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Not dropp'd down yet!

1 LORD.
The higher powers forbid !
PAUL. I say, she's dead; I'll swear't. If
word nor oath

Prevail not, go and see: if you can bring
Tincture or lustre in her lip, her eye,

Heat outwardly or breath within, I'll serve you
As I would do the gods.-But, O, thou tyrant!
Do not repent these things; for they are heavier
Than all thy woes can stir: therefore betake thee
To nothing but despair. A thousand knees,
Ten thousand years together, naked, fasting,
Upon a barren mountain, and still winter,
In storm perpetual, could not move the gods
To look that way thou wert.

LEON.
Go on, go on:
Thou canst not speak too much; I have deserv'd
All tongues to talk their bitterest.

1 LORD.

Say no more;

Howe'er the business goes, you have made fault

I' the boldness of your speech.

PAUL. I am sorry for 't; All faults I make, when I shall come to know them, I do repent. Alas, I have show'd too much The rashness of a woman! he is touch'd To the noble heart.-What's gone, and what's past help,

b

Should be past grief; do not receive affliction
At my petition; I beseech you, rather
Let me be punish'd, that have minded you
Of what you should forget. Now, good my liege,
Sir, royal sir,-forgive a foolish woman :

The love I bore your queen,-lo, fool again !—
I'll speak of her no more, nor of your children;
I'll not remember you of my own lord,
Who is lost too: take your patience to you,
And I'll say nothing.

LEON.
Thou didst speak but well,
When most the truth; which I receive much
better

Than to be pitied of thee. Pr'ythee, bring me
To the dead bodies of my queen and son:
One grave shall be for both; upon them shall
The causes of their death
appear, unto

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SCENE III.-Bohemia. A desert Country near the Sea.

Enter ANTIGONUS with the Babe; and a Mariner

ANT. Thou art perfect then, our ship hath touch'd upon

The deserts of Bohemia?

MAR. Ay, my lord; and fear We have landed in ill time: the skies look grimly, And threaten present blusters; in my conscience, The heavens with that we have in hand are angry, And frown upon us.

ANT. Their sacred wills be done!-Go, get aboard;

Look to thy bark; I'll not be long before
I call upon thee.

MAR. Make your best haste; and go not
Too far i' the land: 't is like to be loud weather ;;
Besides, this place is famous for the creatures
Of prey that keep upon 't.

ANT.

I'll follow instantly.

MAR.

Go thou away:

I am glad at heart

[Exit.

Come, poor babe :

To be so rid o' the business.

ANT.

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I have heard (but not believ'd) the spirits o' the dead

May walk again: if such thing be, thy mother
Appear'd to me last night; for ne'er was dream
So like a waking. To me comes a creature,
Sometimes ber head on one side, some, another;
I never saw a vessel of like sorrow,
So fill'd, and so becoming in pure white robes,
Like very sanctity, she did approach
My cabin where I lay; thrice bow'd before me;
And, gasping to begin some speech, her eyes
Became two spouts: the fury spent, anon
Did this break from her: Good Antigonus,
Since fate, against thy better disposition,

d So fill'd, and so becoming:] Mr. Collier's annotator suggests, and Mr. Collier adopts, an alteration which at once destroys the meaning of the poet, and converts a beauteous image into one pre-eminently ludicrous:

"So fill'd, and so o'er-running"!

"So becoming" here means, so self-restrained: not as it is usually explained, so decent, or so dignified. Compare the following in "Romeo and Juliet," Act IV. Sc. 2,

"I met the youthful lord at Laurence' cell;
And gave him what becomed love I might,
Not stepping o'er the bounds of modesty."

Hath made thy person for the thrower-out
Of my poor babe, according to thine oath,
Places remote enough are in Bohemia,

There weep, and leave it, crying; and, for the babe

Is counted lost for ever, Perdita,

I pr'ythee, call't. For this ungentle business,
Put on thee by my lord, thou ne'er shalt see
Thy wife Paulina more :-and so, with shrieks,
She melted into air. Affrighted much,
I did in time collect myself; and thought
This was so, and no slumber. Dreams are toys;
Yet, for this once, yea, superstitiously,
I will be squar'd by this. I do believe
Hermione hath suffer'd death; and that
Apollo would, this being indeed the issue
Of king Polixenes, it should here be laid,
Either for life or death, upon the earth
Of its right father.

Blossom, speed thee well!— [Laying down the Child. There lie; and there thy character: there these ;[Laying down a bundle.

Which may, if Fortune please both breed thee, (pretty!)

And still rest thine."-The storm begins :-poor wretch,

That, for thy mother's fault, art thus expos'd
To loss and what may follow!-Weep I cannot,
But my heart bleeds: and most accurs'd am I
To be by oath enjoin'd to this.-Farewell!
The day frowns more and more:-thou 'rt like to
have

A lullaby too rough :-I never saw
The heavens so dim by day.-

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[Noise without of Hunters and Dogs. A savage clamour!get aboard!-[Sees a Bear.] This is

the chase!

I am gone for ever! [Exit, pursued by the Bear.

Enter an old Shepherd.

SHEP. I would there were no age between ten and three-and-twenty, or that youth would sleep out the rest; for there is nothing in the between but getting wenches with child, wronging the ancientry, stealing, fighting-Hark you now!Would any but these boiled brains of nineteen and

athy character:] Some ciphers and the name, "Perdita," by which the child hereafter might be recognised.

b

Blossom, speed thee well!

There lie; and there thy character: there these;-
Which may, if Fortune please both breed thee, (pretty!)
And still rest thine.]

The meaning is manifestly,-" Poor Blossom, good speed to thee! which may happen, despite thy present desolate condition, if Fortune please to adopt thee, (thou pretty one!) and remain thy constant friend; the intermediate line," There lie," &c. being, of course, parenthetical. From the punctuation hitherto adopted,"Blossom, speed thee well!

There lie; and there thy character; there these;

two-and-twenty hunt this weather? They have scared away two of my best sheep, which I fear the wolf will sooner find than the master; if anywhere I have them, 't is by the sea-side, browzing of ivy.(4) Good luck, an 't be thy will!-What have we here? [Taking up the Babe.] Mercy on 's, a barne; a very pretty barne! A boy or a child, I wonder? A pretty one; a very pretty one: sure, some scape though I am not bookish, yet I can read waiting-gentlewoman in the scape. This has been some stair-work, some trunk-work, some behind-door-work: they were warmer that got this than the poor thing is here. I'll take it up for pity: yet I'll tarry till my son come; he hollaed but even now.-Whoa, ho hoa!

CLO. [Without.] Hilloa, loa!

SHEP. What, art so near? If thou 'lt see a thing to talk on when thou art dead and rotten, come hither.

Enter Clown.

What ailest thou, man?

CLO. I have seen two such sights, by sea and by land!—but I am not to say it is a sea, for it is now the sky; betwixt the firmament and it you cannot thrust a bodkin's point.

SHEP. Why, boy, how is it?

CLO. I would you did but see how it chafes, how it rages, how it takes up the shore-but that's not to the point. O, the most piteous cry of the poor souls! sometimes to see 'em, and not to see 'em; now the ship boring the moon with her mainmast, and anon swallowed with yest and froth, as you'd thrust a cork into a hogshead. And then for the land-service,-to see how the bear tore out his shoulder-bone; how he cried to me for help, and said his name was Antigonus, a nobleman :—but to make an end of the ship,-to see how the sea flap-dragoned it :-but, first, how the poor souls roared, and the sea mocked them; -and how the poor gentleman roared, and the bear mocked him, both roaring louder than the sea or weather.

SHEP. Name of mercy! when was this, boy? CLO. Now, now; I have not winked since I saw these sights: the men are not yet cold under

Which may, if Fortune please, both breed thee pretty,
And still rest thine,"

the editors, one and all, must have supposed Antigonus to anticipate that the rich clothes, &c. which he leaves with the child, might breed it beautiful and prove of permanent utility to it in its after course of life.

CA boy or a child, I wonder?] "I am told, that in some of our inland counties, a female infant, in contradistinction to a male one, is still termed, among the peasantry,-a child."-STEEVENS. In support of this, Mr. Halliwell quotes the following from Hole's MS. Glossary of Devonshire Words, collected about 1780, "A child, a female infant."

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water, nor the bear half dined on the gentleman, -he's at it now.

SHEP. Would I had been by, to have helped the old man!

CLO. I would you had been by the ship side, to have helped her; there your charity would have lacked footing.

SHEP. Heavy matters! heavy matters! but

A3 bearing cloth-] The mantle in which an infant was wrapped when carried to the font to be baptized.

| look thee here, boy. Now bless thyself; thou mett'st with things dying, I with things new born. Here's a sight for thee; look thee, a bearing cloth for a squire's child! look thee here! take up, take up, boy; open 't. So, let's see :-it was told me I should be rich by the fairies; this is some changeling-open 't. What's within, boy? CLO. You 're a made* old man; if the sins of

(*) Old text, mad.

your youth are forgiven you, you're well to live. Gold! all gold!

a

SHEP. This is fairy gold, boy, and 't will prove so: up with it, keep it close; home, home, the next way. We are lucky, boy, and to be so still, requires nothing but secrecy.-Let my sheep go: -come, good boy, the next way home.

CLO. Go you the next way with your findings. I'll go see if the bear be gone from the gentleman, and how much he hath eaten they are never

a This is fairy gold,-keep it close ;] To divulge the possession of fairies' gifts was supposed to entail misfortune. Thus, Ben Jonson,

"A prince's secrets are like fairy favours,

Wholesome if kept; but poison if discover'd."

curst but when they are hungry: if there be any of him left, I'll bury it.

SHEP. That's a good deed. If thou mayest discern by that which is left of him, what he is, fetch me to the sight of him.

CLO. Marry, will I; and you shall help to put him i' the ground.

SHEP. 'Tis a lucky day, boy, and we'll do good deeds on 't. [Exeunt.

b- the next way.] "The next way meant the nearest way. ccurst-] That is, malicious, dangerous.

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ACT IV.

Enter Time, as Chorus.

TIME. I,-that please some, try all; both joy and terror

Of good and bad;--that make and unfold error;-
Now take upon me, in the name of Time,
To use my wings. Impute it not a crime
To me or my swift passage, that I slide
O'er sixteen years, and leave the growth untried
Of that wide gap; since it is in my power
To o'erthrow law, and in one self-born hour
To' plant and o'erwhelm custom. Let me pass
The same I am, ere ancient'st order was,
Or what is now receiv'd: I witness to

The times that brought them in; so shall I do
To the freshest things now reigning, and make stale
The glistering of this present, as my tale
Now seems to it. Your patience this allowing,
I turn my glass, and give my scene such growing

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As you had slept between. Leontes leaving,-
The effects of his fond jealousies so grieving,
That he shuts up himself;-imagine me,
Gentle spectators, that I now may be
In fair Bohemia ;" and remember well,
I mentioned a son o' the king's, which Florizel
I now name to you; and with speed so pace
To speak of Perdita, now grown in grace
Equal with wondering: what of her ensues
I list not prophesy; but let Time's news
Be known when 't is brought forth :-a shepherd's
daughter,

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indicate the poet's meaning, how could any editor possibly miss it who had bestowed a moment's reflection on the parallel passage in the original story?-"This epitaph being ingraven, Pandosto would once a day repaire to the tombe, and there with watry plaintes bewaile his misfortune, coveting no other companion but sorrowe, nor no other harmonie but repentance. But leaving him to his dolorous passions, at last let us come to shewe the tragicall discourse of the young infant." Compare, too, the corresponding lines in Sabie's "Fisherman's Tale," 1595,

"He having thus her funerals dispatcht,
Liv'd in vast dolour, and perpetuall griefe,
Sighing, and crying out against the Fates;
Amid these woes, whome now I meane to leave,
And make recourse unto this little babe," &c.

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