Winter's Tale  | Act 4, Scene 3 

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