[Sidenote: His description of Arcite, paralleld in his _Philaster_.] What a brow, Of what a spacious majesty, he car|ries! Arched like the great-eyed Juno's, but far sweet|er,-- Smoother than Pelop's shoulder. Fame and Hon|our, Methinks, from hence, as from a promontor|y Pointed in Heaven, should clap their wings, and sing To all the under-world, the loves and fights Of gods and such men near them.[45:1] [Sidenote: Act V. is Shakspere's,] In the Fifth Act we again feel the presence of the Master of the Spell. Several passages in this portion are marked by as striking tokens of his art as anything which we read in 'Macbeth' or 'Coriolanus.' The whole act, a very long one, may be boldly attributed to him, with the exception of one episodical scene. [Sidenote: except scene iv. (Weber: sc. ii. Littledale).] The time has arrived for the combat. Three temples are exhibited, as in Chaucer, in which the rival Knights, and the [45:2]Lady of their Vows, respectively pay their adorations. One principal aim of their supplications is to learn the result of the coming contest; but the suspense is kept up by each of the Knights receiving a favourable response, and Emilia a doubtful one. [Sidenote: Act V. sc. ii.[45:3] (i. L.) is lower in key.] [Sidenote: Act V. sc. i. iii. (Weber: both i. Littledale) are Shakspere's all through.] Three scenes are thus occupied, the second of which is in somewhat a lower key than the other two; but even in it there is much beauty; and in the first and third the tense dignity and pointedness of the language, the gorgeousness and overflow of illustration, and the reach, the mingled familiarity and elevation of thought, are admirable, inimitable, and decisive. From these exquisite scenes there is a temptation to quote too largely. [Sidenote: Act V. scene i.] In the first scene, Theseus ushers the Kinsmen and their Knights into the Temple of Mars, and leaves them there. After a short and solemn greeting, the Kinsmen embrace for the last time, Palamon and his friends retire, and Arcite and his remain and offer up their devotions to the deity of the place. [Sidenote: Spirit and Language Shakspere's.] A fine seriousness of spirit breathes through the whole scene, and the language is alive with the most magnificent and delicate allusion. In Arcite's prayer the tone cannot be mistaken. [Sidenote: His reflection on Fortune and strife.] The enumeration of the god's attributes is coloured by all that energetic depth of feeling with which Shakspeare in his historical dramas so often turns aside to meditate on the changes of human fortune and the horrors of human enmity.[46:1] . . . . .