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ACT III. SCENE I.

The fame. A Street in fome town.

Enter CLEOMENES and DION.

CLEO. The climate's delicate; the air most sweet; Fertile the ifle; the temple much furpaffing

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The common praise it bears.

.DION.

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I fhall report,

For moft it caught me, the celeftial habits, (Methinks, I fo fhould term them,) and the reve

rence

Of the grave wearers. O, the facrifice!

How ceremonious, folemn, and unearthly
It was i'the offering!

CLEO.

But, of all, the burft And the ear-deafening voice o'the oracle,

Cleomenes and Dion.] These two names, and those of Antigonus aud Archidamus, our author found in North's Plutarch.

MALONE

Fertile the ile;] But the temple of Apollo at Delphi was not in an island, but in Phocis, on the continent. Either Shakspeare, or his editors, had their heads running on Delos, an island of the Cvclades, If it was the editor's blunder, then Shakspeare wrote: Fertile the foil,which is more elegant too, than the present reading. WARBURTON.

Shakspeare is little careful of geography. There is no need of this emendation in a play of which the whole plot depends upon a geographical error, by which Bohemia is fuppofed to be a maritime country. JOHNSON.

In the Hiftory of Dorafus and Faunia, the queen defires the king to fend "fix of his noblemen, whom he best trusted, to the isle of Delphos," &c.

STEEVENS.

For most it caught me,] It may relate to the whole fpectacle.

JOHNSON.

Kin to Jove's thunder, so furpriz'd my sense,
That I was nothing.

DION.

Prove as fuccessful to
As it hath been to us,
The time is worth the

CLEO.

If the event o'the journey
the queen,-O, be't fo!—
rare, pleasant, speedy,
use on't, 3

Great Apollo,

Turn all to the beft! These proclamations,

So forcing faults upon Hermione,

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Will clear, or end, the bufinefs: When the oracle, (Thus by Apollo's great divine feal'd up,) Shall the contents difcover, fomething rare,

Even then will rush to knowledge.--Go,-fresh

horses;

And gracious be the iffue!

SCENE II.

The fame. A Court of Justice.

[Exeunt.

LEONTES, Lords, and Officers, appear properly feated.

LEON. This feffions (to our great grief, we pronounce,)

The time is worth the ufe on't. The time is worth the use on't, means, the time which we have spent in vifiting Delos, has recompenfed us for the trouble of so spending it. JOHNSON.

If the event prove fortunate to the queen, the time which we have spent in our journey is worth the trouble it hath coft us. In other words, the happy iffue of our journey will compenfate for the time expended in it, and the fatigue we have undergone. We meet with nearly the fame expreffion in Florio's tranflation of Montaigne's Efaies, 1603: "The common faying is, the time we live, is worth the money we pay for it." MALONE,

Even pushes 'gainst our heart: 3 The party tried,
The daughter of a king; our wife; and one
Of us too much belov'd. Let us be clear d
Of being tyrannous, fince we fo openly
Proceed in juftice; which shall have due course,
Even to the guilt, or the purgation., 4.

Produce the prifoner.

OFFI. It is his highnefs' pleasure, that the queen Appear in perfon here in court.-Silence!

HERMIONE is brought in, guarded; PAULINA and Ladies, attending.

LEON. Read the indictment.

OFFI. Hermione, queen to the worthy Leontes, king of Sicilia, thou art here accufed and arraigned of high treafon, in committing adultery with Polixenes, king of Bohemia; and confpiring with Camillo to take away the life of our fovereign lord the king, thy royal hufband: the pretence 5 whereof being by circumstances partly laid open, thou, Hermione, contrary to the faith and allegiance of a true fubject, didft counfel and aid them, for their better fafety, to fly away by night.

HER. Since what I am to fay, must be but that Which contradicts my accufation; and The teftimony on my part, no other

But what comes from myself; it fhall fcarce boot me

3 pushes 'gainst our heart:] So, in Macbeth:

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every minute of his being thrufts

Against my neart of life." STEEVENS,

Even to the guilt, or the purgation.] Mr. Roderick observes, that the word even is not to be understood here as an adverb, but as an adjective, fignifying equal or indifferent. STEEVENS.

The epithet even-handed, as applied in Macbeth to Justice, seeme to unite both fenfes. HENLEY

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5 pretence] Is, in this place, taken for a fcheme laid, a defign formed; to pretend means to defign, in The Two Gentlemen of Verona. JOHNSON.

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To fay, Not guilty: mine integrity,"

Being counted falfehood, fhall, as I exprefs it,
Be fo receiv'd. But thus,-If powers divine
Behold our human actions, (as they do,)

I doubt not then, but innocence fhall make
Falle accufation bluth, and tyranny

Tremble at patience.'-You, my lord, beft know,
(Who leaft will feem to do fo,) my past life
Hath been as continent, as chafte, as true,
As I am now unhappy; which is more
Than history can pattern, though devis'd,
And play'd, to take fpectators: For behold me,.
A fellow of the royal bed, which owe

A moiety of the throne, a great king's daughter,
The mother to a hopeful prince,here ftanding,
To prate and talk for life, and honor, 'fore
Who please to come and hear. For life, I prize it2

6 mine integrity, &c.] That is, my virtue being accounted wickedness, my affertion of it will pass but for a lie. Falsehood means both treachery and lie. JOHNSON.

It is frequently used in the former fenfe in Othello, A& V:
"He fays, thou told't him that his wife was falfe.”

Again:

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66 -Thou art rafsh as fire,

"To say that he was falfe." Malone.
If powers divine

Behold our human actions, (as they do,)

I doubt not then but innocence hall make

Falfe accufation blush, and tyranny

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Tremble at patience.] Our author has here clofely followed the novel of Doraftus and Faunia, 1588: if the divine powers be privie to human actions, (as no doubt they are, I hope my patience fhall make fortune blush, and my unfpotted life fhall flayne (piteful difcredit."

MALONE.

Who leafl
Rowe. MALONE.

2

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- Old Copy Whom leaft.

Corre&ed by Mr.

which -] That is, which unhappiness.

MALONE.

-For life, I prize it, &c.] Life is to me now only grief,

and as fuch only is confidered by me; I would therefore willingly difmifs it. JOHNson.

VOL. X.

G

As I weigh grief, which I would spare: 9 for honour, 'Tis a derivative from me to mine,2

And only that I ftand for. I appeal

3

To your own confcience, fir, before Polixenes
Came to your court, how I was in your grace,
How merited to be fo; fince he came,

With what encounter fo uncurrent I

Have ftrain'd, to appear thus:

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if one jot beyond

I would fpare] To Spare any thing is to let it go, to quit the poffeffion of it. JOHNSON.

2 'Tis a

derivative from me to mine,] This fentiment, which is probably borrowed from Ecclefiafticus, iii. II. cannot be too often impreffed on the female mind: "The glory of a man is from the honour of his father; and a mother in dishonour, is a reproach unto her children." SIEEVENS.

3 I appeal

To your own confcience, &c.] So, in Doraftus and Faunia, "how I have led my life before Egifthus' coming, I appeal, Pandofto, to the Gods, and to thy confcience." MALONE.

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With what encounter fo uncurrent I

Have frain'd, to appear thus:] Thefe lines I do not underftand; with the licence of all editors, what I cannot understand I fuppofe unintelligible, and therefore propofe that they may be altered thus:

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The fense seems to be this: what fudden flip have I made, that I fhould catch a wrench in my character.

เ --a noble nature

May catch a wrench."

So, in Timon of Athens:

An uncurrent encounter feems to mean an irregular, unjuftifiable congrels. Perhaps it may be a metaphor from tilting, in which the thock of meeting adverfaries was fo called. Thus, in Drayton's Legend of T. Cromwell E. of Effex :

Yet thefe encounters thruft me not awry."

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