And still rest thine.—The storm begins :-Poor wretch! That, for thy mother's fault, art thus expos'd The day frowns more and more; thou art like to have The heavens so dim by day. A savage clamour 5!-This is the chase; [Exit, pursued by a Bear. Enter an old Shepherd. best Shep. I would, there were no age between ten and three-and-twenty; or that youth would sleep out the rest for there is nothing in the between but getting wenches with child, wronging the ancientry, stealing, fighting. Hark you now! -Would any but these boiled brains of nineteen, and two-and-twenty, hunt this weather? They have scarr'd away two of my sheep; which, I fear, the wolf will sooner find, than the maister if any where I have them, 'tis by the seaside, browzing of ivy. 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', I wonder? A pretty one; a very pretty one: Sure some scape: though I am not bookish, yet I can read 5 A savage clamour. This clamour was the cry of the dogs and hunters; then seeing the bear, he cries this is the chase, i. e. the animal pursued. 6 This is from the novel. It is there said to be "sea ivie, on which they do greatly feed." 7 A barne. This word is still in use in the northern dialects for a child. It is supposed to be derived from born, things born seeming to answer to the Latin nati. Steevens says that he had been told "that in some of our inland counties a child signified a female infant, in contradistinction to a male one;" but the assertion wants confirmation, and we may rather refer this use of it to the simplicity of the shepherd. waiting-gentlewoman in the scape. This has been some stairwork, some trunk-work, some 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 son come; he holla'd but even now. ho, hoa! Whoa, Enter Clown. Clo. Hilloa, loa! Shep. What, art so near? If thou'lt see a thing to talk on when thou art dead and rotten, come hither. What ail'st thou, man? Clo. I have seen two such sights, by sea, and by land ;—but I am not to say, it is a sea, for it is now the sky; betwixt the firmament and it, you cannot thrust a bodkin's point. Shep. Why, boy, how is it? Clo. I would, you did but see how it chafes, how it rages, how it takes up the shore! but that's not to the point: O, the most piteous cry of the poor souls! sometimes to see 'em, and not to see 'em : now the ship boring the moon with her main-mast; and anon swallowed with yest and froth, as you'd thrust a cork into a hogshead. And then for the land service,-To see how the bear tore out his shoulder-bone! how he cried to me for help, and said, his name was Antigonus, a nobleman :-But to make an end of the ship :-to see how the sea flap-dragon'd3 it :-but, first, how the poor souls roared, and the sea mock'd them;-and how the poor gentleman roared, and the bear mock'd him, both roaring louder than the sea, or weather. Shep. 'Name of mercy, when was this, boy? 8 Flap-dragon'd it, i. e. swallowed it, as our ancient topers swallowed flap-dragons. In Love's Labour's Lost we have, "Thou art easier swallowed than a flap-dragon." See vol. ii. page 258, note 8. Clo. Now, now; I have not winked since I saw these sights: the men are not yet cold under water, nor the bear half dined on the gentleman; he's at it now. Shep. 'Would, I had been by, to have helped the old man9! Clo. I would you had been by the ship side, to have help'd her; there your charity would have lack'd footing. [Aside. Shep. Heavy matters! heavy matters! but look thee here, boy. Now bless thyself; thou met'st with things dying, I with things new born. Here's a sight for thee; look thee, a bearing-cloth 10 for a squire's child! Look thee here; take up, take up, boy; open't. So, let's see. It was told me, I should be rich, by the fairies this is some changeling 11-Open't: What's within, boy? Clo. You're a made 12 old man; if the sins of your youth are forgiven you, you're well to live. Gold! all gold! Shep. This is fairy gold, boy, and 'twill prove so: up with it, keep it close; home, home, the next 13 way. We are lucky, boy; and to be so still, requires nothing but secresy.-Let my sheep go.-Come, good boy, the next way home. Clo. Go you the next way with your findings; I'll 9 Shakespeare, who knew that he himself designed Antigonus for an old man, has inadvertently given this knowledge to the shepherd, who had never seen him. 10 A bearing-cloth is the mantle of fine cloth in which a child was carried to be baptized. 11 A changeling. Some child left behind by the fairies, in the room of one which they had stolen. 12 The old copies read mad. The emendation is Theobald's. 13 The next way, i. e. the nearest, shortest, readiest, a contraction of nighest or neghest, neh'st. It is still current in German :-" Dies ist der nachste weg, der Kurzest, oder geradest." See First Part of K. Henry IV. Act iii. Sc. 1. go see if the bear be gone from the gentleman, and how much he hath eaten they are never curst 14, but when they are hungry. If there be any of him left, I'll bury it. Shep. That's a good deed; If thou may'st discern by that which is left of him, what he is, fetch me to the sight of him. Clo. Marry, will I; and you shall help to put him i'the ground. Shep. 'Tis a lucky day, boy; and we'll do good deeds on't. [Exeunt. ACT IV. Enter Time, as Chorus. Time. -THAT please some, try all; both joy, and terror, Of good and bad; that make, and unfold Now take upon me, in the name of Time, O'er sixteen years, and leave the growth untried 14 Curst here signifies mischievous. The old adage says, " Curst cows have short horns." 1 Departed time renders many facts obscure, and in that sense is the cause of error. Time to come brings discoveries with it. 2 It is certain that Shakespeare was well acquainted with the laws of the drama, as they are called, but disregarded, nay, wilfully departed from them, and "snatch'd a grace beyond the reach of art." His productions are not therefore to be tried by such laws. The German critics, with Schlegel at their head, have shown the essential difference between the classic and the romantic drama, and that the latter ought not, nor could not be confined to the unities. It is remarkable that George Whetstone in the Dedication of his Promos and Cassandra, which Shakespeare used as the groundwork of Measure for Measure, has pointed at Of that wide gap3. Since it is in my power Or what is now received, I witness'd to The times that brought them in; so shall I do Now seems to it. Your patience this allowing, I turn my glass; and give my scene such growing, I mentioned a son o'the king's, which Florizel Be known, when 'tis brought forth :-a shepherd's daughter, this violation of the rules in the English drama in strong terms:"The Englishman in this qualitie is most vaine, indiscreet, and out of order. He first grounds his worke on impossibilities: then in three houres ronnes he thorowe the worlde: marryes, gets children, makes children men, men to conquer kingdomes, murder monsters, and bringeth goddes from heaven, and fetcheth devils from hell," &c. 3 And leave the growth untried of that wide gap, i. e. leave unexamined the progress of the intermediate time which filled up the gap in Perdita's story. The reasoning of Time, therefore, is very clear; he pleads, that he who overthrows every thing, and makes as well as overwhelms custom, may surely infringe the laws of custom, as they are made by him. The whole had been rendered obscure by erroneous punctuation; the only change required besides, is to read witness'd, instead of witness of the old copies. 4 Imagine me, i. e. imagine with me. It is a French idiom which Shakespeare has played upon in the Taming of the Shrew. And Falstaff speaking of sack, in K. Henry IV. says: "It ascends me into the brain, dries me there," &c. |