with the play of Shakespeare,—and to what reader is it altogether unknown? - the former will appear cold and uninteresting on a recollection of the marvellous truth and reality of the latter. But Pandosto is far from a contemptible production: if portions of it are disfigured by bad taste and coarseness of feeling, there are also portions composed in a very pleasing and affecting manner." The novel contains no characters corresponding to those of Antigonus, Paulina, Autolycus, and the Young Shepherd. (Pandosto is reprinted in Collier's Shakespeare's Library, vol. i.).—According to the novel, when the child was brought to the king, he "commanded that without delay it should bee put in the boat, hauing neither saile nor rudder to guid it, and so to be carried into the midst of the sea, and there left to the wind and waue, as the destinies please to appoint:" but Shakespeare makes Perdita be exposed on the seashore by Antigonus. Mr. Collier therefore concludes that The Winter's Tale was written at a later date than The Tempest,―that Shakespeare, having "previously (perhaps not long before) represented Prospero and Miranda turned adrift at sea in the same manner as Greene had stated his heroine to have been disposed of," . . . . " varied" in The Winter's Tale "from the original narrative, in order to avoid an objectionable similarity of incident in his two dramas." Introd. to The Winter's Tale. But Shakespeare has occasionally (and with perfect judgment) deviated from the novel in more important particulars than that just mentioned.

SCENE-Sometimes in Sicilia, sometimes in Bohemia.

THE WINTER'S TALE.

ACT I.

SCENE I. Sicilia. An antechamber in the palace of Leontes.

Enter CAMILLO and ARCHIDAMUS.

Arch. If you shall chance, Camillo, to visit Bohemia, on the like occasion whereon my services are now on foot, you shall see, as I have said, great difference betwixt our Bohemia and your Sicilia.

Cam. I think, this coming summer, the King of Sicilia means to pay Bohemia the visitation which he justly owes him.

Arch. Wherein our entertainment shall shame us we will be justified in our loves; for, indeed,—

Cam. Beseech you,

Arch. Verily, I speak it in the freedom of my knowledge: we cannot with such magnificence—in so rare-I know not what to say. We will give you sleepy drinks, that your senses, unintelligent of our insufficience, may, though they cannot praise us, as little accuse us.

Cam. You pay a great deal too dear for what's given freely.

Arch. Believe me, I speak as my understanding instructs me, and as mine honesty puts it to utterance.

Cam. Sicilia cannot show himself over-kind to Bohemia. They were trained together in their childhoods; and there rooted betwixt them then such an affection, which cannot choose but branch now. Since their more mature dignities and royal necessities made separation of their society, their

encounters, though not personal, have been royally attorneyed with interchange of gifts, letters, loving embassies; that they have seemed to be together, though absent; shook hands, as over a vast; and embraced, as it were, from the ends of opposed winds. The heavens continue their love (1)

Arch. I think matter to alter it.

there is not in the world either malice or You have an unspeakable comfort of your young prince Mamillius: it is a gentleman of the greatest promise that ever came into my note.

Cam. I very well agree with you in the hopes of him: it is a gallant child; one that, indeed, physics the subject, makes old hearts fresh: they that went on crutches ere he was born desire yet their life to see him a man.

Arch. Would they else be content to die?

Cam. Yes; if there were no other excuse why they should desire to live.

Arch. If the king had no son, they would desire to live on crutches till he had one.

[Exeunt.

SCENE II. The same. A room of state in the palace.

Enter LEONTES, POLIXENES, HERMIONE, MAMILLIUS, CAMILLO, and Attendants.

Pol. Nine changes of the watery star have been
The shepherd's note since we have left our throne
Without a burden: time as long again

Would be fill'd up, my brother, with our thanks ;
And yet we should, for perpetuity,

Go hence in debt: and therefore, like a cipher,

Yet standing in rich place, I multiply

With one we-thank-you many thousands more
That go before it.

Leon.

Stay your thanks awhile,

And pay them when you part.

Sir, that's to-morrow.

Pol.
I'm question'd by my fears, of what may chance
Or breed upon our absence: that may blow
No sneaping winds at home, to make us say,

"This is put forth too truly!"(2) Besides, I've stay'd To tire your royalty.

Leon. We'll part the time between's, then: and in that I'll no gainsaying.

Pol.

Press me not, bescech you, so. (3)

now,

There is no tongue that moves, none, none i' the world,
So soon as yours, could win me: so it should
Were there necessity in your request, although
"Twere needful I denied it. My affairs
Do even drag me homeward: which to hinder,
Were, in your love, a whip to me; my stay,
To you a charge and trouble: to save both,
Farewell, our brother.

Leon.

Tongue-tied our queen? speak you. Her. I had thought, sir, to have held my peace until You had drawn oaths from him not to stay. You, sir, Charge him too coldly. Tell him, you are sure

All in Bohemia's well; this satisfaction

The by-gone day proclaim'd: say this to him,
He's beat from his best ward.

Leon.

Well said, Hermione.

Her. To tell, he longs to see his son, were strong:

But let him say so then, and let him go;

But let him swear so, and he shall not stay,

We'll thwack him hence with distaffs.

[To Polixenes] Yet of your royal presence I'll adventure The borrow of a week. When at Bohemia

You take my lord, I'll give you my commission(4)
To let him there a month behind the gest

Prefix'd for's parting:-yet, good deed, Leontes,
I love thee not a jar o' the clock behind

What lady should her lord. (5)—You'll stay?

Pol.

Her. Nay, but you will?

Pol.

No, madam.