rdelia,--constructed
upon so high and pure a principle. It is the union of gentleness with
power which constitutes the perfection of mental grace. Thus among the
ancients, with whom the _graces_ were also the _charities_, (to show,
perhaps, that while form alone may constitute beauty, sentiment is
necessary to grace,) one and the same word signified equally _strength_
and _virtue_. This feeling, carried into the fine arts, was the secret
of the antique grace--the grace of repose. The same eternal nature--the
same sense of immutable truth and beauty, which revealed this sublime
principle of art to the ancient Greeks, revealed it to the genius of
Shakspeare; and the character of Hermione, in which we have the same
largeness of conception and delicacy of execution,--the same effect of
suffering without passion, and grandeur without effort, is an instance,
I think, that he felt within himself, and by intuition, what we study
all our lives in the remains of ancient art. The calm, regular,
classical beauty of Hermione's character is the more impressive from the
wild and gothic accompaniments of her story, and the beautiful relief
afforded by the pastoral and romantic grace which is thrown around her
daughter Perdita.

The character of Paulina, in the Winter's Tale, though it has obtained
but little notice, and no critical remark, (that I have seen,) is yet
one of the striking beauties of the play: and it has its moral too. As
we see running through the whole universe that principle of contrast
which may be called the life of nature, so we behold it every where
illustrated in Shakspeare: upon this principle he has placed Emilia
beside Desdemona, the nurse beside Juliet; the clowns and dairy-maids,
and the merry peddler thief Autolycus round Florizel and Perdita;--and
made Paulina the friend of Hermione.

Paulina does not fill any ostensible office near the person of the
queen, but is a lady of high rank in the court--the wife of the Lord
Antigones. She is a character strongly drawn from real and common
life--a clever, generous, strong-minded, warmhearted woman, fearless in
asserting the truth, firm in her sense of right, enthusiastic in all her
affections: quick in thought, resolute in word, and energetic in action;
but heedless, hot-tempered, impatient, loud, bold, voluble, and
turbulent of tongue; regardless of the feelings of those for whom she
would sacrifice her life, and injuring from excess of zeal those whom
she most