county. Well might it in the poet's mind—as it should in the minds of his readers-serve well for the name of the archetype of poetic and romantic forests. Near twenty years ago, in Genoa, Where we were lodgers at the Pegasus.-Tam of S., iv. 4. V. I. Here Steevens flippantly scoffs at Shakespeare for having "taken a sign out of London, and hung it up in Padua." In the first place the commentator might be taunted with making a mistake in citing "Padua" instead of "Genoa"; in the next place, he might have bethought him, that the classical winged horse of poesy was likely to be as popular a sign in the classic land of Italy (where, to this day, classical allusions and classical tokens abound) as we learn that it was in the metropolis of England at the period when Shakespeare wrote. Or the bells of Saint Bennet, sir, may put you in mind; one, two, three.—Tw. N., Johnson sneers at the "impropriety" of introducing the bells of Saint Bennet here, as if there could be only an English church of that name with a peal of bells. Not merely are there churches dedicated to San Benedetto to be found in Italy; monasteries of Benedictine monks and convents of Benedictine nuns sufficiently abound there to make the Clown's allusion to some neighbouring church, monastery, or convent locally correct; while, moreover, any one acquainted with the perpetual clang and jangle of bells pertaining to Italian religious houses of every kind, can bear witness to the appropriateness of the allusion in this respect also. Our ship hath touch'd Upon the deserts of Bohemia.—W. T. iii. 3. Johnson is severe upon the "geographical error, by which Bohemia is supposed to be a maritime country.' The poet was not troubled by such " errors," which he found in the story whence he derived the plot of this exquisite play; for the story describes Bohemia as having a seacoast, and Delphos as an island. He knew well that in a romantic tale or play such deviations from truth and geography detract nothing from the truth of romance and poetry. Nevertheless, for the comfort of persons more solicitous respecting these nice points, we may state that the author of "Consuelo" has attempted to save Shakespeare's credit in this particular, by recording that Ottokar II. possessed, in addition to Bohemia, Austria, Carniola, Istria, and Styria, part of Carynthia, and even a sea-port which he purchased on the Adriatic; this sea-port being possibly the little port of Naon, bought by King Ottokar with the ostentatious view of asserting that his dominions extended to the shores of the Adriatic. That our dramatist could adhere to strictest accuracy where accuracy is needful to art-verity, we know; therefore we may infer that, where he makes accuracy subservient to typical and poetic truth in productions purely romantic, he has excellent reason for so doing. In the present play he has purposely brought together a host of allusions which, however incongruous if judged according to actual existence, are nowise illassorted, if beheld through the medium of imagination; and thus no violence is done to our sense of poetic propriety or to our poetic credence, by finding, assembled together in the "Winter's Tale," reference to Apollo's oracle, an emperor of Russia, a king of Sicilia, a puritan who "sings psalms to hornpipes," one Mistress Taleporter," "Whitsun-pastorals" and a baptismal "bearing-cloth." Each of these things, in their several introduction, serve the art-purpose of vividly idealising the subject treated; and are therefore poetically, if not prosaically, correct. Who should withhold me? Not fate, obedience, nor the hand of Mars Beckoning with fiery truncheon my retire.-Tr. & Cr., v. 3. Steevens observes, "We have here but a modern Mars. Antiquity acknowledges no such ensign of command as a truncheon," And though the commentator has the grace to add, "the spirit of the passage however is such as might atone for a greater impropriety," we can scarcely assent to the imputation of " impropriety "; since Shakespeare, throughout this play, has adopted the terms and attributes of chivalrous times which he found applied to the Greek and Trojan heroes in the Gothic and romantic versions of the story by Lydgate and Caxton, wherefrom he drew the groundwork for his drama, as well as from the more primitive and purely simple sources of Homer and Chaucer. Some of the expressions thus taken by the dramatist from the two first-named sources give a knightly effect to the characters: so that we find mention made of Troilus's "varlet (the term used for an attendant upon a knight), of Hector's "armourer"; Æneas words his challenge to the Greeks in the true chivalric tone, ending with the phrase "not worth the splinter of a lance"; Nestor speaks of his "beaver" and his "vantbrace"; Achilles says "that Hector, by the fifth hour of the sun, will, with a trumpet, 'twixt our tents and Troy, to-morrow morning call some knight to arms"; Diomed bids his servant take the steed which he has won in battle to Cressid as a token that he is her "knight by proof"; and we hear that Hector "fights on Galathè his horse": all of which, in combination, render the use of the term "truncheon " no impropriety, as belonging to those usages of knight-errantry with which the antique times of Troy and Greece in this drama are consociated by the author, for the sake of giving colour and refinement to his picture. I am attended at the cypress grove: I pray you Tyrwhitt inquires, "Where could Shakespeare have heard of these mills at Antium?" And Steevens replies, "Shakespeare is seldom careful about such little improprieties." But is there any "impropriety" at all-is there not rather propriety and vividness of effect— in introducing a touch of local detail that gives force and naturalness to the dialogue and situation? To beg of Hob and Dick, that do appear, Their needless vouches?-Ibid., ii. 3. Malone, with amusing severity, says, "By strange inattention our poet has here given the names (as in many other places he has attributed the customs) of England to ancient Rome. It appears that these were some of the most common names among the people in Shakespeare's time." Precisely so; and this is why the great play-writer, with his usual attention to dramatic fitness, introduced names that were so familiar to his audience as to be employed to express the rabble generally—" Jack, Tom, and Harry," or " Hob and Dick.” They are worn, lord consul, so.-Coriol., iii. 1. Again Malone is severe upon Shakespeare, because he "has here, as in other places, attributed the usage of England to Rome. In his time the title of lord was given to many officers of state who were not peers; thus, lords of the council, lord ambassador, lord general, &c." This was exactly a reason for the dramatist to employ an expression which he knew would be at once understood by the public whom he addressed, and therefore would well impress upon their mind the point he wished to emphasise-Coriolanus's new title and dignity. Let them pull all about mine ears; present me Or pile ten hills on the Tarpeian rock.-Ibid., iii. 2. was Malone takes great pains to show that neither breaking on the wheel nor tearing to pieces by wild horses were punishments known to the Romans; and therefore he objects to their being introduced here. As well might it be said that to " pile ten hills on the Tarpeian rock never known to be done in Rome as a means of punishing by death. For the purposes of poetic and dramatic effect, Shakespeare's putting these words into Coriolanus's mouth has a truth of appropriateness far beyond that demanded by the accuracies of chronological fact. Clubs, bills, and partisans !-R. & Jul., i. 1. To those who cavil at our poet's introducing this well-known rallying cry of old London streets into Verona streets, we may reply that the fact of its familiarity to the hearers of the play rendered it appropriate from the dramatist's pen, as the surest means of conveying to their minds the incident of a popular brawl in a public thoroughfare. Stay not to question, for the watch is coming.—Ibid., v. 3. It has been objected that no such establishment as that of nightwatchmen existed in Italian cities; nevertheless, not only did Shakespeare find mention of "the watch" in the old poem whence he took the story of this play; but much the same remarks apply to the present passage as we appended to the previous one. Believe me, I had rather have lost my purse full of cruzadoes.-Oth., iii. 4. Douce observes, "The cruzado was not current, as it should seem, at Venice, though it certainly was in England in the time of Shakespeare, who has here indulged his usual practice of departing from national costume." On the contrary, Shakespeare has here followed his usual practice of making the accuracies of national costume a secondary consideration to that of facile popular comprehension of foreign allusions. That "cruzadoes" were foreign coins well known to English people, sufficed for the dramatist's purpose. This new governor Awakes me all the enrolled penalties Which have, like unscour'd armour, hung by the wall And none of them been worn.-M. for M., 1. 3. Because the duke, in the next scene, is made to speak of these penalties as having been left "fourteen years" unenforced, Theobald complains of the discrepancy here, and says he makes no scruple of changing "fourteen" to "nineteen.” But Shakespeare occasionally has similiar variations in statement, such as we find in Nature, whom he copied with the implicitness of a Chinese artificer and the fidelity of a true poet. That a young fellow like Claudio should carelessly mention somewhere about the period in question, while the staid duke cites it exactly, is most natural and characteristic. When last the young Orlando parted from you, He left a promise to return again Within an hour.-As You L., iv. 3. Johnson authoritatively says, "We must read, within two hours; because when Orlando parts from the forest youth in act iv., sc. I., he has said, "For these two hours, Rosalind, I will leave thee." But similar discrepancies of stated times are not unfrequently made on purpose by Shakespeare, where he wishes to produce the effect of vague period or indefinite lapse from epoch to epoch. Bid him shed tears, as being overjoy'd To see her noble lord restor'd to health, Tam. of S., Induc. 1. In order to make this passage agree with those in the following scene, where "fifteen years are mentioned as the period of Sly's supposed delusion, Theobald altered "this seven years" to "twice seven years." But we have shown how Shakespeare intentionally gives these varied statements in time; and in the present instance we think he did so to impart a natural and characteristically humorous effect in the servant's exaggeration of his lord's commands. My youngest boy, and yet my eldest care.-Com. of E., i. 1. Mason says, "Shakespeare has here been guilty of a little forget fulness. Egeon had said that the youngest son was that which his wife had taken care of : My wife, more careful for the latter born, Had fasten'd him unto a small spare mast. It appears to us that the "forgetfulness" is the commentator's, not the dramatist's. Mr. Mason forgets that though the description states that the wife fastened the latter-born to the mast, it does not state that she fastened herself to the same end of the mast with her youngest son on the contrary, the account of the arrangement of the two pair of twin children, with their parents as their protectors bound at C "either end the mast," and then the accident which divided the mast in twain, is so managed by the dramatist as to allow of some latitude in construing the mode in which the two sets of persons are saved; thus, when we afterwards find that it was the elder son who escaped with the mother, and the younger son with the father, there is no violation of consistency. Moreover, " eldest "here bears the sense of ' most important,' 'first needing attention.' [See ELDER, ELDEST, &c.] Take what wife you will.-Mer. of V., ii. 9 (schedule). Upon this passage Johnson remarks, "Perhaps the poet had forgotten that he who missed Portia was never to marry any woman. But Take what wife you will" does not so much mean "take in future" as "might at any time have taken ;" and even if the "will" be strictly accepted as referring to a coming period, it would be but an added gibe in the mocking "schedule -a reminder of that wedlock which is henceforth forbidden. Methought you said court could witness it.-All's W., v. 3. Diana You saw one here in Blackstone sharply says, The poet has here forgot himself. has said no such thing." No; the poet here remembers his own dramatic practice of occasionally allowing certain points to be understood, for the sake of succinctness in explanation; more particularly so towards the close of his plays and during a winding-up scene, as in the present instance. [See CLOSING SCENES: BRIEF SCENES.] Thou wouldst have poison'd good Camillo's honour, Malone scoffingly inquires, " How should Paulina know this? No one had charged the king with this crime except himself, while Paulina was absent attending on Hermione. The poet seems to have forgotten this circumstance." Rather, the critic seems to have forgotten, or to have been ignorant, that Shakespeare sometimes permits such points as these, which are perfectly known to the audience, to be taken for granted as known to the persons speaking. Would I had been by, to have helped the old man !—Ibid., iii. 3. Steevens is contemptuously lenient with Shakespeare for having "inadvertently given this knowledge" [that Antigonus was old] "to the Shepherd who had never seen him." The inadvertency is the commentator's, who not only fails in being sure that the tone of the Clown's description allows age and incapacity for escape to be inferred, but also fails in the perception that the dramatist is here following a usual artistic practice of his. That this is an artistic practice, and not a "forgetfulness," or oversight," or "carelessness," or "inadvertence"-each of which have been such favourite accusations against him our present collected passages suffice evidently to show. I would to heaven, So my untruth had not provok'd him to it, The king had cut off my head with my brother's.-R. II., ii. 2. Ritson points out that "none of York's brothers had his head cut off, either by the king or any one else," adding, "the Duke of Gloster, to whose death he probably alludes, was secretly murdered at Calais, |