Page images
PDF
EPUB

It is a good constraint of fortune, that
It belches upon us.5

2 GENT.

'Tis fo, my lord.

CER. How clofe 'tis caulk'd and bitum'd !—

Did the sea caft it up?

SERV. I never faw fo huge a billow, fir,

As tofs'd it upon shore.

CER.

Come, wrench it open;

Soft, foft!-it smells moft fweetly in my sense. 2 GENT. A delicate odour.

CER. As ever hit my noftril; fo,-up with it. O you most potent god! what's here? a corfe! 1 GENT. Moft strange!

CER. Shrouded in cloth of ftate; balm'd and en

treasur'd

With bags of fpices full! A paffport too!
Apollo, perfect me i'the characters !8

[Unfolds a Scroll.

It is a good constraint of fortune, that

It belches upon us.] This fingular expreffion is again applied by our author to the fea, in The Tempeft:

"You are three men of fin, whom destiny

[ocr errors]

(That hath to instrument this lower world, "And what is in't,) the never-furfeited fea "Hath caused to belch up!" MALONE.

How clofe 'tis caulk'd and bitum'd!] Bottom'd, which is the reading of all the copies, is evidently a corruption. We had before:

"Sir, we have a cheft beneath the hatches, caulked and bitumed ready." MALONE.

7 As ever hit my noftril;] So, in The Merry Wives of Windas ever offended noftril." STEEVENS.

for:

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

•Apollo, perfect me i'the characters ] Cerimon, having made phyfick his peculiar ftudy, would naturally, in any emer

Here I give to understand,

(If e'er this coffin drive a-land,')
I, king Pericles, have loft

[Reads.

This queen, worth all our mundane1 coft.
Who finds her, give her burying,

She was the daughter of a king :2
Befides this treasure for a fee,

The gods requite his charity!

If thou liv'ft, Pericles, thou haft a heart

That even cracks for woe !3-This chanc'd to

night.

2 GENT. Most likely, fir.

CER.

Nay, certainly to-night;

gency, invoke Apollo. On the prefent occafion, however, he addresses him as the patron of learning. MALONE.

(If e'er this coffin drive a-land,)] This uncommon phrase is repeatedly used in Twine's tranflation: "Then give thanks unto God, who in my flight hath brought me a-land into your coftes." Again: "certaine pyrats which were come a-land."

I

—mundane-] i. e. worldly. MALONE.

Who finds her, give her burying,

STEEVENS.

She was the daughter of a king:] The author had, perhaps, the facred writings in his thoughts: "Go fee now this curfed woman and bury her, for she is a king's daughter." 2 Kings, ix. 36. MALONE.

The following, in Twine's tranflation, are the first words of Lucina on her recovery: 66 -touch me not otherwise than thou oughteft to doe, for I am a king's daughter and the wife of a king." STEEVENS.

[blocks in formation]

That even cracks for woe !] So, in Hamlet:

"Now cracks a noble heart."

Even is the reading of the fecond quarto. The firft has ever.

MALONE.

For look, how fresh fhe looks!-They were too

rough,

That threw her in the fea. Make fire within ;
Fetch hither all the boxes in my closet.
Death may ufurp on nature many hours,
And yet the fire of life kindle again
The overpreffed fpirits. I have heard 4
Of an Egyptian, had nine hours lien dead,5
By good appliance was recovered.

Enter a Servant, with Boxes, Napkins, and Fire.

Well faid, well faid; the fire and the cloths.——
The rough and woful mufick that we have,
Cause it to found, 'befeech you."

The vial once more ;-How thou ftirr'ft, thou block?

I have heard-] For the infertion of the word-have, which both the metre and the fenfe require, I am responsible.

[ocr errors]

"

MALONE.

-nine hours lien dead,] So, in the lxviiith Psalm : though ye have lien among the pots." STEEVENS. Well faid, well faid; the fire and the cloths.] So, on a fimilar occafion, in Othello, A& V. fc. i:

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

O, a chair, a chair!

O, that's well faid, the chair ;-
"Some good man bear him carefully from hence,"

7 The rough and woful mufick that we have,

MALONE.

Caufe it to found, 'befeech you.] Paulina in like manner in The Winter's Tale, when the pretends to bring Hermione to life, orders mufick to be played, to awake her from her trance. So alfo, the Phyfician in King Lear, when the King is about to wake from the fleep he had fallen into, after his frenzy:

"Please you draw near ;-Louder the mufick there!"

MALONE.

The mufick there.8-I pray you, give her air :-
Gentlemen,

This queen will live: nature awakes; a warmth
Breathes out of her;9 fhe hath not been entranc'd

8 The vial once more ;-How thou firr'ft, thou block?"

The mufick there.] The firft quarto reads,―the viol once more. The fecond and the fubfequent editions-the vial. If the first be right, Cerimon must be supposed to repeat his orders that they should again found their rough and woeful mufick. So, in Twelfth-Night:

"That train again !"

The word viol has occurred before in this play in the sense of violin. I think, however, the reading of the fecond quarto is right. Cerimon, in order to revive the Queen, firft commands loud mufick to be played, and then a fecond time administers fome cordial to her, which we may suppose had been before administered to her when his servants entered with the napkins, &c. See Confeffio Amantis, p. 180:

[ocr errors]

this worthie kinges wife

"Honeftlie thei token oute,
"And maden fyres all aboute;
"Thei leied hir on a couche fofte,
"And with a fhete warmed ofte
"Hir colde brefte began to heate,
"Hir herte also to flacke and beate.
"This maister hath hir every joynte
"With certein oyle and balsam anoynte,
"And put a licour in hir mouthe
"Whiche is to few clerkes couthe."

Little weight is to be laid on the spelling of the first quarto, for vial was formerly fpelt viol. In the quarto edition of King Richard II. 1615:

"Edward's feven fons, whereof thyself art one,

"Were feven viols of his facred blood."

Again, in the folio, 1623, ibidem :

"One viol full of Edward's facred blood."

Again, in The Tragical Hiftory of Romeus and Juliet, 1562: "She poured forth into the vyoll of the fryer

9

"Water

- a warmth

MALONE.

Breathes out of her ;] The old copies read-a warmth breath out of her. The correction was fuggefted by Mr. Steevens. The fecond quarto, and the modern editions, read unintelligibly : Nature awakes a warm breath out of her. MALONE,

Above five hours. See, how fhe 'gins to blow

Into life's flower again!

1 GENT.

The heavens, fir,

Through you, increase our wonder, and fet up
Your fame for ever.

CER.

She is alive; behold,

Her eyelids, cafes to thofe heavenly jewels i
Which Pericles hath loft,

Begin to part their fringes of bright gold ;2
The diamonds of a moft praised water

Appear, to make the world twice rich. O live,
And make us weep to hear your fate, fair creature,
Rare as you seem to be!
[She moves.

O dear Diana,

THAI. Where am I? Where's my lord? What world is

this ?3

In Twine's translation it is to Cerimon's pupil Machaon, and not to Cerimon himself, that the lady is indebted for her recovery : "-he pulled the clothes from the ladies bofome, and powred foorth the ointment, and beftowing it abroad with his hand perceived fome warmth in her breaft, and that there was life in her body.-Then went Machaon unto his master Cerimon, and faide: The woman whom thou thinkeft to be deade is alive," &c. STEEVENS.

1

[ocr errors]

cafes to thofe heavenly jewels-] The fame expreffion occurs in The Winter's Tale: -they feem'd almoft, with staring on one another, to tear the cafes of their eyes."

MALONE,

Her eyelids, cafes to thofe heavenly jewels-] So, in Sidney's Arcadia, Book III: "Her faire lids, then hiding her fairer eyes, feemed unto him fweet boxes, rich in themselves, but containing in them far richer jewels." STEEVENS.

2

Begin to part their fringes of bright gold;] So, in The Tempest:

3

tis:

"The fringed curtains of thine eye advance,

"And fay what thou fee'ft yond?" MALONE.

What world is this ?] So, in the Confeffio Aman

« PreviousContinue »