CHAPTER VII.

THE WINTER'S TALE.
*' The fixture of her eye has luotion in%
Aa wt art moek'd wUh art."
-—Winter's Tale.
** Let this interim Uke the oceaii be Which parts the shore, where two contracted new Come daily to the hanks, that, when they see Return of love, more blest may be the view ; Or ecUl U winter, which being full of care. Makes summer welcome thrice more wished, more rare.
— Sonnets.
What is the connection between the title of this play and its subject-matter ) How is it we find in this play of The Winter's Tale the story of DemSter and her lost child Persephone, not only in this particular point of loss and recovery, but embracing the separation and reconciliation that belonged to her worship at the Eleusinian festival 1 If the myth of Dem^ter or Ceres is incor- porated, under a slightly disguised form, as the central plot of The Winter^s Tale, then we have conclusive proof that the poet's art has a spiritual side, and promise of rebirth, because this myth was the ancient emblem for revelation and immortality. Kay, more, we shall have proof that this art is a vehicle for the mysteries, and that here it touches hands mysteriously with the oral transmission of Freemasonry. In every book upon the history of the craft, we find ourselves taken back to these Eleu- sinian Mysteries, and it will indeed be a significant hint for Masons to ponder over, that the same great mind that wrote the " New Atlantis," and founded modem Freemasonry, should be found embodying in his art the antiquities to which they trace
J40 THE WINTER'S TALE.
their symbols and their history. Bacon writes of his two methods : one is what he terms his orci transmission ; the other, anticipation of the mind. It would be curioas if we some day find these two methods answering and explaining each oiher. Bat, meanwhile, let us examine this play by the light of oar theory.
In Tht Wifdei^s Tale we find the prominent feature of the play to turn upon the separation of Leontes and Hermione, which is accompanied with the throwing out or loss of Perdita. The play leads or opens up to this point. Then, as upon the turning- point of a centre, it descends again to bring about the reconcilia- tion and harmony of husband and wife, which go hand in hand with the finding or restoration of Perdita. It is the tatter's loss and rediscovery, which is really so strikingly made to fit in with the separation and reconciliation. The finding of Perdita is one of the conditions of the oracle ; and if the student reflects upon the play, he will come to the conclusion that the coming to life of Hermione, of her descent from her pedestal, depends upon the restoration of Perdita. In the presentation of Hermione, as a statue awaiting the return of her own child, we have un- doubtedly — most unquestionably (in spite of all the world's con- trary criticism even) — a portrait not only of the poet's own art, but of ^Nature in Winter, and of the Demeter and Persephone myth, commonly known as the wanderings of Ceres in search of her lost daughter. It may be disguised, altered, and beautified in the play, but it is there, "those holy arUigye^ hours" of true
^ *' But makes antiquity for aye his jHige ;
Finding the first conceit of love there bred,
Where time and outward form would show it dead.*'
— Sonnet cvilL Again —
'* In him those ?ioly antique Jtoura are seen.
Without all ornament, itself, and true,
Making no summer of another's green,
Robbing no old to dress his beauty new ;
And him as for a map doth Nature store,
To show false Art what beauty was of yore."
— Sonnei Ixviii
THE WINTER'S TALE, 141
art— Nature's art, where " antiquity has been made for aye his page/' and with which he has gone, as he declares "usque ad aras.** Therefore it is most important for us to examine the evidence upon which we base our theory. And first, as to the myth.
The story of Ceres and Proserpine (their Latin names) is uni- versally admitted to represent a beautiful allegory of the changing year. It is a personified tale of the earth life, and thus is a Winter and Summer story. For the loss of Proserpine and her restoration is but the history of Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter, through which the earth life waxes and wanes as proto- types of life and death. Summer being ushered in by the Spring, and being lost in Autumn, was personified by a beautiful maiden associated always with flowers. She remains six months with her mother the earth, and then she is carried away by Dis or Pluto to the underworld where she remains during Winter. She is in reality the earth life or Spirit, that brings new life to sleep- ing Nature — her mother. With her advent everything puts on the glory and vitality of awakened Spring. With her loss the earth (her mother), falls into the icy image of death, or sleep — as Winter. The thoughtful reader will at once see, what a splendid allegoiy this is for an art affecting to imitate Nature, and present posterity with a rebirth or revelation. Because there is in this personified allegory of mother and lost child, just that falling asleep of Nature, which is as death to life, when compared with the reawakened glory of the restored life and spirit, which would be the spirit of interpretation as rebirth. Such an allegory not only holds out a picture of Nature, but as self-reflecting ^ suggests that the art borrowing the story is presenting us a hint of its own profound character.
We now have to show that whenever the poet introduces Ceres,
* Compare Sonnet 24 upon this self -reflecting revelation or rebirth. Also —
*' To give away yourself, keeps yourself still ; And you must live, draum by your oum aweei skUL"
— Sonnet xvi.
142 THE WINTERS TALE.
he thinks of Proserpiney and introdaces her also, as is shown in the following passage from The Temped : —
^ Ceres, Tell me, heavenly bow.
If Venus or her son, as thou dost know, Do now attend the queen 1 Since they did plot The means that dusky Dis my daughter got. Her and her blind boy's scandl'd company I have forsworn."
This is evident proof (if it were needed) to show that the rape of Proserpine (daughter of Ceres) by Dis, or Pluto, was not only known to the poet, but is introduced here curiously in company with Ceres. Now, directly we turn to Perdiia in The JFintei^s Tale, where she plays the part of (mark it) a lost child (like Pro- serpine), we find her not only identified with the spring and flowers, but invoking her prototype Proserpine whom she so significantly resembles ! Not only is Perdita introduced in the 4th scene of Act IV., as a kind of Flora, but extraordinary emphasis is given to her speeches, in which she treats of the seasons of Winter and Summer. If the poet were presenting us Proserpine herself (whom we know represented allegorically the Spring), with her new spirit and life, how could he make it more evident 1 Florizel says of Perdita : —
" These your unusual weeds to each part of you Do give a life : no shepherdess, but Flora Peering in April's front."
Note the expression, ''unusual weeds" — for flowers are the " unusual weeds " that " do give life " to Winter in the Spring 1 She is identified with '' Flora peering in April's front" 1 What^ indeed, is this if it is not Spring itself? and mark the expression, * do give a life I ' What gives lifel We reply, ^Spirit * only. And it is as Spirit that Lord Bacon interprets the story of Proserpine in his "Wisdom of the Ancients," published 1609 — the same year as this play we are treating of appeared, viz., The WinUffs Tale, 1609 ! Bacon says :— " By Proserpina is meant that ethereal Spirit which, being
THE WINTERS TALE. 143
separated from the upper globe, is shut up and detained under the earth represented by Pluto." Again — " Concerning the six months' custom (the refinding of Ceres and her rape), it is no other than an elegant description of the division of the year, 0^ difirii mixed tcith the earth appears above ground in vegetaile bodies during the summer months, and in the winter sinks down again." (" Wisdom of the Ancients," Works, Montagua)
The italics belong to us. We are quite satisfied in holding to Bacon's interpretation, which in the abstract is life returning to the apparently dead earth — rebirth — the revelation— of Nature's immortality — by a return of the Spirit. The separation of the Spirit from the body is therefore Death, or apparent death. For such is the condition of Nature during Winter apparent Death. Now let us note that the poet, in repeatedly making Perdita allude to Winter and Summer, gives us evidence that he is pre- senting us with a representative Proserpine of his own, under the alias of Perdita. First she is compared to a goddess —
** Flarizel. This your Sbeep-shearing
Is as a meeting of the petty gods, And you the queen on **."
We know that Proserpine was Queen of the Underworld —
" Perdita. And me, poor lowly maid,
Most goddess-like, prank'd up."
That the poet is thinking of the gods is most evident from the following passage : —
" Flo. Apprehend
Nothing but jollity. The gods themselves, Humbling their deities to love, have taken The shapes of beasts upon them : Jupiter, Became a bull, and beliow'd ; the green Neptune A ram, and bleated ; and the fire-robed god^ Golden Apollo, a poor humble swain. As I seem novoP
It indeed seems as if Florizel were but a disguise for Apollo himself, the sun which awakes the spring. Now let us give the
144 THE WINTERS TALE.
flower scenes^ so well known and so beautiful, where Perdita presents flowers to suit all her guests : —
" Perdita. Give me those flowers there, Dorcas. Reverend sirs, For you there 's rosemary and rue ; these keep Seeming and savour all the winter long.
PoL Shepherdess, —
A fair one are you — well you fit our ages With flowers of winter.
Perdita, Sir, the year growing ancient,
Not yet on summer's death, nor on the birth Of trembling winter, the fairest flowers of the season Are our carnations and streakVl gillyvors, Which some call nature's bastards : of that kind Our rustic garden's barren ; and I care not To get slips of them.
Pol. Wherefore, gentle maiden,
Do you neglect them ?
Perdita. For I have heard it said
There is an art which in their piedness shares With great creating nature.''
We pause here to point out that if the earth itself were pictured presenting flowers of all seasons, it would be this lovely picture of Perdita that would suggest itself. We see that the poet especially dwells upon Winter and Summer, and their respec- tive flowers in this scene. And once more we call attention to tlie parallel — for the myth of Ceres and Proserpine is a Winter and Summer story. We go so far as to say that it can hardly be considered an impropriety to call the wanderings of Ceres iu search of her lost daughter by the same title as this play, viz. : A Wintei^s Tale. For what is this myth but the apparently dead personified earth in winter seeking for its immortal spirit or life, the lost child — rebirth in the Spring ! Let it be remarked that Perdita is allied with the Spring and Summer, not only as type of her own vernal beauty, but in a marked way which emphasizes the glory of full Midsummer. And be it here noted that Proser- pine is often termed the Summer child of Ceres.
For the present we leave the pregnant passage whereby Polixenes identifies Nature with Art, and Art with Nature, aside.
THE WINTEI^S TALE, 143
Because though full of signification for our purpose, at present it only detracts from our main issue. And now we quote Perdita's speech upon her prototjrpe Proserpine : —
" Perdita, O ProserpiDa !
For the flowers now, that frighted thou let'st fall
From Dis's waggon ! daffodils,
That come before the swallow dares, and take
The winds of March with beauty ; violets dim
But sweeter than the lids of Juno's eyes.
Or Cytherea's breath ; pale primroses.
That die unmarried, ere they can behold
Bright Phoebus in his strength — a malady
Most incident to maids ; bold oxlips and
The crown imperial ; lilies of all kinds.
The flower-de-luce being one ! "
The flower-de-luce is the fleur-de-lis, a Hosicrucian emblem. Let us not overlook this pregnant passage. It shows us unmis- takably by its length and invocation to Proserpine that the poet is full of thought upon this myth. Every flower he mentions is a Spring Flower, and therefore in the most perfect harmony with the address to the goddess who was the personification of Spring — Proserpine.
We thus see that there is much in this scene to show that the
poet always has the picture of Proserpine in his mind's eye ! At
the point where she returns to her father, and brings life to her
mother, the king exclaims —
** Welcome hither As is the spring to the earth,**
But the really striking parallel to the myth is that in the final presentation of Hermione as a statue. We have the following from Themistius, who tells us, writing in the fourth century of the Christian era (illustrating his father's exposition of Philosophy), **the priest throwing open the propylsa of the Temple at Eleusis, whereupon the statue of the goddess under a burst of light appeared in full splendour, and the gloom and darkness in which the spectators have been were dispelled." (Christie's Disquisitions, 59.)
K
146 THE WINTERS TALE.
For the unclassical reader to understand fully this passage, and the extraordinary parallel of circumstance, we must explain that Ceres was the goddess whose statue was thus shown (in Greek, DemSter). She it was who not only repre- sented the earth, but, like Hermione, had a daughter who (like Perdita) was lost. The entire myth, which was the central doctrine of the Eleusinian Mysteries, was this myth of the sleeping earth — awaiting the return of its lost Spring child to restore it to life again. It was the history of the year, dra- matised and personified to illustrate the immortality of Nature, and the immortality of the soul. Indeed it is round the altars of this Dem^ter and of Dionysos (Ceres and Bacchus) that the drama took its origin. And the protagonists of this drama were a mother and a lost child, in the same sense of separation and final reconciliation, that we see reproduced in The fFitUet's Tale. It is for us now to examine any further facts in the play, that can reinforce the resemblance. And, first of all, here is one. Hermione is a name the poet invents and did not borrow, inas- much as in the original from which The fFinter's Tale is taken, the original of Hermione is called Bellaria. Bellaria dies in the middle of Greene's story (" Pandosto, or the triumph of Time,'' 1588). Nothing of the original is preserved. The introduction of the statue is also original, and, most of all, this name Hermione. Now Hermione was a city on the coast of Argolis, where Ceres had a famous temple. Aelianus calls the feasts or banquets at Hermione %^ov/c« ioprfj. And we also know that at Syracuse a Dem^ter and Kore were honoured under the name of Hermione. (Heysch., p. 1439.)
But we have another striking parallel to point out. The story of the rape of Proserpine belongs to Sicily, for it was whilst Proserpine was gathering flowers upon the plains of Enna, in Sicily, that Pluto surprised her and carried her off below. We thus see that there is an important local connection obtaining between the play and the classical fable we are illustrating.
We must now ask ourselves the question, whether in the selec-
THE WINTERS TALE. i47
tion and inveution of names for his drarnatis persona, the poet has been guided by rationalism or pure fancy ? It has always seemed to us one of the characteristics of the profundity of the plays, that the names are so often found to be in exquisite harmony, with the parts which they respectively take in the plays.
For example, this name of Perdita is connected uith her loss. Similarly, Marina, in the play of Fericles, is named after her birth at sea.
** Pericles, My gentle babe, Marina, whom.
For she was bom at sea, I have named so,"
" Ant, And, for the babe
Is counted lost for ever, Perdita, I prithee call *t,"
Take the name Autolycus ; we find the poet consciously select- ing it, with the full knowledge, that the Autolycus of mythology was a son of Mercury, and a cunning thief : —
" Autolycus, My father named me Autolycus, who being, as I am littered under Mercury, was likewise a snapper-up of unconsidered trifles,^
Or examine the name of Posthumous in Cymbeline, and we see that it is in harmony with the facts of his birth. We find there- fore that there is no haphazard choice of names, but that the poet likes to connect the names of his characters with something relating to the part they play. Therefore we are justified in the conclusion, that a careful examination of the source, connection, and history of the names which he has himself invented, may lead to very valuable discoveries. This connection obtaining between name and rdle, is proof of a spiritual and rationalistic side to the poet's art. In The Tempest,^ again, we find the name of Miranda consciously chosen, and adapted for some spiritual revelation. Ferdinand, on beholding Miranda, exclaims —
" O you wonder / If you be maid or no ? Mir. No wonder, sir ;
But certainly a maid."
148 THE WINTER'S TALE.
We see at once that Miranda (which is Latin for " wonderful things '') is no chance name, but carefully and consciously selected by the poet.
Or take the name of Borachio in Much Ado About Nothing, It means a drunkard, (" From the Spanish " harachoe " or " borracho" a bottle made of pig's skin, with the hair inside, dressed with resin and pitch to keep the wine sweet." — Minshew.) The proof that the author of the play knew the meaning of the word, and intro- duced it on that account, is shown in the way Borachio plays upon his own name —
" I will like a true drunkard (Borachio) utter all to thee." — (iii. 5).
Here is evidence that the writer was acquainted with Spanish.
Upon a further examination of the name Hermione, we find that it is strangely connected with Harmonia, and with Dem^ter. And it is indeed a curious fact that one of the great doctrines taught at Eleusis round the statue of Demeter (Ceres) was the
SEPARATION OF MATTER AND SPIRIT, AND THEIR RECONCIUATION.
The entire play of The Winter's Tale turns upon separation and final reconciliation. This is the subject-matter of the play, dis- cord and separation, to be followed by reconciliation and heavenly harmony. Let it be noted that Perdita's exposure, loss, and rediscovery go hand in hand, with the separation of Leontes from his wife, and their final reunion. The rediscovery of Perdita, in which she is likened to the Spring, is closely followed by the discovery of the statue of Hermione, and her return to life. It is as if the lost Perdita were the instrument bringing new life to her mother ! In the classical myth it is Proserpine who brings new life to the apparently sleeping or dead earth. Mark that Her- mione is not really dead, but is pictured as a statue, devoid of life, awaiting interpretation, revelation, rebirth, or rediscovery, to be dead Art no longer, nor winter, but the year come full circle. We apply the epithet Art to Hermione as a statue. And we do so advisedly, inasmuch as in this play the poet has identified Art with Nature and Nature with Art. That is to say that this play
THE WINTER'S TALE. 149
may (from our point of view, or by the light of our theory) apply indifferently to the poet's particular Art, as an exquisite portrait of the Eevelation and Rebirth which he has planned, pictured, and reflected in " philosophical play systems j " or it may apply to Nature generally. It was indeed a wise precaution of the poet to identify Nature with Art and Art with Nature, in a play which itself was reflecting, in its spiritual life, both at once ! The whole of the Platonic philosophy is the identification of Nature with Art —God being the Divine Artist, the Divine Poet, — or Maker, — Creator. Nicetas (or Psellus), in his commentaries (in Gregor. Or xliL 1731, D.), says, "Si Orpheo credimus et Flatonicis et Lycio philosopho — Naiura dei ars qucedam est " (960 Aglaophamus. Lobeck). Indeed, the poet is perfectly conscious that Hermione, as a statue seemingly dead, yet alive, awaiting rebirth, is a splendid and astounding image of his unrevealed Art.
" The fixture of her eye hath motion in% As we are mock'd with art^
And then follows that solemn music, which is so mysteriously and strikingly brought in at moments like these, and which suggests a real lost chord which we must find.
Uermvme.
Harmonia, or Harmony, Hermione, was the daughter of Mars and Venus, Mars and Venus is another expression for War and Love, or Strife and Friendship. Creuzer writes that Mars and Venus were always to be found placed together in the Temples of Antiquity : ^ — " Mars and Venus begot or brought forth Harmonia (or Hermione), which is, that strife with friendship brought forth the Jiarmony or order of the universe. These are the well-known principles of Empedocles and Heraclitus out of the Orphic The-
^ " Die alte Bildnerei stellte Mars und Venos in Tempeln immer zusammen. Mars und Venas erzeugen die Harmonia, d. L der strtit mit der Einigung gegattet bringt die Weltordnung hervor. Das sind die bekannten satze des Empedocles and Heraclitus aus der Orpbischen Theo- logie, Ton denen aus sie in die spiitesten philosophenschulen sich fort- pBanzten." (Vol. iii. 41, 3rd edit. Symbolik.)
ISO THE WINTER'S TALE.
ology, from which they developed and transferred themselves to
the latest philosophical schools'' (vol. iii. p. 21, " Symbolik ").
{yide "Die Briefe uber Horn. u. Hes." p. 169); (ride " Plut^e-
Isid.," p. 370) j (" Heraclides Alleg. Horn.," p. 206, Schow) ;
("Proclus in Plat. Tim.," p. 147); (" Eustath ad Odyess," viii.
266 sqq,^ p. 310) ; (compare " Empedocles Fragmn.," v. 203, «^j.
p. 522, ed. Sturz, note, page 598); (Juliani, Orat. iv., 150 B.,
Spanh.).
Now it is very important, that in bringing forward our
argument, we should show that in Chester's '* Love's Martyr "
we find a direct allusion to this phUosophy, and its protagonists,
Mars and Venus : —
*' Upon a day I thought to scale a Fort, United with a tower of sure defence ; Uncomfortable thres (tic) did marre my sport, Unlucky Fortune with my woes expense, Venus with Man would not sweet war commence ; Upon an altar would I offer Love, And sacrifice my soule's poore Turtle-Dove."
— Chester's " Love*s Martyr."
Now here is some curious evidence afforded us, which we may review in the following order : — Bacon declares, " Strife and Friendship in Nature are the spurs of motions and the KEYS OF WORKS.** In another place he connotes these doctrines with the names of Empedocles and Heraclitus. So that, as we have seen in our quotation from Creuzer, these are the philo- sophical principles which, as " Love and Warfare " — (Venus and Mars) — ^gave birth to Hermione or Harmonia ; in short, the law and harmony of the orderly universe. Again, it is very clear that the subject-matter of Chester's "Love's Martyr," round which the poems mysteriously circle, is connected, not only with " a rare piece of art" challenging comparison with Homer, but is connected with these classical principles of ** Strife and Friend- ship," which sprang from Ephesus, and are the origins of the Platonic philosophy. Not only this, but we find in a play attri- buted to Shakespeare (or to the author of the plays that bear his
THE WINTERS TALE, 151
name), a most direct reference and introduction of the pro- tagonists of these philosophical principles. In the Trco Ndbh Kinsmen^ we find a scene laid before the altars of Mars and Venus. Mr Brown tells us -that '' the marriage of Cadmus with Har- monia (or Hermione), is the union of Thought with the orderly Material World/' Hermione, we find, was a daughter of Venus and Mars, or of Love and War, which Bacon terms Friendship and Strife ! It is these two principles which we recognize running throughout entire Kature as Gravitation and Bepulsion, centri- petal and centrifugal— heavy and light, dense and rare, &c It was these principles which were taught at Eleusis in connection with Ceres or Dem^ter, as Creuzer has already told us. So that in these principles of antitheta or opposites, we have the philo- sophical system of the Mysteries presented to us, as the conflict .of the du.alism in Nature. The parentage of Hermione carries with it the conviction that she is only a name to represent the harmony which is the result of these two principles of Love and Hate, or Warfara That Shakespeare has Harmonia in his mind is plain, not only by the music or harmony associated with her discovery, and restoration to her lost child and husband, but by the profound hint he gives in the following line : —
" The mantle of Qaeen Hermione, her jewel about the neck of it.**
At the marriage of Hermione to Cadmus, she received as present a splendid necklace which had been made by Vulcan. Now, we know that at a town called Hermione, there was a temple celebrated to Ceres or Demeler. So that there is a com- pletely established connection in classical history to very closely identify Hermione with Ceres herself. And this is particularly apparent in the fact, that the " eternal war of Eleusis " was the doctrine of the conflict of spirit and matter, or of two opposed principles, which we see gave birth to Hermione. Mr Brown writes of Cadmus, " Harmonia, his bride, is a Phoenician personage with an Hellenik name. The meaning of the translation must, then, be first obtained. From harma * together ' is derived haiTnos * any means of joining things,' as a joint or clasp. Hence it is
//
IS 2 THE WINTERS TALE,
used of immaterial clasps as covenants, leagues, laws ; and these strongly conveying the idea of orderly arrangement, it becomes connected with proportion, e.^., due proportion in architedure, sound, or character. Hence it is more specially applied to cadence and modulation, and so the full meaning of the word is, That-which-is-fitted-together-in-due-proportion, But in a Phoe- nician and Kosmogonical connection that which is fitted together in due proportion is the Kosmos itself. Harmonia, then, repre- sents the orderly material Kosmos, and so we find her in the myth as wearing a starry robe. Bunsen observes, ' The wife of Cadmus, Harmonia dressed in a robe studded with stars, and wearing a necklace representing the universe — has a palpably cosmogonical meaning.*" ("Egypt's Place," iv. 231; Brown's "Great Dionysiak Myth.," ii. 237.)
Perdita, the sleeping beauty in the wood, — briar-rose, sleeps for hundreds of years until Prince Florizel comes with his glad- dening rays to wake her from her trance-like sleep. In this case Perdita is but the awakening of her mother, the earth, from the deep sleep of winter to the glory of, and life of the spring and summer. Wilder remarks (in his Introduction to the " Bacchic and Eleusinian Mysteries of Taylor ") : —
" The veriest dreams of life, pertaining as they do to the minor mystery of death, have in them more than external fact can explain or reach j and Myth, however much she is proved to be a child of earth, is also received among men as the child of heaven. The Cinder- Wench of the Ashes will become the Cinderella of the Palace, and be wedded to the King's son."
The reader remembers, perhaps, having read before of Prince Florizel in some German fairy stories. The union of the wildest dreams of the imagination with reality, is true miracle. It is the transformation of the ideal into the real, and if this play deals with reality, we may understand, perhaps, why Shakespeare has intro- duced this King's son, and made Perdita a princess brought up in a sheep cot. Every incident of this play is, perhaps, the union of reality under the guise of poetry with the ideal, to teach a lesson that poetry is divine, and is indeed the only real.
THE WINTERS TALE. 153
If we hark back, and contemplate the title of the original from which the author borrowed, the title will be found allied with Time.
PANDOSTO,
OR THE
TRIUMPH OF TIME.
We would here insert Sir George Cox's remark about the story of the " House in the Wood " : —
" The return of Persephone is strangely set forth in the story of the ' House in the Wood,' which in other stories is the house, or case of ice, in which the seemingly dead princess is laid ; the ice at the return of spring. The sides crack, ' the doors were slammed back against the walls ; the beams groaned as if they were being riven away from their fastenings \ the stairs fell down, and at last it seemed as if the whole roof fell in.' On waking from her sleep the maiden finds herself in a splendid palace, surrounded by regal luxuries. The maiden has returned from the dreary abode of Hades to the green couch of the life- giving mother."
In the tale of '* Cinderella," we have another embodied myth of death and rebirth, of Summer and Winter. The very name, Cinderella, — "the cinder-wench of the ashes," — (as A. Wilder observes), points to close connection u^/& earth and with deaths and thus with resurrection. We cannot refrain from quoting the poet's final words, attached to the threne, or death-lamentation, of the poem of the Fhcmix and Turtle : —
" Beauty, truth, and rarity, Grace in all simplicity. Here enclosed in Cinders lie."
Let the parallel be marked. Florizel is a King's Son^ and he marries the Cinderella of the sheepcote, Perdita, who (like Cinderella) turns out to be a Princess in disguise, and with whose rediscovery, reconciliation and new life are given to her mother — (the earth), — and probably (if all were discovered) a spiritual new life or rebirth to the poet's entire art also, — of which
154 THE WINTERS TALE,
Hermione (as a statue), aXiv^ but seemingly dead^ is a singular and exquisite portrait.
Writing of Guzra Bai, the heroine of the story of " Truth's Triumph," Sir George Cox says (" Mythology of the Axyans ") —
"This beautiful maiden is the Flower Girl, or the Gardener's daughter, in other words, the child of D^m^t^r playing on the flowery plain of Nysa or Enna, — the teeming source of life as dis- tinguished from the dead or inert matter on which it works."
But this is exactly what Perdita is in The Winter's Tale — a Flower girl — and not only a Flower girl, but the Cinderella of our childhood, who is always a Princess in disguise, awaiting dis- covery. " All writers, both ancient and modem, have united in setting Truth before us under the image of a virgin, described as a Ring's daughter, and thus called a Princess, always described as a surpassing beauty " (" Remarks on Shakespeare's Sonnets," E. A. Hitchcock). Prince Florizel is the Prince of Fairy Tales, who comes to wake the sleeping beauty in the wood, Briar-Eose, after her sleep of hundreds of years. I suppose so great an authority as Sir George Cox will be entitled to some weight in this matter. Let the student take up his '' Mythology of the Aryans," and he will find the author distinctly tracing and identifying the Cinderella story with the Persephone legend, as both derived from the resurrectionary powers of Nature, typified in the return of Spring and Summer after Winter. It is this Phoenix-like power which is the real secret of the plays hitherto considered Shakespeare's.
Although the evidence of a monumental inscription is not of much weight, we read at Stratford that with Shakespeare "Quick Nature died," ^ which, to our minds, is a very profound reference
* Compare :—
" Why should he live now nature hatihrupt is, Beggar'd of blood to blnsh through lively veinB ? For she hath no exchequer now but his, And proud of many, lives upon his gains. O, him she stores, to show what wealth she had, In days long since, before these last so bad."
—Sonnet Ixvii.
THE WINTERS TALE. 155
to the entire art of the poet, as perfect copy of Natare wUhin and toiihoui — that is, a complete system of life and death, summer and winter, awaiting rehirth — the spring of its spiritual signification, to give it new life with the light of profoundest inquiry. Do we seriously mean to imply that this magnificent Art is relatively unrevealed 1 Our reply is in the words of Leonard Digges' prophecy —
" Shakespeare, at length thy pious fellowes give The world thy Workes : thy Workes, by which, out-hve Thy Tombe, thy name must : when that stone is rent. And Time dissolves thy Stratford Monument, Here we alive shall view thee still. This Book, When Brass and Marble fade, shall make thee look Fresh to all Ages : when Posteritie Shall loath what's new, thinke all is prodegie That is not Shakespeares ; ev'ry Line, each Verse Here shall revive, redeem thee from thy Hearse."