Her brother's 'ghost his pavéd bed would break, Maria. Isab. Isabel, Sweet Isabel, do yet but 'kneel by me: They say, 'best men are moulded out of 'faults, Isabella timidly approaches the Duke, and kneels : 'His act did not o'ertake his bad 'intent; And must be buried 'but as an intent, That perished by the way. 'Thoughts are no 'subjects; Duke. Your suit 's unprofitable: stand up, I say.- Provost, how came it Claudio was beheaded Prov. It was 'commanded so. Duke. Had you a special 'warrant for the deed? Prov. Pardon me, noble lord: Duke. Prov. What is he? His name is Barnardine. Duke. I would thou hadst done so by 'Claudio.- The Provost at once brings in his prisoner Barnardine, with Claudio muffled, and Juliet. Duke. There was a Friar 'told me of this man.— Sirrah, [] thou art said to have a stubborn soul, Bar. That apprehends no further than 'this world, a consultation. And squar'st thy life according. Thou 'rt condemned; : I leave him to 'your hand.-[audio] What 'muffled fellow's that? Prov. This is another prisoner that I saved, That 'should have died when 'Claudio lost his head,— Duke. [1] If he be 'like your brother, for 'his sake Claudio unmuffles himself and is most ardently embraced by Isabella. Angelo falls on his knees. The Duke continues: And, for your lovely sake, Give me your hand, and say you will be 'mine! Well, Angelo, your evil quits you 'well: Look that you 'love your wife; 'her worth works 'yours. I find an apt remission in myself, And yet here's 'one in place I 'cannot pardon.— The Officers bring forward the trembling Lucio. That you 'extol me thus? Lucio.... Faith, my lord, I spoke it but according to the 'trick. If you will 'hang me for it, you may; but I had rather, it would please you,... I might be 'whipped. Duke. Whipped 'first, sir,—and hanged after.— Proclaim it, Provost, round about the city, Lucio. I beseech your highness, do not 'marry me to the old widow !i Your highness said even now, I made a punishable on earth. b requites. CO. R. worth. d tendency to forgive. e inserted word. f thoughtless custom (as a joke). 8 O. R. woman. h five substituted words. i three substituted words. you a 'Duke: good my lord, do not recompense me in making 'me a 'fool. Duke. Upon mine honour thou 'shalt marry her. Thy 'slanders I forgive; and therewithal Remit thy other forfeits."-Take him to prison, And see our pleasure herein executed. Lucio. Marrying the widow, my lord, is pressing to death, whipping, and hanging. Duke. 'Slandering a 'Prince deserves it. Her," Claudio, that you wronged, look you restore.— Thanks, good friend Escalus, for thy much goodness:- What's mine is yours, and what is yours is mine.— What's yet behind, that 's meet you all should know. END OF MEASURE FOR MEASURE. [Exeunt. penalties, punishments. b O. R. she. c proposal. d release from any obligation. e two lines transposed from the Duke's speech," For this new-married man," p. 475. THE WINTER'S TALE. The Play of the "Winter's Tale" was written, it is supposed, about the year 1611,a being, therefore, the last but one of Shakespeare's dramatic productions; the "Tempest, "-composed in the same year,-happily and gracefully closing the poetic embodiments of the great magician. The earliest notice of its performance is found in Dr. Forman's "Diary ",-preserved in the Ashmole Collection at Oxford,—which fixes day and date: Wednesday, May 15th, 1611, at the "Globe "Theatre; but no printed copy appeared till the folio edition of Shakespeare's Collected Works was published in 1623, by his friends and "fellows" John Hemings and Henry Condell. The Poet is indebted for the story of the Play to the novel of "Pandosto, or the Triumph of Time," (named, at a later period, "Dorastus and Faunia,") published in 1588-by Robert Greene, a contemporary of Shakespeare-equally remarkable for his genius and his misfortunes. The novel was very popular, (many editions having been printed,) and this favourable estimation of the story probably delayed the publication of the play. It has been ingeniously suggested that "The Winter's Tale" is a complimentary memento to Shakespeare's early patroness, Queen Elizabeth; that it may be considered a continuation of the History of Henry the Eighth;" that Leontes of Sicily is an adumbration of that jealous but uxorious English King; and that the sufferings of Hermione, under unmerited disgrace and scandal, refer to those of Queen Anna Boleyn whose infant daughter Elizabeth thus became, as it were, the prototype of the amiable Perdita. But these "possibilities" are not wholly supported, (if they are not entirely destroyed,) by other evidence. a In the earliest extant volume of the Stationers' Register (the first volume having been destroyed in the Great Fire of London, 1666,) there is the following entry: "May 22, 1594. A booke entituled A Winter Nyght's Pastime."-It is impossible now to ascertain if Shakespeare was, in any way, indebted to this publication. The romantic Play, "The Tempest," usually classed as a Comedy, is published in Vol. II of this arrangement. Dr. Forman thus commences his outline of the plot: "Observe there how Leontes, King of Sicilia, was overcome with jealousy of his wife with the King of Bohemia, his friend, that came to see him: and how he contrived his death, and would have had his cup-bearer to have poisoned him, who gave the King of Bohemia warning thereof, and fled with him to Bohemia. Remember also how he sent to the oracle of Apollo, &c." In the office-book of Sir Henry Herbert, then Master of the Revels, is the following entry :-" For the King's Players. An old play called 'Winter's Tale,' formerly allowed of by Sir George Buck, and likewise by me on Mr. Hemmings his word that there was nothing profane added or reformed, though the allowed book was missing: and therefore I returned it without a fee this 19th of August, 1623." The English Parliament passed an act (3 James I, chap. 21) "to restrain the abuses of players," subjecting "any person or persons... in any Stage-play, Enterlude, Sew (show), May-game, or Pageant" to a penalty of ten pounds for uttering any profanity. Shakespeare, however, has been charged with many faults in this drama; and, if the violation of the old Unities of Time, Place, and Action is a fault, he is undoubtedly guilty: besides, we have, in pagan times, Christian burial; and, with a strange forgetfulness of geographical fact, Bohemia is placed on the sea-shore. But Shakespeare's "Bohemia" is a poetical, not a political territory, to be accurately located on prosaic maps; the author was not composing a "History" to instruct, but a "Play" to amuse, during our Winter nights; for, as he says, "A 'sad tale 's best for winter." Imagination despises chronology, and acknowledges not the vulgar boundaries of mundane geography. Besides, we must accept the gift as it has been presented to us. The Characters retained in this Condensation are: LEONTES, King of Sicilia. AUTOLYCUS, a Rogue. MAMILLIUS, Young Prince of TIME, the Chorus. HERMIONE, Queen to Leontes. Sicilia. CAMILLO, ANTIGONUS, CLEOMENES, Lords of Sicilia. PAULINA, Wife to Antigonus. DORCAS, Shepherdesses. Lords, Ladies, Officers of the Court of Judicature, Shepherds, and Shepherdesses, Guards, &c. Scene-sometimes in Sicilia, sometimes in Bohemia.b Leontes, Prince of Sicily, had, in his youth, visited Russia, and had there fallen in love with the Princess Hermione, daughter of the Emperor. Their married life was passed in the utmost harmony for several years; and their only son, Prince Mamillius, (for Leontes had succeeded his father on the throne of Sicily,) was, for his bright intelligence and his acute childish sensibilities, beloved by his parents and by the whole Court. Leontes had, as companion in his boyish days, Prince Polixenes, son to the King of Bohemia. They had been educated together; and now, after the lapse of several years, Polixenes, (who had become 'King of Bohemia,) pays a long-promised visit to his early friend Leontes, King of Sicily. The claims of confraternity being thus cordially renewed, Polixenes intimates his intention to return to his own Kingdom. a Sicilia, (Sicily,) the largest island in the Mediterranean, was united to the government of Naples, under the name of the Two Sicilies, and is now a part of the modern Kingdom of Italy. b Bohemia, formerly a petty kindgom of Europe, almost in the heart of Germany, now forming part of the Austrian Empire. |