ignorant of thefe rules, but difregarded them,"-it may be obferved, that the laws of the drama are clearly laid down by a writer once univerfally read and admired, 'Sir Philip Sidney, who in his Defence of Poely, 1595, has pointed out the very improprieties into which our author has fallen in this play. After mentioning the defects of the tragedy of Gorboduc, he adds: “But if it be fo in Gorboducke, how much more in all the reft, where you fhall have Afia of the one fide, and Affricke of the other, and fo manie other under kingdomes, that the player when he comes in, must ever begin with telling where he is, or else the tale will not be conceived. -Now of time they are much more liberal. For ordinarie it is, that two young princes fall in love, after many traverses fhe is got with childe, delivered of a faire boy: he is loft, groweth a man, falleth in love, and is readie to get another childe, and all this in two houres space: which how abfurd it is in fence, even fence may imagine." The Winter's Tale is fneered at by B. Jonfon, in the induction to Bartholomew Fair, 1614: "If there be never a fervant-monster in the fair, who can help it, nor a neft of antiques? He is loth to make nature afraid in his plays, like thofe that beget TALES, Tempests, and fuch like drolleries." By the neft of antiques, the twelve fatyrs who are introduced at the sheepfhearing feftival, are alluded to.-In his converfation with Mr. Drummond of Hawthornden, in 1619, he has another ftroke at his beloved friend: "He [Jonfon] faid, that Shakspeare wanted art, and fometimes fenfe; for in one of his plays he brought in a number of men, faying they had fuffered fhipwreck in Bohemia, where is no fea near by 100 miles." Drummond's Works, fol. 225, edit. 1711. When this remark was made by Ben Jonfon, The Winter's Tale was not printed. These words therefore are a fufficient answer to Sir T. Hanmer's idle fuppofition that Bohemia was an error of the prefs for Bythinia. This play, I imagine, was written in the year 1604. See An Attempt to afcertain the order of Shakspeare's plays. MALONE. Sir Thomas Hanmer gave himself much needlefs concern that Shakfpeare fhould confider Bohemia as a maritime country. He would have us read Bythinia: but our author implicitly copied the novel before him. Dr. Grey, indeed, was apt to believe that Doraftus and Faunia might rather be borrowed from the play; but I have met with a copy of it, which was printed in 1588.- -Cervantes ridicules these geographical mistakes when he makes the princefs Micomicona land at Offuna.- -Corporal Trim's king of Bohemia " delighted in navigation, and had never a fea-port in his dominions ;" and my lord Herbert tells us, that De Luines the prime minifter of France, when he was ambaffador there, demanded, whether Bohemia was an inland country, or lay upon the fea ?"There is a fimilar mistake in The Two Gentlemen of Verona, relative to that city and Milan. FARMER. The Winter's Tale may be ranked among the hiftoric plays of Shakfpeare, though not one of his numerous criticks and commentators have difcovered the drift of it. It was certainly intended (in compliment to queen Elizabeth) as an indirect apology for her mother Ann Boleyn. The address of the poet appea no where to more advantage. The subject was was too delicate to be exhibited on the stage without a veil; and it was to recent, and touched the queen too nearly, for the bard to have ventured fo home an altufion on any other ground than compliment. The unreafonable jealoufy of Leontes, and his violent conduct in confequence, form a true portrait of Henry the Eighth, who generally made the law the engine of his boisterous paffions. Not only the general plan of the story is most applicable, but feveral paffages are fo marked, that they touch the real history nearer than the fable. Hermione on her trial says: for honour, << 'Tis a derivative from me to mine, "And only that I ftand for." This feems to be taken from the very letter of Anne Boleyn to the king before her execution, where the pleads for the infant princefs his daughter. Mamillius, the young prince, an unneceffary character, dies in his infancy; but it confirms the allution, as queen Anne, before Elizabeth, bore a still-born fon. But the moft ftriking paffage, and which had nothing to do in the tragedy, but as it pictured Elizabeth, is,where Paulina, defcribing the new-born princess, and her likeness to her father, fays: "She has the very trick of his frown." There is one fentence indeed fo applicable, both to Elizabeth and her father, that I should fufpect the poet inferted it after her death. Paulina, speaking of the child, tells the king: 66 'Tis yours; "And might we lay the old proverb to your charge, "So like you, 'tis the worse.". The Winter's Tale was therefore in reality a fecond part of Henry the Eighth. WALPOLE. Dion, Another Sicilian Lord. Rogero, a Sicilian Gentleman. An Attendant on the young Prince Mamillius. Archidamus, a Bohemian Lord. Gaoler. An old Shepherd, reputed Father of Perdita: Servant to the old Shepherd. Autolycus, a Rogue. Time, as Chorus. Hermione, Queen to Leontes. Perdita, Daughter to Leontes and Hermione. Paulina, Wife to Antigonus. Emilia, a Lady, Two other Ladies, S attending the Queen. Mopfa, } Shepherdesses. Lords, Ladies, and Attendants; Satyrs for a dance; Shepherds, Shepherdeffes, Guards, &c. SCENE, fometimes in Sicilia, fometimes in Bohemia. WINTER's TALE. ACT I. SCENE I. Sicilia. An Antechamber in Leontes' Palace. Enter CAMILLO, and ARCHIDAMUS. Arch. If you fhall chance, Camillo, to vifit Bohemia, on the like occasion whereon my services are now on foot, you shall fee, as I have faid, great difference betwixt our Bohemia, and your Sicilia. Cam, I think, this coming fummer, the king of Sicilia means to pay Bohemia the visitation which he juftly owes him. 2 Arch. Wherein our entertainment shall shame us, we will be justified in our loves: for, indeed, Cam. 'Befeech you, Arch. Verily, I fpeak it in the freedom of my knowledge : we cannot with fuch magnificence-in fo rare-I know not what to fay. We will give you fleepy drinks; that your fenfes, unintelligent of our infufficience, inay, though they cannot praife us, as little accufe us. Cam. You pay a great deal too dear, for what's given freely. Arch. Believe me. I fpeak as my understanding instructs me, and as mine honefty puts it to utterance. Cam. Sicilia cannot fhow himself over-kind to Bohemia. They were trained together in their childhoods; and there rooted betwixt them then fuch an affection, which cannot choose but branch now. Since their more mature dignities, and royal neceffities, made feparation of their fociety, their encounters, though not personal, have been royally attorney'd,3 M 3 with 2 Though we cannot give you equal entertainment, yet the confcioufnefs of our good-will fhall juftify us. JOHNSON. 3 Nobly fupplied by fubftitution of embaffies, &c. JOHNSON. with interchange of gifts, letters, loving embaffies; that they have feem'd to be together, though abfent; fhook hands, as over a vaft; and embraced, as it were, from the ends of op pofed winds.4 The heavens continue their loves! Arch. I think, there is not in the world either malice, or matter, to alter it. You have an unfpeakable comfort of your young prince Mamillius; it is a gentleman of the greatest promife, that ever came into my note. Cam. I very well agree with you in the hopes of him: It is a gallant child; one that, indeed, phyficks the subject, makes old hearts fresh: they, that went on crutches ere he was born, defire yet their life, to fee him a man. Arch. Would they elfe be content to die? Cam. Yes; if there were no other excufe why they fhould defire to live. Arch. If the king had no fon, they would defire to live on crutches till he had one. SCENE II. The fame. A Room of ftate in the Palace. [Exeunt. Enter LEONTES, POLIXENES, HERMIONE, MAMILLIUS, CAMILLO, and Attendants. Pol. Nine changes of the watʼry ftar have been Would be filled up, my brother, with our thanks; Go hence in debt: And therefore, like a cypher, Yet 4 Shakspeare has, more than once, taken his imagery from the prints, with which the books of his time were ornamented. If my memory do not deceive me, he had his eye on a wood cut in Holinfhed, while writing the incantation of the weird fifters in Macbeth. There is alfo an allufion to a print of one of the Henries holding a fword adorned with crowns. In this paffage he refers to a device common in the title-page of old books, of two hands extended from oppofite clouds, and joined as in token of friendship over a wide wafte of country. HENLEY. 5 Affords a cordial to the ftate; has the power of affuaging the fenfe of mifery. JOHNSON, |