Not dropp'd down yet.

1. LORD.
The higher powers forbid!
PAUL. I fay, fhe's dead; I'll fwear't: if word,
nor oath,

Prevail not, go and fee: if you can bring
Tincture. or luftre, in her lip, her eye,
Heat outwardly, or breath within, I'll ferve you
As I would do the gods. But, O thou tyrant!
Do not repent these things; for they are heavier
Than all thy woes can ftir: therefore betake thee
To nothing but defpair. A thousand knees
Ten thousand years together, naked, fasting,
Upon a barren mountain, and fill winter
In storm perpetual, could not move the gods
To look that way thou wert.

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; Howe'er the bufinefs goes, you have made fault I'the boldness of your speech.

PAUL.

6

I am forry for't;" All faults I make, when I fhall come to know them, I do repent: Alas, I have fhow'd too much

The rashness of a woman: he is touch'd

To the noble heart.-What's gone, and what's past

help,

Should be paft grief: Do not receive affliction At my petition, I beseech you; rather

Let me be punish'd that have minded you

6 I am forry for't;) This is another inftance of the fudden changes incident to vehement and ungovernable minds. JOHNSON.

? what's past help,

Should be paft grief:] So, in King Richard II :

66

Things paft redress, are now with me past care."

STEEVENS,

Of what you fhould forget. Now, good my liege, Sir, royal fir, forgive a foolish woman:

The love I bore your queen,-lo, fool again !—
I'll fpeak of her no more, nor of your children;
I'll not remember you of my own lord,

Who is loft too: Take your patience to you,
And I'll fay nothing.

LEON.

Thou didst fpeak but well, When moft the truth; which I receive much better Than to be pitied of thee. Pr'ythee, bring me To the dead bodies of my queen, and fon; One grave fhall be for both; upon them fhall The caufes of their death appear, unto Our flame perpetual: Once a day I'll vifit The chapel where they lie; and tears, fhed there, Shall be my recreation: So long as

Nature will bear up with this exercise,

So long I daily vow to use it.

Come,

And lead me to thefe forrows.

[Excunt:

SCENE III.

Bohemia. A defert country near the fea.

Enter ANTIGONUS, with the Child; and a Mariner.

7

ANT. Thou art perfect then, our fhip hath touch'd

upon

The deferts of Bohemia?

MAR.

Ay, my lord; and fear We have landed in ill time: the skies look grimly,

7 Thou art perfcd then, Perfect is often ufed by Shakfpeare for certain, well affured, or well informed. JOHNSON.

It is fo used by almost all our ancient writers.

STEEVENS.

And threaten prefent blufters. In my confcience, The heavens with that we have in hand are angry, And frown upon us.

ANT. Their facred wills be done!-Go,getaboard: Look to thy bark; I'll not be long, before I call upon thee.

MAR. Make your beft hafte; and go not Too fari'the land: 'tis like to be loud weather; Befides, this place is famous for the creatures Of prey, that keep upon't.

ANT.

I'll follow inftantly.

MAR.

Go thou away;

To be fo rid o'the bufinefs."

ANT.

I have heard, but not believ'd, the spirits of the dead
May walk again: if such thing be, thy mother
Appear'd to me last night; for ne'er was dream
So like a waking. To me comes a creature,
Sometimes her head on one fide, fome another;
I never faw a veffel of like forrow,

So fill'd, and fo becoming: in pure white robes,
Like very fanctity, fhe did approach

My cabin where I lay thrice bow'd before me;
And, gasping to begin fome fpeech, her eyes
Became two fpouts: the fury spent, anon
Did this break from her: Good Antigonus,
Since fate, against thy better difpofition,
Hath made thy perfon for the thrower-out
Of my poor babe, according to thine oath,-
Places remote enough are in Bohemia,

There weep, and leave it crying; and for the babe
Is counted loft for ever, Perdita,

I pr'ythee, call't: for this ungentle business,

Put on thee by my lord, thou ne'er fhalt fee
Thy wife Paulina more-and fo, with fhrieks,
She melted into air. Affrighted much,

I did in time collect myfelf; and thought
This was fo, and no flumber. Dreams are toys:
Yet, for this once, yea, fuperftitiously,

I will be fquar'd by this. I do believe,
Hermione hath suffer'd death; and that
Apollo would, this being indeed the iffue
Of king Polixenes, it fhould here be laid,
Either for life, or death, upon the earth
Of its right father.- Bloffom, fpeed thee well!

[Laying down the child.

There lie; and there thy character: there thefe;

[Laying down a bundle.

Which may, if fortune please, both breed thee, pretty, And ftill reft thine.

wretch,

The form begins: - Poor

That, for thy mother's fault, art thus expos'd
To lofs, and what may follow!Weep I cannot,
But my heart bleeds: and moft accurs'd am I,
To be by cath enjoin'd to this.-Farewell!
The day frowns more and more; thou art like to have
A lullaby too rough: I never faw

The heavens fo diin by day. A favage clamour?2-
Well may I get aboard!This is the chace;
I am gone for ever,

[Exit, purfued by a bear.

8 thy character:] thy defcription ; i. e. the writing after wards difcovered with Perdita. STEFVENS.

9 A lullaby too rough :] So, in Doraftus and Faunia: "Shall thy tender mouth, instead of sweet kifles, be nipped with bitter fto mes? Shalt thou have the whiffling winds for thy lullaby, and the salt seafome, inftead of fweet milke?" MALONE.

A favage clamour?] This clamour was the cry of the dogs and hunters; then feeing the bear, he cries, this is the chace, or, the animal purfued. JOHNSON.

SHEP. I would, there were no age between ten and three-and-twenty; or that youth would fleep out the reft; for there is nothing in the between but getting wenches with child, wronging the ancientry, ftealing, fighting.-Hark you now!-Would any but thefe boil'd brains of nineteen, and two-and-twenty, hunt this weather? They have fcared away two of my beft sheep; which, I fear, the wolf will fooner find, than the mafter: if any where I have them, 'tis by the fea-fide, browzing on ivy, 3 Good luck, an't be thy will! what have we here? [Taking up the child.] Mercy on's, a barne; a very pretty barne! A boy, or a child, 5 I wonder? A pretty one; a very pretty one: Sure, fome fcape: though I am not bookish, yet I can read waiting-gentlewoman in the fcape. This has been fome flair-work, fome trunk-work, fome behind-door-work: they were warmer that got this, than the poor thing is here. I'll take it up for pity: yet I'll tarry till my fon come; he hol la'd but even now. Whoa, họ hoa!

3 -if any where I have them, 'tis, by the fea-fide, browzing on ivy. ] This alfo is from the novel: "[The Shepherd fearing either that the wolves or eagles had undone him, (for he was fo poore as a sheepe was halfe his fubftance,) wand'red downe towards the fea-cliffes, to fee if perchance the Sheepe was brouzing on the fea-ivy, whereon they doe greatly feed. MALONE.

4 a barne; a very pretty barne!] i. e. child. So, in R. Broome s Northern Lafs, 1633:

"Peace wayward barne! O cease thy moan,

"Thy far more wayward daddy's gone.

It is a North Country word. Barns for borns, things born; feeming to answer to the Latin nati. STEEVENS.

- A boy, or a child, ] I am told, that in fome of our inland counties, a female infant, in contradiftin&ion to a male one, is ftill termed, among the peafantry,—a child.

VOL. X.

STEEVENS.

H