Would thus have wrought1 you, (for the stone is mine,) I'd not have showed it.2 Leon. Paul. No longer shall May think anon it moves. Do not draw the curtain. you gaze on't; lest your Let be, let be. 'Would I were dead, but that, methinks, alreadyWhat was he that did make it?-See, my lord, Would you not deem, it breathed? and that those veins Did verily bear blood? Pol. Masterly done. The very life seems warm upon her lip. Leon. The fixture of her eye has motion in't, As we are mocked with art.3 Paul. I'll draw the curtain My lord's almost so far transported, that Leon. Paul. I am sorry, sir, I have thus far stirred you; but I could afflict you further. Leon. Do, Paulina; For this affliction has a taste as sweet As any cordial comfort.-Still, methinks, There is an air comes from her. What fine chisel Could ever yet cut breath? Let no man mock me, For I will kiss her. Paul. Good my lord, forbear. You'll mar it, if you kiss it; stain your own 1 Worked, agitated. 2 The folio reads, "I'd not have showed it." In the late edition of Malone's Shakspeare it stands, "I'll not have showed it." But surely this is erroneous. 3 As for as if. With has the force of by. Quit presently the chapel; or resolve you By wicked powers. Leon. What you can make her do, I am content to look on; what to speak, I am content to hear; for 'tis as easy Paul. It is required, You do awake your faith. Then, all stand still, [Music. 'Tis time; descend; be stone no more; approach; [HERMIONE comes down from the pedestal. You kill her double. Nay, present your hand. When she was young, you wooed her; now, in age, Is she become the suitor. Leon. O, she's warm! [Embracing her. If this be magic, let it be an art Lawful as eating. Pol. She embraces him. Cam. She hangs about his neck; Pol. Ay, and make't manifest where she has lived, Or, how stolen from the dead. Paul. That she is living, Were it but told you, should be hooted at Like an old tale; but it appears she lives, And pray your mother's blessing.-Turn, good lady; Her. [Presenting PER., who kneels to HER. You gods, look down, And from your sacred vials pour your graces Upon my daughter's head!-Tell me, mine own, Where hast thou been preserved? where lived? how found Thy father's court? For thou shalt hear, that I— Gave hope, thou wast in being-have preserved Paul. Will wing me to some withered bough; and there Lament till I am lost. Leon. O peace, Paulina; Thou shouldst a husband take by my consent, And made between's by vows. mine; Thou hast found But how, is to be questioned; for I saw her, 1 You who by this discovery have gained what you desired. And take her by the hand; whose worth, and honesty, Is 2 richly noted; and here justified 3 By us, a pair of kings.-Let's from this place.- My ill suspicion.-This your son-in-law, 4 And son unto the king, (whom Heavens directing,) [Exeunt. 1 Whose relates to Camillo, though Paulina is the immediate antecedent. In the loose construction of ancient phraseology, whose is often used in this manner, where his would be more proper. 2 It is erroneously printed for is here in the late Variorum Shakspeare. 3 Look upon, for look on. Thus in King Henry V. Part III. Act ii. Sc. 3: "And look upon, as if the tragedy," &c. 4 Whom is here used where him would be now employed. THIS play, as Dr. Warburton justly observes, is, with all its absurdities, very entertaining. The character of Autolycus is naturally conceived, and strongly represented. JOHNSON. This is not only a frigid note of approbation, but is unjustly attributed to WARBURTON, whose opinion is conveyed in more enthusiastic terms. He must in justice be allowed to speak for himself. "This play throughout is written in the very spirit of its author. And in telling this homely and simple, though agreeable, country tale, 'Our sweetest Shakspeare, Fancy's child, This was necessary to observe in mere justice to the play; as the meanness of the fable, and the extravagant conduct of it, had misled some of great name (i. e. Dryden and Pope) into a wrong judgment of its merit; which, as far as regards sentiment and character, is scarce inferior to any in the collection." COMEDY OF ERRORS. PRELIMINARY REMARKS. THE general idea of this play is taken from the Menæchmi of Plautus; but the plot is entirely recast, and rendered much more diverting by the variety and quick succession of the incidents. To the twin brothers of Plautus are added twin servants, and though this increases the improbability, yet, as Schlegel observes, "when once we have lent ourselves to the first, which certainly borders on the incredible, we should not probably be disposed to cavil about the second; and if the spectator is to be entertained with mere perplexities, they cannot be too much varied." The clumsy and inartificial mode of informing the spectator by a prologue, of events, which it was necessary for him to be acquainted with in order to enter into the spirit of the piece, is well avoided, and shows the superior skill of the modern dramatist over his ancient prototype. With how much more propriety is it placed in the mouth of Egeon, the father of the twin brothers, whose character is sketched with such skill as deeply to interest the reader in his griefs and misfortunes! Development of character, however, was not to be expected in a piece which consists of an uninterrupted series of mistakes and laughter-moving situations. Steevens most resolutely maintained his opinion that this was a play only retouched by the hand of Shakspeare; but he has not given the grounds upon which his opinion was formed. We may suppose the doggerel verses of the drama, and the want of distinct characterization in the dramatis personæ, together with the farcelike nature of some of the incidents, made him draw this conclusion. Malone has given a satisfactory answer to the first objection, by adducing numerous examples of the same kind of long verse from the dramas of several of his contemporaries; and that Shakspeare was swayed by custom in introducing it into his early plays, there can be no doubt; for it should be remembered that this kind of versification is to be found in Love's Labor's Lost, and in The Taming of the Shrew. His better judgment made him subsequently abandon it. The particular translation from Plautus which served as a model, has not come down to us. There was a translation of the Menæchmi, by W. W. (Warner), published in 1595, which it is possible Shakspeare may have seen in manuscript; but from the circumstance of the brothers being, in the folio of 1623, occasionally styled Antipholus Erotes or Errotis, and Antipholus Sereptus, perhaps for Surreptus and Erraticus, while in Warner's translation the brothers are named Menæchmus Socicles and Menæchmus the traveller, it is concluded that he was not the Poet's authority. It is difficult to pronounce decidedly between the contending opinions of the critics; but the probability is, that the whole of the play is from the hand of Shakspeare. Dr. Drake thinks it "is visible throughout the entire play, as well in the broad exuberance of its mirth, as in the cast of its more chastised parts, a combination of which may be found in |