holding up of hands; with countenance of such distraction, that they were to be known by garment, not by favour.3 Our king, being ready to leap out of himself for joy of his found daughter; as if that joy were now become a loss, cries, O, thy mother, thy mother! then asks Bohemia forgiveness; then embraces his son-inlaw; then again worries he his daughter, with clipping her; now he thanks the old shepherd, which stands by, like a weather-bitten1 conduit of many kings' reigns. I never heard of such another encounter, which lames report to follow it, and undoes description to do it.2

2 Gent. What, pray you, became of Antigonus, that carried hence the child?

3 Gent. Like an old tale still; which will have matter to rehearse, though credit be asleep, and not an ear

1

-favour,] i. e. countenance, features. So, in Othello: "Defeat thy favour with an usurped beard."

Steevens.

with clipping her:] i. e. embracing her. So, Sidney: "He, who before shunn'd her, to shun such harms, "Now runs and takes her in his clipping arms." Steevens.

weather-bitten &c.] Thus the old copy. The modern editors-weather-beaten. Hamlet says: "The air bites shrewdly;" and the Duke, in As you Like it :-" when it bites and blows." Weather-bitten, therefore, may mean, coroded by the weather.

Steevens.

The reading of the old copies appears to be right. Antony Mundy, in the preface to Gerileon of England, the second part, &c. 1592, has-" winter-bitten epitaph." Ritson.

Conduits, representing a human figure, were therefore not uncommon. One of this kind, a female form, and weather-beaten, still exists at Hoddesdon in Herts. Shakspeare refers again to the same sort of imagery in Romeo and Juliet:

"How now? a conduit, girl? what still in tears?
"Evermore showering?" Henley.

Weather-bitten was in the third folio changed to weather-beaten ; but there does not seem to be any necessity for the change.

Malone.

2 I never heard of such another encounter, which lames report to follow it, and undoes description to do it.] We have the same sentiment in The Tempest:

"For thou wilt find, she will outstrip all praise,

"And make it halt behind her."

Again, in our author's 103d Sonnet:

a face

"That overgoes my blunt invention quite,

"Dulling my lines, and doing me disgrace." Malone.

open: He was torn to pieces with a bear: this avouches the shepherd's son; who has not only his innocence (which seems much) to justify him, but a handkerchief, and rings, of his, that Paulina knows.

1 Gent. What became of his bark, and his followers? 3 Gent. Wrecked, the same instant of their master's death; and in the view of the shepherd: so that all the instruments, which aided to expose the child, were even then lost, when it was found. But, O, the noble combat, that, 'twixt joy and sorrow, was fought in Paulina! She had one eye declined for the loss of her husband; another elevated that the oracle was fulfilled: She lifted the princess from the earth; and so locks her in embracing, as if she would pin her to her heart, that she might no more be in danger of losing.

1 Gent. The dignity of this act was worth the audience of kings and princes; for by such was it acted.

3 Gent. One of the prettiest touches of all, and that which angled for mine eyes (caught the water, though not the fish,) was, when at the relation of the queen's death, with the manner how she came to it, (bravely confessed, and lamented by the king,) how attentiveness wounded his daughter: till, from one sign of dolour to another, she did, with an alas! I would fain say, bleed tears; for, I am sure, my heart wept blood. Who was most marble there,3 changed colour; some swooned, all sorrowed: if all the world could have seen it, the woe had been universal.

3

1 Gent. Are they returned to the court?

most marble there,] i. e. most petrified with wonder.

So, in Milton's epitaph on our author:

"There thou our fancy of itself bereaving,

"Dost make us marble by too much conceiving." Steevens. It means those who had the hardest hearts. It would not be extraordinary that those persons should change colour who were petrified with wonder, though it was, that hardened hearts should be moved by a scene of tenderness. M. Mason.

So, in King Henry VIII:

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Hearts of most hard temper

"Melt, and lament for him." Malone.

Mr. M. Mason's and Mr. Malone's explanation may be right. So, in Antony and Cleopatra:

"now from head to foot

"I am marble constant." Steevens.

3 Gent. No: the princess hearing of her mother's statue, which is in the keeping of Paulina,—a piece many years in doing, and now newly performed by that rare Italian master, Julio Romano; who, had he himself eternity, and could put breath into his work, would beguile nature of her custom,5 so perfectly he is her ape:

that rare Italian master, Julio Romano; &c.] This excellent artist was born in the year 1492, and died in 1546. Fine and generous, as this tribute of praise must be owned, yet it was a strange absurdity, sure, to thrust it into a tale, the action of which is supposed within the period of heathenism, and whilst the oracles of Apollo were consulted. This, however, was a known and wilful anachronism. Theobald.

By eternity Shakspeare means only immortality, or that part of eternity which is to come; so we talk of eternal renown an eternal infamy. Immortality may subsist without divinity, and therefore the meaning only is, that if Julio could always continue his labours, he would mimick nature. Johnson.

I wish we could understand this passage, as if Julio Romano had only painted the statue carved by another. Ben Jonson makes Doctor Rut in The Magnetic Lady, Act V, sc. viii, say: all city statues must be painted,

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"Else they be worth nought i' their subtil judgements." Sir Henry Wotton, in his Elements of Architecture, mentions the fashion of colouring even regal statues for the stronger expression of affection, which he takes leave to call an English barbarism. Such, however, was the practice of the time: and unless the supposed statue of Hermione were painted, there could be no ruddiness upon her lip, nor could the veins verily seem to bear blood, as the poet expresses it afterwards. Tollet.

Our author expressly says, in a subsequent passage, that it was painted, and without doubt meant to attribute only the painting to Julio Romano:

"The ruddiness upon her lip is wet;

"You'll mar it, if you kiss it; stain your own

"With oily painting." Malone.

Sir H. Wotton could not possibly know what has been lately proved by Sir William Hamilton in the MS accounts which accompany several valuable drawings of the discoveries made at Pompeii, and presented by him to our Antiquary Society, viz. that it was usual to colour statues among the ancients. In the chapel of Isis in the place already mentioned, the image of that goddess had been painted over, as her robe is of a purple hue. Mr. Tollet has since informed me, that Junius, on the painting of the ancients, observes from Pausanias and Herodotus, that sometimes the statues of the ancients were coloured after the manner of pictures. Steevens.

5 of her custom,] That is, of her trade,—would draw her customers from her. Johnson.

he is so near to Hermione hath done Hermione, that, they say, one would speak to her, and stand in hope of answer: thither with all greediness of affection, are they gone; and there they intend to sup.

1 Gent. I thought, she had some great matter there in hand; for she hath privately, twice or thrice a-day, ever since the death of Hermione, visited that removed house. Shall we thither, and with our company piece the rejoicing?

1 Gent. Who would be thence, that has the benefit of access? every wink of an eye, some new grace will be born: our absence makes us unthrifty to our knowledge. Let's along. [Exeunt Gent.

Aut. 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 son aboard the prince; told him, I heard him talk of a fardel, and I know not what: but he at that time, over-fond of the shepherd's daughter, (so he then took her to be) who began to be much sea-sick, and himself little better, extremity of weather continuing, this mystery remained undiscovered. But 'tis all one to me: for had I been the finder-out of this secret, it would not have relished among my other discredits.

Enter Shepherd and Clown.

Here come those I have done good to against my will, and already appearing in the blossoms of their fortune.

Shep. Come, boy; I am past more children; but thy sons and daughters will be all gentlemen born.

Clo. You are well met, sir: You denied to fight with me this other day, because I was no gentleman born: See you these clothes? say, you see them not, and think me still no gentleman born: you were best say, these robes are not gentlemen born. Give me the lie; do; and try whether I am not now a gentleman born.

ɓ Who would be thence, that has the benefit of access?] It was, I suppose, only to spare his own labour that the poet put this whole scene into narrative, for though part of the transaction was already known to the audience, and therefore could not properly be shewn again, yet the two kings might have met upon the stage, and after the examination of the old Shepherd, the young lady might have been recognised in sight of the spectators.

Johnson.

Aut. I know, you are now, sir, a gentleman born. Clo. Ay, and have been so any time these four hours. Shep. And so have I, boy.

Clo. So you have:—but I was a gentleman born before my father: for the king's son took me by the hand, and called me, brother; and, then the two kings called my father, brother; and then the prince, my brother, and the princess, my sister, called my father, father; and so we wept: and there was the first gentleman-like tears that ever we shed.

Shep. We may live, son, to shed many more.

Clo. Ay; or else 'twere hard luck, being in so preposterous estate as we are.

Aut. I humbly beseech 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 master.

Shep. 'Pr'ythee, son, do; for we must be gentle, now we are gentlemen.

Clo. Thou wilt amend thy life?

Aut. Ay, an it like your good worship.

Clo. Give me thy hand: I will swear to the prince, thou art as honest a true fellow as any is in Bohemia. Shep. You may say it, but not swear it...

Clo. Not swear it,

now I am a gentleman? Let boors and franklins say it, I'll swear it.Shep. How if it be false, son?

Clo. If it be ne'er so false, a true gentleman may swear it, in the behalf of his friend:—And I'll swear to the prince, thou art a tall fellow of thy hands, and that thou wilt not be drunk; but I know, thou art no tall fellow of thy hands, and that thou wilt be drunk; but

8

franklins say it,] Franklin is a freeholder, or yeoman, a

man above a villain, but not a gentleman. Johnson.

8

tall fellow of thy hands,] Tall, in that time, was the word used for stout. Johnson.

Part of this phrase occurs in Gower, De Confessione Amantis, Lib. V, fol. 114:

"A noble knight eke of his honde."

A man of his hands had anciently two significations. It either meant an adroit fellow who handled his weapon well, or a fellow skilful in thievery. In the first of these senses it is used by the Clown. Phraseology like this is often met with. So, in Acolastas, a comedy, 1540: