We honour with trouble: But we came
To see the statue of our queen: your gallery
Have we pass'd through, not without much content
In many singularities; but we saw not
That which my daughter came to look upon,
The statue of her mother.
Paul.
As she liv'd peerless,
So her dead likeness, I do well believe,
Excels whatever yet you look'd upon,
Or hand of man hath done; therefore I keep it
Lonely, apart: But here it is: prepare
To see the life as lively mock'd, as ever
Still sleep mock'd death: behold; and say, 't is
well. [PAULINA undraws a curtain,
and discovers a statue.
I like your silence, it the more shows off
Your wonder: But yet speak;-first, you, my liege.
Comes it not something near?
Leon.
Her natural posture!—
Chide me, dear stone; that I may say, indeed,
Thou art Hermione: or, rather, thou art she,
In thy not chiding; for she was as tender
As infancy, and grace.—But yet, Paulina,
Hermione was not so much wrinkled; nothing
So aged, as this seems.
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Paul. So much the more our carver's excellence; Which lets go by some sixteen years, and makes her
As she liv'd now.
Leon.
As now she might have done,
So much to my good comfort, as it is
Now piercing to my soul. O, thus she stood,
Even with such life of majesty, (warm life,
As now it coldly stands,) when first I woo'd her!
I am asham'd: Does not the stone rebuke me,
For being more stone than it ?-O, royal piece,
There's magic in thy majesty, which has
My evils conjur'd to remembrance; and
From thy admiring daughter took the spirits,
Standing like stone with thee!
And give me leave; And do not say 't is superstition, that I kneel, and then implore her blessing.-Lady, Dear queen, that ended when I but began, Give me that hand of yours to kiss. Paul.
O, patience: The statue is but newly fix'd, the colour's Not dry.
Cam. My lord, your sorrow was too sore laid on; Which sixteen winters cannot blow away, So many summers dry: scarce any joy Did ever so long live; no sorrow,
But kill'd itself much sooner.
Let him that was the cause of this have power To take off so much of grief from you, as he Will piece up in himself.
Indeed, my lord, If I had thought the sight of my poor image Would thus have wrought you (for the stone is mine), I'd not have show'd it.
The ruddiness upon her lip is wet;2
You'll mar it, if you kiss it; stain your own
With oily painting: Shall I draw the curtain?
Leon. No, not these twenty years.
Per.
Stand by, a looker-on.
Paul.
Quit presently the chapel; or resolve you
For more amazement. If you can behold it,
I'll make the statue move indeed; descend,
And take you by the hand: but then you'll think,
(Which I protest against,) I am assisted
By wicked
powers.
I am content to look on: what to speak,
I am content to hear; for 't is as easy
To make her speak, as move.
[Presenting PER., who kneels to HER.
You gods, look down,
And from your sacred vials pour your graces
Upon my daughter's head!-Tell me, mine own,
Where hast thou been preserv'd? where liv'd?
how found
Thy father's court? for thou shalt hear, that I,-
Knowing by Paulina, that the oracle
Gave hope thou wast in being,-have preserv'd
What can you make her do, Myself, to see the issue.
Paul
There's time enough for that;
Lest they desire, upon this push to trouble
Your joys with like relation.-Go together,
You precious winners all; your exultation
Partake to every one. I, an old turtle,
Will wing me to some wither'd bough, and there
My mate, that's never to be found again,
Lament till I am lost.
You do awake your faith: Then, all stand still:
On: Those that think it is unlawful business
I am about, let them depart.
No foot shall stir.
Paul.
Music; awake her: strike.
[Music.
'Tis time; descend; be stone no more: approach;
Strike all that look upon with marvel. Come;
I'll fill your grave up: stir; nay, come away;
Bequeath to death your numbness, for from him
Dear life redeems you.-You perceive she stirs ;
[HERMIONE comes down from the pedestal.
Start not her actions shall be holy, as,
You hear, my spell is lawful: do not shun her,
Until you see her die again; for then
You kill her double: Nay, present your hand:
When she was young you woo'd her; now, in age,
Is she become the suitor?
Leon.
O peace, Paulina ;
Thou shouldst a husband take by my consent,
As I by thine, a wife: this is a match,
And made between 's by vows. Thou hast found
But how, is to be question'd: for I saw her,
As I thought, dead; and have, in vain, said many
A prayer upon her grave: I'll not seek far
(For him, I partly know his mind,) to find thee
An honourable husband:-Come, Camillo,
And take her by the hand; whose worth, and
honesty,
Is richly noted; and here justified
By us, a pair of kings.-Let's from this place.—
What?-Look upon my brother:-both your
pardons,
That e'er I put between your holy looks
My ill suspicion. This your son-in-law,
And son unto the king, (whom heavens directing,)
Is troth-plight to your daughter.-Good Paulina,
Lead us from hence; where we may leisurely
Each one demand, and answer to his part
Perform'd in this wide gap of time, since first
We were dissever'd: Hastily lead away.
1 SCENE II.- Weather-bitten conduit."
THE old stone conduits were in Shakspere's time very numerous in London, and allusions to them are frequent in the dramatists. We give a representation of the "Little Conduit" in Westcheap, built in 1442.
2 SCENE III." The ruddiness upon her lip is wet." We have shown in a note to the Two Gentlemen of Verona that the words statue and picture were often used without distinction. In the passage before us we have the mention of "oily painting;"
and the clown talks of going to see "the queen's picture." But it is clear from other passages that a statue, in the modern sense of the word, was intended. Leontes says,
"Does not the stone rebuke me
For being more stone than it?"
It is clear, therefore, from all the context, that the statue must have been painted. Sir Henry Wotton calls this practice an English barbarism; but it is well known that the ancients had painted statues. The mention of Julio Romano is generally desig nated as "a strange absurdity." We have touched upon this in the Introductory Notice.
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