That you might well enjoy her. Flo. Dear, look up : Though fortune, vifible an enemy, Should chafe us, with my father; power no jot Which he counts but a trifle. Paul. Sir, my liege, Your eye hath too much youth in't: not a month 'Fore your queen dy'd, fhe was more worth such gazes Than what you look on now. Leo. I thought of her, Even in these looks I made.-But your petition [To Florizel. Is yet unanfwer'd: I will to your father; Enter Autolycus, and a Gentleman. Aut, 'Befeech you, fir, were you prefent at this relation ? I Gent. I was by at the opening of the farthel, heard the old fhepherd deliver the manner how he found it: whereupon, after a little amazednefs, we were all com Ee 4 manded manded out of the chamber: only this, methought, I heard the fhepherd fay, he found the child. Aut. I would most gladly know the iffue of it. 1 Gent. I make a broken delivery of the business;But the changes I perceived in the king, and Camillo, were very notes of admiration; they feem'd almoft, with aring on one another, to tear the cafes of their eyes; there was fpeech in their dumbnefs, language in their very gefture; they look'd, as they had heard of a world ranfom'd, or one deftroy'd: A notable paffion of wonder appear'd in them but the wisest beholder, that knew no more but fecing, could not fay, if the importance were joy, or forrow; but in the extremity of the one, it must needs be. Enter a fecond Gentleman. Here comes a gentleman, that, happily, knows more: The news, Rogero? 2 Gent. Nothing but bonfires: The oracle is fulfill'd; the king's daughter is found: fuch a deal of wonder is broken out within this hour, that balladmakers cannot be able to exprefs it. Enter a third Gentleman. Here comes the lady Paulina's fteward, he can deliver you more.-How goes it now, fir? this news, which is call'd true, is fo like an old tale, that the verity of it is in ftrong fufpicion: Has the king found his heir? 3 Gent. Moft true; if ever truth were pregnant by circumftance that, which you hear, you'll fwear you fee, there is fuch unity in the proofs. The mantle of queen Hermione ;-her jewel about the neck of it;the letters of Antigonus, found with it, which they know to be his character;-the majefty of the creature, in refemblance of the mother;-the affection of nobleness, which nature fhews above her breeding, and many other evidences, proclaim her, with all certainty, to be the king's daughter. Did you fee the meeting of the two kings? 2 Gent. No. 3 Gent. Then have you loft a fight, which was to be feen, cannot be spoken of. There might you have beheld one joy crown another; fo, and in fuch manner, that, it feem'd, forrow wept to take leave of them; for their joy waded in tears. There was cafting up of eyes, holding up of hands; with countenance of fuch distraction, that they were to be known by garment, not by favour. Our king, being ready to leap out of himself for joy of his found daughter; as if that joy were now become a lofs, cries, Oh, thy mother, thy mother! then afks Bohemia forgiveness; then embraces his fon-in-law; then again worries he his daughter, with clipping her now he thanks the old fhepherd, which ftands by, like a weather-beaten s conduit of many kings' reigns. I never heard of fuch another encounter, which lames report to follow it, and undoes description to do it. 2 Gent. What, pray you, became of Antigonus, that carry'd hence the child? 3 Gent. Like an old tale ftill; which will have matters to rehearse, though credit be asleep, and not an ear open: He was torn to pieces with a bear: this avouches the fhepherd's fon; who has not only his innocence (which feems much) to justify him, but a handker chief, and rings, of his, that Paulina knows. 4 with clipping ber,] i. e. embracing her. So, Sidney: 5 "He, who before fhun'd her, to fhun fuch harms, STEEVENS. weather-beaten- -] Thus the modern editors. The old copy weather-bitten. Hamlet fays: "The air bites fhrewdly;" and the Duke, in As you like it :- "when it bites and blows," Weather-bitten, therefore, may mean, corroded by the weather. STEEVENS. I Gent. 1 Gent. What became of his bark, and his fol lowers? 3 Gent. Wreck'd, the fame inftant of their master's death; and in the view of the fhepherd: fo that all the inftruments, which aided to expofe the child, were even then loft, when it was found. But, oh, the noble combat, that, 'twixt joy and forrow, was fought in Paulina! She had one eye declin'd for the lofs of her husband; another elevated that the oracle was fulfill'd: She lifted the princess from the earth; and so locks her in embracing, as if the would pin her to her heart, that fhe might no more be in danger of lofing. 1 Gent. The dignity of this act was worth the audience of kings and princes; for by fuch was it acted. 3 Gent. One of the prettiest touches of all, and that which angled for mine eyes, (caught the water, though not the fifh) was, when at the relation of the queen's death, with the manner how fhe came to it, (bravely confefs'd, and lamented by the king) how attentiveness wounded his daughter: 'till, from one fign of dolour to another, fhe did, with an alas! I would fain fay, bleed tears; for, I am fure, my heart wept blood. Who was most marble there, changed colour; fome fwooned, all forrowed: if all the world could have seen it, the woe had been univerfal. 1 Gent. Are they returned to the court? 3 Gent. No: The princefs hearing of her mother's ftatue, which is in the keeping of Paulina,-a piece many years in doing, and now newly perform'd by ? that rare Italian master, Julio Romano; who, had he him 6 moft marble there,] i. e. moft petrified with wonder. STEEVENS. -] All the - -that rare Italian mafter, Julio Romano; encomiums, put together, that have been conferred on this excel- · lent artist in painting and architecture, do not amount to the fine praise himself eternity, and could put breath into his work, would beguile nature of her3 custom, fo perfectly he is her praise here given him by our author. He was born in the year 1492, lived juft that circle of years which our Shakespeare did, and died eighteen years before the latter was born. Fine and ge nerous, therefore, as this tribute of praise must be owned, yet it was a strange abfurdity, fure, to thrust it into a tale, the action of which is fuppofed within the period of heathenifm, and whilst the oracles of Apollo were confulted. This, however, was a known and wilful anachronifm; which might have flept in obfcurity, perhaps Mr. Pope will fay, had I not animadverted on it. THEOBALD. that rare Italian mafter, Julio Romano; &c.] Mr. Theobald fays: All the encomiums put together, that have been conferred on this excellent artift in painting and architecture, do not amount to the fine praife here given him by our author. But he is ever the unluckieft of all critics when he paffes judgment on beauties and defects. The paffage happens to be quite unworthy Shakespeare, 1f, He makes his fpeaker fay, that was Julio Romano the God of Nature, he would outdo Nature. For this is the plain meaning of the words, had he himself eternity, and could put breath into bis work, he would beguile nature of her cuftom. 2dly, He makes of this famous painter, a ftatuary; I fuppofe confounding him with Michael Angelo; but, what is worst of all, a painter of ftatues, like Mrs. Salmon of her wax-work. WARBURTON. Poor Theobald's encomium on this paffage is not very happily conceived or expreffed, nor is the paffage of any eminent excellence; yet a little candour will clear Shakespeare from part of the impropriety imputed to him. By eternity he means only immortality, or that part of eternity which is to come; fo we talk of eternal renown and eternal infamy. Immortality may fubfift without divinity, and therefore the meaning only is, that if Julio could always continue his labours, he would mimick nature. JOHNSON. I wish we could understand this paffage, as if Julio Romano had only painted the ftatue carved by another. Ben Jonfon makes Doctor Rut in the Magnetic Lady, act V. fc. viii. fay: 66 all city ftatues must he painted, "Elfe they be worth nought i'their fubtil judgments.' Sir Henry Wotton, in his Elements of Architecture, mentions the fashion of colouring even regal statues for the stronger expreffion of affection, which he takes leave to call an English barbarifm. Such, however, was the practice of the time: and unless the fuppofed ftatue of Hermione were painted, there could be no ruddiupon her lip, nor could the veins verily feem to bear blood, as the poet exprefies it afterwards. TOLLET. nels |