MAR. Where I am but a ftranger: from the deck You may difcern the place. PER. Where were you bred? And how achiev'd you these endowments, which MAR. Should I tell my history, "Twould feem like lies difdain'd in the reporting. PER. Pr'ythee fpeak; Falfenefs cannot come from thee, for thou look'st Modest as justice, and thou feem'ft a palace For the crown'd truth to dwell in :9 I'll believe thee, And make my fenfes credit thy relation, * And how achiev'd you these endowments, which You make more rich to owe?] To owe in ancient language is to poffefs. So, in Othello: that sweet fleep "That thou ow'dft yesterday." The meaning of the compliment is :-Thefe endowments, however valuable in themselves, are heighten'd by being in your poffeffion. They acquire additional grace from their owner. Thus alfo, one of Timon's flatterers: "You mend the jewel by the wearing of it." -a palace STEEVENS. For the crown'd truth to dwell in:] It is obfervable that our poet, when he means to reprefent any quality of the mind as eminently perfect, furnishes the imaginary being whom he perfonifies, with a crown. Thus, in his 114th Sonnet : "Or whether doth my mind, being crown'd with you, "Drink up the monarch's plague, this flattery?" Again, in his 37th Sonnet: "For whether beauty, birth, or wealth, or wit, "Entitled in thy parts do crowned fit,—.” Again, in Romeo and Juliet: Upon his brow fhame is afham'd to fit," "For 'tis a throne, where honour may be crown'd, "Sole monarch of the univerfal earth," MALONE. To points that seem impoffible; for thou look'ft MAR. So indeed I did. PER. Report thy parentage. I think thou faid'ft Thou hadst been tofs'd from wrong to injury, And that thou thought'ft thy griefs might equal mine, If both were open'd. MAR. Some fuch thing indeed 2 I said, and faid no more but what my thoughts Did warrant me was likely. PER. Tell thy ftory; If thine confider'd prove the thousandth part Of my endurance, thou art a man, and I Have fuffer'd like a girl :3 yet thou doft look Like Patience, gazing on kings' graves,+ and fmiling Didft thou not fay,] All the old copies read-Didft thou not Stay. It was evidently a falfe print in the first edition. MALONE. 2 Some fuch thing indeed-] For the insertion of the word— indeed, I am accountable. MALONE. 3 thou art a man, and I Have fuffer'd like a girl:] So, in Macbeth: "The baby of a girl." MALONE. Like Patience, gazing on king's graves,] So, in Twelfth Night: "She fat like Patience on a monument, Again, in The Rape of Lucrece, 1594: "Onward to Troy with these blunt fwains he goes ; MALONE. Extremity out of act.5 How loft thou them? virgin? What were thy friends? Recount, I do beseech thee; come, fit by me." PER. And thou by fome incenfed god sent hither MAR. Or here I'll cease. PER. O, I am mock'd, Patience, good fir, Nay, I'll be patient; Thou little know'ft how thou doft ftartle me, To call thyfelf Marina. 5 and fmiling Extremity out of act.] By her beauty and patient meekness difarming Calamity, and preventing her from ufing her up-lifted fword. So, in King Henry IV. Part II: "And hangs refolv'd correction in the arm, "That was uprear'd to execution." Extremity (though not perfonified as here) is in like manner ufed in King Lear, for the utmost of human suffering: "To amplify too much, would make much more, • How loft thou them?-Thy name, my moft kind virgin? Recount, I do befeech thee; come, fit by me.] All the old copies read: How loft thou thy name, my most kind virgin, recount, &c. But Marina had not faid any thing about her name. She had indeed told the king, that "Time had rooted out her parentage, and to the world and aukward casualties bound her in fervitude." -Pericles, therefore, naturally asks her, by what accident she had loft her friends; and at the fame time defires to know her name. Marina answers his laft queftion first, and then proceeds to tell her hiftory. The infertion of the word them, which I suppose to have been omitted by the negligence of the compofitor, renders the whole clear. The metre of the line, which was before defective, and Marina's answer, both fupport the conjectural reading of the text. MALONE. MAR. The name Marina, Was given me by one that had some power; My father, and a king. PER. And call'd Marina? MAR. How! a king's daughter? You faid you would believe me; But are you flesh and blood? But, not to be a troubler of your peace,? I will end here. PER. Have you a working pulse? and are no fairy? born? And wherefore call'd Marina ? 7 a troubler of your peace,] Thus the earliest quarto. So, in King Richard III: "And then hurl down their indignation "On thee, the troubler of the poor world's peace." The folios and the modern editions read-a trouble of your peace. MALONE. 8 No motion?] i. e. no puppet drefs'd up to deceive me. So, in The Two Gentlemen of Verona : "O excellent motion! O exceeding puppet!" This paffage fhould be pointed thus: STEEVENS. Have you a working pulfe? and are no fairy-motion ? That is, "Have you really life in you, or are you merely a puppet formed by enchantment? the work of fairies." The prefent reading cannot be right, for fairies were supposed to be animated beings, and to have working pulses as well as men. M. MASON. If Mr. M. Mafon's punctuation were followed, the line would be too long by a foot. Pericles fuggefts three image in his queftion-1. Have you a working pulfe? i. e. are you any thing human and really alive? 2. Are you a fairy? 3. Or are you a puppet STEEVENS. In the old copy this paffage is thus exhibited: "But are you flesh and blood? "Have you a working pulse, and are no fairy? MAR. For I was born at fea. PER. Call'd Marina, At fea? thy mother? MAR. My mother was the daughter of a king; Who died the very minute I was born, As my good nurse Lychorida hath oft Deliver'd weeping. PER. O, stop there a little ! I This is the rareft dream that e'er dull fleep I'll hear you more, to the bottom of your ftory, MAR. You'll fcarce believe me; 'twere beft I did give o'er.2 ? Who died the very minute I was born,] Thus the old copy. Either the conftruction is-My mother, who died the very minute I was born, was the daughter of a king,—or we ought to read : She died the very minute &c. otherwise it is the king, not the queen, that died at the inftant of Marina's birth. In the old copies thefe lines are given as profe. STEEVENS. The word very I have inferted to complete the metre. MALONE. This is the rareft dream that e'er dull fleep-] The words, This is the rareft dream &c. are not addreffed to Marina, but spoken afide. MALONE. 2 You'll fcarce believe me; 'twere beft I did give o'er.] All the old copies read-You Scorn, believe me, &c. The reply of Pericles induces me to think the author wrote: You'll fcarce believe me; 'twere beft &c. Pericles had expreffed no fcorn in the preceding fpeech, but, on the contrary, great complacency and attention. So, alfo before: Pr'ythee fpeak: |