Well may I get aboard! this is the chace; I am gone for ever. [Exit, pursued by a bear. Enter an old Shepherd. Shep. I would there were no age between ten and three and twenty, or that youth would fleep out the reft: for there is nothing in the between but getting wenches with child, wronging the ancientry, ftealing, fighting-hark you now!-would any but thefe boil'd brains of nineteen and two and twenty hunt this weather they have fcar'd away two of my beft sheep, which, I fear, the wolf will fooner find than the master; if any where I have them, 'tis by the fea-fide, brouzing of ivy. Good luck, an't be thy will! what have we here? [Taking up the child] Mercy on's, a bearne ! a very pretty bearne! a boy, or a child, I wonder! a pretty one, a very pretty one; fure, fome 'fcape: tho' I am not bookish, yet I can read waiting-gentlewoman in the 'fcape. This has been fome ftair-work, fome trunk-work, fome behind-door-work: they were warmer that got this, than the poor thing is here. I'll take it up for pity, yet I'll tarry till my fon come: he hollow'd but even now; whoa, ho-hoa! Clo. Hilloa, loa! Enter Clown. Shep, What, art fo near? if thou'lt fee a thing to talk on when thou art dead and rotten, come hither. What ail'ft thou, man? Clo. I have feen two fuch fights, by fea and by land; (18) but I am not to fay, it is a fea; for it is now the fky; betwixt the firmament and it you cannot thrut a bodkin's point. (18) But I am not to fay, it is a fea; for it is now the sky; betwixt the firmament and it, you cannot thruft a bodkin's point.] I will not pretend to be pofitive, our Author had Don Quixote here in his eye; but Sancho facetiously fays fomething very like this, upon the fudden mu⚫ tability of a woman's refolutions. Entre el fi y el no de la Muger no me atreveria yo a poner una punta d' alfiler. Between a woman's ay and no I would not undertake to thrust a pin's point. This changeableness our Author, in his Lear has finely call'd, The undistinguish’¿ Space of woman's will. VOL. III. N Shep. Shep. Why, boy, how is it? Clo. I would, you did but fee how it chafes, how it rages, how it takes up the fhore; but that's not to the point; oh, the most pitious cry of the poor fouls, fometimes to fee 'em, and not to fee 'em : now the fhip boring the moon with her main-maft, and anon fwallow'd with yeft and froth, as you'd thruft a cork into a hogfhead. And then for the land-fervice,-to fee how the bear tore out his fhoulder-bone, how he cry'd to me for help, and faid his name was Antigonus, a nobleman. But to make an end of the ship, to fee how the sea flapdragon'd it. But first, how the poor fouls roar'd, and the fea mock'd them. And how the poor gentleman roar'd, and the bear mock'd him, both roaring louder than the fea, or weather. Shep. Name of mercy, when was this, boy? Clo. Now, now, I have not wink'd fince I faw these fights; the men are not yet cold under water, nor the bear half din'd on the gentleman; he's at it now. (19) Shep. Would I had been by to-have help'd the nobleman. Clo. I would, you had been by the fhip-fide, to have help'd her; there your charity would have lack'd footing. [Afide. Shep. Heavy matters, heavy matters! but look thee here, boy. Now blefs thyfelf; thou meet'ft with things dying, I with things new-born. Here's a fight for thee; look thee, a bearing-cloth for a 'fquire's child! look thee here; take up, take up, boy, open't; fo, let's fee: it was told me, I fhould be rich by the fairies. This is fome changling; open't; what's within, boy? (20) Clo. You're a made old man; if the fins of your youth (19) Shep. Would, I had been by to have help'd the old man.] Tho' all the printed copies concur in this reading, I am perfuaded we ought to restore, nobleman. The fhepherd knew nothing of Antigonus's age; befides, the c own had juft told his father, that he faid, his name was Ant gonus a nobleman, and no iefs than three times in this fhort fcene, the down, fpeaking of him, calls him the gentleman. (20) You're a mad old man; if the fins of your youth are forgiven you, you're well to live. Gad! all gold!] This the clown fays upon his opening youth are forgiven you, you're well to live. Gold! all gold! Shep. This is fairy gold, boy, and will prove fo. Up with it, keep it clofe: home, home, the next way. We are lucky, boy; and to be fo ftill, requires nothing but fecrefy. Let my fheep go: come, good boy, the next way home. Clo. Go you the next way with your findings, I'll go fee if the bear be gone from the gentleman, and how much he hath eaten : they are never curft, but when they are hungry: if there be any of him left, I'll bury it. Shep. That's a good deed. If thou may'ft difcern by that which is left of him, what he is, fetch me to th' fight of him. Clo. Marry, will I; and you fhall help to put him i'th' ground. Shep. 'Tis a lucky day, boy, and we'll do good deeds en't. Enter Time, as Chorus. [Exeunt. Time. I, that please fome, try all, both joy and terror Of good and bad, that mask and unfold error (21); Now opening his fardel, and difcovering the wealth in it. But this is no reason why he should call his father a mad old man. I have ventur'd to correct in the text:- -You're a made old man: i. e. your fortune's made by this adventitious treasure. So our Poet, before, in his Midfummer Night's Dream; We had all been made men: And so, again, in his Twelfth Night; Go to, thou art made if thou defireft to be fo. So Beaumont and Fletcher in their Elder Brother; We're made for ever. And in their Mad-Lover ; Siph. O happy I! Chil. You're a made man. And in a hundred more inftances, that might be quoted to prove the ufe of the expreffion. (21) -That make and unfold error.] This does not in my opinion take in the Poet's thought. Time does not make mistakes, and difcover them, at different conjunctures; but the Poet means that Time often for a feafon covers eriors, which he afterwards difplays and brings to light. I chuft therefore to read; N 2 -that Now take upon me, in the name of Time, The times, that brought them in ; fo fhall I do In fair Bohemia; and remember well, I mention here a fon o'th' Kings, whom Florizel Be known, when 'tis brought forth. A fhepherd's daughter, And what to her adheres, which follows after, Is th' argument of Time; of this allow, that mask and unfold error. To the like purpofe our Poet in Measure for Measure. Keep me in patience; and with ripen'd time' Unfold the evil which is here wrapt up In countenance: 'And, again, in his Lear; Time thall unfold what plaited cunning bides, [Exit. ACT SCENE, the Court of Bohemia. Enter Polixenes and Camillo. POLIXEN E S. 'tis a fickness denying thee any thing, a death to grant this. Cam. It is fifteen years fince I faw my country; though I have for the moft part been aired abroad, I defire to lay my bones there. Befides, the penitent King, my matter, hath fent for me; to whofe feeling forrows I might be fome allay, or I o'erween to think fo, which is another fpur to my departure. Pol. As thou lov't me, Camillo, wipe not out the reft of thy fervices by leaving me now; the need I have of thee, thine own goodness hath made better not to have had thee, than thus to want thee. Thou having made me bufineffes, which none, without thee, can fufficiently manage, must either flay to execute them thyfel, or` take away with thee the very fervices thou hast done; which if I have not enough confidered, (as too much I eannot,) to be more thankful to thee fhall be my ftudy; and my profit therein, the heaping friendfhips. Of that fatal country Sicilia, pr'ythee, fpeak no more; whofe very naming punishes me with the remembrance of that penitent, as thou call'ft him, and reconciled King my brother, whofe lofs of his most precious Queen and children are even now to be afresh lamented. Say to me, when faw'ft thou the Prince Florizel my fon? Kings are no lefs unhappy, their iffue not being gracious, than they are in lofing them, when they have approved their virtues. Cam. Sir, it is three days fince I faw the Prince; |
