be squar'd by this. I do believe
Hermione hath suffer'd death, and that
Apollo would, this being indeed the issue
Of King Polixenes, it should here be laid,
Either for life or death, upon the earth
Of its right father. Blossom, speed thee well!

[Laying down the child.]

There lie; and there thy character: there these;

[Laying down a bundle.]

Which may if fortune please, both breed thee, pretty,
And still rest thine.--The storm begins:--poor wretch,
That for thy mother's fault art thus expos'd
To loss and what may follow!--Weep I cannot,
But my heart bleeds: and most accurs'd am I
To be by oath enjoin'd to this.--Farewell!
The day frowns more and more:--thou'rt like to have
A lullaby too rough:--I never saw
The heavens so dim by day. A savage clamour!--
Well may I get aboard!--This is the chase:
I am gone for ever.

[Exit, pursued by a bear.]

[Enter an old SHEPHERD.]

SHEPHERD.
I would there were no age between ten and three-and-twenty, or
that youth would sleep out the rest; for there is nothing in the
between but getting wenches with child, wronging the ancientry,
stealing, fighting.--Hark you now! Would any but these boiled
brains of nineteen and two-and-twenty hunt this weather? They
have scared away two of my best sheep, which I fear the wolf will
sooner find than the master: if anywhere I have them, 'tis by
the sea-side, browsing of ivy.--Good luck, an't be thy will! what
have we here?

[Taking up the child.]

Mercy on's, a bairn: A very pretty bairn! A boy or a child, I
wonder? A pretty one; a very pretty one: sure, some scape: though
I am not bookish, yet I can read waiting-gentlewoman in the
scape. This has been some stair-work, some trunk-work, some
behind-door-work; they were warmer that got this than the poor
thing is here. I'll take it up for pity: yet I'll tarry till my
son comes; he hallaed but even now.--Whoa, ho hoa!

CLOWN.
[Within.] Hilloa, loa!

SHEPHERD.
What, art so near? If thou'lt see a thing to talk on when thou
art dead and rotten, come hither.

[Enter CLOWN.]

What ail'st thou, man?

CLOWN.
I have seen two such sights, by sea and by land!--but I am
not to say it is a sea, for it is now the sky: betwixt the
firmament and it, you cannot thrust a bodkin's point.

SHEPHERD.
Why, boy, how is it?

CLOWN.
I would you did but see how it chafes, how it rages, how it
takes up the shore! But that's not to the point. O, the most
piteous cry of the poor souls! sometime