The voice of freedom. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1839-1848, 1848-08-16
sHAKSPEARE's FEMALE CHARACTERS.
PERDITA.

The second part of Winters Tale intro
duces us to very different scenes and per
sons from those which make up the first
The lost princess, and heir-apparent of Be-
hemia, two of the noblest and loveliest beings
that ever fancy conceived, occupy the centre
of the picture, while around them are clus
tered rustic shepherds and shepherdesses
amid their pastimes and pursuits, the whole
being enlvened by the tricks and humours
of merry pedler and pickpocket. The
most romantic beauty and the most comic
drollery are here blended together. For
simple purity and sweetness the scene which
unfolds the loves and characters of the prince
in Shakespeare, and Of course is not approach
ed by any thing out of him. All that is en-
chanting in romance, lovely in innocence,
elevated in feeling, sacred in faith, is here
brought together, bathed in the colors of
heaven. The poetry is the very innocence
of love, embodied in the fragrance of flowers,
Clad in immortal freshness, this scene is one
Of those things which we always welcome as
we do the return of spring, and over which
our feelings may renew their youth forever ::
in brief, so long as nature breathes, and
flowers bloom, and hearts love, they will do
it in the spirit Of what is here expressed.
Perdita is a fine illustration of native intel
ligence as distinguished from artificial ac-
quirements, and of Unborn dignity bursting
through all the disadvantages Of the humblest
station. Schlegel somewhere says, "Shak-
speare is particularly fond of showing the
superiority of the innate over the acquired y
but he has nowhere done it more beautifully
or more powerfully than in this unhedged
angel
"The pretticst low-born lass that ever
Ran on the greeu-sward, nothing she does or seems
But smaclls of something greater than herself"
Just as much queen as if she were brought up
at court, and just as much shepherdess as if
she were born a shepherds daughter, the
graccs of the princely and the simplicities of
the pastoral character seem striving which
shall express her loveliest. She is not po-
etical being; she is poetry itself; and every
thing lends or borrows beauty at her touch.
A playmate of the flowers, when we see them
together, we can hardly tell whether they
take more inspiration from her, or she takes
more from them and while she becomes the
sweetest of poets in making nosegays, the
nosegays in her hands become the richest of
crowns. Courtcd by the prince in disguise
at one of their rustic festivals, herself the
mistress of the feast, she transforms the place
into a paradise.
What she does,
Still betters what is done. When she speaks,
He'd have her do it ever; when she sings,
He'd have her buy and sell so: so give aims;
Pray so; and for the ordering her affairs, [her
To sing them too. When she doth dance, he have
A wave o the sea, that she might ever do
Nothing but that; move still, still so, and own
No other function"
Florizcll is every way the peer of Perdita
none but the best of men could have felt the
PROJECTIONS of such woman; none but the
best of women could have won the heart of
such a man; and if nothing can disturb the
serenity of her love, nothing can subdue the
strength of his. Alive and glowing with the
fire of noble passions, himself the very sum
and abstract of true manliness, of honor, pu-
rity, intelligence, and dignity, he seems at
once the flower of princes, and the prince of
gentlemen; and his love is truly "the Pro-
methean spark stolen from heaven, to give
a godlize soul to man." 1t was only by be.
ing forced to renounce his princely inherit
ance and brave the threats Of his father, that
Florizell could show himself worthy of such
a woman and it was only by growing up
perfect queen amid purely pastoral infuen-
ces, that Perdita could show herself worthy
of such a man. With so much skill does
Shakespeare arrange his plots for the proper
development and manifestation of his charac-
ters.-HMiSon'S Lectures.