Sidor som bilder
PDF
ePub

changed colour; fome fwooned, all forrowed: if all the world could have feen 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 himself eternity, and could put breath

So, in Milton's Epitaph on our author:

"There thou our fancy of itfelf bereaving,
"Doft make us marble by too much conceiving."

STEEVENS.

8

It means those who had the hardest hearts. It would not be extraordinary that thofe perfons fhould change colour who were petrified with wonder, though it was, that hardened hearts should be moved by a scene of tenderness. M. MASON.

So, in K. Henry VIII:

66

[ocr errors]

Hearts of moft hard temper

"Melt, and lament for him." MALONE.

Mr. M. Mafon's and Mr. Malone's explanation may be right. So, Antony and Cleopatra:

[ocr errors]

now from head to foot

"I am marble conftant." STEEVENS.

8 that rare Italian mafter, Julio Romano; &c.] This excellent artist was born in the year 1492, and died in 1546. Fine and generous, as this tribute of praife muft be owned, yet it was a ftrange abfurdity, fure, to thruft 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. THEOBALD.

By eternity Shakspeare 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. say:

1

into his work, would beguile nature of her custom," fo perfectly he is her ape: he fo near to Hermione hath done Hermione, that, they fay, one would speak to her, and stand in hope of answer: thither with all greedinefs of affection, are they gone; and there they intend to fup.

2. GENT. I thought, fhe had fome great matter there in hand; for the hath privately, twice or thrice a day, ever fince the death of Hermione, vifited that removed house. Shall we thither, and with our company piece the rejoicing?

[ocr errors]

all city ftatues must be painted,

"Elfe they be worth nought i'their fubtil judgements." Sir Henry Wotton, in his Elements of Architecture, mentions the fashion of colouring even regal ftatues for the ftronger 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 ruddinefs upon her lip, nor could the veins verily feem to bear blood, as the poet expreffes it afterwards. TOLLET.

Our author exprefsly fays, in a fubfequent paffage, that it was painted; and without doubt meant to attribute only the painting to Julio Romano:

"The ruddinefs upon her lip is wet;

"You'll mar it, if you kifs it; ftain your own

"With oily painting." MALONE.

Sir H. Wotton could not poffibly know what has been lately proved by Sir William Hamilton in the MS. accounts which ac company feveral valuable drawings of the difcoveries made at Pompeii, and prefented by him to our Antiquary Society, viz. that it was ufual to colour ftatues among the ancients. In the chapel of Ifis in the place already mentioned, the image of that goddefs had been painted over, as her robe is of a purple hue. Mr. Tollet has fince informed me, that Junius, on the painting of the ancients, obferves from Paufanias and Herodotus, that fometimes the ftatues of the ancients were coloured after the manner of pictures.

STEEVENS.

9 of her cuftom,] That is, of her trade,-would draw her cuftomers from her. JOHNSON.

would be thence, that has the every wink of an eye, fome new our abfence makes us unthrifty

1. GENT. Who benefit of accefs? grace will be born: to our knowledge. Let's along.

[Exeunt Gentlemen.

Aur. Now, had I not the dafh of my former life in me, would preferment drop on my head. I brought the old man and his fon aboard the prince; told him, I heard them talk of a fardel, and I know not what: but he at that time, over-fond of the fhepherd's daughter, (fo he then took her to be,) who began to be much feafick, and himself little better, extremity of weather continuing, this myftery remained undiscovered. But 'tis all one to me: for had I been the finder-out of this fecret, it would not have relifh'd among my other difcredits.

Enter Shepherd, and Clown.

Here come those I have done good to against my will, and already appearing in the bloffoms of their fortune.

SHEP. Come, boy; I am paft more children; but thy fons and daughters will be all gentlemen

born.

CLOWN. You are well met, fir: You denied to fight with me this other day, because I was no

2 Who would be thence, that has the benefit of access?] It was, I fuppofe, only to spare his own labour that the poet put this whole fcene into narrative, for though part of the tranfaction was already known to the audience, and therefore could not properly be fhewn again, yet the two kings might have met upon the ftage, and, after the examination of the old thepherd, the young lady might have been recognised in fight of the spectators. JOHNSON.

gentleman born: See you thefe clothes? fay, you fee them not, and think me ftill no gentleman born: you were beft fay, thefe robes are not gentlemen born. Give me the lie; do; and try whether I am not now a gentleman born.

AUT. I know, you are now, fir, a gentleman born. CLOWN. Ay, and have been so any time these four hours.

SHEP. And fo have I, boy.

CLOWN. So you have:-but I was a gentleman born before my father: for the king's fon took me by the hand, and call'd me, brother; and then the two kings call'd my father, brother; and then the prince, my brother, and the princess, my fifter, call'd my father, father; and fo we wept: and there was the first gentlemanlike tears that ever we shed. SHEP. We may live, fon, to fhed many more. CLOWN. Ay; or else 'twere hard luck, being in fo prepofterous estate as we are.

Aur. I humbly befeech you, fir, to pardon me all the faults I have committed to your worship, and to give me your good report to the prince my mafter.

SHEP. 'Pr'ythee, fon, do; for we must be gentle, now we are gentlemen.

CLOWN. Thou wilt amend thy life?

AUT. Ay, an it like your good worship.

CLOWN. Give me thy hand: I will fwear to the prince, thou art as honeft a true fellow as any is in Bohemia.

SHEP. You may fay it, but not swear it.

CLOWN. Not fwear it, now I am a gentleman?

3

Let boors and franklins fay it,3 I'll fwear it.

SHEP. How if it be false, fon?

CLOWN. If it be ne'er fo false, a true gentleman may fwear it, in the behalf of his friend :-And I'll fwear to the prince, thou art a tall fellow of thy hands, and that thou wilt not be drunk ; but I know, thou art no tall fellow of thy hands, and that thou wilt be drunk; but I'll fwear it: and I would, thou would't be a tall fellow of thy hands.

4

Aur. I will prove fo, fir, to my power.

CLOWN. Ay, by any means prove a tall fellow: If I do not wonder, how thou dareft venture to be drunk, not being a tall fellow, truft me not.

3

franklins fay it,] Franklin is a freeholder, or yeoman, a man above a villain, but not a gentleman. JOHNSON.

4 tall fellow of thy hands,] Tall, in that time, was the word ufed for ftout. JOHNSON.

[ocr errors]

Part of this phrafe occurs in Gower De Confeffione Amantis, lib. v. fol. 114:

"A noble knight eke of his honde."

A man of his hands had anciently two fignifications. It either meant an adroit fellow who handled his weapon well, or a fellow Jkilful in thievery. In the firft of these fenfes it is ufed by the Clown, Phrafeology like this is often met with. So, in Acolaftus, a comedy, 1540:

"Thou art a good man of thyne habite." STEEVENS.

A tall fellow of thy bands means, a ftout fellow of your fize. We measure horfes by hands, which contain four inches; and from thence the phrafe is taken. M. MASON.

The following quotation from Queftions concernyng Conie-hood, &c. 1595, will at leaft afcertain the fenfe in which Autolycus would have wifhed this phrafe to be received: "Conie-hood proceeding from choller, is in him which amongst mirth having but one croffe worde given him, ftraightwaies fals to his weapons, and will hacke peecemeale the quicke and the dead through fuperfluity of his manhood; and doth this for this purpose, that the ftanders by may fay that he is a tall fellow of his hands, and such a one as will not fwallow a cantell of cheese." STEEVENS,

I think, in old books it generally means a strong ftout fellow. MALONE.

« FöregåendeFortsätt »