But they are all as ill. This false smile was well exprest, Just such another caught me; you shall not go so, Antiphila ; In this place work a quicksand, And over it a shallow smiling water, And his ship ploughing it, and then a fear. Do that fear to the life, wench. Ant. "Twill wrong the story. Asp. "Twill make the story, wrong'd by wanton poets, Live long and be believ'd; but where's the lady? Ant. There, Madam. Asp. Fie, you have miss'd it here, Antiphila, You are much mistaken, wench; These colors are not dull and pale enough, To show a soul so full of misery As this sad lady's was; do it by me, Do it again by me the lost Aspatia, And you shall find all true but the wild island. I stand upon the sea-beach now, and think Mine arms thus, and mine hair blown with the wind, Wild as that desart, and let all about me Tell that I am forsaken, do my face (If thou hadst ever feeling of a sorrow) Thus, thus, Antiphila, strive to make me look Like Sorrow's monument; and the trees about me, Asp. I have done, sit down, and let us Upon that point fix all our eyes, that point there; * One characteristic of the excellent old poets is their being able to bestow grace upon subjects which naturally do not seem susceptible of any. I will mention two instances: Zelmane, in the Arcadia of Sidney; and Helena, in the All's Well that Ends Well of Shakspeare. What can be more unpromising at first sigh: than the idea of a young man disguising Evadne implores forgiveness of Amintor for marrying him while she was the King's Mistress. Evad. O my lord. Amin. How now ! Evad. My much abused lord! Amin. This cannot be. Evad. I do not kneel to live, I dare not hope it; The wrongs I did are greater; look upon me, Amin. Stand up. This is no new way to beget more sorrow: Heaven knows I have too many; do not mock me; [Kneels. himself in woman's attire, and passing himself off for a woman among women? and that too for a long space of time? yet Sir Philip has preserved such a matchless decorum, that neither does Pyrocles' manhood suffer any stain for the effeminacy of Zelmane, nor is the respect due to the princesses at all diminished when the deception comes to be known. In the sweetly constituted mind of Sir Philip Sidney, it seems as if no ugly thought nor unhandsome meditation could find a harbor. He turned all that he touched into images of honor and virtue. Helena, in Shakspeare, is a young woman seeking a man in marriage. The ordinary laws of courtship are reversed; the habitual feelings are violated. Yet with such exquisite address this dangerous subject is handled, that Helena's forwardness loses her no honor; delicacy dispenses with her laws in her favor, and Nature in her single case seems content to suffer a sweet violation. Aspatia, in this tragedy, is a character equally difficult with Helena of being managed with grace. She, too, is a slighted woman, refused by the man who had once engaged to marry her. Yet it is artfully contrived that while we pity her, we respect her, and she descends without degradation, So much true poetry and passion can do to confer dignity upon subjects which do not seem capable of it. But Aspatia must not be compared at all points with Helena; she does not so absolutely predominate over her situation but she suffers some diminution, some abatement of the full lustre of the female character; which Helena never does: her character has many degrees of sweetness, some of delicacy, but it has weakness which, if we do not despise, we are sorry for. After all, Beaumont and Fletcher were but an inferior sort of Shakspeares and Sidneys. All my repentance: I would buy your pardon Amin. Sure I dazzle: There cannot be a faith in that foul woman, That knows no god more mighty than her mischiefs. Evad. My lord, Give me your griefs: you are an innocent, What my hot will hath done, which heaven and you I do appear the same, the same Evadne, Drest in the shames I liv'd in, the same monster. Till you, my dear lord, shoot your light into me, Till I have got your pardon. Amin. Rise, Evadne. Those heavenly powers that put this good into thee, Make thyself worthy of it, and take heed, Mock not the powers above, that can and dare Evad. I have done nothing good to win belief, Made for heaven's honors have their ends, and good ones, They reign here like those plagues, those killing sores, And go to dust forgotten: but, my lord, Those short days I shall number to my rest (As many must not see me) shall, though too late, Or like another Niobe I'll weep Till I am water. Amin. I am now dissolved: My frozen soul melts: may each sin thou hast, Men's Natures more hard and subtle than Women's. How stubbornly this fellow answer'd me! Which love could never know; but we fond women And think all shall go so; it is unjust That men and women should be matcht together. PHILASTER; OR, LOVE LIES A BLEEDING: A TRAGI-COMEDY. BY FRANCIS BEAUMONT AND JOHN FLETCHER. Philaster tells the Princess Arethusa how he first found the boy Beltario I have a boy sent by the gods, Not yet seen in the court; hunting the buck, found him sitting by a fountain side, Of which he borrow'd some to quench his thirst, Which gave him roots; and of the crystal springs, |