SCENE III.

The fame. A Room in Paulina's House.

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, fovereign fir,,
I did not well, I meant well: All my fervices,

You have paid home: but that you have vouchfaf'd,
With your crown'd brother, and these your contracted
Heirs of your kingdoms, my poor house to vifit,

It is a furplus of your grace, which never

My life may laft to answer.

Leon.

We honour you

O Paulina,

with trouble: But we came

To fee the ftatue of our queen: your gallery
Have we pass'd through, not without much content
In many fingularities; but we faw not

That which my daughter came to look upon,
The ftatue of her mother.

Paul.
So her dead likeness, I do well believe,
Excels whatever yet you look'd upon,

As the liv'd peerless,

Or hand of man hath done; therefore I keep it
Lonely, apart: But here it is: prepare

To fee the life as lively mock'd, as ever

Still fleep mock'd death: behold; and fay, 'tis well.

[PAULINA undraws a curtain, and difcovers a ftatué.

I like your filence, it the more shows off

R

4

2 The old copy-lovely.. STEEVENS.

Your

Lovely, i. e. charily, with more than ordinary regard and tenderness. The Oxford editor reads:

Lonely, apart: --

As if it could be apart without being alone. WARBURTON.

I am yet inclined to lonely, which in the old angular writing cannot be diftinguished from lovely. To fay, that I keep it alone feparate from the reft, is a pleonafm which fcarcely any nicety declines. JoHNSON.

Your wonder: But yet fpeak ;-firft, you, my liege.
Comes it not fomething near?

L'on.
Her natural posture!-
Chide me, dear ftone; that I may fay, indeed,
Thou art Hermione: or, rather, thou art fhe,
In thy not chiding; for fhe was as tender,
As infancy, and grace. But yet, Paulina,
Hermione was not fo much wrinkled; nothing
So aged, as this seems.

Pol.

O, not by much.

Paul. So much the more our carver's excellence; Which lets go by fome fixteen years, and makes her As fhe liv'd now.

Leon.

As now the might have done,
So much to my good comfort, as it is

Now piercing to my foul. O, thus fhe stood,
Even with fuch life of majesty, (warm life,

As now it coldly ftands,) when firft I woo'd her!
I am afham'd: Does not the stone rebuke me,
For being more ftone than it ?-O, royal piece,
There's magick in thy majefty; which has
My evils conjur'd to remembrance; and
From thy admiring daugher took the spirits,
Standing like ftone with thee!

Per.

And give me leave;
And do not fay, 'tis fuperftition, that

I kneel, and then implore her bleffing.-Lady,
Dear queen, that ended when I but began,

Give me that hand of yours, to kiss.

Paul.

O, patience; 3.

The ftatue is but newly fix'd, the colour's
Not dry.

Cam. My lord, your forrow was too fore laid on;
Which fixteen winters cannot blow away,

So many fummers, dry: fcarce any joy

Did ever fo long live; no forrow,

But kill'd itfelf much fooner.

Pol.

Dear my brother,

To

Let him, that was the cause of this, have power

That is, Stay a while, be not fo eager. JOHNSON.

To take off fo much grief from you, as he
Will piece up in himself.
Paul.
Indeed, my lord,
If I had thought, the fight of my poor image
Would thus have wrought 4 you, (for the ftone is mine,)
I'd not have fhow'd it.s

Leon.

Do not draw the curtain.

Paul. No longer fhalk you gaze on't; left your fancy
May think anon, it moves.
Leon.

Let be, let be.

Would I were dead, but that, methinks, already —
What was he, that did make it ?—-See, my lord,
Would you not deem, it breath'd ? and that those veins
Did verily bear blood ?

Pal.

Masterly done: The very life seems warm upon her lip.

Leon. The fixture of her eye has motion in't,

As we are mock'd with art.8

R$

4 i. e. worked, agitated. STEEVENS.

Pauk

5 I do not know whether we should not read, without a parenthesis:

for the ftone i'th' mine

I'd not bave fhew'd it.

A mine of ftone, or marble, would not perhaps at prefent be efteemed an accurate expreflion, but it may still have been used by Shakspeare, as it has been used by Holinfhed. Defcript. of Engl. c. ix. p. 235: "Now if you have regard to their ornature, how many mines of fundrie kinds of coarfe and fine marble are there to be had in England ?*. And a little lower he uses the fame word again for a quarry of ftone, or plaifter: "And fuch is the mine of it, that the ftones thereof lie in flakes," &c.

TYRWHITT.

To change at accurate expreffion for an expreffion confeffedly not. accurate, has fomewhat af retrogradation. JOHNSON The fentence compleated is

but that, methinks, already converse with the dead. But there his paffion made him break off. WARBURTON.

7 The meaning is, though her eye be fixed, [as the eye of a ftatue always is,] yet it feems to have motion in it that tremulous motion, which is perceptible in the eye of a living perfon, how much foever one endeavour to fix it. EDWARDS.

As is used by our author here, as in fome other places, for " as if." MALONE. Mr. M. Mafon and Mr. Malone, very properly obferve that as, in this inftance is used, as in fome. other places, for as if. The former of these

gentlemen

Paul.

I'll draw the curtain ;

My lord's almoft fo far tranfported, that
He'll think anon, it lives.

Leon.
O fweet Paulina,
Make me to think fo twenty years together;

No fettled fenfes of the world can match
The pleasure of that madness. Let's alone.

Paul. I am forry, fir, I have thus far stirr'd you : but
I could afflict you further.

Leon.

Do, Paulina; For this affliction has a taste as sweet

As any cordial comfort.-Still, methinks,

There is an air comes from her: What fine chizzel
Could ever yet cut breath? Let no man mock me,
For I will kifs her.

Paul,

Good my lord, forbear:
The ruddinefs upon her lip is wet;

You'll mar it, if you kifs it; ftain your own
With oily painting: Shall I draw the curtain?
Leon. No, not these twenty years.

Per.

Stand by, a looker on.

Paul.

So long could I

Either forbear,

Quit presently the chapel; or refolve you
For more amazement: If you can behold it,
I'll make the ftatue move indeed; defcend,

And take you by the hand: but then you'll think,
(Which I protest against,) I am affifted

By wicked powers.

Leon.

What you can make her do,

I am content to look on: what to speak,
I am content to hear; for 'tis as easy

To make her speak, as move.

Paul.

It is requir'd,

You do awake your faith: Then, all stand still;

gentlemen would read were inftead of are, but unneceffarily, I think, confidering the loofe grammar of Shakspeare's age.—With, however, has the force of by. A paffage parallel to that before us, occurs in Antony and Cleopatra And mock our eyes with air."

STEEVENS, 66

Or those, that think it is unlawful business

I am about, let them depart.

Leon.

No foot fhall ftir.

Proceed;

Paul.
Mufick; awake her: ftrike.--
'Tis time; defcend; be ftone no more: approach;
Strike all that look upon with marvel. Come;
I'll fill your grave up ftir; nay, come away;
Bequeath to death your numbness, for from him
Dear life redeems you. You perceive, she stirs :

:

[Mufick.

[HERMIONE comes down from the pedestal.

Start not her actions fhall be holy, as,
You hear, my fpell is lawful: do not fhun her,
Until you fee her die again; for then
You kill her double: Nay, prefent your hand :
When he was young, you woo'd her; now,
Is the become the fuitor.

Cam. She hangs about his neck;

If the pertain to life, let her fpeak too.

in age,

[Embracing her.

Pol. Ay, and make't manifest where she has liv'd, Or, how ftol'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, the lives,

Though yet the fpeak not. Mark a little while.-
Please you to interpofe, fair madam; kneel,

And pray your mother's bleffing.-Turn, good lady;
Our Perdita is found.

Her.

[Prefenting PERDITA, who kneels to HERMIONES You gods, look down, And from your facred vials pour your graces 9/

R 6,

Upon

9 The expreffion feems to have been taken from the facred writings: And I heard a great voice out of the temple, faying to the angels, go your ways, and pour out the vials of the wrath of God upon the earth.". Rev. xvi. 1. MALONE.