PER. That's your superstition. 1 SAIL. Pardon us, sir; with us at sea it still hath been observed; and we are strong in earnest." Therefore briefly yield her; for she must over, board straight.1 PER. Be it as you think meet.-Most wretched queen! Lrc. Here she lies, sir, PER. A terrible child-bed hast thou had, my dear; No light, no fire: the unfriendly elements Forgot thee utterly; nor have I time To give thee hallow'd to thy grave, but straight Must cast thee, scarcely coffin'd, in the ooze; of a dead corpse, being a due debt to be interred where it dieth; and a ship cannot abide to be made a bier of." A circumstance exactly similar is found in the Lyfe of Saynt Mary Magdalene, in the Golden Legend, Wynkyn de Worde's edition, fo. CLXIX. STEEVENS. 9 strong in earnest.] Old copy-strong in eastern. STEEVENS. I have no doubt that this passage is corrupt, but know not how to amend it. MALONE. I read, with Mr. M. Mason, (transposing only the letters of the original word,)-strong in earnest. So, in Cymbeline, we have strong in appetite;" and in Timon, "Be strong in whore." 1 STEEVENS. -for she must overboard straight.] These words are in the old copy, by an evident mistake, given to Pericles. MALONE. To give thee hallow'd to thy grave,] The old Shepherd, in The Winter's Tale, expresses the same apprehension concerning the want of sepulchral rites, and that he shall be buriedwhere no priest shovels in dust." MALONE. 66 * Must cast thee, scarcely coffin'd, in the ooze;] The defect both of metre and sense, shows that this line, as it appears in the old copy, is corrupted. It reads: Must cast thee, scarcely coffin'd, in oare. MALONE. Where, for a monument upon thy bones, And aye-remaining lamps, the belching whale,5 I believe we should read, with that violence which a copy so much corrupted will sometimes force upon us : Must cast thee, scarcely coffin'd, in the ooze; Where, &c. Shakspeare, in The Tempest, has the same word on the same occasion: "My son i' the ooze is bedded." STEEVENS. Again, ibidem: 66 I wish "Myself were mudded in that oozy bed, Again, in Shakspeare's Lover's Complaint: "Of folded schedules had she many a one, "Which she perus'd, sigh'd, tore, and gave the flood, "Bidding them find their sepulchres in mud." • And aye-remaining lamps, &c.] Old copies: The air-remaining lamps,-. STEEVENS. MALONE. Air-remaining, if it be right, must mean air-hung, suspended for ever in the air. So, (as Mr. Steevens observes to me,) in Shakspeare's 21st Sonnet: 66 those gold candles fix'd in heaven's air.” In King Richard II. right-drawn sword is used for a sword drawn in a just cause; and in Macbeth we meet with air-drawn dagger. Perhaps, however, the author wrote-aye-remaining. Thus, in Othello: "Witness, you ever-burning lights above,-." Again, in Troilus and Cressida: "To feed for aye her lamp, and flames of love." MALONE. "That nature hung in heaven, and fill'd their lamps The propriety of the emendation suggested by Mr. Malone, will be increased, if we recur to our author's leading thought, which is founded on the customs observed in the pomp of ancient sepulture. Within old monuments and receptacles for the dead, perpetual (i. e. aye-remaining) lamps were supposed to be lighted up. Thus, Pope, in his Eloisa: And humming water must o'erwhelm thy corpse, "Ah hopeless, lasting flames, like those that burn I would, however, read: And aye-remaining lamps, &c. Instead of a monument erected above thy bones, AND perpetual lamps to burn near them, the spouting whale shall oppress thee with his weight, and the mass of waters shall roll with low heavy murmur over thy head. STEEVENS. Hudibras has the same allusion: "Love in your heart as idly burns "Those only that see nothing by't." REED. 66 the belching whale,] So, in Troilus and Cressida: "Before the belching whale." MALONE. And humming water must o'erwhelm thy corpse,] Milton perhaps had this verse in his head, when he wrote, "Where thou perhaps under the humming tide He afterwards changed humming to whelming. HOLT WHITE. "The rushing ocean murmur'd o'er my head." Perhaps our great translator had previously cast his eye on Chapman's version of the same passage, 4to. 1598: 7 66 over us The swelling waves of old Oceanus "With fomie murmur flow'd." STEEVENS. ink and paper,] This is the reading of the second quarto. The first has taper. MALONE. • Bring me the sattin coffer:] The old copies have-coffin. It seems somewhat extraordinary that Pericles should have carried a coffin to sea with him. We ought, I think, to read, as I have printed, coffer. MALONE. Sattin coffer is most probably the true reading. So, in a subsequent scene: Upon the pillow; hie thee, whiles I say A priestly farewell to her: suddenly, woman. [Exit LYCHORida. 2 SAIL. Sir, we have a chest beneath the hatches, caulk'd and bitumed ready. PER. I thank thee. Mariner, say what coast is this? 2 SAIL. We are near Tharsus. PER. Thither, gentle mariner, Alter thy course for Tyre." When can'st thou reach it? 2 SAIL. By break of day, if the wind cease. PER. O make for Tharsus. There will I visit Cleon, for the babe Cannot hold out to Tyrus: there I'll leave it [Exeunt. "Madam, this letter, and some certain jewels, Our ancient coffers were often adorned on the inside with such costly materials. A relation of mine has a trunk which formerly belonged to Katharine Howard when queen, and it is lined throughout with rose-coloured sattin, most elaborately quilted. By the sattin coffer, however, may be only meant the coffer employed to contain sattins and other rich materials for dress. Thus we name a tea-chest, &c. from their contents. Pericles, however, does not mean to bury his queen in this sattin coffer, but to take from thence the cloth of state in which it seems she was afterwards shrowded. It appears likewise that her body was found in the chest caulk'd and bitumed by the sailors. So, in Twine's translation: ". a large chest, and we will seare it all ouer within with pitch and rozen melted together &c. Then took they the body of the faire lady Lucina, and arrayed her in princely apparell, and laid her into the chest" &c. STEEVENS. 9 Alter thy course for Tyre.] Change thy course, which is now for Tyre, and go to Tharsus. MALONE. SCENE II. Ephesus. A Room in Cerimon's House. Enter CERIMON,' a Servant, and some Persons who have been shipwrecked. CER. Philemon, ho! Enter PHILEmon. PHIL. Doth my lord call? CER. Get fire and meat for these poor men; It has been a turbulent and stormy night. SERV. I have been in many; but such a night as this, Till now, I ne'er endur'd.2 Cerimon,] In Twine's translation he is called-a Physician. Our author has made a Lord of him. STEEVENS. I have been in many; but such a night as this, "Threescore and ten I can remember well "Within the volume of which time I have seen "Hours dreadful, and things strange; but this sore night "Hath trifled former knowings." Again, in King Lear: Since I was man, "Such sheets of fire, such bursts of horrid thunder, Again, in Julius Cæsar: "I have seen tempests, when the scolding winds "Did I go through a tempest dropping fire." MALONE. |