Paul. Music, awake her: strike. [Music 'Tis time: descend: be stone no more: approach: [HERMIONE descends from the pedestal. Start not; her actions shall be holy, as, You hear, my spell is lawful: do not shun her, You kill her double. Nay, present your hand : Leon. O, she's warm! [Embracing her. If this be magic, let it be an art Lawful as eating. Pol. She embraces him. Cam. She hangs about his neck; If she pertain to life, let her speak too. Pol. Ay, and make it manifest where she has liv'd, Or, how stol'n from the dead! Paul. That she is living, Were it but told you, should be hooted at Like an old tale; but it appears she lives, Though yet she speak not. Mark a little while. Please you to interpose, fair Madam; kneel, And pray your mother's blessing. — Turn, good lady; Our Perdita is found. Her. [Presenting PER., who kneels to HER. You gods, look down, And from your sacred vials pour your graces Upon my daughter's head! Tell me, mine own, Where hast thou been preserv'd? where liv'd? how found Thy father's Court? for thou shalt hear, that I, Knowing by Paulina that the Oracle Gave hope thou wast in being, have preserv'd Paul. Will wing me to some wither'd bough, and there Leon. O, peace, Paulina ! Thou should'st a husband take by my consent, mine; Thou hast found But how, is to be questioned: for I saw her, An honourable husband. Come, Camillo, And take her by the hand: whose worth, and hon esty, Is richly noted; and here justified By us, a pair of Kings. Let's from this place. · What? Look upon my brother: - both your par dons, That e'er I put between your holy looks My ill suspicion. This your son-in-law, And son unto the King, (whom Heavens directing,) NOTES ON THE WINTER'S TALE. p. 278. p. 279. p. 280. ACT FIRST. SCENE I. "as over a vast i. e., void. So "the dead vast and middle of the night," Hamlet, Act I. Sc. 2, and "the vast of night," Tempest, Act I. Sc. 2. SCENE II. That may blow," &c. : - This passage has been called nonsensical, or very obscure, because its parenthetical nature has hitherto not been indicated. Polixenes gives his fears as one reason of his departure, and before assigning the other, pauses to ejaculate a prayer that his apprehensions may not have been put forth, i. e., uttered, too truly. Mr. Collier's folio of 1632, by reading "put forth too early," really makes nonsense of the passage; and gives one of many proofs that its corrector lacked authority always, and understanding often. In this case he only looked back to the word 'neaping,' i. e., nipping, and conformed his reading to that. To let him there a month behind the gest," &c.:that is, to detain him there a month behind the time appointed for his departure. Gest,' from the French gist, to lie down, meant either the stopping places on a royal progress, or the schedule of the appointed stages on such a progress. Here, it has the latter sense. "What lady she her lord": - Lord Ellesmere's folio of 1623 and Mr. Collier's folio of 1632 have, "What lady should her lord," which is plausible, and which Mr. Collier adopted in his edition of 1848. But the original reading, with a great but neither obscure nor inelegant elision, means "whatever lady she may be who loves her lord," and has a quaint fascination, which is lost in the proposed emendation. (383) p. 281. " p. 282. 66 a lady's verily's" : — So the original; yet all modern editions hitherto, disregarding the contraction, read "verily is." the imposition clear'd hereditary ours : This clause is noticeable, not on account of any obscurity, for the meaning is plainly, excepting the evil that we have inherited,' but as a typical instance of a style in which Shakespeare wrote during a few years of his life, and which exists in its most marked development in this play. been born to's". So the original; and yet most modern editions read to us,' to the detriment of rhythm. Shakespeare used contraction much more frequently and more freely in his later than in his earlier years. See just below, "Cram's with praise and make's as fat," &c., and "You may ride's," and above, "a lady's verily's," &c. “With spur we heat an acre": - Mr. Collier's folio of 1632 takes the life of this passage by reading "we clear an acre." "From bounty's fertile bosom : The original has "from bounty fertile bosom." Malone proposed the obvious correction, which was afterwards found in Mr. Collier's folio of 1632. “I fecks": A contraction of in faith,' say some; of in fact,' others. 'My bawcock." See Notes on Twelfth Night, Act III. Sc. 4, p. 259. “Still virginalling" : i. e., playing, as upon the keyboard of a virginal, as the old harpsichord was called. a rough pash": - - This word 'pash' seems to have been applied to the front or brow of an animal; that part which in a young bull is rough with hair and budding horns. your welkin eye my collop": — A collop was what we now call a cutlet. Colloppe. Frixatura." Promptorium Parvulorum. See also the instances quoted by Steevens, "thou art a collop of my flesh," Henry VI. Part 1, Act V. Sc. 4; and by Boswell, "it is a deere collup that is cut out of th❜ owne flesh." Heywood's Epigrams, 1586. Leontes means to call Mamillus a chip of the old block.' "Affection, thy intention stabs the centre":— that is, 'the mind, when it is powerfully excited or affected, intui 6 p. 284. p. 285. tively pierces the very heart, hits the white, touches the root of the matter.' For a similar use of affection,' see "and others when the bagpipe sings," &c., and the Note upon it: Merchant of Venice, Act IV. Sc. 1. "What cheer?" &c.: This line is assigned in the original to Leontes; but I cannot doubt that Hanmer was right in making it a part of Polixenes' speech. Otherwise, not only does Leontes express a solicitude not in keeping with his mood, but Polixenes does not put the very question which the situation required from him. It is clearly intended too that Hermione should continue the inquiry which her companion begins; but this natural course of the dialogue is broken by the old arrangement. Some editors suppose, however, that Leontes, startled from his reverie, instantly inquires after the health of Polixenes. it's folly, it's tenderness, and make it self," &c.: So the original and the second folio; yet all modern editions hitherto have its,' and itself,' thus destroying a textual trait characteristic of the period when these plays were written. It appears that the possessive pronoun its,' in its consolidated form, was not known in Shakespeare's time, and the extended form 'it's' was only just coming into use. At that time 'his' and 'her,' but especially the former, were used where we would now use it,' as any observant and thoughtful reader of the Bible, Shakespeare, and Milton, who has considered their language as well as their thought, must have remarked. For instance, the oft quoted passages, "if the salt have lost his savor, "Luke xiv. 34: "And God made the beast of the earth after his kind," Gen. i. 25: “it shall not henceforth yield unto thee her strength," Ib. iv. 12. Such might be multiplied without number. It,' too, was used with possessive signification, and 'itself' was almost always written as two words. The use of 'his' or 'her,' by the Elizabethan writers, does not necessarily imply an impersonation. See Note on "he owes the malady," All's Well that Ends Well, Act II. Sc. 1, p. 119. I did recoil" : — Spelled requoyl in the original. - See Notes on Midsummer Night'. "This squash" :— "Will you take eggs for money?' This phrase meant, Will you be trifled with? But how it acquired that signification no one has yet been able to discover. |