Florizel

“ Suddenly a shadow fell on the ground near them, and looking up, all beheld the wicked witch and her ugly daughter, who had ridden out in the dragon car to enjoy Florizel's cruel death. The Enchanter immediately caused the dragon car to vanish, and the witch and her daughter fell tumbling through the air into a pond, and were changed into ugly little fishes. Then the Enchanter carried Florizel and Florian back to the witch's castle, where they found the tables spread and the dinner being prepared which was to celebrate the wedding of Florizel and the witch's daughter. ”

“ Looks on alike. [To FLORIZEL] Will't please you, sir, be gone?
I told you what would come of this. Beseech you,
Of your own state take care. This dream of mine-
Being now awake, I'll queen it no inch farther,
But milk my ewes and weep.
CAMILLO. Why, how now, father!
Speak ere thou diest.
SHEPHERD. I cannot speak nor think,
Nor dare to know that which I know. [To FLORIZEL] O sir,
You have undone a man of fourscore-three
That thought to fill his grave in quiet, yea,
To die upon the bed my father died,
To lie close by his honest bones ”

“ And merrily hent the stile-a;
A merry heart goes all the day,
Your sad tires in a mile-a. Exit
SCENE IV. Bohemia. The SHEPHERD'S cottage Enter FLORIZEL and PERDITA
FLORIZEL. These your unusual weeds to each part of you
Do give a life- no shepherdess, but Flora
Peering in April's front. This your sheep-shearing
Is as a meeting of the petty gods,
And you the Queen on't.
PERDITA. Sir, my gracious lord,
To chide at your extremes it not becomes me-
O, pardon that I name them! Your high self,
The gracious mark o' th' land, you have obscur'd
With a swain's wearing ”

“ Prince Florizel, who was the heir and only son of Polixenes, was a romantic youth of twenty, who spent much of his time in wandering about the woods and fields of his father’s kingdom. It was not strange that he should hear of the radiant beauty of this peasant maid, who was called Perdita, and whose birth was so enveloped in mystery. It was not strange that the youth should seek to see her, to prove for himself if report had spoken truly. ”

“ Fox appears as "nobody," and a cat is seen escaping from a bag. The Whig chief, with whom, as the occasional companion of the young Prince's excesses, the public were not slow to connect the transaction, is encouraging Florizel to "leap over the broomstick" with Mrs. Fitzherbert. The ex favourites, in a second apartment, surmounted by the Prince's crest, tranquilly regard the coming change. "All I desire of mortal man is to love whilst he can," says Perdita. ”

“ Florizel and Perdita then fled from Bohemia, and took refuge in Sicily. Being brought to the court of King Leontês, it soon became manifest that Perdita was the king’s daughter. Polixenês, in the mean time, had tracked his son to Sicily, but when he was informed that Perdita was the king’s daughter, his objection to the marriage ceased, and Perdita became the happy bride of Prince Florizel.—Shakespeare, The Winter’s Tale (1604) . ”

“ When this news was carried to Polixenes, he called upon his faithful servant Camillo to go with him to the shepherd's house; and they arrived there in disguise just at the feast of sheep-shearing, when there was a welcome for every visitor.
It was a busy scene. There was dancing on the green, young lads and lassies were chaffering with a peddler for his goods, sports were going on everywhere; yet Florizel and Perdita sat apart, talking happily to each other.
No one could have recognized the king ”

“ The officer was overwhelmed.
"Your Highness returns good for evil," said he. "To an act of presumption he replies by the most amiable condescension."
"How do you know," replied Florizel, "that I am not seeking to corrupt you?"
"Heaven preserve me from the temptation!" cried the detective.
"I applaud your answer," returned the Prince. "It is that of a wise and honest man. The world is a great place, and stocked with wealth and beauty, and there is no limit to the rewards that may be offered. ”

“ In the pastoral scenes, the poet gives us an English sheepshearing, with its merrymaking, a pair of honest English country fellows in the old shepherd and his son, the Clown, and the greatest of all beloved vagabonds {204} in the rogue Autolycus, whose vices, like Falstaff's, are more lovable than other people's virtues. Fortune, which will not suffer him to be honest, makes his thieveries, in her extremity of whim, to be but benefits for others.
Of the other characters, Prince Florizel, Perdita's lover, is that rarest of all dramatic heroes, a young prince with real nobility of soul. ”

“ His name still exists in the neighbourhood in Weltje Road, which runs from the Upper Mall to King Street West, and consists of sixty-eight houses.
We have seen that Fox was at Brighton in 1784. Fox, who was the 'guide, philosopher, and friend' of Prince Florizel, was at this time a man of about thirty-five or thirty-six, having been born in 1749. By his birth, education, and talents he should have been a fitting companion for the Prince, but he was lax in his morals, an inveterate gambler, and a hard drinker, and a worse comrade for a young man could scarcely be found. ”

“ Alas that all women were not as hard-hearted as the sea-prince! The lovely Florimel, sweetest and most innocent of maidens, the goddaughter of Venus, who had been reared by the Graces and Muses on Mount Helicon, had beheld the handsome Marinell from the windows of the castle not far distant from the sea, where she now had her dwelling-place. Often, with her attendant maidens, had she ridden near the beach, and often had dismounted to gather pebbles and sea-weed which the waves washed far in to shore. ”

“ Then the cunning old shepherd by magic made himself look like a fairy knight, and thought that Florimell would love him.
‘I do not love you. I love Marinell,’ still was Florimell’s answer.
He then tried to frighten Florimell and make her marry him, whether she would or not. He turned himself into dreadful shapes—giants, and all sorts of animals and monsters. He went inside the waves, and made terrifying storms rage. But nothing that he might do would make Florimell consent to marry him. ”

“ The shepherd was very angry, but all the sea-folk had to obey Neptune, so he sulkily opened the prison door and let Florimell go free.
When the black-browed Cymoënt took hold of the little white hand of the maiden her son loved, and looked on her lovely face, she was no longer sorry that Marinell did not wish to marry a sea-nymph. For no maiden in the sea was as beautiful or as sweet as Florimell. ”

“ Florimel’s Girdle, a girdle which gave to those who wore it, “the virtue of chaste love and wifehood true;” if any woman not chaste or faithful put it on, it immediately “loosed or tore asunder.” It was once the cestus of Venus, but when that queen of beauty wantoned with Mars, it fell off and was left on the “Acidalian mount.”—Spenser, Faëry Queen, iv. 2 (1596) .
One day Sir Cambel, Sir Triamond, Sir Paridel, Sir Blandamour, and Sir Ferramont agreed to give Florimel’s girdle to the most beautiful lady; when the previous question was moved, “Who was the most beautiful?” ”

“ Florio was not quite sure that he fully understood all that was said to him, but he was delighted at the idea of leaving Fuss, and said so.
Florella smiled upon him, and continued, "It may not be so easy as you imagine; those who serve me have to stand a test of faithfulness, energy, and courage. Our life seems one of careless mirth, but it is not so. We, of course, are happy, and enjoy ourselves; but we have many duties, and are not altogether free, as would be supposed. I am at the head of this little band. We are Flower Fairies, cousins to the Wind Fairies and Herb Elves. ”

“ A grand festival was held in the village to welcome Floribel's return, and the neighbors said, “We shall all miss little Frolic, but we are right glad to have our happy, singing Floribel among us again; and we hope she will never have any more wishes granted.”
“O, dear,” exclaimed Floribel, “I do not know about that. But one thing I am sure of; I shall never wish to be a little brown dog again.”
THE LADY INTELLETTA.
Little children in the wide world, I have no one here to whom I can speak ”

“ In King Etzel’s love shall vanish: if thou share his life and his throne,
Let who will speak against it, meseems it shall well be done.
For all thou hast lost,” said her brother, “can he make amends unto thee.
From the River Rhone to the Rhine-stream, from the Elbe to the uttermost sea,
There is no king so mighty that men have known or seen.
Well might thine heart be gladdened that he chooseth thee for his Queen.”
She answered: “O brother belovèd, counsel not this, I implore!
Meeter for me are weeping and wailing evermore.
What have I to do with a palace, in the presence of knights to shine? ”

“ The sea-nymph, his mother, told Neptune, King of the Seas, that his shepherd had imprisoned a beautiful maiden in his darkest cave, and begged him to set Florimell free, that she might become Marinell’s wife.
So Florimell was set free at last, and all her troubles were ended.
Marinell took her away from the kingdom under the sea back to Fairyland, and they were married in a castle by the golden strand. Every beautiful lady and every brave knight in Fairyland was there. They had tournaments every day, and each knight fought for the lady he thought the most beautiful and loved the best. ”

“ Then Florian said farewell to Melior and to Hoprig also. Florian had put aside his dapper look: he had quite lost his usual air of tolerating a mixture of vexation and mirth: and for that moment he did not show in anything as a jaunty little person of the very highest fashion.
“Now that you two,” said Florian, “become again a legend and a symbol, I can believe in and love and worship you once more. It is in vain, it is with pitiable folly, that any man aspires to be bringing beauty and holiness into his daily living. These things are excellent for dilettanti to admire from afar. ”

“ WITH exceeding pains she did it; and as she did it, Floribel’s blue eyes glowed with strength of purpose, a last great strength, the strength she had inherited from her people. She had always looked better in lavender than in anything else—as do most fair women; and now she seemed much finer than she had ever seemed before, even in lavender, worn and pale as she was. Her beauty was striking now; it was tragic and yet triumphant, funereal and yet lightened with a hint of strange merriment; it was a loveliness far more spiritual than physical. ”

“ Florian, born two years after the adoption of Shafto Gyle in his infancy, always regarded and looked up to the latter as a species of elder brother and undoubted senior.
In his twentieth year Florian was really a handsome fellow, and if, without absurdity, the term 'beautiful' could be applied to a young man, he was so, in his perfect manliness. Tall in figure, hard and well developed in muscle, regular in features, he had clear, dark, honest eyes, with lashes like a girl's, and a dark, silky moustache. ”

“ Florian continued blandly. “Now suppose we five form an elective family, a little brotherhood of our own, a freemasonry of culture, and call one another, like brothers and sisters, by our Christian names only! Wouldn’t that be delightful! I’ve just been explaining to Ethel and Eva that I mean henceforth to Ethel and Eva them. Soul gets nearer to soul without these flimsy barriers. I’m Florian; this is Will; and you, Mrs Palmer, your Christian name is⁠——?” ”

“ Florelle looked like a fairy in a short little white frock, all fine muslin and lace, with ruffles and frills that stood out in every direction. The overdressed little midget was delighted with her appearance, and pranced around in front of the mirror admiring herself. ”

“ Then he told her what Rüdiger had related of Etzel’s court, its greatness and its glory, and finally told her of Etzel’s wooing. But Chriemhild answered with solemn firmness, that she would not leave the grave-mound in which all she loved was buried.
276 Then mother Ute spoke. “If you will be Etzel’s queen, my child, you will be the most powerful of women.”
“Most powerful of women,” repeated the daughter thoughtfully. “Look, Giselher,” she went on, pointing to her embroidery, “you know whom that hero is intended to represent?” ”

“ Floribel and her servant rose. Gale pushed the door fully open and stepped across the threshold.
“Well, sir?” Floribel demanded.
“I’ve known you a long time, Miss Batesford,” said Gale, “and as long as I’ve known you, just that long have I admired you above all other women. If you'll marry me, I’ll give you back—”
“Stop!” cried Floribel angrily.
“I’ll give you back, in your own name—”
“Will you stop? There is no wealth, and there is no torture, that could bring me to even a consideration of marriage with you!” ”

“ Thus it was not until the coming of spring that Florian rode away from the Hôtel de Puysange, wherein he had just passed the first actually unhappy period of Florian’s life. For this man had long and fervently cherished his exalted ideals: and since his boyhood the beauty of Melior and the holiness of Hoprig had been at once the criteria and the assurance of human perfectibility. To think of these two had preserved him in faith and in wholesome optimism: for here was perfect beauty and perfect holiness attained once by mankind, and in consequence not unattainable. ”

“ For all the knights of Etzel like welcoming were not meet.”
Then lifted they from her palfrey that stately Queen and fair;
And Etzel the King, the mighty, no longer tarried there,
{p. 184}
But begirt with many a baron down from the selle he leapt,
And with eyes for gladness shining unto Lady Kriemhild stept.
As singeth the old-time minstrel, high-born princes twain
Followed the Lady Kriemhild, upbearing her garment’s train,
As strode the great King Etzel his Lady and Queen to meet,
And with gracious kiss of welcome that noble Prince did she greet. ”