Hark! the kings and the princes, our kindred, are going to fee the queen's picture. Come, follow us : we'll be thy good masters.' [Exeunt. SCENE III. The fame. A Room in Paulina's House. Enter LEONTES, POLIXENES, FLORIZEL, PERDITA, CAMILLO, PAULINA, Lords, and Attendants. LEON. O grave and good Paulina, the great com fort That I have had of thee! PAUL. What, fovereign fir, I did not well, I meant well: All my fervices, You have paid home: but that you have vouchfaf'd, With your crown'd brother,and thefe your contracted Heirs of your kingdoms, my poor house to vifit, It is a furplus of your grace, which never My life may laft to answer. LEON. O Paulina, We honour you with trouble: But we came That which my daughter came to look upon, 5Come, follow us: we'll be thy good mafters.] The Clown conceits himself already a man of confequence at court. It was the fashion for an inferior, or fuitor, to beg of the great man, after his humble commendations, that he would be good mafter to him. Many letters written at this period run in this ftyle. Thus Fisher, Bishop of Rochefter, when in prifon, in a letter to Cromwell to relieve his want of clothing: Furthermore, I befeeche you to be gode mafter unto one in my neceffities, for I have neither fhirt, nor fute, nor yet other clothes, that are neceffary for me to wear." WHALLEY. The ftatue of her mother. PAUL. As the liv'd peerless, So her dead likeness, I do well believe, Or hand of man hath done; therefore I keep it 6 To fee the life as lively mock'd, as ever Still fleep mock'd death: behold; and fay, 'tis well. LEON. POL. O, not by much. PAUL. So much the more our carver's excellence; 6 therefore I keep it Lonely, apart:] The old copy-lovely. STEEVENS. Lovely, i. e. charily, with more than ordinary regard and tenderness. The Oxford editor reads: Lonely, apart: As if it could be apart without being alone. WARBURTON. I am yet inclined to lonely, which in the old angular writing cannot be diftinguished from lovely. To fay, that I keep it alone, Separate from the reft, is a pleonafm which fcarcely any nicety declines. JOHNSON. The fame error is found in many other places in the first folio. In King Richard III. we find this very error: "Advantaging their lue with intereft "Often times double.' Here we have loue instead of lone, the old spelling of lean. MALONE. Which lets go by fome fixteen years, and makes her As the liv'd now. LEON. As now the might have done, So much to my good comfort, as it is Now piercing to my foul. O, thus fhe ftood, PER. And give me leave; And do not fay, 'tis fuperftition, that I kneel, and then implore her bleffing.-Lady, Give me that hand of yours, to kiss. PAUL. O, patience;" The ftatue is but newly fix'd, the colour's CAM. My lord, your forrow was too fore laid on; Which fixteen winters cannot blow away, So many fummers, dry: fcarce any joy Did ever fo long live; no forrow, But kill'd itself much fooner. POL. Dear my brother, Let him, that was the caufe of this, have power To take off fo much grief from you, as he Will piece up in himself. PAUL. Indeed, my lord, If I had thought, the fight of my poor image O, patience:] That is, Stay a while, be not fo eager. JOHNSON. Would thus have wrought you, (for the ftone is mine,) I'd not have fhow'd it. LEON. Do not draw the curtain. PAUL. No longer fhall you gaze on't; left your fancy May think anon, it moves. LEON. Let be, let be. Would I were dead, but that, methinks, already 9— What was he, that did make it?-See, my lord, Would you not deem, it breath'd? and that thofe veins Did verily bear blood? wrought —] i. e. worked, agitated. So, in Macbeth: my dull brain was wrought "With things forgotten." STEEVENS. Indeed, my lord, If I had thought, the fight of my poor image Would thus have wrought you, (for the ftone is mine,) I'd not have show'd it.] I do not know whether we should not read, without a parenthesis: for the ftone i'th' mine I'd not have fhew'd it. A mine of flone, or marble, would not perhaps at present be efteemed an accurate expreffion, but it may ftill have been used by Shakspeare, as it has been used by Holinfhed. Defcript. of Engl. c. ix. p. 235: "Now if you have regard to their ornature, how many mines of fundrie kinds of coarfe and fine marble are there to be had in England?"-And a little lower he ufes the fame word again. for a quarry of ftone, or plaifter: "And fuch is the mine of it, that the ftones thereof lie in flakes," &c. TYRWHITT. To change an accurate expreffion for an expreffion confeffedly not accurate, has fomewhat of retrogradation. JOHNSON. 66 - (for the ftone is mine,)] So afterwards Paulina fays, -be ftone no more." So alfo Leontes: "Chide me, dear ftone." MALONE. 9 Would I were dead, but that, methinks, already-] The fentence compleated is. but that, methinks, already I converfe with the dead. But there his paffion made him break off. WARBURTON. POL. Masterly done: The very life feems warm upon her lip. LEON. The fixure of her eye has motion in't, As we are mock'd with art.3 PAUL. I'll draw the curtain; My lord's almost so far transported, that He'll think anon, it lives. LEON. PAUL. I am forry, fir, I have thus far stirr'd you : 2 The fixure of her eye has motion in't,] So, in our author's 88th Sonnet: Your fweet hue, which methinks ftill doth ftand, "Hath motion, and mine eye may be deceived." MALONE. The meaning is, though her eye be fixed, [as the eye of a statue always is,] yet it feems to have motion in it: that tremulous motion, which is perceptible in the eye of a living perfon, how much foever one endeavour to fix it. EDWARDS. The word fixare, which Shakspeare has used both in The Merry Wives of Windfor, and Troilus and Creffida, is likewife employed by Drayton in the first canto of The Barons' Wars: "Whofe glorious fixure in fo clear a fky." STEEVENS. 3 As we are mock'd with art.] As is ufed by our author here, as in fome other places, for " as if." Thus, in Cymbeline: "He fpake of her, as Dian had hot dreams, "And the alone were cold." Again, in Macbeth: "As they had feen me with thefe hangman's hands As we are mock'd with art.] Mr. M. Mafon and Mr. Malone, |