Imatges de pàgina
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Leo. Whilft I remember

Her and her virtues, I cannot forget

My blemishes in them; and fo ftill think of
The wrong I did myself; which was fo much,
That heirless it hath made my kingdom, and
Destroy'd the sweet'ft companion, that e'er man
Bred his hopes out of.

Pau. True, too true, my lord:

If, one by one, you wedded all the world;
Or, from the all that are, took fomething good,
To make a perfect woman; fhe
you kill'd,

Would be unparallel'd.

Leo. I think fo. Kill'd!

She I kill'd! I did fo: but thou ftrik'st me
Sorely, to fay I did; it is as bitter

Upon thy tongue, as in my thought: now, good now,
Say fo but feldom.

Cle. Not at all, good lady:

You might have spoke a thousand things, that would
Have done the time more benefit, and grac'd
Your kindness better.

Love more rich for what it gives.

Leo. I might have look'd upon my queen's full eyes,

Have taken treasure from her lips,

Pau.

And left them

More rich, for what they yielded.

A captivating Woman.

-This is a creature,

Would the begin a fect, might quench the zeal
Of all profeffors elfe; make profelytes

Of who fhe but bid follow.

Anguish

Anguish of Recollection for a loft Friend. Pr'ythce, no more; ceafe; thou know'st, He dies to me again, when talk'd of; fure When I fhall fee this gentleman, thy speeches Will bring me to confider that, which may Unfurnish me of reafon.

Effects of Beauty.

The bleffed gods

Purge all infection from our air, whilft you
Do climate here. (34)

SCENE II. Wonder, proceeding from fudden Joy.

There was fpeech in their dumbnefs, language in their very gefture: they look'd as they had heard of a world ranfom'd, or one deftroy'd: a notable paffion of wonder appear'd in them; but the wicht beholder, that knew no more but feeing, could not 'fay if the importance were joy or forrow; but in the extremity of the one, it must needs be.

Transport of Joy and Wonder.

:

Then have you loft a fight, which was to be feen, cannot be spoken of. There might you have beheld one joy crown another; fo, and in fuch manner, that, it feem'd, forrow wept to take leave of them; for their joy waded in tears. There was cafting up of eyes, holding up of hands with countenance of fuch distraction, that they were to be known by garment, not by favour. Our king, being ready to leap out of himself for joy of his found daughter, as if that joy were now become a lofs, cries " O, thy mother, thy mother!" then asks Bohemia forgivenefs; then embraces his fon-in-law; then again worries he his daughter,

(34) See Twelfth Night, A& 1. Sc. 1.

daughter, with clipping her: now he thanks the old fhepherd; which ftands by, like a weather-beaten conduit of many kings reigns. I never heard of fuch another encounter; which lames report to follow it, and undoes description to do it.

Ill Character renders real Defert ufelefs.

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Now had I not the dash of my former life in me, would preferment drop on my head. I brought the old man and his fon to 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 mystery remained undifcover'd. But 'tis all one to me; for had I been the finder out of this fecret, it would not have relish'd, among my difcredits.

Clown's new Gentility.

Aut. I know you are now, Sir, a gentleman born. Clo. Ay, and have been fo any time these four

hours.

She. And fo have I, boy.

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

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

G 4

She.

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

Clo. Thou wilt amend my life?

Aut. Ay, an it like your good worship.

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

She. You may fay it, but not fwear it.

Clo. Not fwear it, now I am a gentleman! Let boors and franklins fay it, I'll swear it.

She. How, if it be falfe, fon?

Clo. If it be ne'er fo falfe, a true gentleman may fwear it in behalf of his friend.

SCENE VII. A Statue.

What was he, that did make it! See, my lord, Wou'd you not deem it breath'd, and that thofe veins Did verily bear blood ?

Mafterly done!

The very life feems warm upon

her lip.

The fixture (35) of her eyes has motion in 't,

As we were mock'd with art.

Still methinks

There is an air comes from her. What fine chizzel

Cou'd ever yet cut breath? -Let no man mock me; For I will kiss her.

Afliction

(35) The fixture, &c.] The meaning is, though the eye be fixed (as the eye of a statue always is), yet it seems to have motion in it, that tremulous motion, which is perceptible in the eye of a living perfon, how much foever one endeavours to fix it. Edwards. There is an additional beauty in the expreffion, from the feeming ftatue being really a living perfon: Ovid has fome lines on the ftatue made by Pygmalion, which, though rather too Ovidian, have very great beauty in them;

Interea niveum mira feliciter arte, &c. Metam. lib. 10.

He

Affliction to a penitent Mind, pleafing.

Pau. I am forry, Sir, I have thus ftir'd you;

but I could afflict you further.

Leo. Do Paulina ;

For this affliction has a tafte as sweet

As any cordial comfort.

Widow compared to a Turtle.

I, an old turtle, (36)

Will wing me to fome wither'd bough, and there

He carv'd in ivory fuch a maid, so fair,
As nature cou'd not with his art compare,
Were fhe to work :-

Pleas'd with his idol, he commends, admires,
Adores; and last the thing ador'd defires :
A very virgin in her face was feen,

And had the mov'd, a living maid had been ;

My

One wou'd have thought fhe could have ftirr'd, but ftrove
With modefty, and was afham'd to move.

Art, hid with art, fo well perform'd the cheat,

It caught the carver with his own deceit :

The flesh, or what fo feems, he touches oft,

Which feels fo smooth, that he believes it foft, &c,

See Dryden's Translation.

Virgil has a fine expreffion to denote the excellency of sculpture;

Excudent alii fpirantia mollius æra,

Credo equidem-vivos ducent de marmore vultus.

Æn. 6.

The word fpirantia expreffes the very breathing. (36) I, an old turtle.] Spenser, in his sweet fonnets, has a fimile a good deal like this, and which, in my opinion, is not inferior to it;

Like as the culver on the bared bough

Sits mourning for the abfence of her mate:
And in her fong fends many a wishful vow
For his return, that feems to linger late:

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