To plant and o'erwhelm cuftom: Let me pafs ftale The gliftering of this prefent, as my tale Now feems to it. Your patience this allowing, I turn my glafs; and give my fcene fuch growing, As you had flept between. Leontes leaving The effects of his fond jealoufies; fo grieving, That he fhuts up himfelf; 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 5 - learn of me, who ftand i'the gaps to teach you "The ftages of our ftory." MALONE. -fince it is my power, &c.] The reafoning of Time is not very clear; he feems to mean, that he who has broke so 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, diftinguifhed his periods. JOHNSON. 6 imagine me, Genile fpectators, that I now may be In fair Bohemia;] Time is every where alike. whether both fenfe and grammar may not dictate: I imagine we, Gentle fpectators, that you now may be, &c. I know not Let us imagine that you, who be bold 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, 86 fpell me fuch a word." In Henry IV. Falltaff fays, fpeaking of fack, "It afcends me into the brain, dries me there," &c. Again, in King Lear, Glofter fays to Edmund, speaking of Edgar: "Wind me into him," &c. M. MASON. I now name to you; and with speed so pace daughter, 6 7. And what to her adheres, which follows after, SCENE [ Exit. I. The fame. A Room in the Palace of Polixenes. Enter POLIXENES and CAMILLO. POL. I pray thee, good Camillo, be no more im portunate: 'tis a fickness, denying thee any thing; a death, to grant this. 8 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. Besides, the 6 Is the argument of time:] Argument is the fame with subject. JOHNSON. 7 Of this allow,] To allow in our author's time fignified to approve. MALONE. 8 It is fifteen years, We should read. - fixteen. faid: Time has juft Which lets go by fome fixteen years. Which fixteen winters cannot blow away. '' 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 thyself, or take away with thee the very services 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 ftudy; and my profit therein, the heaping friendships. Of that fatal country Sicilia, pr'ythee speak no more: whose very naming punifhes 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'ft 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. 9 CAM. Sir, it is three days, fince I saw the prince: 9 and 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 study; and my profil 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 Shall 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 exercifes, than formerly he hath appeared. POL. I have confider'd so much, Camillo; and with fome care; fo far, that I have eyes under my service, which look upon his removedness: from whom I have this intelligence; That he is feldom from the houfe 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 eftate. CAM. I have heard, fir, of fuch 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 angle that plucks our fon thither. Thou fhalt accompany us to the place where we 2 but I have, miffingly, noted,] Miffingly noted means, I have obferved him at intervals, not conftantly or regularly, but Occafionally. STEEVENS. 3 But, I fear the angle] Mr. Theobald reads, and fear the engle. JOHNSON. Angle in this place means a fishing-rod, which he represents as drawing his fon, like a fifh, away. So, in K. Henry IV. P. I: 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: 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. will, not appearing what we are, have fome quef`tion with the fhepherd; from whofe fimplicity, I think it not uneafy to get the caufe of my fon's refort thither. Pr'ythee, be my prefent partner in this business, and lay afide the thoughts of Sicilia. CAM. I willingly obey your command. POL. My best Camillo !-We must disguise ourfelves. [Exeunt. 4 SCENE II. The fame. A Road near the Shepherd's Cottage. Enter AUTOLYCUs, 5 finging. When daffodils begin to peer, 6 With, heigh! the doxy over the dale,— -Some queftion 89, n. 8. 5 MALONE. 6 i. e. fome talk. See Vol. VI. p. Autolycus,] Autolycus was the fon of Mercury, and as famous for all the arts of fraud and thievery as his father; "Non fuit Autolyci tam piceata manus. Martial. STEEVENS. Jog on, jog on, the foot-path way,] "Two monfenfical fongs, by the rogue Autolycus," fays Dr. Burney. But could not the many compliments paid by Shakspeare to mufical fcience, intercede for a better epithet than nonfenfical? The Dr. fubfequently observes, that "This Autolycus is the true ancient Minstrel, as defcribed in the old Fabliaux." |