CLOWN.
Ay, and have been so any time these four hours.
SHEPHERD.
And so have I, boy!
CLOWN.
So you have: but I was a gentleman born before my father; for the king’s son took me by the hand and called me brother; and then the two kings called my father brother; and then the prince, my brother, and the princess, my sister, called my father father; and so we wept; and there was the first gentleman-like tears that ever we shed.
SHEPHERD.
We may live, son, to shed many more.
CLOWN.
Ay; or else ’twere hard luck, being in so preposterous estate as we are.
AUTOLYCUS.
I humbly beseech you, sir, to pardon me all the faults I have committed to your worship, and to give me your good report to the prince my master.
SHEPHERD.
Prithee, son, do; for we must be gentle, now we are gentlemen.
CLOWN.
Thou wilt amend thy life?
AUTOLYCUS.
Ay, an it like your good worship.
CLOWN.
Give me thy hand: I will swear to the prince thou art as honest a true fellow as any is in Bohemia.