Note return to page 1 With characteristic antiquarian zeal, Kean's production of THE WINTER'S TALE emended “Bohemia” to “Bithynia” and set the play in Hellenic times, taking its stage designs, as the scholarly footnotes to this acting edition record, from artefacts in the British Museum. It was one of the most successful productions the play has ever had, achieving one hundred and two consecutive performances.

Note return to page 2 For references to Historical Authorities indicated by Letters, see end of each Act. For Authorities for Costumes, see the End of the Book.

Note return to page 3 [1] (1) The word “so” has been introduced from Collier's emendations; and several alterations of the text, from the same authority, have been adopted throughout the play, where the meaning of the author thereby appears to be rendered more palpable.

Note return to page 4 [2] (2) Nobly supplied by substitution of embassies. —Johnson.

Note return to page 5 [3] (3) Wide waste of country. Vastum was the ancient term for waste, uncultivated land. —Steevens.

Note return to page 6 [4] (4) We had satisfactory accounts yesterday of the state of Bithynia. —Johnson.

Note return to page 7 [5] (5) Gests were the names of the stages where the king appointed to lie during a royal progress.

Note return to page 8 [6] (6) Indeed.

Note return to page 9 [7] (7) A tick of the clock.

Note return to page 10 [8] (8) Flimsy.

Note return to page 11 [9] (9) A diminutive of lords—a word often used by Chaucer.

Note return to page 12 [10] (10) Setting aside original sin.

Note return to page 13 [10A] (10A) But to the purpose—come to the end.

Note return to page 14 [11] (11) She opened her hand, to clap the palm of it into his, as people do when they confirm a bargain. Hence the phrase to clap up a bargain. So in Henry VIII.:— “And so clap hands, and a bargain.”

Note return to page 15 [12] (12) The tune played at the death of the deer.

Note return to page 16 [13] (13) A supposed corruption of in-faith.

Note return to page 17 [14] (14) Hearty fellow.

Note return to page 18 [15] (15) Leontes, seeing his son's nose smutched, cries we must be neat; then recollecting that neat is the ancient term for horned cattle, he says not neat, but cleanly. —Johnson.

Note return to page 19 [16] (16) Playing with her fingers, as a girl playing on the virginals —a virginal being a small kind of spinnet.

Note return to page 20 [17] (17) Thou wantest the rough head and the budding horns (like a horned bull), that I have, to be full like me.

Note return to page 21 [18] (18) Full is used here adverbially—to be entirely like me.

Note return to page 22 [19] (19) Blue eye—of the same colour with the welkin, or sky.

Note return to page 23 [20] (20) So in First Part of Henry VI.:— “God knows, thou art a collop of my flesh.”

Note return to page 24 [21] (21) A squash is a pea-pod, in that state when the young peas begin to swell in it. —Henley.

Note return to page 25 [22] (22) This seems to have been a proverbial expression, used when a man sees himself wronged, and makes no resistance. He who will take eggs in place of money, seems to be what is called a tame snake.

Note return to page 26 [23] (23) May his share of life be a happy one.

Note return to page 27 [24] (24) Heir apparent—next claimant.

Note return to page 28 [25] (25) Mouth.

Note return to page 29 [26] (26) Allowing, in old language, is approving. —Malone.

Note return to page 30 [27] (27) A horned one—a cuckold.

Note return to page 31 [28] (28) Present time.

Note return to page 32 [29] (29) This is a seafaring expression, meaning the anchor would not take hold. —Steevens.

Note return to page 33 [30] (30) The more you requested him to stay, the more urgent he represented that business to be which summoned him away. —Steevens.

Note return to page 34 [31] (31) Casual observers, people accidentally present.

Note return to page 35 [32] (32) To round in the ear is to whisper, or to tell secretly. —Johnson.

Note return to page 36 [33] (33) This was a phrase employed when the speaker, through caution or disgust, wished to escape the utterance of an obnoxious term. —Steevens.

Note return to page 37 [34] (34) Inferiors in rank.

Note return to page 38 [35] (35) To hox is to ham-string.

Note return to page 39 [36] (36) Disorders in the eye.

Note return to page 40 [37] (37) Hour glass.

Note return to page 41 [38] (38) Hasty.

Note return to page 42 [39] (39) Maliciously—with effects openly hurtful.

Note return to page 43 [40] (40) Could any man so start off from propriety?

Note return to page 44 [41] (41) I am the person appointed to murder you.

Note return to page 45 [42] (42) To draw—persuade you. The character called the Vice, in the old plays, was the tempter to evil. —Warburton.

Note return to page 46 3320001[A] (A) The city of Syracuse was founded B.C. 734, by a colony of Corinthians and other Dorians, led by Archias the Corinthian.

Note return to page 47 3320002[B] (B) The first scene is taken from the Fountain of Arethusa, in Ortygia, the oldest part of Syracuse. Athenæus, Book xi., Chap. 6, tells us that there was a hearth, or altar, on the highest spot of the part called the Island, near the Temple of Juno Olympia, from which sailors about to go to sea used to take a goblet with them: just as their ship was losing sight of a shield on the upper part of the Temple of Minerva, they cast the goblet into the sea, filled with sacrificial offerings. The Temple of Minerva occupies the summit of the Island. It was erected by the Gamori in the sixth century B.C. To the left are the public granary, resembling a fortress in strength and magnitude, and the Embrontiæum, or consecrated house of Agathocles, the Architect of the Temple, which was struck by lightning. The roof of the Temple of Diana appears beyond that of Minerva, and to the extreme right is part of the Temple of Juno Olympia, with the hearth or altar before it. The face of the Fountain of Arethusa is restored from representations of public fountains amongst the painted vases of the British Museum, and the collection of Mr. Rogers.

Note return to page 48 3320003[C] (C) Bithynia, a country of Asia Minor, once a powerful kingdom, bounded on the west by the Propontis (Hellespont), and on the north by the Euxine (Black Sea), stretching towards Sinope (the birth-place of Diogenes, the cynic philosopher, and the capital of Pontus, under Mithridates). Phrygia and Mysia were to the south of Bithynia. This country was formerly called Bebrycia, and was first invaded by the Thracians, under Bithynus, from whom it derived the name of Bithynia.

Note return to page 49 3320004[D] (D) At banquets, odoriferous herbs and flowers were used in profusion. Myrtle was chiefly the material of which the chaplets were formed on these festive occasions. The rose ranked highest amongst the flowers that were interwoven in the chaplet, but the violet was also introduced. Often chaplets were of the most diverse flowers. Besides myrtle, the leaves of the silver poplar and the ivy were used. —Vide “Becker's Charicles.” Sappho was calls the damask rose “the pride of plants and queen of flowers,” and Anacreon mentions it as “the sweetest daughter of the spring.”

Note return to page 50 3320005[E] (E) In the heroic ages the Greeks sat—in the historic period they reclined at meals; but when the change occurred is not precisely ascertained. Modest women always sat, and when recumbent female figures occur in the antiques, they are Hetæræ. The guests laid themselves down, with the upper part of their bodies resting on the left elbow, the lower part extended at full length, or slightly bent, the head raised, and the back supported by pillows. If more than one guest lay upon the same couch, the one who was at the top stretched himself with his feet along the back of the second; the second placed his head against the stomach of the first, separated from him by a small cushion, and so on with the third and the rest. —Vide “Potter's Grecian Antiquities,” Book iv., Chapter 20.

Note return to page 51 3320006[F] (F) The female statues, supporting the architecture, in the Banquet scene, are Canephoræ, or basket-bearers. Girls were employed in religious processions, to carry baskets on their heads, containing the sacrificial instruments; hence the origin of the type in the southern porch of the Erectheum, at Athens. But such figures are especially appropriate in this scene, because the Syracusans held great annual feasts in honour of Diana, the tutelary goddess of the city, and called them Canephoria. —“Schol. in Theocr. Idyl.,” Book lxvi. After the battle of Platæa, where the Persians were finally overthrown, the Spartans, from their share of the spoils, erected a splendid portico. Instead of being supported by pillars, the roof rested on gigantic statues, representing Persians habited in flowing robes: so Praxiteles, and other Athenian artists, employed female figures for the same purpose, intending them to express the garb and to commemorate the disgrace of the Caryatides, or women of Carya, whose inhabitants joined the Persians after the battle of Thermopylœ. On the defeat of the Persians, the allied Greeks destroyed the town, slew the men, and led the women into captivity. —Vide “Smith's Dictionary of Greek Antiquities.”

Note return to page 52 3320007[G] (G) The air played by the musicians is one of the very few which have been found written in the original Greek characters (a Hymn to Apollo), handed down to us by Alypius. The date of the composition is considered by the learned Burette and others, quite as old as Dionysius, the music-master of Epaminondas. Lucretius ascribes the invention of music to the whistling of the winds in hollow reeds; Franckinus, to the various sounds produced by the hammers of Tubal-Cain; Cameleon Pontique and others, to the singing of birds; and Zarlino, to the sound of water. It is, however, agreed that music was first reduced to rules by Jubal, 1800 B.C. Harmony or concord in music was invented by Hyagnis, 1506 B.C. —“Haydn's Dictionary of Dates,” s. v. Music.

Note return to page 53 3320008[H] (H) The Pyrrhic, the most celebrated amongst the Greeks, was a sort of warlike dance. It was performed by a company of young men, and sometimes by a band of young men and maids together. These dancers were always armed, and struck their weapons against their shields, in a sort of musical cadence. The motions required in this exercise might be looked upon as a kind of training for the field of battle. —“Nuttall's Classical and Archæological Dictionary.” The Pyrrhic dance is described in Plato “de Legibus,” as a kind of mock fight, in which the dancers imitated all the motions of combatants, giving and receiving blows, and in leaping and vaulting. Also, the mode in which the enemy were attacked. The Pyrrhic dance was always accompanied by flutes. Under this name the Greeks classed all instruments of one tube or stock, which were blown through a metal mouth-piece, whether made of brass, of bone, of hard wood, or of reed. Pythian flutes, approaching to the still deeper Phrygian, were like our trumpets, and were suited to occasions of solemnity and grandeur by their tones. —“Hase's Ancient Greeks.” Xenophon, in the sixth book of the “Anabasis,” thus describes an entertainment given by the Greeks to the Paphlagonians:— “As soon as the libations were over, and they had sung the pæan, two Thracians rose up, and danced in full armour, to the sound of a pipe; they leaped very high, and with great agility, and wielded their swords; and at last one struck the other, in such a manner that every one thought he had killed him. He fell, however, artfully, and the Paphlagonians cried out; the other, having despoiled him of his arms, went out singing the Sitalces; while other Thracians carried off the man as if he had been dead; though indeed he had suffered no hurt. Afterwards some Ænians and Magnesians stood up, and danced what they call the Carpæan dance, in heavy arms. The nature of the dance was as follows. One man, having laid aside his arms, sows, and drives a yoke of oxen, frequently turning to look back as if he were afraid. A robber then approaches, and the other man, when he perceives him, snatches up his arms and runs to meet him, and fights with him in defence of his yoke of oxen; (and the men acted all this keeping time to the pipe;) but at last the robber, binding the other man, leads him off with his oxen. Sometimes, however, the ploughman binds the robber, and then, having fastened him to his oxen, drives him off with his hands tied behind him. “Next came forward a Mysian, with a light shield in each hand, and danced, sometimes acting as if two adversaries were attacking him; sometimes he used his shields as if engaged with only one; sometimes he whirled about, and threw a summerset, still keeping the shields in his hands, presenting an interesting spectacle. At last he danced the Persian dance, clashing his shields together, sinking on his knees, and rising again; and all this he performed in time to the pipe. “After him some Mantineans, and others of the Arcadians, coming forward and taking their stand, armed as handsomely as they could equip themselves, moved along in time, accompanied by a pipe tuned for the war-movement, and sung the pæan, and danced in the same manner as in the processions to the gods. The Paphlagonians, looking on, testified their astonishment that all the dances were performed in armour. The Mysian, observing that they were surprised at the exhibition, and prevailing on one of the Arcadians, who had a female dancer, to let her come in, brought her forward, equipping her as handsomely as he could, and giving her a light buckler. She danced the Pyrrhic dance with great agility, and a general clapping followed; and the Paphlagonians asked whether the women fought along with the men; when they replied that it was the women who had driven the king from his camp. This was the conclusion of the entertainments for that night.” According to Eusebius, the dance to the measure of time was invented by the Curetes, a people of Crete, called also Corybantes, 1534 B.C. The Greeks were the first who united the dance to their tragedies and comedies. According to Xenophon and Plutarch, the causes or objects of domestic dances were usually some particular family event, such as the anniversary of a birth, a marriage, the arrival or departure of a stranger, feasts, harvest time, the vintage, or other similar festivals. Even Socrates himself did not disdain to join in the pastime of the dance, on such occasions, as he had learned them from the beautiful Aspasia. Such dances were of a various character, according to the habits and manners of the different people to which they peculiarly belonged, and according, also, to the particular circumstances which called for their introduction. Homer, in the eighth book of the Odyssey, describes, as follows, the dances with which Alcinous, King of Phæacia (Corfu), honoured his guest, Ulysses:— “Skill'd in the dance, tall youths, a blooming band,” “Graceful before the heavenly minstrel stand;” “Light-bounding from the earth, at once they rise,” “Their feet, half viewless, quiver in the skies:” “Ulysses gazed, astonish'd to survey” “The glancing splendours, as their sandals play.”

Note return to page 54 [1] (1) Hence, I suppose, the title of the play. —Tyrwhitt.

Note return to page 55 [2] (2) Censure, in the time of our author, was generally used for judgment, opinion. —Malone.

Note return to page 56 [3] (3) That is, O that my knowledge were less. —Johnson.

Note return to page 57 [4] (4) That is, I am treated as a mere child's baby—a thing pinched out of clouts, a puppet for them to move and actuate as they please. —Heath.

Note return to page 58 [5] (5) That is, will stigmatize or brand as infamous. —Henley.

Note return to page 59 [6] (6) A confederate—an accomplice.

Note return to page 60 [7] (7) That is, if the proofs which I can offer will not support the opinion I have formed, no foundation can be trusted. —Johnson.

Note return to page 61 [8] (8) Far off guilty, signifies guilty in a remote degree, in merely speaking. —Johnson.

Note return to page 62 [9] (9) The aspect of stars was anciently a familiar term, and continued to be such till the age in which Milton tells us— “The swart star sparely looks.” Steevens.

Note return to page 63 [10] (10) That is, one who instigates.

Note return to page 64 [11] (11) The second is of the age of nine, and the third is some five years old.

Note return to page 65 [12] (12) That is, of abilities more than enough.

Note return to page 66 [13] (13) Leontes has before declared that there is a plot against his life and crown, and that Hermione is federary with Polixenes and Camillo. —Johnson.

Note return to page 67 [14] (14) Beyond the aim of any attempt that I can make against him. Blank and level are terms of archery. —Johnson.

Note return to page 68 [15] (15) Leave me solely—leave me alone.

Note return to page 69 [16] (16) The worst means only the lowest. Were I the meanest of your servants, I would yet claim the combat against any accuser. —Johnson.

Note return to page 70 [17] (17) A mankind woman is yet used in the midland counties for a woman violent, ferocious, and mischievous. It has the same sense in this passage. —Johnson.

Note return to page 71 [18] (18) Woman-tir'd is peck'd by a woman; hen-pecked. —Steevens.

Note return to page 72 [19] (19) Id est, thy old worn-out woman. A croan is an old toothless sheep; thence, an old woman. Chaucer uses the word in this sense. —Steevens.

Note return to page 73 [20] (20) Forced is false, uttered with violence to truth. —Johnson.

Note return to page 74 [21] (21) The female infant then on the stage.

Note return to page 75 [22] (22) Yellow being the colour of jealousy.

Note return to page 76 [23] (23) A lozel is a worthless fellow. This is a term of contempt frequently used by Spencer.

Note return to page 77 [24] (24) Commit to some place, as a stranger, without more provision. —Johnson.

Note return to page 78 [25] (25) The favour of Heaven.

Note return to page 79 [26] (26) Id est, to exposure, similar to that of a child whom its parents have lost. —Malone.

Note return to page 80 3320009[A] (A) In a Greek family the women lived in private apartments, allotted to their exclusive use. The first scene of the second act represents the Gynæconitis, or women's apartments, which had porticoes round only three of its sides, while the Andronitis, or men's apartments, was surrounded on all four sides by porticoes. The Peristyle or Court was a space open to the sky in the centre. —Vide “Smith's Dictionary of Greek Antiquities.”

Note return to page 81 3320010[B] (B) The music of the Greeks was either vocal or instrumental. Musical instruments were either wind or stringed. Amongst the instruments used by the ancients, the principal were the lyre, the flute, and the pipe. Of these the most famous was the lyre, to the strains of which they sang the exploits of heroes and songs of love. The strings were at first of linen thread, afterwards of catgut. Anciently the number of strings was three; afterwards four more strings were added. The flute was a celebrated instrument, employed in the sacrifices of the gods, entertainments, festivals, and funerals. The inventor of the flute was Jubal, although the Greeks ascribe it to Hyagnis, a Phrygian, who lived in the time of Joshua. Flutes were made of the bones of mules or fawns; they were also made of the bones of asses and elephants, and of reeds and box wood. The pipe differed from the flute in having a thin, sharp sound, whereas that of the flute was full and grave. The Greeks attributed to music great power, not only over the minds, but over the bodies of men, believing that various diseases were cured by it. Musical instruction formed a principal part of the education of their children. —“Paul's Antiquities of Greece.”

Note return to page 82 3320011[C] (C) Near Syracuse there are certain quarries, one of which still bears the name of “the ear of Dionysius,” because it is said to have been used by that tyrant for a prison, and to have been so constructed that all the sounds uttered in it, conveyed to, and united in one particular point, termed, in consequence, the tympanum. This point communicated with an apartment where Dionysius placed himself, and thus overheard all that was said by his unsuspecting captives. Such is the popular tradition. There is no doubt, however, that these quarries actually served as places of imprisonment, and Cicero reproaches Verres with having employed them for this purpose in the case of Roman citizens. —Vide “Anthon's Classical Dictionary.”

Note return to page 83 3320012[D] (D) This scene displays a view of the mainland and the region called Achradina, from the summit of the Acropolis, commanding also the Isthmus and palace and gardens of Dionysius the First, afterwards destroyed by Timoleon. The horizon is bounded with tombs, and the district above the theatre, called Temenitis, is distinguished by a colossal statue of Apollo. Below, lining the greater harbour, are the bazaars, magazines, landing-places, and the Agora. The designs of the tapestries are taken from some of the richest compositions on vases discovered in the south of Italy. The subjects are from Greek mythology:—The fight round the body of Patroclus—the ransoming the body of Hector—battle between the Greeks and Amazons—the Calydonian boar hunt—the story of Alpheus and Arethusa.

Note return to page 84 3320013[E] (E) We find early mention in the Greek writers, of oaths being taken on solemn and important occasions, as treaties, alliances, vows, compacts, and agreements, both between nations and individuals. That the Greeks (as a nation) were deeply imbued with religious feeling, and paid high regard to the sanctity of oaths, may be gathered from the whole tenor of their early history, and especially from the writings of the poets, Homer, Æschylus, and Pindar. They prided themselves on being superior in this respect to the barbarians. Anciently, the person who took an oath stood up, and lifted his hand to heaven, as he would in prayer; for an oath was a species of prayer, and required the same sort of ceremony. The parties used also to lay their hands upon the victims, or on the altar, or some other sacred thing, as if by so doing they brought before them the Deity, by whom the oath was sworn, and made him witness of the ceremony. —“Smith's Dictionary of Greek Antiquities,” p. 649.

Note return to page 85 [1] (1) A scheme laid—a designed formed.

Note return to page 86 [2] (2) That is, my virtue being accounted wickedness, my assertion of it will pass but for a lie. Falsehood means both treachery and lie. —Johnson.

Note return to page 87 [3] (3) That is, which unhappiness.

Note return to page 88 [4] (4) Life is to me now only grief, and as such only is considered by me; I would, therefore, willingly dismiss it. —Johnson.

Note return to page 89 [5] (5) To spare anything is to let it go, to quit the possession of it. —Johnson.

Note return to page 90 [6] (6) This sentiment, which is, probably, borrowed from Ecclesiasticus iii., 11, cannot be too often impressed on the female mind:— “The glory of a man is from the honour of his father; and a mother in dishonour, is a reproach unto her children.” Steevens.

Note return to page 91 [7] (7) What sudden slip have I made, that I should catch a wrench in my character. So in Timon of Athens:— &lblank; “A noble nature” “May catch a wrench.” Steevens.

Note return to page 92 [8] (8) They who have done like you.

Note return to page 93 [9] (9) It is your business to deny this charge, but the mere denial will be useless—will prove nothing. —Malone.

Note return to page 94 [10] (10) The supreme blessing of my life.

Note return to page 95 [11] (11) Born under an inauspicious planet.

Note return to page 96 [12] (12) The degree of strength which it is customary to acquire before women are suffered to go abroad after child-bearing. —Steevens.

Note return to page 97 [13] (13) Of the event of the Queen's trial: so we still say he sped well of ill. —Johnson.

Note return to page 98 [14] (14) This is another instance (as in the previous retractation of Leontes), of the sudden changes incident to vehement and ungovernable minds. —Johnson.

Note return to page 99 3320014[A] (A) The term Theatre naturally leads us to think of our own play-houses; yet nothing can be more distinct from our Theatre in its entire structure than that of the Greeks was. And if we read the Greek plays, thinking of a stage and scenes like our own, this alone will be sufficient to set these compositions altogether in a false light, and warp our conceptions of the entire proceeding. The principal authority on the subject of the ancient Theatre, in accuracy of detail, is Vitruvius, who likewise clearly marks the important distinctions there were between the Greek and Roman Theatres. The Theatre of the Greeks was without roof or covering above; their plays were always acted in broad day, and under the open sky. To us this seems very uncomfortable, but the Greeks were not at all soft in their habits; the mildness of the climate also should be taken into account. If a storm came on, or a pelting shower of rain, the play was stopped; and they were willing to put up with such occasional inconveniences rather than by cooping themselves up in a close, musty building, to bedim the sunny cheerfulness of a national religious festival—for such in fact their theatrical performances were. They were careful to select a beautiful situation. The Theatre at Tauromenium (now Taormina) in Sicily, of which the ruins are still visible, was so situated, that over the back ground of the scenes there was a view of Ætna. Compared with our Theatres, those of the ancients were projected on a scale of colossal dimensions. The theatre of Bacchus at Athens stood on the south-eastern side of the eminence crowned by the noble buildings of the Acropolis. From the level of the plain a semicircular excavation gradually ascended up the slope of the hill to a considerable height. Round the concavity, seats for an audience of thirty thousand persons rose range above range; and the whole was topped and enclosed by a lofty portico, adorned with statues, and surmounted by a balustraded terrace. The tiers of benches were divided into two or three broad belts, by terraces; and again transversely into wedge-like masses, by several flights of steps, radiating upwards from the level below to the portico above. The lower seats, as being better adapted for seeing and hearing, were considered the most honourable, and therefore appropriated to the high magistrates, the priests, and the senate. The young men sat apart in a division to themselves: the sojourners and strangers had also their places allotted to them. Twelve feet beneath the lowest range of seats lay a level space called the orchestra. In the middle of this open flat stood a small platform, square and slightly elevated, called Thymele, which served both as an altar for the sacrifices that preceded the exhibition, and as the central point to which the choral movements were all referred. On the side of the orchestra opposite the amphitheatre of benches, and exactly on a level with the lowest range, stood the platform, or stage, communicating with the Dromos by a double flight of steps. The stage was cut breadth-wise into two divisions. The one in front, called Logeum, was a narrow parallelogram, projecting into the orchestra. This was generally the station of the actors when speaking, and therefore was constructed of wood, the better to reverberate the voice. The part of the platform behind the Logeum was called the Proscenium, and was built of stone, in order to support the heavy scenery and decorations which were placed there. The proscenium was backed and flanked by lofty buildings of stone-work, representing externally a palace-like mansion, and containing within, withdrawing rooms for the actors, and receptacles for the stage machinery. In the central edifice were three entrances upon the Proscenium, which by established practice were made to designate the rank of the characters as they came on; the highly ornamented portal in the middle, with the altar of Apollo on the right, being assigned to royalty, the two side entrances to inferior personages. In a similar way, all the personages who made their appearance on the right of the stage, were understood to come from the country; while such as came in from the left were supposed to approach from the town. On each side of the proscenium and its erections, ran the high lines of buildings, with architectural fronts, which contained spacious passages into the theatre from without, communicating, on the one hand, with the stage and its contiguous apartments; on the other, through two halls, with the orchestra, and with the portico, which ran round the topmost range of the seats. Behind the whole mass of stage buildings was an open space covered with turf and planted with trees. Around this ran a portico called the Eumenic, which afforded a ready shelter to the audience during a sudden storm. Such was the construction and arrangement of the great Athenian theatre. Its dimensions must have been immense. If, as we are assured, 30,000 persons could be seated on its benches, a spectator in the central point of the topmost range must have been 300 feet from the actor in the Logeum. Whatever diminution of effect to the eye and ear was occasioned by the distance, was compensated by artificial contrivances; by the masks, namely, which enlarged the features of the face, and by the cothurnus, which proportionably elevated the figure. The power of the voice was increased by means of an apparatus attached to the mask. Vitruvius also mentions certain cavities or recepticles for sound, distributed about the building. In general it may be assumed that the theatres of the ancients were constructed on excellent acoustic principles. The scenery of the Athenian stage was doubtless corresponding to the magnificence of the theatre. The stage-machinery appears to have comprehended all that modern ingenuity has devised. As the intercourse between earth and heaven is very frequent in the mythologic dramas of the Greeks, the number of aerial contrivances was proportionably great. Were the deities to be shewn in converse aloft? there was a platform surrounded and concealed by clouds. Were gods or heroes to be seen passing through the void of the sky? there were a set of ropes, which, suspended from the upper part of the proscenic building, served to support and convey the celestial being along. There was also a sort of crane turning on a pivot with a suspender attached, placed on the right, or country side of the stage, and employed suddenly to dart out a god or hero before the eyes of the spectators, and there keep him hovering in air, till his part was performed, and then as suddenly withdraw him. There was moreover a contrivance, or room beneath the Logeum; where bladders full of pebbles were rolled over sheets of copper to produce a noise like the rumbling of thunder. There was a place on the top of the stage buildings, whence the artificial lightning was made to play through clouds, which concealed the operator. When the action was simply on earth, there were certain pieces of frame-work, representing a look-out, a fortress wall, a tower, and a beacon. These were either set up apart from the stationary erections of the proscenium, or connected so as to give them, with the assistance of the canvas scene, the proper aspect. Such were some of the devices for the scenes of heaven and earth; but as the ancient dramatists fetched their personages not unfrequently from Tartarus, other provisions were required for their due appearance. Beneath the lowest range of seats, under the stairs, which led up to them from the orchestra, was fixed a door, which opened into the orchestra from a vault beneath it by a flight of steps. Through this passage entered and disappeared the shades of the departed. Somewhat in front of this door and steps was another communication by a trap-door with the vault below, by means of which any sudden appearance like that of the furies was effected. In the floor of the Logeum, on the right, or country side, marine or river gods ascended when occasion required. The Greeks in many instances turned the literal reality to account. In the Eumenides, for example, the actual audience is twice addressed under the character of the assembled multitude of the story. So those frequent invocations of heaven were doubtless addressed to the real heaven overhead; and when Electra comes on the stage exclaiming, “O, holy light, and air co-expansive with earth,” it is likely she turned herself to the then actually mounting sun. In tragedy the scene was rarely changed. In comedy, however, this was frequently done. To conceal the stage during this operation, a curtain, wound round a roller beneath the floor was drawn up through a slit between the Logeum and proscenium. The spectators hastened to the theatre at the dawn of day to secure the best places, as the performances commenced very early. After the first exhibition was over, the audience retired for a while until the second was about to commence. There were three or four such representations in the course of the day, thus separated by short intervals. During the performance, the people regaled themselves with wine and sweetmeats. They were accustomed to express both their applause and disapprobation in the most boisterous manner. The number of actors never exceeded three; hence, when it was necessary to introduce a fourth personage, one of the three was obliged to retire and change his dress. The poet, however, might introduce any number of mutes, as guards, attendants, &c. The number of the Chorus was probably at first indeterminate; afterwards it was fixed by law at fifteen in tragedy, and twenty-four in comedy. The situation assigned to the chorus was the orchestra, from whence it always took a part in the action of the drama, joining in the dialogue through the medium of its Leader. Sometimes the chorus was divided into two groups, each with a Coryphæus. Whilst engaged in singing their choral strains to the accompaniment of flutes, the performers were also moving through dances, in accordance with the measure of the music, passing, during the strophe, across the orchestra from right to left; during the antistrophe, back from left to right, and stopping at the epode in front of the spectators. Each department of the drama had a peculiar style of dance suited to its character. The music was of a varied kind, according to the nature of the occasion, or the taste of the poet. The Doric, Lydian, and Ionic moods were well fitted for tragedy. Sophocles first introduced the Phrygian, and Euripides the innovations of Timotheus, for which he is censured by Aristophanes. In the first age of the drama, the rude performers disguised their faces with wine lees. Æschylus introduced the mask. These masks were of various kinds, to represent every age, sex, and condition. The buskin was the ancient Cretic hunting boot: for tragic use it was soled with several layers of cork, to the thickness of three inches. It was laced up in front as high as the calf. Sometimes the sandal was worn by the tragedians. The ladies and the chorus had also the buskin, but that of the latter had only an ordinary sole. These buskins were of various colours: white was commonly the colour for ladies, red for warriors. Those of Bacchus were purple. Slaves wore the low shoe called the sock, which was also the ordinary covering for the foot of the comic actor. As the cork sole of the cothurnus gave elevation to the stature, so the stuffing swelled out the person to heroic dimensions. The dresses were very various: there were long tunics for gods, heroes, and old men; shorter ones for hunters, travellers, young men, and warriors. The long purple robe for queens and princesses; slaves wore a kind of shawl, or a shirt with only a sleeve for the right arm. Herdsmen and shepherds were clad in a kind of goatskin tunic without sleeves. Hunters had a short horseman's cloak of a dark colour. Matrons wore a large robe of fine cloth embroidered. The dress of the gods was particularly splendid. The comic dresses were of course chiefly those of ordinary life, except during an occasional burlesque upon the tragic equipments. As from the nature of writing materials in those times they had not a facility of making numerous copies, the parts were studied by means of reiterated recitations from the poet, and the chorus was practised in the same way. This was called teaching a play. As the poet was a musician as well, and most commonly an actor too, this must have contributed much towards making the performance perfect. —Vide “Donaldson's Theatre of the Greeks.”

Note return to page 100 3320015[B] (B) The Guardian Deity of the Doric race was Apollo, who under his various attributes, presided over the most varied relations and circumstances of life.

Note return to page 101 3320016[C] (C) The oracles of Apollo were not only the most numerous, but of the greatest repute; and amongst them the most celebrated of all was that of Delphi. It is said to have been discovered by means of some goats, which, whilst browsing on mount Parnassus, were observed to be seized with strange antics whenever they approached the mouth of the cavern in the mountain. This oracle was very ancient, and flourished above a hundred years before the Trojan war. The responses of the oracle were delivered by a woman called Pythia, who, after having washed her body, and especially her hair, in a fountain called Castalis, and having shaken the laurel-tree which grew by it, and sometimes eaten the leaves, seated herself on a sacred tripod, on which was placed a lid of a circular figure with a hole in it, and thence delivered her prophecies with the voice and manner of a maniac. The time of consulting this oracle was anciently only one month in the year; afterwards the opportunities were more frequent, but never oftener than once a month. The answers were always delivered in Greek, and for many ages in hexameter verse. The city of Pytho or Delphi was situated on the little plain which surrounded that cleft in the ground over which the tripod was placed. This spot was supposed by the ancients to be the middle of the world, because two eagles dispatched by Jupiter at the same moment from the two extremities of the heavens are said to have met there; hence it was called the navel of the earth. The first temple, concerning the building of which nothing is known, was succeeded by an edifice of stone, which was accidently burnt in the first year of the fifty-eighth olympiad, B.C. 548. The Amphictyons then engaged to build another for 300 talents, one-fourth of which sum was to be paid by the Delphians. The Alcmæonidæ, an Athenian family, having agreed to construct the edifice of Porine stone, afterwards substituted Parian marble for the front, a circumstance which is said to have given them considerable influence at Delphi. The temple of Delphi was full of magnificent offerings, presented by those who had at different times consulted the oracle. The most remarkable of the Pythian responses are those which Herodotus records as having been delivered to the Athenians before the invasion of Xerxes, to Crœsus, Lycurgus, Glaucus the Spartan, &c. There was however no difficulty in bribing the Pythia. The oracle at Delphi had lost its reputation at the commencement of the Christain era, and is said to have ceased altogether from the time when Nero, annoyed at one of its responses, polluted it by killing men in the mouth of the cavern, out of which the sacred inspiration ascended. “Paul's Antiquities of Greece.” They always returned from the oracle crowned with chaplets.

Note return to page 102 3320017[D] (D) The Ark or Chest in which the oracle is conveyed from Delphi, is derived from an Egyptian example and a Pompeian painting. The tripod is emblematic of the Delphic oracle. The mode of sealing in accordance with several historical records of sealing caves and stone apertures. Both monarchs and lords affixed their seals upon a large surface of fine clay. Examples of seals of this kind, with chords or bands passing through them, have recently arrived in the British Museum from Nineveh. The panels on the Chest are ornamented with devices from some newly-discovered coins of Delphi, and subjects allusive to the meeting of the birds in the centre of the earth. The inscriptions are the recorded sayings of the seven wise men of Greece. The clubs carried in the hands of the bearers are seen in all representations of heavy burdens carried in procession.

Note return to page 103 3320018[E] (E) Oracles were written down on skin or parchment. It was the custom to write down what the oracle said, that it might not be forgotten. —Herodotus. Certain persons who professed themselves poets, obtained a living by frequenting the Temple of Apollo, and taking down the responses of the Priestess, with amplifications. —“Plutarch on the Pythia and Delphi.”

Note return to page 104 3320019[F] (F) It was considered a pious duty to visit the grave, not only on fixed days, but at other times, from a belief that the presence of those who were friends of the deceased in this life, was as agreeable as the approach of enemies was hateful. —“Becker's Charicles.”

Note return to page 105 [1] (1) Perfect is often used by Shakespeare for certain, well assured, or well informed. —Johnson. It is so used by almost all our ancient writers. —Steevens.

Note return to page 106 [2] (2) Thy description; id est, the writing afterwards discovered with Perdita. —Steevens.

Note return to page 107 [3] (3) This clamour was the cry of the dogs and hunters; then seeing the bear, he cries, this is the chace, or, the animal pursued. —Johnson.

Note return to page 108 [4] (4) Id est, a child.

Note return to page 109 [5] (5) I am told, that in some of our inland counties, a female infant, in contradistinction to a male one, is still termed, among the peasantry, a child. —Steevens.

Note return to page 110 [6] (6) Id est, swallowed it, as our ancient topers swallowed flap-dragons. —Steevens.

Note return to page 111 [7] (7) A bearing cloth is the fine mantle or cloth with which a child is usually covered, when it is carried to the church to be baptized. —Percy.

Note return to page 112 [8] (8) Id est, some child left behind by the fairies, in the room of one which they had stolen. —Steevens.

Note return to page 113 [9] (9) The nearest way.

Note return to page 114 [10] (10) Id est, leave unexamined the progress of the intermediat time which filled up the gap in Perdita's story.

Note return to page 115 [11] (11) Imagine for me.

Note return to page 116 [12] (12) Argument is the same with subject. —Johnson.

Note return to page 117 [13] (13) To allow, in our author's time, signified to approve. —Malone.

Note return to page 118 [14] (14) Think too highly.

Note return to page 119 [15] (15) Missingly noted means, I have observed him at intervals, not constantly or regularly, but occasionally. —Steevens.

Note return to page 120 [16] (16) Some talk.

Note return to page 121 [17] (17) Autolycus was the son of Mercury, and as famous for all the arts of fraud and thieving as his father. “Non fuit Autolyci tam piccata Manus.” Martial. See also Homer's “Odyssey,” Book xix.

Note return to page 122 [18] (18) As the infant was supposed by the astrologers to communicate of the nature of the star which predominated, so Autolycus was a thief. —Warburton.

Note return to page 123 [19] (19) With gaming and lewd practices, I brought myself to this shabby dress.

Note return to page 124 [20] (20) Picking pockets.

Note return to page 125 [21] (21) A tod is twenty-eight pounds of wool. —Percy.

Note return to page 126 [22] (22) This is a vulgar exclamation, which I have often heard used. So, Sir Andrew Ague-cheek, in Twelfth Night:— “Before me, she's a good wench.” Steevens.

Note return to page 127 [23] (23) To prig is to filch. —Malone. In the canting language prig is a thief or pick-pocket; and, therefore, in the “Beggar's Bush,” by Beaumont and Fletcher, prig is the name of a knavish beggar. —Whalley.

Note return to page 128 [24] (24) To hent the stile-a is to take hold of it. —Steevens.

Note return to page 129 [25] (25) That is, your excesses, the extravagance of your praises. —Johnson.

Note return to page 130 [26] (26) The object of all men's notice and expectation. —Johnson.

Note return to page 131 [27] (27) To prank is to dress with ostentation. —Steevens.

Note return to page 132 [28] (28) That is, thoughts far-fetched, and not arising from the present object. —M. Mason.

Note return to page 133 [29] (29) Ophelia distributes the same plants, and accompanies them with the same documents:—“There's rosemary, that's for remembrance. There's rue for you: we may call it herb of grace.” The qualities of retaining seeming and savour, appear to be the reason why these plants were considered as emblematical of grace and remembrance. The nosegay distributed by Perdita, with the significations annexed to each flower, reminds one of the enigmatical letter from a Turkish lover, described by Lady M. W. Montague. —Henley. Rue was called herb of grace. Rosemary was the emblem remembrance. —Johnson.

Note return to page 134 [30] (30) It was formerly the fashion to kiss the eyes, as a mark of extraordinary tenderness. In Homer's “Odyssey,” Eumæus kisses both the eyes of Telemachus. —Steevens.

Note return to page 135 [31] (31) The prince tells her something that calls the blood up into her cheeks, and makes her blush. —Theobald.

Note return to page 136 [32] (32) That is, we are now on our behaviour. —Johnson.

Note return to page 137 [33] (33) A valuable tract of pasturage.

Note return to page 138 [34] (34) In 1604 was entered on the books of the Stationers' Company, “A strange reporte of a monstrous fish, that appeared in the form of a woman, from her waist upward, seene in the sea.” To this it is highly probable that Shakespeare alludes. —Malone.

Note return to page 139 [35] (35) Sad for serious.

Note return to page 140 [36] (36) Dressed themselves in habits imitating hair. A dance of satyrs was no unusual entertainment in the middle ages.

Note return to page 141 [37] (37) By the foot-rule.

Note return to page 142 [38] (38) The fine sieve used by millars to separate flour from bran, is called a bolting cloth. —Harris.

Note return to page 143 [39] (39) “Lift up the light of thy countenance.” —Psalm iv., 6.

Note return to page 144 [40] (40) Fancy very often, as in this place, means love. —Johnson.

Note return to page 145 [41] (41) Something over and above, or, as we now say, something to boot. —Johnson.

Note return to page 146 [42] (42) Bundle, parcel.

Note return to page 147 [43] (43) Estate, property.

Note return to page 148 [44] (44) The stately tread of courtiers.

Note return to page 149 [45] (45) The allusion here was probably more intelligible in the time of Shakespeare than it is at present, though the mode of bribery and influence referred to, has been at all times employed, and as it should seem, with success. Our author might have had in his mind the following, then a recent instance:—In the time of Queen Elizabeth there were Justices of the Peace, called Basket Justices, who would do nothing without a present, yet, as a member of the House of Commons expressed himself, “for half a dozen of chickens would dispense with a whole dozen of penal statutes.” —See “Sir Simon D'Ewes's Journals of Parliament in Queen Elizabeth's reign.” —Reed.

Note return to page 150 [46] (46) A punishment of this sort is recorded in a book, which Shakespeare might have seen. “He caused a cage of yron to be made, and set in the sunne; and, after annointing the pore prince over with hony, forced him, naked, to enter it, where hee long time endured the greatest languor and torment in the worlde, with swarmes of flies that dayly fed on him; and in this sorte with paine and famine, ended his miserable life.” —“The Stage of Popish Toyes, 1581.”

Note return to page 151 [47] (47) The hottest day foretold in the almanack. —Johnson.

Note return to page 152 [48] (48) Means, I having a gentlemanlike consideration given me, i. e., a bribe, will bring you, &c. —Steevens.

Note return to page 153 3320020[A] (A) The existence of bears in the East, is exemplified in the 2nd chapter of the Second Book of Kings, in the 23rd, 24th, and 25th verses:— “And he (Elisha) went up from thence unto Beth-el: and as he was going up by the way, there came forth little children out of the city, and mocked him, and said unto him, Go up, thou bald head; go up, thou bald head. “And he turned back, and looked on them, and cursed them in the name of the Lord. And there came forth two she bears out of the wood, and tare forty and two children of them. “And he went from thence to mount Carmel, and from thence he returned to Samaria.”

Note return to page 154 3320021[B] (B) The rank of a child was indicated by the splendour and costliness of its swaddling-clothes. Sometimes a fine white shawl, tied with a gold band, was used for the purpose; at other times, a small purple scarf, fastened with a brooch. —“Smith's Dictionary of Greek Antiquities,” p. 512. Longus, in the “Loves of Daphnis and Chloe,” describes the infant Daphnis, when first discovered by the goatherd, Lamon, as being swathed in a little mantle of fine purple, fastened by a golden clasp.

Note return to page 155 3320022[C] (C) Amongst the numerous classical dances, was the rustic, which Pan, the presumed inventor, ordered to be made in the midst of a wood. Young men and women danced it together, with crowns of flowers and garlands hanging from the left shoulder, and fastened to the right side. —“Nuttall's Classical Dictionary.”

Note return to page 156 3320023[D] (D) Pedlars are mentioned in “Baxter's Charicles” as frequenting the Dionysia, at Athens, with their wares, clothes, and ornaments, both false and genuine. We read also in “Hase's Ancient Greeks,” that the monotony of female life was sometimes interrupted by the chance visit of a Phœnician merchant, who was admitted into the women's apartments to display his caskets of jewellery. In the “Odyssey,” a gold necklace, with amber studs, is mentioned.

Note return to page 157 3320024[E] (E) The general character of the festivals of Dionysus (or Bacchus) was extravagant merriment and enthusiastic joy. It was the custom to disguise themselves as Satyrs. They covered the body with plaster, soot, vermilion, and different sorts of green and red juices of plants, wearing goats and deer skins round the loins, covering the face with large leaves of different plants, and in wearing masks of wood, bark, and other materials. Drunkenness and the boisterous music of flutes, cymbals, and drums, were likewise common to all Dionysiac festivals. The women also took part, adorned with garlands of ivy, and bearing the thyrsus in their hands, so that the whole train represented a population inspired and actuated by the powerful presence of the God. Maidens carried baskets of fruit, and to amuse the people, serpents were sometimes put into them, which, crawling out of their places, astonished the beholders. A vessel of wine, adorned with a vine branch, was brought forth, followed by a goat. Some put on fawn skins, and others carried Thyrsi, drums, pipes, flutes, and rattles, covered with garlands, sacred to Bacchus, such as the ivy, vine, fir, &c., and sometimes on their hands they wore gloves made of flowers. In this manner dozens of both sexes ran about the hills, deserts, and other places, wagging their heads, dancing in ridiculous postures and antic motions, filling the air with hideous noises and yelling, personating men distracted. —Vide “Potter's Grecian Antiquities,” and “Dr. Smith's Dictionary of Greek Antiquities.”

Note return to page 158 [1] (1) Full of grace and virtue.

Note return to page 159 [2] (2) In conversation.

Note return to page 160 [3] (3) Worth signifies any kind of worthiness, and among others that of high descent. —Johnson.

Note return to page 161 [4] (4) Recollect the period when you were of my age. —Malone.

Note return to page 162 [5] (5) Worked—agitated.

Note return to page 163 [6] (6) This line is introduced from Collier's Emendations.

Note return to page 164 [7] (7) The expression seems to have been taken from the sacred writings:—“And I heard a great voice out of the Temple, saying to the Angels, go your ways, and pour out the vials of the wrath of God upon the earth.” —Rev. xvi. 1.

Note return to page 165 [8] (8) You who by this discovery have gained what you desired, may join in festivity, in which I, who have lost what never can be recovered, can have no part. —Johnson.

Note return to page 166 [9] (9) Partake here means participate.

Note return to page 167 3320025[A] (A) Our knowledge of the horticulture of the Greeks is very limited. We must not look for information respecting their gardens to the accounts which we find in Greek writers of the gardens of Alcinoüs, filled with all manner of trees and fruit and flowers, and adorned with fountains (Odyss. vii. 112–130), or of those of the Hesperides (Hesiod, Theog. 25), or of the paradises of the Persian satraps, which resemble our parks (Xen. Anab. i. 2. § 7; Oeconom. iv. 26, 27; Plut. Alcib. 24); for the former gardens are only imaginary, and the manner in which the paradises are spoken of by Greek writers shows that they were not familiar with anything of the kind in their own country. In fact the Greeks seem to have had no great taste for landscape beauties, and the small number of flowers with which they were acquainted afforded but little inducement to ornamental horticulture. The sacred groves were cultivated with special care. They contained ornamental and odoriferous plants and fruit trees, particularly olives and vines. (Soph. Oed. Col. 16; Xen. Anab. v. 3. § 12.) Sometimes they were without fruit trees. (Paus. i. 21. § 9.) The only passage in the earlier Greek writers, in which flower-gardens appear to be mentioned, is one in Aristophanes, who speaks of &grk;&grha;&grp;&gro;&gru;&grst; &gre;&grus;&grw;&grd;&gre;&gri;&grst; (Aves, v. 1066). At Athens the flowers most cultivated were probably those used for making garlands, such as violets and roses. In the time of the Ptolemies the art of gardening seems to have advanced in the favourable climate of Egypt, so far, that a succession of flowers was obtained all the year round. (Callixenus, apud Athen. v. p. 196.) Longus (Past. ii. p. 36) describes a garden containing every production of each season, “in spring, roses, lilies, hyacinths, and violets in summer, poppies, wild-pears (&gras;&grx;&grr;&graa;&grd;&gre;&grst;) and all fruit; in autumn, vines and figs, and pomegranets and myrtles.” That the Greek idea of horticultural beauty was not quite the same as ours, may be inferred from a passage in Plutarch, where he speaks of the practice of setting off the beauties of roses and violets, by planting them side by side with leeks and onions (Plutarch, de cap enda ex inimicis utilitate, c. 10). Baxter considers this passage proof that flowers were cultivated more to be used for garlands than to beautify the garden. —“Smith's Dictionary of Greek Antiquities.”

Note return to page 168 3320026[B] (B) Leontes appears in the last act in a mourning dress. Mourning dresses were used, not only in cases of death, but also on other occasions. A black Himation (the cloak) only is always mentioned; and it is probable that the Chiton (the tunic or under garment) was not changed. —“Becker's Charicles.”

Note return to page 169 3320027[C] (C) The tombs excavated in the rock between the ancient theatre and the heights of Epipolæ, afford an opportunity to show the various monumental tributes paid to the memory of the dead. The inscribed stile, the architectural portico, the column entwined with rich fillets and consecrated gifts, mark the honours paid by the wealthy; but under the shadow of the same rock an humbler kind of offering was also to be seen; the poorer classes cultivated little plots of flowers, and planting tall stakes upon the site of interment, attached bands and ribbons to them, not unfrequently shreds of their own garments, torn off in the agony of grief. The same custom still obtains in the mountain districts of Asia Minor.

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