Dion. I fhall report"; For most it caught me, the celeftial habits, (Methinks, I fo fhould term them,) and the reverence Of the grave wearers. O, the facrifice How ceremonious, folemn, and unearthly It was i'th'offering! Cleo. But of all, the burft And the ear-deafning voice o'th' oracle, Kin to Jove's thunder, fo furpriz'd my fenfe, Dion. If th' event o'th' journey Prove as fuccessful to the Queen, (O be't fo!) Cleo. Great Apollo, Turn all to th' beft! thefe proclamations, Speare wrote, Fertile the foil, which is more elegant too, than the prefent reading. WARBURTON. Shakespeare is little careful of geography. There is no need of this emendation in a play of which the whole plot depends upon a geographical errour, by which Bohemia is fuppofed to be a maritime country. 9 I SHALL report, FOR MOST it caught me, &c.] What will he report? And what means this reafon of his report, that the celestial habits molt ftruck his obfervation? We should read, IT SHAMES report, FOREMOST it caught me, Cleomines had just before faid, that the Temple much furpaffed the common praise it bore. The other, very naturally, replies it foames report, as far furpaffing report faid of it. He then what VOL. II. So forcing faults upon Hermione, I little like. Dion. The violent carriage of it Will clear, or end the business; when the oracle, horfes And gracious be the iffue. SCENE II. Reprefents a Court of Justice. Go Go-frefh [Exeunt. Leontes, Lords and Officers, appear properly feated. HIS feffion, (to our great grief, we pronounce,) Leo. THIS Ev'n pushes 'gainst our heart. The party try'd, -Produce the prifoner. Offi. It is his Highnefs' pleasure, that the Queen Appear in perfon here in court.-Silence! Hermione is brought in, guarded; Paulina, and Leo. Read the Indictment. Offi. Hermione, Queen to the worthy Leontes, King of Sicilia, thou art here accufed and arraigned of high treafont, in committing adultery with Polixenes, King of Bohemia, and confpiring with Camillo to take away the life of our fovereign Lord the King, thy royal husband; the the pretence whereof being by circumftances partly laid open, thou, Hermione, contrary to the faith and allegiance of a true fubject, didst counsel and aid them, for their better fafety, to fly away by night. Her. Since what I am to fay, must be but that Which contradicts my accufation; and The teftimony on my part, no other But what comes from myfelf; it fhall fcarce boot me I doubt not then, but innocence shall make You, my Lord, beft know, And play'd, to take fpectators. For behold me A moiety of the throne, a great King's daughter, And only that I ftand for. I appeal To your own confcience, Sir, before Polixenes pretence - Is, in this place, taken for a scheme laid, a defign formed; to pretend means to defign, in the Gent. of Verona. Mine integrity, &c.] That is, my virtue being accounted wickedness, my affertion of it will pafs but for a lie. Falfhood means both treachery and lie. 4 For life I prize it, &c.] Life is to me now only grief, and as fuch only is confidered by me, I would therefore willingly difmifs it. T 2 How How merited to be fo; fince he came, With what encounter fo uncurrent I' Have ftrain'd to appear thus; if one jot beyond Leo. I ne'er heard yet, That any of thofe bolder vices wanted' 6 Lefs impudence to gain-fay what they did, Her. That's true enough; Tho' 'tis a faying, Sir, not due to me. Leo. You will not own it. Her. More than miftrefs of, What comes to me in name of fault, I muft not commanded : they did, Thanto perform it firft.] Itisapparent that according to the proper, at least according to the prefent, ufe of words, lefs fhould be more, or wanted fhould be bad. But Shakespeare is very uncertain in his use of negatives. It may be neceflary once to obferve, that in our language two negatives did not originally affirm, but ftrengthen the negation. This mode of fpeech was in time changed; but as the change was made in oppofition to long custom, it proceeded gradually, and uniformity was not obtained but through an intermediate confufion. Which Which not to have done, I think, had been in me To you, and towards your friend; whofe love had fpoke, Even fince it could fpeak, from an infant, freely, Is, that Camillo was an honeft man; And why he left your Court, the Gods themselves (Wotting no more than I) are ignorant. Leo. You knew of his departure, as you know You fpeak a language that I understand not; Leo. Your Actions are my dreams; And I but dream'd it.-As you were paft all fhame', (Thofe of your Fact are fo) fo paft all truth; Which to deny, concerns more than avails: for as No father owning it, (which is, indeed, More criminal in thee than it) fo thou Shalt feel our juftice; in whofe eafieft paffage Her. Sir, fpare your threats; The bug, which you would fright me with, I feek: My life ftands in the level of your dreams.] To be in the level is by a metaphor from archery to be within the reach. where abfolutely for guilt, which Thofe of your Pack are fo. fuited to the reft of this royal |