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Per. So long could I Stand by, a looker on.

Paul. Either forbear,

Quit presently the chapel; or resolve you
For more amazement: If you can behold it,
I'll make the statue move, indeed; descend,
And take you by the hand: but then you'll think,
(Which I protest against,) I am assisted

By wicked powers.

Leo. 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;
Or those, that think it is unlawful business

I am about, let them depart.

Leo. Proceed;

No foot shall stir.

Paul. Music; awake her: strike.

[Music.

'Tis time; descend; be stone no more: approach;
Strike all that look upon with marvel. Come;
I'll fill your grave up stir; nay, come away;
Bequeath to death your numbness, for from him
Dear life redeems you.-You perceive, she stirs :
[HERMIONE Comes down from the pedestal.

Start not: her actions shall be holy, as,
You hear, my spell is lawful: do not shun her,
Until you see her die again; for then

You kill her double: Nay, present your hand:
When she was young, you woo'd her; now, in age,
Is she become the suitor.

Leo. O, she's warm!

If this be magic, let it be an art

Lawful as eating.

Pol. She embraces him.

Cam. She hangs about his neck;

If she pertain to life, let her speak too.

[Embracing her.

Pol. Ay, and make't manifest where she has liv'd, Or, how stol'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, she lives,
Vor. IV.

17

Though yet she speak not. Mark a little while.—
Please you to interpose, fair madam; kneel,
And pray your mother's blessing. Turn, good lady;
Our Perdita is found.

[Presenting PERDITA, who kneels to HERMIONE.

Her. You gods, look down,

And from your sacred vials pour your graces

Upon my daughter's head!-Tell me, mine own,

Where hast thou been preserv'd? where liv'd? how found
Thy father's court? for thou shalt hear, that I,-
Knowing by Paulina, that the oracle

Gave hope thou wast in being,-have preserv'd
Myself, to see the issue.

Paul. There's time enough for that;
Lest they desire, upon this push to trouble
Your joys with like relation.-Go together,
You precious winners all; your exultation
Partake to every one. I, an old turtle,
Will wing me to some wither'd bough; and there
My mate, that's never to be found again,
Lament till I am lost.

Leo. O peace, Paulina ;

Thou should'st a husband take by my consent,

As I by thine, a wife: this is a match,

And made between's by vows. Thou hast found mine;

But how, is to be question'd: for I saw her,

As I thought, dead; and have, in vain, said many

A prayer upon her grave: I'll not seek far

(For him, I partly know his mind,) to find thee An honourable husband :-Come, Camillo,

And take her by the hand: whose worth, and honesty,
Is richly noted; and here justified

By us, a pair of kings.-Let's from this place.-
What--Look upon my brother :-both your pardons,
That e'er I put between your holy looks

My ill suspicion.-This your son-in-law,

And son unto the king, (whom, heavens directing,)
Is troth-plight to your daughter.-Good Paulina,
Lead us from hence; where we may leisurely
Each one demand, and answer to his part
Performi'd in this wide gap of time, since first
We were dissever'd: Hastily lead away.

[Exeunt.?

[9! This play, as Dr. Warburton justly observes, is, with all its absurdities, very entertaining. The character of Autolycus is naturally conceived and strongly represented. JOHNSON.

MACBETH.

OBSERVATIONS.

MACBETH.] In order to make a true estimate of the abilities and merit of a writer, it is always necessary to examine the genius of his age, and the opinions of his contemporaries. A poet who should now make the whole action of his tragedy depend upon enchantment, and produce the chief events by the assistance of supernatural agents, would be censured as transgressing the bounds of probability, be banished from the theatre to the nursery, and condemned to write fairy tales instead of tragedies; but a survey of the notions that prevailed at the time when this play was written, will prove that Shakespeare was in no danger of such censures, since he only turned the system that was then universally admitted, to his advantage, and was far from over-burdening the credulity of his audi

ence.

The reality of witchcraft or enchantment, which, though not strictly the same, are confounded in this play, has in all ages and countries been credited by the common people, and in most, by the learned themselves. The phantoms have indeed appeared more frequently, in proportion as the darkness of ignorance has been more gross; but it cannot be shown, that the brightest gleams of knowledge have at any time been sufficient to drive them out of the world. The time in which this kind of credulity was at its height, seems to have been that of the holy war, in which the Christians imputed all their defeats to enchantments or diabolical opposition, as they ascribed their success to the assistance of their military saints; and the learned Dr. Warburton appears to believe (Supplement to the Introduction to Don Quixotte) that the first accounts of enchantments were brought into this part of the world by

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