Sorely, to say I did; it is as bitter

Upon thy tongue, as in my thought: Now, good

Would have him wed again.

DION. If you would not so, You pity not the state, nor the remembrance Of his most sovereign dame; consider little, What dangers, by his highness' fail of issue, May drop upon his kingdom, and devour Incertain lookers-on. What were more holy, Than to rejoice, the former queen is well?? What holier, than,-for royalty's repair, For present comfort and for future good,To bless the bed of majesty again

With a sweet fellow to't?

PAUL.

There is none worthy,

Respecting her that's gone. Besides, the gods
Will have fulfill'd their secret purposes:
For has not the divine Apollo said,

9

- the former queen is WELL?] i. e. at rest, dead. In Antony and Cleopatra, this phrase is said to be peculiarly applicable to the dead:

“Mess. First, madam, he is well.

Cleop. Why there's more gold; but sirrah, mark;
"We use to say, the dead are well; bring it to that,
"The gold I give thee will I melt, and pour
"Down thy ill-uttering throat."

So, in Romeo and Juliet, Balthazar, speaking of Juliet, whom he imagined to be dead, says:

661

Then she is well, and nothing can be ill." MALONE. This phrase seems to have been adopted from Scripture. See 2 Kings, iv. 26. HENLEY.

Is't not the tenour of his oracle,

That king Leontes shall not have an heir,
Till his lost child be found? which, that it shall,
Is all as monstrous to our human reason,
As my Antigonus to break his grave,
And come again to me; who, on my life,
Did perish with the infant. 'Tis your counsel,
My lord should to the heavens be contrary,
Oppose against their wills.-Care not for issue;
[To LEONTES.
The crown will find an heir: Great Alexander
Left his to the worthiest; so his successor
Was like to be the best.

LEON.

Good Paulina,

Who hast the memory of Hermione,

I know, in honour,-O, that ever I

Had squar'd me to thy counsel!—then, even now, I might have look'd upon my queen's full eyes; Have taken treasure from her lips,

PAUL.

More rich, for what they yielded.

LEON.

And left them

Thou speak'st truth.

No more such wives; therefore, no wife: one

worse,

And better us'd, would make her sainted spirit
Again possess her corpse; and, on this stage
(Where we offenders now appear), soul-vex'd,
Begin, And why to me1?

I (Where we offenders now appear), soul-vex'd,

Begin, AND WHY TO ME?] The old copy reads-" And begin, why to me?" The transposition now adopted was proposed by Mr. Steevens. Mr. Theobald reads:

&c. "

66

66

and on this stage

(Where we offend her now) appear soul-vex'd," &c. Mr. Heath would read-66 (Were we offenders now) appear," that is, if we should now at last so far offend her." Mr. M. Mason thinks that the second line should be printed thus: "And begin, why? to me."

Were I the ghost that walk'd, I'd bid you mark
Her eye; and tell me, for what dull part in't

3

There is so much harsh and involved construction in this play, that I am not sure, but the old copy, perplexed as the sentence may appear, is right. Perhaps the author intended to point it thus: Again possess her corpse, (and on this stage

66

"Where we offenders now appear soul-vex'd,)

"And begin, why to me?"

Why to me did you prefer one less worthy, Leontes insinuates would be the purport of Hermione's speech. There is, I think, something aukward in the phrase-" Where we offenders now appear." By removing the parenthesis, which in the old copy is placed after appear, to the end of the line, and applying the epithet soul-vex'd to Leontes and the rest who mourned the loss of Hermione, that difficulty is obviated. MALONE.

To countenance my transposition, be it observed, that the blunders occasioned by the printers of the first folio are so numerous, that it should seem, when a word dropped out of their press, they were careless into which line they inserted it. STEEVENS.

I believe no change is necessary. If, instead of being repeated, the word appear be understood, as, by an obvious ellipsis, it may, the sense will be sufficiently clear. HENLEY.

66

Why to me?" means, I think, 'Why such treatment to me? when a worse wife is better used.'

BOSWELL.

2 She had just cause.] The first and second folio readShe had just such cause.' REED. We should certainly read, "she had just cause." The insertion of the word such, hurts both the sense and the metre.

M. MASON.

There is nothing to which the word such can be referred. It was, I have no doubt, inserted by the compositor's eye glancing on the preceding line. The metre is perfect without this word, which confirms the observation.-Since the foregoing remark was printed in the Second Appendix to my Supplement to Shakspeare, 1783, I have observed that the editor of the third folio made the same correction.

3

MALONE.

INCENSE me] i. e. instigate me, set me on.

King Richard III. :

"Think you, my lord, this little prating York

So, in

"Was not incensed by his subtle mother?" STEEVENS.

You chose her: then I'd shriek, that even your

ears
4

Shou'd rift to hear me; and the words that fol

low'd

Should be, Remember mine.

LEON.

And all eyes else dead coals!-fear thou no wife, I'll have no wife, Paulina.

PAUL.

Stars, stars 5,

Will you swear

Never to marry, but by my free leave?

LEON. Never, Paulina; so be bless'd my spirit ! PAUL. Then, good my lords, bear witness to his

oath.

CLEO. You tempt him over-much.

PAUL.

As like Hermione as is her picture,
Affront his eye o.

CLEO.

PAUL.

Good madam,

Unless another,

I have done"..

Yet, if my lord will marry,—if you will, sir,

No remedy, but you will; give me the office

To choose you a queen: she shall not be so

young

As was your former; but she shall be such,

4 Should RIFT] i. e. split. So, in The Tempest: rifted Jove's stout oak." STEEVENS.

66

5 Stars, VERY stars,] The word-very, was supplied by Sir T. Hanmer, to assist the metre. So, in Cymbeline:

"'Twas very Cloten."

Again, in The Two Gentlemen of Verona:

66

Especially against his very friend." STEEVENS. 6 Affront his eye.] To affront is to meet. JOHNSON. So, in Cymbeline:

"Your preparation can affront no less

"Than what you hear of." STEEVENS.

7 Paul. I have done.] These three words in the old copy make part of the preceding speech. The present regulation, which is clearly right, was suggested by Mr. Steevens. MALONE.

As, walk'd your first queen's ghost, it should take

joy

To see her in your arms.

LEON.

My true Paulina,

We shall not marry, till thou bidd'st us.

PAUL.

That

Shall be, when your first queen's again in breath; Never till then.

Enter a Gentleman.

GENT. One that gives out himself prince Florizel,

Son of Polixenes, with his princess, (she

The fairest I have yet beheld,) desires access

To your high presence.

LEON.

What with him? he comes not

Like to his father's greatness: his approach,

So out of circumstance, and sudden, tells us,

'Tis not a visitation fram'd, but forc'd

By need, and accident. What train ?

GENT.

And those but mean.

LEON.

But few,

His princess, say you, with him?

GENT. Ay; the most peerless piece of earth, I

think,

That e'er the sun shone bright on.

PAUL.

O Hermione,

As every present time doth boast itself

Above a better, gone; so must thy grave

Give way to what's seen now. Sir, you yourself Have said and writ so, (but your writing now

8 so must thy GRAVE

Give way to what's seen now.] Thy grave here means-thy beauties, which are buried in the grave; the continent for the contents. EDWARDS.

9-Sir, you yourself

Have said, and writ so,] The reader must observe that so