SIM. What, are you merry, knights?

1 KNIGHT. Who can be other, in this royal presence?

SIM. Here, with a cup that's stor❜d unto the

brim,

(As you do love, fill to your mistress' lips,) We drink this health to you.

KNIGHTS.

SIM. Yet pause a while;

We thank your grace.

Yon knight, methinks, doth sit too melancholy,
As if the entertainment in our court

Had not a show might countervail his worth.
Note it not you, Thaisa?

THAI.

To me, my father?

What is it

In the text the second quarto has been followed. The first reads:

He's both their parent and he is their grave. MALONE. that's stor❜d unto the brim,] The quarto, 1609, reads -that's stur'd unto the brim. MALONE.

7

If stirr'd be the true reading, it must mean, as Milton expresses it, that the liquor

66 dances in its chrystal bounds."

But I rather think we should read-stor'd, i. e. replenished. So before in this play:

"Their tables were stor'd full."

"Were not this glorious casket stor'd with ill.”

Again:

Again:

66

8

these our ships

STEEVENS.

"Are stor'd with corn-.'"

(As you do love, fill to your mistress' lips,)] i. e. let the quantity of wine you swallow, be proportioned to the love you bear your mistress: in plainer English-If you love kissing, drink a bumper. The construction is-As you love your mistresses' lips, so fill to them. STEEVENS.

Read-fill to your mistresses. FARMER.

SIM.

O, attend, my daughter; Princes, in this, should live like gods above, Who freely give to every one that comes To honour them: and princes, not doing so, Are like to gnats, which make a sound, but kill'd Are wonder'd at."

Therefore to make's entrance more sweet, here say,' We drink this standing-bowl of wine to him.2 THAI. Alas, my father, it befits not me

and princes, not doing so,

Are like to gnats, which make a sound, but kill'd

Are wonder'd at.] i. e. when they are found to be such small insignificant animals, after making so great a noise.

PERCY.

The sense appears to be this.-When kings, like insects, lie dead before us, our admiration is excited by contemplating how in both instances the powers of creating bustle were superior to those which either object should seem to have promised. The worthless monarch, and the idle gnat, have only lived to make an empty bluster; and when both alike are dead, we wonder how it happened that they made so much, or that we permitted them to make it :-a natural reflection on the death of an unserviceable prince, who having dispensed no blessings, can hope for no better character.

I cannot, however, help thinking that this passage is both corrupted and disarranged, having been originally designed for one of those rhyming couplets with which the play abounds:

1

"And princes, not doing so, are like the gnat,

"Which makes a sound, but kill'd is wonder'd at.”

STEEVENS.

Therefore to make's entrance more sweet, here say,] Old

copy

Therefore to make his entrance more sweet,

Here say, &c. STEEVENS.

Entrance was sometimes used by our old poets as a word of three syllables. MALONE.

By his entrance, I believe, is meant his present trance, the reverie in which he is supposed to be sitting. STEEVENS.

this standing-bowl of wine to him.] A standing-bowl was a bowl resting on a foot. STEEVENS.

Unto a stranger knight to be so bold;
He may my proffer take for an offence,
Since men take women's gifts for impudence.
SIM. HOW!

Do as I bid you, or you'll move me else.

THAI. Now, by the gods, he could not please me

better.3

[Aside. SIM. And further tell him, we desire to know, Of whence he is, his name and parentage.*

THAI. The king my father, sir, has drunk to you. PER. I thank him.

THAI. Wishing it so much blood unto your life. PER. I thank both him and you, and pledge him freely.

THAI. And further he desires to know of you, Of whence you are, your name and parentage. PER. A gentleman of Tyre-(my name, Pericles; My education being in arts and arms;5)— Who looking for adventures in the world,

Now, by the gods, he could not please me better.] Thus, in Twine's translation: "Then Lucina having already in her heart professed to do him good, and now perceiving very luckily her father's mind to be inclined to the desired purpose," &c.

STEEVENS.

Of whence he is, his name and parentage.] So, in the Confessio Amantis:

5

"His doughter

"He bad to go on his message,
"And fond for to make him glade,
"And she did as her fader bade;
"And goth to him the softe paas,

"And asketh whens and what he was,

"And praithe he shulde his thought leve." MALone.

being in arts and arms;] The old copies have been. I am responsible for the correction; and for the introduction of the words has been in the following speech. MALONE.

Was by the rough seas reft of ships and men,
And, after shipwreck, driven upon this shore.

THAI. He thanks your grace; names himself
Pericles,

A gentleman of Tyre, who only by
Misfortune of the seas has been bereft

Of ships and men, and cast upon this shore.
SIM. Now by the gods, I pity his misfortune,
And will awake him from his melancholy.
Come, gentlemen, we sit too long on trifles,
And waste the time, which looks for other revels.
Even in your armours, as you are address'd,
Will very well become a soldier's dance."
I will not have excuse, with saying, this
Loud musick is too harsh' for ladies' heads;
Since they love men in arms, as well as beds.
[The Knights dance.

Even in your armours, as you are address'd,

Will very well become a soldier's dance.] As you are accoutered, prepared for combat. So, in King Henry V:

"To-morrow for the march are we address'd."

The word very, in the next line, was inserted by the editor of the folio. MALONE.

So, in Twine's translation:-"I may not discourse at large of the liberall challenges made and proclaimed at the tilt &c.-running afoote, and dauncing in armour" &c. STEevens.

"I will not have excuse, with saying, this

Loud musick is too harsh-] i, e. the loud noise made by the clashing of their armour.

The dance here introduced is thus described in an ancient Dialogue against the Abuse of Dancing, bl. 1. no date:

"There is a dance called Choria,

"Which joy doth testify;

"Another called Pyrricke

"Which warlike feats doth try;

"For men in armour gestures made,

"And leapt, that so they might,

"When need requires, be more prompt

"In publique weale to fight." MALONE.

So, this was well ask'd, 'twas so well perform'd.s Come, sir;

Here is a lady that wants breathing too:

And I have often heard," you knights of Tyre
Are excellent in making ladies trip;

And that their measures are as excellent.

PER. In those that practise them, they are, my lord.

SIM. O, that's as much, as you would be denied [The Knights and Ladies dance. Of your fair courtesy.-Unclasp, unclasp; Thanks, gentlemen, to all; all have done well, But you the best. [TO PERICLES.] Pages and lights, conduct1

These knights unto their several lodgings: Yours,

sir,

We have given order to be next our own.*
PER. I am at your grace's pleasure.

SIM. Princes, it is too late to talk of love,
For that's the mark I know you level at:
Therefore each one betake him to his rest;
To-morrow, all for speeding do their best.

[Exeunt.

8 So, this was well ask'd, 'twas so well perform'd.] i. e. the excellence of this exhibition has justified the solicitation by which it was obtained. STEEVENS.

And I have often heard,] I have inserted the word often, which was probably omitted by the carelessness of the compositor.

MALONE.

-conduct-] Old copy-to conduct. STEevens.

to be next our own.] So, Gower:

"The kynge his chamberleyne let calle,

"And bad that he by all weye

"A chamber for this man purvei

"Which nigh his own chambre bee." MALONE.