(Poore Thing, condemn'd to losse.) In more then this deed do's require; and Bleffing Against this Crueltie, fight on thy fide Leo. No: Ile not reare Anothers Iffue. Seru. Please 'your Highnesse, Posts 226 Exit. From thofe you fent to th'Oracle, are come An houre fince: Cleomines and Dion, Being well arriu'd from Delphos, are both landed, They haue beene absent: 'tis good speed: fore-tells 240 The truth of this appeare: Prepare you Lords, 227. fide] side! Theob. 228. [Exit with the child. Rowe. 229. reare] rare F2 rear FF 230. Seruant] Messenger Rowe. 231. Please 'your] F. Please your F3F4 233. Cleomines] Cleomenes Cap. 236. Lord.] 1.L. Cap. 245 239. 'tis...Speed:]'tis...Speed F. this good speed Pope+, Rann. 'Tis good speed, and or 'Tis good speed, it Ktly conj. 240. The great] That great Rann. 'In more than this deed does require! And blessing Against his cruelty (addressing himself to the child) fight on thy side,' etc. 228. losse] MALONE: That is, to exposure, similar to that of a child whom its parents have lost. I once thought that 'loss' was here licentiously used for destruction; but that this was not the primary sense here intended, appears from III, iii, 57, 58: Poor wretch, That . . . art thus exposed To loss and what may follow!' 231. Please'] Note the apostrophe indicating the elision of you, which, were it present, would make the phrase parallel to 'please you (Sir)' in line 236. See II, i, 18. 234, 235. are... .. Hasting] The lack of the conjunction and may be evaded by punctuating: are, both landed, Hasting,' etc. 237. beyond accompt] That is, beyond any of which we have account, unprecedented. It can hardly mean, beyond computation. Possibly, the modern newspaper phrase quite corresponds to it: to break the record.-ED. 239. 'tis] DYCE (ed. iii): I should have followed Pope in substituting this, had not that word occurred in the next line but one. And qy. That great'? ('The ' Cleo. The Clymat's delicate, the Ayre moft sweet, Fertile the Isle, the Temple much surpassing The common prayse it beares. 5 Town. Cap. Delphi, near the temple of Apollo. Hal. A Sea-port in Sicilia. Cam. 2. Enter...] Enter...with Attendants. Johns. 4. Ifle] soil Warb. conj., Han. Cap. having been caught from the next line); yet in III, ii, 145 we 'the great Apollo.' [Anticipated by Rann.] 246. burthen] LADY MARTIN (p. 358): He had yet to learn how much heavier a burden his heart would have to bear. 247. thinke vpon] This is more than merely meditate upon my bidding;' it is, rather, 'have regard to my bidding' or, as DEIGHTON paraphrases it: take care that it is performed.' 1. Actus Tertius] THEOBALD (Nichols, ii, 361): I think this ought rather to be the last scene of the Second Act. We find, at II, iii, 234, that Cleomines and Dion are arrived from Delphos, but at line 28 of the present scene, they are not yet arrived to Court, but want fresh horses for their last stage; and yet the very next scene opens with the session convened for the queen's trial, the determination of which was to await the answer of the Oracle. This hurries the action on with somewhat too much precipitation; and, besides, the interval of an Act is absolutely necessary, for placing the benches, and other formalities, requisite to represent a Court of Judicature. [Theobald did not repeat this in his subsequent edition.]—KOPPEL (Sh. Jhrbuch, ix, 289): The Sea-port in Sicilia' of the Cam. Ed. is erroneous; for in the last scene of the preceding Act the messenger has already reached the Court who had left them at the harbour, and since they were hasting thence on their way to the Court, they could not possibly be still at the sea-port. Moreover, if, while still at the sea-port, they called for 'fresh horses,' we should have to assume that they had performed a seavoyage on horseback.-HALLIWELL: The present scene takes place apparently in Delphi, soon after Cleomenes and Dion had visited the Oracle, the allusion to the happy issue of the journey referring to the accomplishment of the object of their mission, not necessarily including their return to Sicily. It is to be assumed the temple was some distance from the sea, and they required fresh horses, not for their Dion. I fhall report, For most it caught me, the Celestiall Habits, (Me thinkes I so should terme them) and the reuerence Of the graue Wearers. O, the Sacrifice, 7. it] they Han. 9. Sacrifice,] Sacrifice. Ff. sacrifice; 6 ΙΟ Rowe. sacrifice- Theob. sacrifice! last stage in Sicily, but to take them with the utmost rapidity down to their ship. The opening words of Cleomenes seem conclusively to show that the scene was near the temple of the Oracle. [It adds greatly to Halliwell's argument that Cleomenes says 'The climate is delicate,' not 'was delicate.'-ED.] 1. LADY MARTIN (p. 358): Here follows one of those exquisite scenes with which Shakespeare so often enriches his plays, in the creative exuberance of his imagination, and prompted by the subtle sense of what is wanted to put his audience in the right mood for what is next to follow. After all the prophetic vehemence of Paulina and the insane passion of Leontes, he seems to have felt that something in a gentler strain was needed to calm the emotions of his hearers, and lift them into a serener air, before showing Hermione upon her trial. 4. Isle] WARBURTON: But the temple of Apollo at Delphi was not an island, but in Phocis, on the continent. Either Shakespeare, or his editors, had their heads running on Delos, an island of the Cyclades. If it was the editor's blunder, then Shakespeare wrote: Fertile the soil,'-which is more elegant, too, than the present reading. JOHNSON: 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 error, by which Bohemia is supposed to be a maritime country.-THEOBALD was the first to note that in representing Delphi as on an island and in giving Bohemia a seacoast Shakespeare merely followed Greene's Dorastus and Fawnia. 6, 7. I shall report, For most] WARBURTON: What will he report? And what means the reason of his report, that the celestial habits most struck his observation? We should read, It shames report. Foremost it,' etc. Cleomines had just before said, that the temple much surpassed the common praise it bore.' The other, very naturally, replies—it shames report, as far surpassing what report said of it. He then goes on to particularise the wonders of the place: Foremost, or first of all, the priests' garments, then their behaviour, their act of sacrifice, etc., in reasonable good order. [There is no need of refuting any of Warburton's dogmatic perversions. His contemporaries paid but little heed to them (as shown by the financial failure of his edition), and posterity still less. Like much else, they find a place in this edition merely as belonging to the History of Shakespearian Criticism.-ED.] 7. it caught] JOHNSON: 'It' may relate to the whole spectacle. 10. ceremonious] WALKER (Crit. ii, 73) adduces examples from Shakespeare's contemporaries to prove that ceremony and ceremonious were pronounced by our ancient poets,-very frequently, at least,-cer'mony and cer'monous. In a footnote, LETTSOM observes that, 'Some of the writers quoted by Walker seem to have even pronounced cermny, cermnous.—STAUNTON (noted by Lettsom) had already anticipated Walker in detecting this pronunciation. On ceremony' in All's Well, II, iii, 185, he remarks, 'It has never, that we are aware, been noticed that Shakespeare usually II It was i'th'Offring? Cleo. But of all, the burst And the eare-deaff' ning Voyce o'th'Oracle, Dio. If th'euent o'th'Iourney Proue as fucceffefull to the Queene (O be't fo) Cleo. Great Apollo Turne all to th'beft: these Proclamations, I little like. Dio. The violent carriage of it 15 20 Will cleare, or end the Bufineffe, when the Oracle (Thus by Apollo's great Diuine feal'd vp) 25 Shall the Contents difcouer: fomething rare Euen then will rush to knowledge. Goe: fresh Horses, And gracious be the issue. 11. Offring?] offering! Rowe. 12. of all, the] of all the F 18. Speedie,] speedy; Rowe, Pope. 19. time...vfe] use...time Han. Warb. Cap. 21. beft] best! Rowe. Exeunt. 25. Bufineffe,] business; Theob. 27. difcouer:] discover, Johns. 28. Goe... Horfes,] Go-fresh horsesJohns. [To an Attendant] Go...horses. Dyce ii. pronounces cere in ceremony, ceremonies, ceremonials (but not in ceremonious, ceremoniously) as a monosyllable, like cere-cloth, cerement. In all the examples which Staunton quotes, the word in question comes at the end of the line, never the true place to test pronunciation. If, as Staunton says, Shakespeare does not contract ceremonious, his observation does not apply to the present line, where, if anywhere, a contraction is somewhere needed;-unless we are willing tamely to submit to the odium of a line of twelve syllables,—a humiliation which is, I think, inevitable if we are to hear in the measure of the line the solemn march of the sacrificial priests.—ED. 13, 14. eare-deaff'ning... Thunder] Has Shakespeare any authority for this fine description of the utterance of an oracle, other than the hint in Dor. and Fawn.? 17. successefull] In F, the first u is imperfect, and its imperfection is faithfully reproduced in Booth's Reprint. A microscopic examination shows that in my copy of F, it is u and not ». 19. time... on't] JOHNSON gives this a selfish interpretation by paraphrasing it: the time which we have spent in visiting Delos [sic] has recompensed us for the trouble of so spending it.' But MALONE gives the better meaning: 'If the event prove fortunate to the Queen . . . the happy issue of our journey will compensate for the time expended in it, and the fatigue we have undergone.' Scana Secunda. Enter Leontes, Lords, Officers: Hermione (as to her Leo. This Seffions(to our great griefe we pronounce) 1. Scene represents a Court of Justice. Theob. At the upper end, a Throne; Lords, on either Hand, Judges, and other Officers, seated; People attending. Cap. 2. Enter...] Leontes, Lords, and 4 Officers appear properly seated. Theob. 3. Cleomines, Dion] Om. Rowe, et seq. 4. Seffions] session Theob+, Cap. Var. Rann, Dyce ii, iii, Huds. pronounce] pronounce it Ktly. 2. LADY MARTIN (p. 359): This is a scene which makes a large demand upon the resources of an actress, both personal and mental. With enfeebled health, and placed in a most ignominious position, Hermione must be shown to maintain her queenly dignity, and to control her passionate emotion under an outward bearing of resigned fortitude and almost inconceivable forbearance. In my early studies for the impersonation of Hermione, and in my acting of the character, I used to find myself imagining the procession of the queen and her suite through the streets, 'i' the open air,' from the prison, where she had spent the last few weeks, to the Hall of Justice. Her ladies are by her side, not weeping now, for their mistress had shown them how to bear affliction. The fragile form, the sad, faraway looking eyes, the pale but lovely face, so stricken with suffering, reveal too well all that she has been passing through. Whatever impression of the queen's guilt may have been raised in the people's mind by the sudden flight of Polixenes and his followers, her look and bearing, I felt, must dispel every thought save that of the cruel indignity with which she had been treated. No taunting voice would be raised. The rumour would have gone abroad that the young Prince Mamillius had been denied access to her, that the newly born babe, her one solace in her prison, had been taken from her and cast out to die a cruel death. The people would think, too, of the indecent haste which was now hurrying her to her trial before the Court of Justice, with no allowance for the time of rest, which, after the pains of maternity, ''longs to women of all fashion.' Had she turned her head towards the crowd, she would have seen the men with bowed heads and looks of reverence and pity,—the women with streaming eyes bent tenderly and sympathisingly upon her. But, no! her thoughts were away upon the scene that awaited her. Would her strength avail for the strain which she knew was presently to be put upon it, when alone, unaided, she must plead her cause, with more than her life, her honour,-at stake, and with him for her accuser who should best have known how her whole nature belied his accusation? Sorely, indeed, does she need that the heavens shall look with an aspect more favourable' upon her. 4. Sessions] DYCE (ed. iii): As Mr W. N. Lettsom observes, in the concluding speech of Act II. we have summon a session.' |