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Of that wide gap; fince it is in my power
Ta o'erthrow law, and in one felf-born hour

against the laws of the Drama. It must be owned therefore that Shakspeare has not fallen into them through ignorance of what they were. "For at this daye, the Italian is fo lafcivious in his come dies, that honeft hearts are grieved at his actions. The Frenchman and Spaniard follow the Italian's humour. The German is too holy; for he prefents on everye common ftage, what preachers fhould pronounce in pulpits. The Englishman in this qualitie, is moft vaine, indifcreete, and out of order. He first grounds his worke on impoffibilities: then in three houres ronnes he throwe the worlde: marryes, gets children, makes children men, men to conquer kingdomes, murder monfters, and bringeth goddes from heaven, and fetcheth devils from hell," &c. This quotation will ferve to show that our pcet might have enjoyed the benefit of literary laws, but, like Achilles, denied that laws were defigned to operate on beings confident of their own powers, and fecure of graces beyond the reach of art. STEEVENS.

In The Pleafant Comedie of Patient Griffel, 1603, written by Thomas Dekker, Henry Chettle, and William Haughton, Griffel is in the first act married, and foon afterwards brought to bed of twins, a fon and a daughter; and the daughter in the fifth act is produced on the fcene as a woman old enough to be married.

and leave the growth untried

MALONE.

Of that wide gap;] Our author attends more to his ideas than to his words. The growth of the wide gap, is fomewhat irregular; but he means, the growth, or progreffion of the time which filled up the gap of the ftory between Perdita's birth and and her fixteenth year. To leave this growth untried, is to leave the paffages of the intermediate years unnoted and unexamined. Untried is not, perhaps, the word which he would have chofen, but which his rhyme required. JOHNSON.

Dr. Johnfon's explanation of growth is confirmed by a fubfequent paffage :

"I turn my glafs; and give my fcene fuch
"As you had flept between."

Again, in Pericles, Prince of Tyre:

"Whom our fait-growing fcene muft find

"At Tharfus."

growing,

Gap, the reading of the original copy, which Dr. Warburton changed to gulph, is likewife fupported by the fame play, in which old Gower, who appears as Chorus, fays,

To plant and o'erwhelm cuftom: Let me pafs
The fame I am, ere ancient'ft order was,

Or what is now received: I witnefs to

The times that brought them in; fo fhall I do To the fresheft things now reigning; and make ftale

The gliftering of this prefent, as my tale

Now feems to it. Your patience this allowing,
I turn my glass; and give my scene fuch growing,
As you had flept between. Leontes leaving
The effects of his fond jealoufies; fo grieving,
That he shuts up himself; imagine me,
Gentle fpectators, that I now may be

In fair Bohemia; and remember well,

I mentioned a fon o'the king's, which Florizel

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learn of me, who ftand i'the gaps to teach you "The stages of our ftory." MALONE.

fince it is in my power, &c.] The reafoning of Time is not very clear; he feems to mean, that he who has broke fo many laws may now break another; that he who introduced every thing, may introduce Perdita in her fixteenth year; and he intreats that he may pafs as of old, before any order or fucceffion of objects, ancient or modern, distinguished his periods. JOHNSON.

Gentle fpectators, that I now may

be

In fair Bohemia ;] Time is every where alike. I know not whether both fenfe and grammar may not dictate:

imagine we,

Gentle fpectators, that you now may be, &c.

Let us imagine that you, who behold these scenes, are now in Bohemia. JOHNSON.

Imagine me, means imagine with me, or imagine for me; and is a common mode of expreffion. Thus we fay " do me fuch a thing," fpell me fuch a word." In Henry IV. Falftaff fays, fpeaking of fack,

"It afcends me into the brain, dries me there," &c. Again, in King Lear, Glofter fays to Edmund, fpeaking of Edgar: "Wind me into him," &c. M. MASON.

I now name to you; and with speed so pace
To speak of Perdita, now grown in grace
Equal with wond'ring: What of her enfues,
I lift not prophecy; but let Time's news
Be known, when 'tis brought forth :-a fhepherd's
daughter,

And what to her adheres, which follows after,
Is the argument of time: Of this allow,"
If ever you have spent time worse ere now;
If never yet, that Time himself doth say,
He wishes earnestly, you never may.

[Exit,

SCENE I.

The fame. A Room in the Palace of Polixenes, Enter POLIXENES and CAMILLO.

POL. I pray thee, good Camillo, be no more importunate 'tis a fickness, denying thee any thing; a death, to grant this.

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CAM. It is fifteen years, fince I faw my country: though I have, for the most part, been aired abroad, I defire to lay my bones there. Befides, the

Is the argument of time:] Argument is the fame with subject̃. JOHNSON, Of this allow,] To allow in our author's time fignified to approve. MALONE.

7 -

8 It is fifteen years,] We fhould readfixteen. Time has juft faid:

that I fide

O'er fixteen years.

Again, Act V. fc. iii: "Which lets go by fome fixteen years." Which fixteen winters cannot blow away.'

Again, ibid.

STEEVENS,

penitent king, my mafter, hath fent for me: to whofe feeling forrows I might be fome allay, or I o'erween to think fo; which is another spur to my departure.

POL. As thou loveft me, Camillo, wipe not out the rest of thy fervices, by leaving me now: the need I have of thee, thine own goodness hath made; better not to have had thee, than thus to want thee: thou, having made me bufineffes, which none, without thee, can fufficiently manage, muft either ftay to execute them thyfelf, or take away with thee the very fervices thou haft done: which if I have not enough confider'd, (as too much I cannot,) to be more thankful to thee, fhall be my study; and my profit therein, the heaping friendfhips. Of that fatal country Sicilia, pr'ythee speak no more: whofe very naming punishes me with the remembrance of that penitent, as thou call'ft him, and reconciled king, my brother; whofe lofs of his moft precious queen, and children, are even now to be afresh lamented. Say to me, when faw'st thou the prince Florizel my fon? Kings are no lefs unhappy, their iffue not being gracious, than they are in lofing them, when they have approved their virtues.

CAM. Sir, it is three days, fince I saw the prince;

9and my profit therein, the heaping friendships.] The fenfe of heaping friendships, though like many other of our author's, unufual, at least unufual to modern ears, is not very obfcure. To be more thankful fhall be my ftudy; and my profit therein the heaping friendships. That is, I will for the future be more liberal of recompence, from which I fhall receive this advantage, that as I heap benefits I ball heap friendships, as I confer favours on thee I shall increase the friendship between us. JOHNSON.

Friendships is, I believe, here ufed, with fufficient licence, merely for friendly offices. MALONE.

What his happier affairs may be, are to me unknown: but I have, miffingly, noted,' he is of late much retired from court; and is lefs frequent to his princely exercises, than formerly he hath appeared.

POL. I have confider'd fo much, Camillo; and with fome care; fo far, that I have eyes under my fervice, which look upon his removedness: from whom I have this intelligence; That he is feldom from the house of a moft homely fhepherd; a man, they fay, that from very nothing, and beyond the imagination of his neighbours, is grown into an unfpeakable estate.

CAM. I have heard, fir, of such a man, who hath a daughter of most rare note: the report of her is extended more, than can be thought to begin from fuch a cottage.

POL. That's likewife part of my intelligence. But, I fear the angle3 that plucks our fon thither. Thou shalt accompany us to the place: where we

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but I have, miffingly, noted,] Miffingly noted means, I have obferved him at intervals, not conftantly or regularly, but occafionally. STEEVENS.

3But, I fear the angle-] Mr. Theobald reads,—and I fear the engle. JOHNSON.

Angle in this place means a fishing-rod, which he reprefents as drawing his fon, like a fifh, away. So, in K. Henry IV. P. I;

66

he did win

"The hearts of all that he did angle for."

Again, in All's Well that Ends Well:

"She knew her distance, and did angle for me."

So, in Lyly's Sapho and Phao, 1591:

STEEVENS.

"Thine angle is ready, when thine oar is idle; and as fweet is the fish which thou getteft in the river, as the fowl which other buy in the market." MALONE.