NOTES ON THE WINTER'S TALE. 11666,) which in the form of a woman, fra der er man in the sea." To this Malee L speare alludes. In Sir Hear Bikes to which contains a register of all the oriin from 1623 to 1642, is entered, " para Sherret, to show a drage tid innen Pt, it wu prac Ein of "Ma loth Marca, 1936.* - they call eaglu ninaloar as 1803, the Malout: : merend van then the appearan keys: bal para wrans, emplanatio i ranierie ein a red, the fade is the "jumpe twelve fint and a half te we says afterwards, that the main ja cance,' In stage direction in the oli epis, es Hering from "Here a dance of twelve any Farden is only the servant's blunda afies is the th the lipa "- by the squine"-i. . By the <squierre. occasions, - that's BOLTID"- c. Sipediya are chosen blasts. best danc1 of two "-thou no more thał BETER 2 DE a handle; vem omita neter, es "aleard radio 1 duplication of negatives was cenam." ands; you da Free at the time, and the wind a fund de *- I was not much eftard –- The art le still Perdita is here finel sustained. Teine remote quite astonished at the king, disetTM r; all the not become her birth; and to have zime Eregalon. of mind to have made this reply to the Li uudenly become her education." —Walscire. is often tulations of a ser and queen rizel: - and on this stage (Where we offenders now appear) soul-ver'd, And begin, why to me? "-I would not do't"-Hanmer proposed, and Ste- This is evidently erroneous; but the true reading is very vens adopted a transposition of this, which is the origi- doubtful. We have given that of Stevens, followed by nal text, so as to read, "If I thought it were not a piece Collier and others, which makes no change but the of honesty, etc., I would do it." Yet, as part of the transposition of and. Knight changes the parenthesis knave's reasoning with himself, and stating his own thus: "(Where we offenders now) appear." Z. Jackprinciple of action, the old text, which is also that of son ingeniously reads, "(Where we offended) now apthe three last editions, may well stand. pear”—Theobald, “(Where we offend her now.)" “And why to me?'' means, “ And why such treatment "— pedler's EXCREMENT"-i. e. His beard. In to me, who deserved so much better, than one worse Love's LABOUR Lost, Armado calls his beard "excre and better used ?" “ AFFRONT his eye”-i. e. Meet his eye, or encounter it. (Affrontare, Ital.) Shakespeare uses this word " — with the manner"-i, e. In the fact-a term with the same meaning again in HAMLET, (act iii. familiar to the law; being, originally, “taken with the scene 1:)— That he, as 'twere by accident, may here Affront Ophelia. "— TOUZE from thee thy business"-Minshew (Dic- And in CYMBELINE :-"Your preparation can affront tionary) says "touze" is to pull, or tug, and in this no less than what you hear of.” The word is used in sense it is used in MEASURE FOR MEASURE: the same sense by Ben Jonson, and even by Dryden. - We'll touze you joint by joint, etc. Lodge, in the preface to his “Translation of Seneca," "- court-word for a pheasant"-A“pheasant" was says, “No soldier is counted valiant that affronteth not his enemie." " Good madam, - I have done"-Stevens and Malone " — by the picking on's teeth”—To “pick the teeth" transfer “I have done" to Paulina, who is going vehewas, at this time, a mark of pretension to fashion, or mently on. Cleomenes endeavours to interpose, but he elegance. Faulconbridge, speaking of the traveller, gives over the attempt, with “I have done;" and then says: Paulina continues. With Knight and Collier, we follow He and his toothpick at my worship's mess. the old text. In Sir Thomas Overbury's “Characters," we find_“If ' - 80 must thy GRACE"-The old editions read, “thy you find not a courtier here, you shall in Paul's, with a toothpick in his hat, a cape-cloak, and a long stock grave," which editors generally have agreed with Ed. wards in interpreting, “Thy grave here means thy ing." beauties, which are buried in the grave: the continent "- the hottest day prognostication proclaims”—That for the contents.". Among the other very ingenious is, the hottest day foretold in the almanack. Alma MS. corrections of the first folio, (cited by Collier as nacks were, in Shakespeare's time, published under such Lord F. Egerton's folio,) is this of grace, which the title:-"An Almanack and Prognostication made for context shows, to my judgment, to be right. the year of our Lord God, 1595." that a king, as friend”—The old folios read,“ at “— being something gently considered”—Autolycus friend"-a phrase, of which the most industrious stumeans, “I, having a gentlemanlike consideration given dents of old-English say they find no example elseme, (i. e. a bribe,) will bring you,” etc. where. As it is probably a misprint," and friend" and “a friend" have been conjectured. “As friend" is the ACT V.-SCENE I. simple conjecture of the MS. corrector above cited. "Bred his hopes out of: TRUE"— The text is here SCENE II. "-if the IMPORTANCE were joy, or sorrow”—Malone remorse, states a fact, and adds, mournfully, "true;" to says that “importance” here means only import; but which Paulina naturally adds that it is “ too true.” The the word is rather to be taken in its etymological sense, modern editors, from the time of Theobald, have made from the French emporter. Spenser uses important in Paulina say, " True, too true, my lord,” without neces a kindred manner :- - he fiercely at him filew, “The meaning of the text seems to be, that a beholder " — not by FAVOUR"-i. e. Countenance-often emby marrying again. and having issue to succeed to the ployed in this sense. throne. In the folios "name" is printed with a capital " — with CLIPPING her"-i, e. Embracing hera letter, which makes the error more improbable. word of constant use formerly. Thus, in King John :- “ Neptune's arms, who clippeth thee about." « -- like a WEATHER-BITTEN CONDUIT”-Conduits, peculiarly applicable to the dead : representing the human form, were formerly common. Mess. First, madam, he is well. The same image is found in ROMEO AND JULIET :Cleo. Why, there's more gold; but, sirrah, mark : How now? a conduit, girl? what, still in tears? Evermore streaming? “Weather-bitten” was, in the third folio, changed to weather-beaten; but there is no necessity for the change. Hamlet says, "The air bites shrewdly ;” and the Duke, liei, whom he imagined to be dead, says: in As You LIKE IT, speaking of the wind, says :Then she is well, and nothing can be ill. “When it bites and blows upon my body.” “Weather " Begin, 'And why to me?'”—The old copies gave this bitten,” therefore, means, corroded by the weather—as passage thus: we still say, frost-bitten. 53 - Will't please you, nir, be pw'-** than exquisite is this whole speel it such nature of nohle pride and greh , reading to e been u momentary peevishness of sectores en }; who lecked -Will's please see sir, le por "low: “Where no priest shwels in dx= Hance of the burial-service, in the time of Limeri. ubted the custom sur the priest to bros ark 2" 'pular in the form of a cross, and then sprake is on water. "-by my FANCY"-i . By my kres wond "fascy" in this sense is jepetent or - T'he and authors of his age (Sée Meaco.za jtera of the passage. "-at every SITTING"_"Every every audience you shall hare of the ' ork the council-lars being formers alike* the speech, the sitting. Howell, in de DP ork, says :-"My lord president hopes to bem ting in Yock." " Bul not TAKE IN the mist"-TO *** th ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA : He could do quickly at the laws And take ta Taryas "She is i' the rear or ourhudil"-Therapie She wi' ta'rezm er litt are n birth, inferior. Many editions plett birth." funes, and wurn io the pocket, waheen porting the etymology of thon possiah | cographers . The meaning, of course, * i call a kubbub; and in this haza mene several writers of the time of Shakespeare "(For I do fear eyer KTER)". The " Far I do fear eves over," which, ini berish old M8. correction suggested to be the las been changed to " I d ka nemam more, I JULIO Romano"_“ However misplaced the vokes a praise, it is no sinall honour to Julio Romano to be taste, a thus mentioned by the Poet. By eternity Shakespeare trait of only means immortality. It should seem that a painted | long rel. statue was no singularity in that age: Ben Jonson, in natural his " Magnetic Lady,” makes it a reflection on the bad with sui taste of the city: put inu Rut. I'd have her statue cut pow in white marble. solemn Sr. Moth. And have it painted in most orient colours. JAMESO Rut. That's right! all city statues must be printed, Else they be worth nought in their subtle judgments. of her ti “ English barbarism." But painted statues were known to the Greeks, as appears from the accounts of Pausa- was a j nias and Herodotus. That seini-barbarous nations : but not should paint them, is not, therefore, to be wondered at; 1 it is a custom which has prevailed everywhere in the infancy of art.”-STEVENS, and others. WINDSO “ This scene is not only one of the most picturesque and striking instances of stage-effect to be found in the ancient or inodern drama, but, by the skilful manner ceits hir in which it is prepared, it has, wonderful as it appears, " It was u all the merit of consistency and truth. The griel, the the grea love, the remorse, and impatience of Leontes, are he woul finely contrasted with the astonishment and admiration letters r of Perdita, who, gazing on the figure of her mother, Rocheste like one entranced, looks as if she were also turned to well, (ir marble. There is here one little instance of tender remembrance in Leonies, which adds to the charming necessiti impression of Hermione's character: other clo WHALLE "Pari Thus she stood, statue'Even with such life of majesty, warm lifeAs now it coldly stands-when first I woord her! exceptin; mione (li « The effect produced on the different persons of the Hermiou drama by this living statueman effect which, at the COLLIER same moment, is and is not illusion-the manner in This w which the feelings of the spectators become entangled restoratio between the conviction of death and the impression of own iny life, the idea of a deception, and the feeling of a reality, thought and the exquisite colouring of poetry and touches of den grie natural feeling with which the whole is brought up- critics of till wonder, expectation, and intense pleasure, hold our on the pulse and breath suspended on the event—are quite with Dry inimitable. remarket The expression used here by Leontes matic. - thus she stood, But the Even with such life of majesty,-warm life. his critic The fixure of her eye has mocion in't, As we are mcck'd with art Campbel and by Polixenes Siddons, criticism The very life seems warm upon her lip litt, amo appear strangely applied to a statue, such as we usually besides i imagine it-of the cold colourless marble; but it is evi- in Leontdent that in this scene Hermione personates one of acted the those images, or effigies, such as we may see in the old mental d Gothic cathedrals, in which the stone, or marble, was “ W010 coloured after nature. I remember coming suddenly Leontes, upon one of these effigies, either at Basle or Fribourg, what he which made me start. The figure was as large as life; the drapery of crimson, powdered with stars of gold; “ Would the face and eyes, and hair, tinted after nature, though the statu. faded by time. It stood in a Gothic niche, over a tomb, as I think, and in a kind of dim, uncertain light. It « The would have been very easy for a living person to repre meaning sent such an etligy, particularly if it had been painted have by that "rare Italian master, Julio Romano, who, as percepti! we are informed, was the reputed author of this wonderful statue. “ The moment when Hermione descends from her tained, I pedestal, to the sound of soft music, and throws herself, for the b without speaking, into her husband's arms, is one of tain it ; inexpressible interest. It appears to me that her silence, during the whole of this scene, (except when she in- Procccd. has prov seems to soever o it 08, 1 NOTES ON THE WINTER'S TALE. #cre in the enuraprasthum Bente Nue in mi Wivinda, act i. sede 4.) fucturesque found in the will thy Gold MUTER --**? itul panner ceits himself alreroy a moment appears, It was the fashion for an inte ? miel, the the great man, after his bardic Du runtes, are the would be goed meeles to be lo admiration Letters run in this fastent. Thus, Fieber's ng muther, Rochester, when in prison, 19 a lansa turned to well, (in the time of Hear TIL other cloches, that are resultat &DI III. part," etc. Hanmer, followed by other editors, changes “ The qualities which impart to Perdita her distinct "on" into or, thus : individuality, are the beautiful combination of the Or those that think it is unlawful business, pastoral with the elegant-of simplicity with elevation -of spirit with sweetness. The exquisite delicacy of “ This play, throughout, is written in the very spirit the picture is apparent. To understand and appreciate of its author; and in telling this homely and simple, its effective truth and nature, we should place Perdita though agreeable country-tale beside some of the nymphs of Arcadia, or the Italian Our sweetest Shakespeare, fancy's child, pastorals, who, however graceful in themselves, when Warbles bis native wood-notes wild, opposed to Perdita, seem to melt away into mere poetical This was necessary to observe, in mere justice to the abstractions :- as, in Spenser, the fair but fictitious play; as the meanness of the fable, and the extrava- Florimel, which the subtle enchantress had moulded gant conduct of it, had misled some of great name into out of snow, 'vermeil tinctured,' and informed with an a wrong judgment of its merit; which, as far as regards , airy spirit, that knew all wiles of woman's wits,' fades sentiment and character, is scarce inferior to any in and dissolves away, when placed next to the real Florithe whole collection.”—WARBURTON. mel, in her warm, breathing, human loveliness. Dr. Warburton, by “some of great name," means “Perdita does not appear till the fourth act, and the Dryden and Pope. (See the Essay at the end of the whole of the character is developed in the course of a second part of the “Conquest of Granada.”) single scene, (the third,) with a completeness of effect “ The Winter's Tale is as appropriately named as which leaves nothing to be required—nothing to be the MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM. It is one of those supplied. She is first introduced in the dialogue between tales which are peculiarly calculated to beguile the herself and Florizel, where she compares her own lowly dreary leisure of a long winter evening, which are even state to his princely rank, and expresses her fears of attractive and intelligible to childhood ; and which, ani- the issue of their unequal attachment. With all her mated by fervent truth, in the delineation of character timidity, and her sense of the distance which separates and passion, invested with the decoration of a poetry her from her lover, she breathes not a single word lowering itself, as it were, to the simplicity of the sub- which could lead us to impugn either her delicacy or ject, transport even manhood back to the golden age of her dignity. imagination. The calculation of probabilities has nothing “ There are several among Shakespeare's characters to do with such wondertul and feeting adventures, end. which exercise a far stronger power over our feelings, ing at last in general joy; and, accordingly, Shakespeare our fancy, our understanding, than that of Hermione; has here taken the greatest liberties with anachronisms but not one,-unless perhaps Cordelia,--constructed and geographical errors."-SCHLEGEL. upon so high and pure a principle. It is the union of ". The idea of this delightful drama, (says Coleridge, gentleness with power which constitutes the perfection in his • Literary Remains,' vol. ii. p. 250,) is a genuine of mental grace. Thus, among the ancients, with jealousy of disposition; and it should be immediately whom the graces were also the charities, one and the followed by the perusal of OTHELLO, which is the direct same word signified egually strength and virtue. This contrast of it, in every particular. For jealousy is a vice feeling, carried into the fine arts, was the secret of the of the mind, a culpable tendency of temper, having cer antique grace-the grace of repose. The same eternal tain well-known and well-defined effects and concomitants, all of which are visible in Leontes, and, I boldly nature—the same sense of immutable truth and beauty, which revealed this sublime principle of art to the say, not one of which marks its presence in Othello : ancient Greeks, revealed it to the genius of Shakesuch as, first, an excitability by the most inadequate speare; and the character of Hermione, in which we causes, and an eagerness to spatch at proofs; secondly, have the same largeness of conception and delicacy of & grossness of conception, and a disposition to degrade execution,-the same etfect of suffering without passion, the object of the passion by sensnal fancies and images; thirdly, a sense of shame of his own feelings, exhibited and grandeur without effort,-is an instance, I think, that he felt within himself, and by intuition, what we in a solitary moodiness of humour, and yet, from the violence of the passion, forced to utter itself, and there study all our lives in the remains of ancient art. The fore catching occasions to ease the inind by ambiguities, calm, regular, classical beauty of Hermione's character equivognes, by talking to those who cannot, and who is the more impressive from the wild and Gothic accomare known not to be able to understand what is said to paniments of her story, and the beautiful relief afforded them-in short, by soliloquy in the form of dialogue, by the pastoral and romantic grace which is thrown and hence a confused, broken, and fragmentary man around her daughter Perdita. ner; fourthly, a dread of vulgar ridicule, as distinct “ The character of Paulina, in the Winter's TALE, from a high sense of honour, or a mistaken sense of though it has obtained but little notice and no critical duty; and lastly, and immediately consequent on this, remark, (that I have seen,) is yet one of the striking A spirit of selfishi vindictiveness." beauties of the play: and it has its moral too. We learn from Mr. Collier that, in his extemporary see running through the whole universe that principle though elaborately prepared lectures, in 1815, “Cole- of contrast which may be called the life of nature, so ridge dwelt on the 'not easily jealous' frame of Othello's we behold it everywhere illustrated in SHAKESPEARE: mind, and on the art of the great Poet in working upon upon this principle he has placed Emilia beside Desdehis generous and unsuspecting nature: he contrasted mona, the Nurse beside Juliet; the clowns and dairythe characters of Othello and Leontes in this respect; maids, and the merry pedlar-ibief Autolycus round the latter, from predisposition, requiring no such malig- Florizel and Perdita ;-and made Paulina the friend of nant instigator as lago." Hermione. Mrs. Jameson thus delineates her ideas of the delicately “ Paulina does not fill any ostensible office near the pourtrayed and finely discriminated female characters person of the queen, but is a lady of high rank in the of this drama: court-the wife of the Lord Antigonus. She is a “ The story of Florizel and Perdita is but an episode character strongly drawn from real and common lifein the WINTER'S Talk; and the character of Perdita is a clever, generous, strong-minded, warm-hearted woproperly kept subordinate to that of her mother, Hermi- man, fearless in asserting the truth, firm in her sense one: yet the picture is perfectly finished in every part; of right, enthusiastic in all her affections; quick in Juliet hersell is pot more firinly and distinctly drawn. thoughi, resolute in word, and energetic in action ; but But the colouring in Perdita is more silvery light and heedless, hot-tempered, impatient, loud, bold, voluble, delicate; the pervading sentiment more touched with and turbulent of tongue; regardless of the feelings of the ideal; compared with Juliet, she is like a Guido those for whom she would sacrifice her life, and injuring hung beside a Georgionc, or one of Paesiello's airs from excess of zeal those whom she most wishes to heard after one of Mozart's. scrve. 55 "Parusi mudropar, al statue"-" In the old editus tem 12084 escepting thur, at the beginn; de sus mine (like a statue,)' is bei ted) ins of the Hermione was probably concealer is suita inner ja This whole art, with the idea of the web Itangled restoration of Hermjuge, is eaturel ** ion of own invention, there being no tre ? reality, thoughe in the novel, where they *** chea of den grief , upon the death of love as a il - critics of the last century, where the sete 173 1 on the stage, and hrundel, en thee!! : quite with Dryden's censure auPope's dreta, no? remarked upou this scene pri matic. Mo. Lennox brands it eam But the revival of the plav on the same luns prored that Slukespeare na glasba luis critics of page-effect ani dramati | Campbell appeals to the mobile Siddons, iu Uis scene, nu a suffit ving' criticism of Mrs. Lendor, and all be post litt, among his dramatir reimast!! i, at the COLLIER. old our As we wally besides noticing the fine disperare en in Leantes, cars that Mr. Sulkea, 3 p : of acted the panced stige to the lideer) olid mental dignits, anı noble piaseks. "Il'ould I genere deod, And dat, o 4.1 Leonies, in his ecstasr, breaks od mieten 189 wlint he was about to sat: what te; id; | Bereme til have beeu murmelting w *** Mvold I were dead," because le altre gh the statue of Hermuine is alive. meaning is, though her ere bare fiscale et il d hare "motion" in it: that there perceptible in the eve of a birine pateikia soerer oac cadeatours to fix it."-EDITION taineit, because it is not clear that ** for the belter, will probabilir. Anecdotes un it; the forme i will n ion et les Procceide Callier inloope" Le' L*FR “How many such are there in the world! But Paulina, his own cruel injustice. It is though a very termagant, is yet a poetical termagant in Hermione and Paulina, while suffi her way; and the manner in which all the evil and to afford all the pleasure of contra dangerous tendencies of such a temper are placed before too nearly in contact on the scene us, even while the individual character preserves the this would have been a fault in tas strongest hold upon our respect and admiration, forms rily weakened the effect of both ch an impressive lesson, as well as a natural and delightful serene grandeur of Hermione wou portrait. overawed the fiery spirit of Pauli "We can only excuse Paulina by recollecting that it is temper of the latter must have a part of her purpose to keep alive in the heart of Leon respect, our impression of the calm tes the remembrance of his queen's perfections, and of what melancholy beauty of Hermi - How many such are there in the world! But Paulina, 1 his own cruel injustice . It horde. Die de a very termagant, is yet a poetical termagant in Hermione and Paulina , while stifornt one lipw; and the manner in which all the evil and I to afford all the pleasure of contraste en intet de tendencies of such a temper are placed before too nearly in contact on the scene iz te me; pen while the individual character preserves the this would have been a fault in aste, and prozest bold upon our respect and admiration, forms "rily weakened the effect of both eacties:-uri a presente lesson, as well as a natural and delightful | serene grandear of Hermine wereld here catre el overawed the fiery spirit of Paris, a de novo We can only exense Paulina by recollecting that it is temper of the latter must bare distriel, el so a pot of her purpose to keep alive in the heart of Leon respect , our impression el the cala, sajste , medias les 'Er remembrance of his queen's perfections, and of what melancholy beauty e Hermie. |