PERDITA. IN Viola and Perdita the distinguishing traits are the same-sentiment and elegance; thus we associate them together, though nothing can be more distinct to the fancy than the Doric grace of Perdita, compared to the romantic sweetness of Viola. They are created out of the same materials, and are equal to each other in the tenderness, delicacy, and poetical beauty of the conception. They are both more imaginative and passionate; but Perdita is the more imaginative of the two. She is the union of the pastoral and romantic with the classical and poetical, as if a dryad of the woods had turned shepherdess. The perfections with which the poet has so lavishly endowed her, sit upon her with a certain careless and picturesque grace, as though they had fallen upon her unawares." her unawares." Thus, Belphoebe, in the Fairy Queen, issues from the flowering forest with hair and garments all besprinkled with the leaves and blossoms they had entangled in her flight; and so arrayed by chance and "heedless hap," takes all hearts with "stately presence and with princely port,"-most like to Perdita! The story of Florizel and Perdita is but an episode in the "Winter's Tale;" and 66 the character of Perdita is properly kept subordinate to that of her mother, Hermione: yet the picture is perfectly finished in every part;-Juliet herself is not more firmly and distinctly drawn. But the colouring in Perdita is more silvery light and delicate; the pervading sentiment more touched with the ideal; compared with Juliet, she is like a Guido hung beside a Georgione, or one of Paesiello's airs heard after one of Mozart's. The qualities which impart to Perdita her distinct individuality, are the beautiful combination of the pastoral with the elegantof simplicity with elevation-of spirit with sweetness. The exquisite delicacy of the picture is apparent. To understand and appreciate its effective truth and nature, we should place Perdita beside some of the nymphs of Arcadia, or or the Cloris' and Sylvias of the Italian pastorals, who, however graceful in themselves, when opposed to Perdita, seem to melt away into mere poetical abstractions:-as, in Spenser, the fair but fictitious Florimel, which the subtle enchantress had moulded out of snow, "ver meil tinctured," and informed with an airy spirit, that knew "all wiles of woman's wits," fades and dissolves away, when placed next to the real Florimel, in her warm, breathing, human loveliness. Perdita does not appear till the fourth act, and the whole of the character is developed in the course of a single scene (the third), with a completeness of effect which leaves nothing to be required-nothing to be supplied. She is first introduced in the dialogue between herself and Florizel, where she compares her own lowly state to his princely rank, and expresses her fears of the issue of their unequal attachment. With all her timidity and her sense of the distance which separates her from her lover, she breathes not a single word which could lead us to impugn either her delicacy or her dignity. FLORIZEL. These your unusual weeds to each part of you Is as the meeting of the petty gods, PERDITA. Sir, my gracious lord, To chide at your extremes it not becomes me; To see you so attired; sworn, I think, The impression of her perfect beauty and airy elegance of demeanour is conveyed in two exquisite passages: When you speak, sweet, When you sing, I'd have you do it ever. I'd have you buy and sell so; so give alms, Pray so, and for the ordering your affairs To sing them too. When you do dance, I wish you A wave o' the sea, that you might ever do Nothing but that; move still, still so, and own No other function. I take thy hand; this hand A soft as dove's down, and as white as it; Or Ethiopian's tooth, or the fann'd snow, That's bolted by the northern blasts twice o'er. |