3. GENT. Moft true; if ever truth were pregnant by circumstance: that, which you hear, you'll fwear you fee, there is fuch unity in the proofs. The mantle of queen Hermione ;-her jewel about the neck of it;-the letters of Antigonus, found with it, which they know to be his character:-the majefty of the creature, in resemblance of the mother; -the affection of nobleness, which nature shows above her breeding,—and many other evidences; proclaim her, with all certainty, to be the king's daughter. Did you fee the meeting of the two kings?

2. GENT. No.

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3. GENT. Then have you loft a fight, which was to be seen, cannot be spoken of. There might you have beheld one joy crown another; so, and in fùch manner, that, it feem'd, forrow wept to take leave of them; for their joy waded in tears. There was cafting up of eyes, holding up of hands; with countenance of such distraction, that they were to be known by garment, not by favour. Our king,

3

9 the affection of nobleness, ] Affection here perhaps means difpofition or quality. The word feems to be used nearly in the fame fenfe in the following title: "The firft fet of Italian Madigralls englished, not to the fenfe of the original ditty, but to the affection of the noate, "&c. By Thomas Watfon, quarto. 1590. Affection is used in Hamlet for affectation, but that can hardly be the meaning

here.

Perhaps both here and in K. Henry IV. affection is used for propenfity:

in fpeech, in gait,

"In diet. in affections of delight,

"In military exercises, humours of blood,

"He was the mark and glass, &c. MALONE.

fo and in fuch manner, ] Our author feems to have picked up this little piece of tautology in his clerkship. It is the technical language of conveyancers. RITSON.

favour. i. e. countenance, features. So, in Othello:

"Defeat thy favour with an ufurped beard." STEEVENS.

being ready to leap out of himfelf for joy of his found daughter; as if that joy were now become a lofs, cries, O, thy mother, thy mother! then asks Bohemia forgivenefs; then embraces his fon-in law; then again worries he his daughter, with clipping her; now he thanks the old fhepherd which stands by, like a weather-bitten conduit of many kings' reigns. I never heard of fuch another encounter, which lames report to follow it, and undoes defcription to do it.

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5

with clipping her:] i. e. embracing her. So, Sidney;
"He, who before fhun'd her, to fhun fuch harms,
"Now runs and takes her in his clipping arms.

STEEVENS.

weather-bitten, &c.] Thus the old copy. The modern

editors-weather-beaten. Hamlet fays:

"The air bites fhrewdly; and the Duke, in As you like it: 1166 when it bites and blows. " Weather-bitten, therefore, may mean, corroded by the weather. STEEVENS.

The reading of the old copies appears to be right. Antony Mun. dy, in the preface to Gerileon of England, the fecond part, &c. 1592, has winter-bitten epitaph." RITSON.

Conduits, reprefenting a human figure, were heretofore not uncommon. One of this kind, a female form, and weatherbeaten, till exifts at Hoddesdon in Herts. Shakspeare refers again to the fame fort of imagery in Romeo and Juliet :

"How now? a conduit, girl? what ftill in tears?
"Evermore fhowering?" HENLEY.

See Vol. VIII. p. 298, n. 7.

Weather-bitten was in the third folio changed to weather-beaten ; but there does not feem to be any neceffity for the change.

MALONE.

6 Inever heard of fuch, another encounter, which lames report to follow it, and undoes defcription to do it.] We have the fame fentiment in The Tempest:

"For thou wilt find, fhe will outftrip all praise,

"And make it hait behind her.

Again, in our authors 103d Sonnet:

66

F

-a face

"That overgoes my blunt invention quite,

"Dulling my lines, and doing me difgrace.", MALONE.

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2. GENT. What, pray you, became of Antigonus, that carried hence the child?

3. GENT. Like an old tale ftill; which will have matter to rehearfe, though credit be alleep, and not an ear open: He was torn to pieces with a bear this avouches the fhepherd's fon; who has not only his innocence (which feems much,) to juftify him, but a handkerchief, and rings, of his, that Paulina knows.

:

1. GENT. What became of his bark, and his followers?

3. GENT. Wreck'd, the fame inftant of their mafter's death; and in the view of the fhepherd: fo that all the inftruments, which aided to expose the child, were even then loft, when it was found. But, O, the noble combat, that, 'twixt joy and forrow, was fought in Paulina! She had one eye declined for the loss of her husband; another elevated that the oracle was fulfill'd: She lifted the princess from the earth; and fo locks her in embracing, as if fhe would pin her to her heart, that he might no more be in danger of lofing.

1. GENT. The dignity of this act was worth the audience of kings and princes; for by such was it acted.

3. GENT. One of the prettieft touches of all, and that which angled for mine eyes, (caught the water, though not the fifh,) was, when at the relation of the queen's death, with the manner how the came to it, (bravely confefs'd, and lamented by the king,) how attentivenefs wounded his daughter: till, from one fign of dolour to another, fhe did, with an alas! I would fain fay, bleed tears; for, I am fure, my heart wept blood. Who was moft marble there,' moft marble there, ] i. e. moft petrified with wonder.

changed colour; fome fwooned, all forrowed; if all the world could have feen it, the woe had been univerfal.

1. GENT. Are they returned to the court?

3. GENT. No: the princefs hearing of her mother's ftatue, which is in the keeping of Patlina,a piece many years in doing, and now newly perform'd by that rare Italian mafter, Julio Romano;" who, had he himself eternity, and could put breath.

So, in Milton's Epitaph ou' our author :

"There thou our fancy of itself bereaving,
"Doft make us marble by too much conceiving."

STEEVENS.

It means thofe who had the hardeft hearts. It would not be extraordinary that those persons should change colour who were petrified with wonder, though it was, that hardened hearts fhould be moved by a fcene of tenderness. M. MASON.

Mr. M. Mafon's and Mr. Malone's explanation may be right. So, in Antony and Cleopatra:

t now from head to foot

"I am marble conftant." STEEVENS.

8 that rare Italian mafter, Julio Romano; &c.] This excellent artist was born in the year 1492, and died in 1546, Fine and generous, as this tribute of praise must be owned, yet it was a ftrange abfurdity, fure, to thruft it into a tale, the a&ion of which is fuppofed within the period of heathenifm, and whitft the oracles of Apollo were confulted. This, however, was a known and wilful anachronism. THEOBALD.

By eternity Shakspeare means only immortality, or that part of eternity which is to come; so we talk of eternal renown and eternal infamy. Immortality may fubfift without divinity, and therefore the meaning only is, that if Julio could always continue his labours, he would mimick nature. JOHNSON. 1

I wish we could understand this paffage, as if Julio Romano had only painted the ftatue carved by another. Ben Jonfon makes Dodor Rut in The Magnetic Lady, A&. V. fc. viii. fay:

into his work, would beguile nature of her cuftom,' fo perfectly he is her ape: he fo near to Hermione hath done Hermione, that, they fay, one would speak to her, and ftand in hope of anfwer: thither with all greedinefs of affection, are they gone; and there they intend to fup.

2. GENT. I thought, fhe had fome great matter there in hand; for fhe hath privately, twice or thrice a day, ever fince the death of Hermione, vifited that removed houfe. Shall we thither, and with our company piece the rejoicing?

"Elfe they be worth nought i'their fubtil judgements." Sir Henry Wotton, in his Elements of Architecture, mentions the fashion of colouring even regál ftatues for the ftronger expression of affection, which he takes leave to call an English barbarifm. Such, however, was the practice of the time and unless the supposed ftatue of Hermione were painted, there could be no ruddiness upon her lip, nor could the veins verily feem to bear blood, as the poet expreffes it afterwards, TOLLET. Our author exprefsly fays, in a subsequent paffage, that it was painted; and without doubt meant to attribute only the painting to Julio Romano:

"The ruddinefs upon her lip is wet;

"You'll mar it, if you kifs it; ftain your own

With oily painting." MALONE.

Sir H. Wotton could not poffibly know what has been lately proved by Sir William Hamilton in the MS. accounts which accompany feveral valuable drawings of the difcoveries made at Pompeii, and prefented by him to our Antiquary Society, viz. that it was ufual to colour ftatues among the ancients. In the chapel of Ifis in the place already mentioned, the image of that goddefs had been painted over, as her robe is of a purple hue. Mr. Tollet has fince informed me, that Junius, on the painting of the ancients, obferves from Paufanias and Herodotus, that fometimes the ftatues of the ancients were coloured after the manner of pictures.

STEEVENS.

9 - of her custom, ] That is, of her trade, would draw her customers from her. JOHNSON.