CLE. We'll bring your grace even to the edge o'the fhore; Then give you up to the mafk'd Neptune,+ and PER. I will embrace Your offer. Come, dear'ft madam.-O, no tears, Lychorida, no tears: Look to your little mistress, on whofe grace You may depend hereafter.-Come, my lord. [Exeunt. SCENE IV. Ephefus. A Room in Cerimon's House. Enter CERIMON and THAISA. CER. Madam, this letter, and fome certain jewels, Lay with you in your coffer which are now 5 At your command. Know you the character? THAI. It is my lord's. mafk'd Neptune,] i. e. infidious waves that wear a treacherous smile: "Subdola pellacis ridet clementia ponti." Lucretius. This paffage in Pericles appears to have been imitated by Fletcher in Rule a Wife &c. 1640: "I'll bring you on your way "And then deliver you to the blue Neptune." STEEVENS. which are now-] For the insertion of the word new, That I was shipp'd at fea, I well remember, I cannot rightly fay: But fince king Pericles, And never more have joy. CER. Madam, if this you purpose as you speak, Diana's temple is not distant far, Where you may you may 'bide until I well remember, your date expire." Even on my yearning time;] The quarto, 1619, and the folio, 1664, which was probably printed from it, both read eaning. The first quarto reads learning. The editor of the second quarto feems to have corrected many of the faults in the old copy, without any confideration of the original corrupted reading. MALONE. Read-yearning time. So, in King Henry V: for Falftaff he is dead, "And we must yearn therefore." To yearn is to feel internal uneafiness. The time of a woman's labour is ftill called, in low language-her groaning time-her crying out. Mr. Rowe would read-eaning, a term applicable only to sheep when they produce their young. STEEVENS. Thaifa evidently means to fay, that the was put on fhip-board juft at the time when the expected to be delivered; and as the word yearning does not express that idea, I should suppose it to be wrong. The obvious amendment is to read-even at my yeaning time; which differs from it but by a single letter:-Or perhaps we should read,-yielding time. So, Pericles fays to Thaifa in the last scene; "Look who kneels here! Flesh of thy flesh, Thaifa; Thy burden at the fea, and call'd Marina, "For fhe was yielded there." M. MASON. Where you may 'bide until your date expire.] Until you die. So, in Romeo and Juliet: "The date is out of fuch prolixity." The expreffion of the text is again used by our author in The Rape of Lucrece : Moreover, if you please, a niece of mine THAI. My recompenfe is thanks, that's all; Yet my good will is great, though the gift small. [Exeunt. ACT IV. Enter GoWER.8 Gow. Imagine Pericles at Tyre,9 "An expir'd date, cancell'd, ere well begun." Again, in Romeo and Juliet : and expire the term "Of a despised life." MALONE. & Enter Gower.] This chorus, and the two following scenes, have hitherto been printed as part of the third A&t. In the original edition of this play, the whole appears in an unbroken series. The editor of the folio in 1664, firft made the divifion of Acts and scenes (which has been fince followed,) without much propriety. The poet feems to have intended that each A& fhould begin with a chorus. On this principle the prefent divifion is made. Gower, however, interpofing eight times, a chorus is neceffarily introduced in the middle of this and the ensuing A&t. 9 Imagine Pericles &c.] The old copies read: His woful queen we leave at Ephefus, MALONE. For the fake of uniformity of metre, the words, &c. distinguished by the Roman character, are omitted. STEEVENS. His woful queen leave at Ephefs, Now to Marina bend your mind, 2 Whom our faft growing scene muft find 2 In mufick, letters ;3 who hath gain'd Which makes her both the heart and place His woful queen leave at Ephefs, To Dian there a votarefs.] Old copy-we leave at Ephesus but Ephefus is a rhyme fo ill correfponding with votaress, that I fufpect our author wrote Ephese or Ephefs; as he often contracts his proper names to fuit his metre. Thus Pont for Pontus, Mede for Media, Comagene for Comagena, Sicils for Sicilies, &c. Gower, in the ftory on which this play is founded, has Dionyze for Dionyza, and Tharfe for Tharfus. STEEVENS. To Dian there a votarefs.] The old copies read-there's a votarefs. I am anfwerable for the correction. MALONE. 2 Whom our faft-growing fcene muft find-] The fame expreffion occurs in the chorus to The Winter's Tale: 66 your patience this allowing, "I turn my glafs, and give my scene such growing, 3 In mufick, letters ;] The old copy reads, I think corruptly -In muficks letters. The correfponding paffage in Gower's Confeffio Amantis, confirms the emendation now made: Again : "My doughter Thaife by your leve The dwelleth "In Tharfe, as the Cronike telleth; "She was well kept, fhe was well loked, "She was well taught, he was well boked; So well the fped hir in hir youth, "That the of every wyfedome couth." MALONE. Of general wonder.4 But alack! 4 Which makes her both the heart and place Of general wonder.] Such an education as rendered her the center and fituation of general wonder. We ftill use the heart of oak for the central part of it,, and the heart of the land in much fuch another fenfe. Shakspeare in Coriolanus fays, that one of his ladies is-" the Spire and top of praise." STEEVENS. So, in Twelfth-Night: "I will on with my fpeech in your praife, and then show you the heart of my meffage." Again, in Antony and Cleopatra: 66 the very heart of lofs." Again, in The Rape of Lucrece: "On her bare breast, the heart of all her land." Place here fignifies refidence. So, in A Lover's Complaint: "Love lack'd a dwelling, and made him her place." In this fenfe it was that Shakspeare, when he purchased his house at Stratford, called it The New Place. MALONE. oft the wrack Of earned praife,] Praise that has been well deserved. The fame expreffion is found in the following lines, which our author has imitated in his Romeo and Juliet: "How durft thou once attempt to touch the honor of his name? "Whofe deadly foes do yeld him dew and earned praife." Tragicall Hyftorie of Romeus and Juliet, 1562. So, in A Midfummer-Night's Dream: "If we have unearned luck-." MALONE. • And in this kind hath our Cleon One daughter, and a wench full grown,] The old copy reads: And in this kind our Cleon hath One daughter, and a full grown wench. |