ACT FOURTH SCENE I Enter Time, the Chorus. Time. I, that please some, try all, both joy and ter ror Of good and bad, that makes and unfolds error, Of that wide gap, since it is in my power 10 To o'erthrow law and in one self-born hour 1. "Time, the Chorus"; this device was probably suggested by the title of Greene's romance, Pandosto, or the Triumph of Time-the title being expanded in the ensuing words of the title-page, as quoted in the Introduction.-C. H. H. 6. "leave the growth untried"; inquire not what has grown (in the interval).-C. H. H. 7. "wide gap"; that is, leave unexamined the progress of the time which filled up the gap in Perdita's story. The reasoning of Time is not very clear; he seems to mean, that he who overthrows everything, and makes as well as overwhelms custom, may surely infringe the laws of his own making.-H. N. H. To the freshest things now reigning, and make stale The glistering of this present, as my tale Now seems to it. Your patience this allowing, I turn my glass and give my scene such growing 20 As you had slept between: Leontes leaving, And what to her adheres, which follows after, 15. "to it," i. e. "the present."-I. G. 30 [Exit. 19. "me" is here redundant, as in Falstaff's praise of sack: "It ascends me into the brain," etc.-H. N. H. 29. "allow"; approve.-C. H. H. SCENE II Bohemia. The palace of Polixenes. Pol. I pray thee, good Camillo, be no more im- 10 Cam. It is fifteen years since I saw my country: though I have for the most part been aired abroad, I desire to lay my bones there. Besides, the penitent king, my master, hath sent for me; to whose feeling sorrows I might be some allay, or I o'erween to think so, which is another spur to my departure. Pol. As thou lovest me, Camillo, wipe not out the rest of thy services 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 businesses, which none without thee can sufficiently manage, must either stay to execute them thyself, or take away with thee the very services thou hast done; which if I have not enough considered, as too much I cannot, to 20 be more thankful to thee shall be my study; and my profit therein, the heaping friendships. Of that fatal country, Sicilia, 4. "It is fifteen years since,” etc.; changed by Hanmer to “sixteen,^ the number intended by Shakespeare.-I. G. prithee speak no more; whose very naming Cam. Sir, it is three days since I saw the Pol. I have considered so much, Camillo, and 40 with some care; so far, that I have eyes under my service which look upon his removedness; from whom I have this intelligence, that he is seldom from the house of a most homely shepherd; a man, they say, that from very nothing, and beyond the imagination of his neighbors, is grown into an unspeakable estate. Cam. I have heard, sir, of such a man, who hath a daughter of most rare note: the report of 50 her is extended more than can be thought to begin from such a cottage. Pol. That's likewise part of my intelligence; 36. "missingly noted"; that is, from missing him I have noted.H. N. H. but, I fear, the angle that plucks our son Cam. I willingly obey your command. Pol. My best Camillo! We must disguise our selves. SCENE III [Exeunt. A road near the Shepherd's cottage. Enter Autolycus, singing. When daffodils begin to peer, With heigh! the doxy over the dale, The white sheet bleaching on the hedge, Doth set my pugging tooth on edge; For a quart of ale is a dish for a king. 54. "angle" is here used for the bait, or line and hook, that draws his son away like a fish.-H. N. H. 4. That is, the "red blood" of spring now reigns where winter lately held dominion. But pale is used here in a double sense, as referring to the pale colors of winter, and as we still say "the pale of fashion," and "the pale of the Church." "English pale” and "Irish pale” were common expressions in the Poet's time.-H. N. H. |