LEON.

O sweet Paulina,

Make me to think so twenty years together;
No settled senses of the world can match
The pleasure of that madness. Let 't alone.
PAUL. I am sorry, sir, 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 kiss her.

PAUL.

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

You'll mar it, if you kiss it; stain 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 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.

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;
Or those, that think it is unlawful business

I am about, let them depart.

7 OR those,] The old copy reads-On those, &c. Corrected by Sir T. Hanmer. MALONE.

"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.

LEON.

O, she's warm! [Embracing her.

If this be magick, 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.

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,
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 8,

8 You gods, look down, &c.] A similar invocation occurs in The Tempest:

9

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 1; your exultation
Partake to every one2. I, an old turtle,

1

Will wing me to some wither'd bough; and there
My mate, that's never to be found again,
Lament till I am lost 3.

3

"Look down, ye gods,

"And on this couple drop a blessed crown! STEEVENS. 9 And from your SACRED VIALS pour your graces-] The expression seems to have been taken from the sacred writings: "And I heard a great voice out of the temple, saying to the seven angels, Go your ways, and pour out the vials of the wrath of God upon the earth." Rev. xvi. 1. MALONE.

You precious WINNERS all;] You who by this discovery have gained what you desired, may join in festivity, in which I, who have lost what never can be recovered, can have no part.

2

your exultation

JOHNSON.

PARTAKE to every one.] Partake here means participate. It is used in the same sense in the old play of Pericles, Prince of Tyre. MALONE.

It is also thus employed by Spenser:

"My friend, hight Philemon, I did partake

"Of all my love, and all my privity." STEEVENS.

3 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.] So, Orpheus, in the exclamation which Johannes Secundus has written for him, speaking of his grief for the loss of Eurydice, says:

Sic gemit arenti viduatus ab arbore turtur.

LEON.

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.

mine;

Thou hast found

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 ho4 nesty *,

It 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,

So, in Lodge's Rosalynde, 1592:

4

"A turtle sat upon a leaveless tree,

66

Mourning her absent pheere,

"With sad and sorry cheere:

"And whilst her plumes she rents,

"And for her love laments, &c." MALONE.

WHOSE Worth, and honesty,] The word whose, evidently

refers to Camillo, though Paulina is the immediate antecedent.

And son unto the king, (WHOм heavens DIRECTING,)

Is troth-plight to your daughter.] Whom heavens directing is here in the absolute case, and has the same signification as if the poet had written-" him heavens directing." So, in The Tempest:

"Some food we had, and some fresh water, that

"A noble Neapolitan, Gonzalo,

"Out of his charity, (who being then appointed
"Master of the design,) did give us."

Again, in Venus and Adonis :

Lead us from hence; where we may leisurely
Each one demand, and answer to his part
Perform'd in this wide gap of time, since first
We were dissever'd: Hastily lead away. [Exeunt.

"Or as the snail (whose tender horns being hurt,)

"Shrinks backward to his shelly cave with pain."

Here we should now write-" his tender horns."

See also a passage in King John, Act II. Sc. II.: "Who having no external thing to lose," &c. and another in Coriolanus, Act III. Sc. II. which are constructed in a similar manner. In the note on the latter passage this phraseology is proved not to be peculiar to Shakspeare. MALONE.

6 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.

"FADINGS." See p. 359. Mr Malone wishing to obtain some information respecting this old Irish dance, applied to his friend Andrew Caldwell, Esq. and received two letters in reply, from which I have extracted what relates to this subject:

"Dublin, 5th March, 1803.

66

"I consulted Vallancey about your Irish word, fading: he examined his Dictionary; and finds that fead is a reed; feadan, a pipe or flagiolet; feadam, to pipe, to whistle; so that it was natural for an Englishman to give the name of the instrument to the dance it accompanied. I wrote to a friend in the country who is very intelligent in the Irish, and knows many native antiquaries; he is at present very ill with the gout; but whenever I get an answer from him I shall not fail to let you know whether he confirms Vallancey or gives any farther explanation. There is a small island in Bantry Bay, call'd fead, famous for this reed." Dublin, 9th April, 1803. "I did not chuse to rely entirely on General Vallancey's explanation of fada, and wrote to the country to an ingenious and intelligent friend who understands Irish, and is much acquainted with many rural antiquaries. The dance is called Rinca Fada, and means literally, the long dance.' Though faed is a reed, the name of the dance is not borrowed from it; 'fada is the adjective, long, and rinca the substantive, dance.' In Irish the adjective follows the substantive, differing from the English construction; hence rinca fada; faedan is the diminutive, and means little reed; faedan is the first person of the verb to whistle, either with the lips or with a reed, i. e. I whistle.

6

"This dance is still practised on rejoicing occasions in many