she learns the death of the prince her son, who Conceiving the dishonour of his mother, Had straight declined, drooped, took it deeply, sup The She swoons away with grief, and her posed death concludes the third act. two last acts are occupied with the adventures of her daughter Perdita; and with the restoration of Perdita to the arms of her mother, and the reconciliation of Hermione and Leontes, the piece concludes. Such, in few words, is the dramatic situation. The character of Hermione exhibits what is never found in the other sex, but rarely in our own-yet sometimes;-dignity without pride, love without passion, and tenderness without weakness. To conceive a character in which there enters so much of the negative, required perhaps no rare and astonishing effort of genius, such as created a Juliet, a Miranda, or a lady Mac beth; but to delineate such a character in the poetical form, to develope it through the medium of action and dialogue, without the aid of description: to preserve its tranquil, mild, and serious beauty, its unimpassioned dignity, and at the same time keep the strongest hold upon our sympathy and our imagination; and out of this exterior calm produce the most profound pathos, the most vivid impression of life and internal power: -it is this which renders the character of Hermione one of Shakspeare's master-pieces. Hermione is a queen, a matron, and a mother; she is good and beautiful, and royally descended. A majestic sweetness, a grand and gracious simplicity, an easy, unforced, yet dignified self-possession, are in all her deportment, and in every word she utters. She is one of those characters, of whom it has been said proverbially, that "still waters run deep." Her passions are not vehement, but in her settled mind the sources of pain or pleasure, love or resentment, are like the springs that feed the mountain lakes, impenetrable, unfathomable, and inexhaustible. Shakspeare has conveyed (as is his custom) a part of the character of Hermione in scattered touches, and through the impressions which she produces on all around her. Her surpassing beauty is alluded to in few but strong terms: This jealousy Is for a precious creature; as she is rare Praise her but for this her out-door form, If one by one you wedded all the world, I might have looked upon my queen's full eyes, and left them More rich for what they yielded. The expressions "most sacred lady," "dread mistress," "sovereign," with which she is addressed or alluded to, the boundless devotion and respect of those around her, and their confidence in her goodness and innocence, are so many additional strokes in the portrait. For her, my lord, I dare my life lay down, and will do 't, sir, Every inch of woman in the world, Ay, every dram of woman's flesh is false, If she be so. I would not be a stander-by to hear My sovereign mistress clouded so, without The mixture of playful courtesy, queenly dignity, and lady-like sweetness, with which she prevails on Polixenes to prolong his visit, is charming. POLIXENES. I may not, verily. HERMIONE. Verily! You put me off with limber vows; but I, Tho' you would seek t' unsphere the stars with oaths, And though the situation of Hermione admits but of few general reflections, one little speech, inimitably beautiful and characteristic, has become almost proverbial from its truth. She says, One good deed, dying tongueless, She receives the first intimation of her husband's jealous suspicions with incredulous astonishment. It is not that, like Desdemona, she does not, or cannot understand: |