Leon. Take her hence: Her heart is but o'ercharg'd; she will recover. I have too much believ'd mine own suspicion: Beseech you, tenderly apply to her Some remedies for life. -Apollo, pardon [Exeunt PAULINA and Ladies, with HERMIONE. My great profaneness 'gainst thine oracle!- New woo my queen, recall the good Camillo, Paul. Re-enter PAULINA. Woe the while! O! cut my lace, lest my heart, cracking it, 1 Lord. What fit is this, good lady? Paul. What studied torments, tyrant, hast for me? • Which you knew great, and to the CERTAIN hazard] This line, in the folio of 1623, is deficient two syllables, and the editor of the folio of 1632 supplied them by the word "certain." It is needed as far as metre is concerned, and as it is not erased in the corr. fo. 1632, we may be pretty sure that it was formerly recited on the stage, and ought to be included in our text. For girls of nine,-O! think, what they have done, Not dropp'd down yet. 1 Lord. The higher powers forbid! Paul. I say, she's dead; I'll swear't: if word, nor oath, Heat outwardly, or breath within, I'll serve you Leon. Go on, go on; Thou canst not speak too much: I have deserv'd All tongues to talk their bitterest. 1 Lord. Say no more: 1 That did but show thee of a FOOL,] Theobald would read soul for "fool;" and Warburton, "that did but show thee off a fool." No change seems necessary; but in "Twelfth-Night," A. v. sc. 1, p. 723, we have, however, seen "soul" misprinted fool, and such may have been the case here. As a mere matter of taste we might prefer " soul," but no such emendation is found in the corr. fo. 1632. 2 At REPETITION, I beseech you;] Paulina sees that she has gone too far, and has moved the grieved king too much. She repents, therefore, the recapitulation she has made, in her speech beginning "What studied torments," &c. of the consequences of his jealousy, and says, as the text stands in the corr. fo. 1632, Howe'er the business goes, you have made fault I' the boldness of your speech. Paul. I am sorry for't : All faults I make, when I shall come to know them, I do repent. Alas! I have show'd too much The rashness of a woman. He is touch'd To the noble heart. - What's gone, and what's past help, At repetition, I beseech you2; rather, Let me be punish'd, that have minded you The love I bore your queen, -lo, fool again!- Leon, [Exeunt. "do not receive affliction At repetition, I beseech you;" viz. at the repetition of the misfortunes Leontes has brought upon himself. The usual reading, that of all the folios, has been "at my petition;" but it is a decided corruption, arising from the word "repetition" having been misheard " my petition." Mr. Singer's unhappy guess of "at my relation" shows that he was aware of a defect, but did not know how to amend it, without unwilling resort to the change introduced by the old annotator upon my second folio. There can be no doubt that "at repetition" is the true language of the poet. SCENE III. Bohemia. A Desert Country near the Sea. Enter ANTIGONUS, with the Babe'; and a Mariner. Ant. Thou art perfect, then, our ship hath touch'd upon The deserts of Bohemia? Mar. Ant. Their sacred wills be done! - Go, get aboard; Mar. Make your best haste, and go not Besides, this place is famous for the creatures Of prey that keep upon't. Ant. Go thou away: I'll follow instantly. I am glad at heart Come, poor babe. To be so rid o' the business. I have heard, (but not believ'd) the spirits o' the dead Sometimes her head on one side, some another; I never saw a vessel of like sorrow, So fill'd, and so o'er-running: in pure white robes, [Exit. 3 Enter Antigonus, with the BABE;] It is called "Babe" in the old copies, nor can we see any ground for changing, with modern editors, "babe" to child, and every ground for preserving the word which, we may reasonably suppose, Shakespeare wrote. 4 So fill'd, and so O'ER-RUNNING :) The text has hitherto been "So fill'd, and so becoming:" the emendation, from the corr. fo. 1632, appears to us incontrovertible. Hermione, in the dream of Antigonus, seemed a vessel of sorrow not only "fill'd" but "o'er-running" from the abundant tears she shed. How the blunder was made by the scribe, or by the old printer, cannot now, perhaps, be explained, but that becoming is a blunder for o'er-running cannot, we think, be disputed; and we receive the change as a welcome restoration of the poet's original Like very sanctity, she did approach "I pr'ythee, call't: for this ungentle business, [Laying down the Babe. There lie; and there thy character: there these, [Laying down a bundle. Which may, if fortune please, both breed thee, pretty, To loss, and what may follow. - Weep I cannot, But my heart bleeds, and most accurs'd am I, To be by oath enjoin'd to this. - Farewell! [Thunder. The day frowns more and more: thou art like to have word in a situation where it was much needed. Uberflutend is the German translation in Das Wintermährchen. "There WEND, and leave it crying;) Here, again, we are greatly indebted to the corr. fo. 1632: for "wend," i. e. go, the old copies have "weep;" but the spirit of Hermione did not tell Antigonus to weep, but to "wend" to Bohemia, and there leave the infant crying. The word "crying" probably misled the compositor, and he fancied that "wend" was weep, and so printed. Dort wandle hin is the rendering in German. 6 thy CHARACTER:] i. e. Thy description, with the name, "Perdita," as prescribed in the dream of Antigonus. |