deal of wonder is broken out within this hour, that ballad-makers cannot be able to express it.-Here comes the lady Paulina's steward; he can deliver you more. Enter Paulina's Steward. How goes it now, sir? this news, which is called true, is so like an old tale, that the verity of it is in strong suspicion: has the king found his heir? STEW. Most true, if ever truth were pregnant by circumstance: that which you hear you'll swear you see, there is such unity in the proofs. The mantle of queen Hermione's;-her jewel about the neck of it; the letters of Antigonus, found with it, which they know to be his character;—the majesty of the creature, in resemblance of the mother; the affection of nobleness, which nature shows above her breeding;-and many other evidences, proclaim her with all certainty to be the king's daughter. Did you see the meeting of the two kings? ROG. NO. STEW. Then have you lost a sight, which was to be seen, cannot be spoken of. There might you have beheld one joy crown another, so and in such a-with clipping her;] That is, embracing her. So in "Corio lanus." Act I. Sc. 6, manner, that it seemed sorrow wept to take leave of them, for their joy waded in tears. There was casting up of eyes, holding up of hands, with countenance of such distraction, that they were to be known by garment, not by favour. Our king, being ready to leap out of himself for joy of his found daughter, as if that joy were now become a loss, cries, O, thy mother, thy mother! then asks Bohemia forgiveness; then embraces his son-inlaw; then again worries he his daughter with clipping her; now he thanks the old shepherd, which stands by like a weather-bitten conduit of many kings' reigns. I never heard of such another encounter, which lames report to follow it, and undoes description to do it. ROG. What, pray you, became of Antigonus, that carried hence the child? STEW. Like an old tale still, which will have matter to rehearse, though credit be asleep, and not an ear open. He was torn to pieces with a bear: this avouches the shepherd's son; who has not only his innocence (which seems much) to justify him, but a handkerchief and rings of his, that Paulina knows. GENT. What became of his bark and his followers? STEW. Wrecked the same instant of their "O! let me clip ye In arms as sound as when I woo'd." master's death, and in the view of the shepherd: credits. Here come those I have done good to so that all the instruments which aided to expose against my will, and already appearing in the the child, were even then lost when it was found. blossoms of their fortune. But, O, the noble combat that, 'twixt joy and sorrow, was fought in Paulina! She had one eye declined for the loss of her husband, another ele Enter Shepherd and Clown. vated that the oracle was fulfilled : she lifted the princess from the earth ; and so locks her in embracing, as if she would pin her to her heart, that SHEP. Come, boy; I am past more children, she might no more be in danger of losing. but thy sons and daughters will be all gentlemen GENT. The dignity of this act was worth the born. audience of kings and princes; for by such was it Clo. You are well met, sir. You denied to acted. fight with me this other day, because I was no Stew. One of the prettiest touches of all, and gentleman born. See you these clothes ? say, you that which angled for mine eyes, (caught the water, see them not, and think me still no gentleman though not the fish) was, when at the relation of born: you were best say these robes are not the queen's death, with the manner how she came gentlemen born. Give me the lie, do; and try to 't, (bravely confessed and lamented by the king) whether I am not now a gentleman born. how attentiveness wounded his daughter; till, from Aut. I know you are now, sir, a gentleman one sign of dolour to another, she did, with an born. Alas! I would fain say, bleed tears,—for I am Clo. Ay, and have been so any time these four sure my heart wept blood. Who was most hours. marble there changed colour; some swooned, all SHEP. And so have I, boy. sorrowed: if all the world could have seen 't, the Clo. So you have:—but I was a gentleman woe had been universal. born before my father; for the king's son took me GENT. Are they returned to the court ? by the hand, and called me brother; and then the Stew. No: the princess hearing of her mo two kings called my father brother; and then the ther's statue, which is in the keeping of Paulina, prince my brother, and the princess my sister, -a piece many years in doing, and now newly called my father father; and so we wept, and performed by that rare Italian master, Julio Ro- there was the first gentleman-like tears that ever mano, who, had he himself eternity, and could put breath into his work, would beguile Nature of SHEP. We may live, son, to shed her custom, so perfectly he is her ape: he so near Clo. Ay; or else 't were hard luck, being in so to Hermione hath done Hermione, that they say preposterous estate as we are. one would speak to her, and stand in hope of Āut. I humbly beseech you, sir, to pardon me answer :-thither, with all greediness of affection, all the faults I have committed to your worship, are they gone; and there they intend to sup. and to give me your good report to the prince my Rog. I thought she had some great matter master. there in hand; for she hath privately twice or SHEP. Pr’ythee, son, do; for we must be thrice a day, ever since the death of Hermione, gentle, now we are gentlemen. visited that removed house. Shall we thither, and Clo. Thou wilt amend thy life? with our company piece the rejoicing ? Aut. Ay, an it like your good worship. GENT. Who would be thence that has the Clo. Give me thy hand : I will swear to the benefit of access ? every wink of an eye, some prince thou art as honest a true fellow as any is in new grace will be born; our absence makes us Bohemia. unthrifty to our knowledge. Let's along. SHEP. You may say it, but not swear it. [Exeunt. Clo. Not swear it, now I am a gentleman ? Aut. Now, had I not the dash of my former Let boors and franklins say it, I'll swear it. life in me, would preferment drop on my head. I SHEP. How if it be false, son ? brought the old man and his son aboard the prince ; Clo. If it be ne'er so false, a true gentleman told him I heard them talk of a fardel, and I know may swear it in the behalf of his friend :-and not what; but he at that time, over-fond of the I'll swear to the prince, thou art a tall fellow 0. shepherd's daughter, (so he then took her to be) thy hands, and that thou wilt not be drunk; but I who began to be much sea-sick, and himself little know thou art“ no tall fellow of thy hands, and better, extremity of weather continuing, this mys- that thou wilt be drunk; but I'll swear it; and I tery remained undiscovered. But 't is all one to would thou wouldst be a tall fellow of thy hards. me; for had I been the finder-out of this secret, it would not have relished among my other dis A - a tall fellow of thy hands,-) See note (a), p. 237, Vol. II. we shed. many more. Aut. I will prove so, sir, to my power. Clo. Ay, by any means prove a tall fellow: if I do not wonder how thou dar'st venture to be drunk, not being a tall fellow, trust me not.Hark! the kings and the princes, our kindred, are going to see the queen’s picture. Come, follow us : we'll be thy good masters. [Exeunt. SCENE III.—The same. A Chapel in Paulina's House. I did not well, I meant well. All my services You have paid home: but that you have vouch saf'd, With your crown'd brother, and these your con tracted Heirs of your kingdoms, my poor house to visit, It is a surplus of your grace, which never My life may last to answer. LEON. 0, Paulina, We honour you with trouble :—but we came To see the statue of our queen : your gallery Have we pass'd through, not without much content In many singularities; but we saw not That which my daughter came to look upon, The statue of her mother. PAUL. As she liv'd peerless, So her dead likeness, I do well believe, Excels whatever yet you look'd upon, Or hand of man hath done ; therefore I keep it Lonely,* apart. But here it is—prepare Enter LEONTES, POLIXENES, FLORIZEL, PERDITA, CAMILLO, PAULINA, Lords, and Attendants. Leon. O, grave and good Paulina, the great comfort That I have had of thee! Paul, What, sovereign sir, a With your crown'd brother, and these your contracted—] This verse reads so uncout uy that we suspect the second "your to be an interpolation of the compositoi. (*) Old tert, Louely. Which lets go by some sixteen years, and makes her As she liv'd now. LEON. As now she might have done, So much to my good comfort, as it is Now piercing to my soul. O, thus she stood, Even with such life of majesty (warm life, As now it coldly stands) when first I woo'd her! I am asham'd, does not the stone rebuke me,For being more stone than it ?-O, royal piece, There's magic in thy majesty; which has My evils conjur'd to remembrance; and From thy admiring daughter took the spirits, Standing like stone with thee! PER. And give me leave; And do not say 't is superstition that I kneel, and then implore her blessing.-Lady, Give me that hand of yours to kiss. O, patience! CAM. My lord, your sorrow was too sore laid on, Which sixteen winters cannot blow away, So many summers dry: scarce any joy But kill'd itself much sooner. Would I were dead, but that, methinks, already— To a reader of taste and sensibility, the art by which the emotions of Leontes are developed in this situation, from the moment when with an apparent feeling of disappointment he first beholds the "so much wrinkled" statue, and gradually becomes impressed, amazed, enthralled, til at length, borne along by a wild, tumultuous throng of indefinable sensations, he reaches that grand climax where, in delirious rapture, he clasps the figure to his bosom and faintly murmurs,― ་་ "O, she's warm!" must appear consummate. Mr. Collier and his annotator, however, are not satisfied. To them the eloquent abruption,— "-but that, methinks, alreadyWhat was he that did make it?" s but a blot, and so, to add "to the force and clearness of the speech of Leontes," they stem the torrent of his passion in midstream and make him drivel out, "Would I were dead, but that, methinks, already Can anything be viler? Conceive Leontes whimpering of himself as "dead," just when the thick pulsation of his heart could have been heard! and speaking of the statue as a "stone" at the very moment when, to his imagination, it was flesh and blood! Was it thus Shakespeare wrought? The insertion of such a line in such a place is absolutely monstrous, and implies, both in the forger and the utterer, an entire incompetence to appreciate the finer touches of his genius. But it does more, for it betrays the most discreditable ignorance of the current phraseology of the poet's time. When Leontes sava As any cordial comfort.—Still, methinks, There is an air comes from her! What fine chisel Could ever yet cut breath? Let no man mock me, For I will kiss her. PAUL. Good my lord, forbear! The ruddiness upon her lip is wet; (1) You'll mar it, if you kiss it; stain your own With oily painting. Shall I draw the curtain? "Would I were dead, but that, methinks, already—" Mr. Collier's annotator, and Mr. Collier, and all the advocates of the intercalated line, assume him to mean,-"I should desire to die, only that I am already dead or holding converse with the dead;" whereas, in fact, the expression, "Would I were dead," &c. is neither more nor less than an imprecation, equivalent to-"Would I may die," &c.; and the king's real meaning, in reference to Paulina's remark, that he will think anon it moves, is, "May I die, if I do not think it moves already." In proof of this, take the following examples, which might easily be multiplied a hundred-fold, of similar forms of speech: and, would I might be dead, If I in thought-" &c. The Two Gentlemen of Verona, Act IV. Sc. 4. "Would I had no being, If this salute my blood a jot." Henry VIII. Act II. Sc. 8. "The gods rebuke me, but it is tidings To wash the eyes of kings." Antony and Cleopatra, Act V. Sc. 1. "Would I with thunder presently might die So I might speak." Summer's Last Will and Testament. "Let me suffer death If in my apprehension-" &c. BEAUMONT and FLETCHER's Play of The “Night Walker," Act III. Sc. 6. "Would I were dead," &c. 'If I do know," &c. BEN JONSON's Tale of a Tub, Act II. Sc. 1. |