Like motes and fhadows fee them move awhile ;5

Your ears unto your eyes I'll reconcile.

In the next line the verfification is defective by one word being printed instead of two. By reading grow on inftead of groan, the fenfe and metre are both reftored. So, in A MidsummerNight's Dream (fol. 1623): and fo grow on to a point." See Vol. IV. p. 335, n. 2. We might read-go on; but the other appears to be more likely to have been the author's word.

66

MALONE.

I cannot approve of Malone's amendment, but adhere to the old copies, with this difference only, that I join the words thought and pilot with a hyphen, and read:

think this pilot-thought;

That is, " Keep this leading circumftance in your mind, which will ferve as a pilot to you, and guide you through the rest of the ftory, in such a manner, that your imagination will keep pace with the king's progrefs." M. MASON.

The plainer meaning feems to be-Think that his pilot had the celerity of thought, fo fhall your thought keep pace with his operations. STEEVENS.

who firft is gone.] Who has left Tharfus before her father's arrival there. MALONE.

5 Like motes and fhadows fee them move awhile;] So, in Macbeth:

"Come like Shadows, fo depart." STEEVENS.

Dumb Show.

Enter at one door, PERICLES with his Train; CLEON and DIONYZA at the other. CLEON Shows PERICLES the Tomb of MARINA; whereat PERICLES makes lamentation, puts on Sackcloth, and in a mighty pafsion departs. Then CLEON and DIONYZA retire.

Gow. See how belief may fuffer by foul fhow! This borrow'd paffion ftands for true old woe;" And Pericles, in forrow all devour'd,

With fighs fhot through, and biggest tears
o'erfhow'r'd,

Leaves Tharfus, and again embarks. He fwears
Never to wash his face, nor cut his hairs;
He puts on fackcloth, and to fea. He bears
A tempeft, which his mortal vessel tears,"
And yet he rides it out. Now please you wit
The epitaph is for Marina writ

-for true old woe ;] So, in King Henry V:

Sit and fee,

Minding true things by what their mockeries be."

MALONE.

-for true old woe;] i. e. for fuch tears as were shed when, the world being in its infancy, diffimulation was unknown. All poetical writers are willing to persuade themselves that fincerity expired with the first ages. Perhaps, however, we ought to read-true told woe. STEEVENS.

7 A tempeft, which his mortal veffel tears,] So, in King Richard III:

O, then began the tempeft to my foul!" What is here called his mortal vessel, (i. e. his body,) is ftyled by Cleopatra her mortal houfe. STEEVENS.

8

in Gower:

Now pleafe you wit-] Now be pleased to know. So,

"In whiche the lorde hath to him writte
"That he would understonde and witte,-."

By wicked Dionyza.

[Reads the infcription on MARINA'S MO

nument.

The faireft, fweet'ft, and best, lies here,
Who wither'd in her fpring of year.
She was of Tyrus, the king's daughter,
On whom foul death hath made this flaughter;
Marina was fhe call'd; and at her birth,
Thetis, being proud, Swallow'd fome part o'the
earth:2

The editor of the fecond quarto (which has been copied by all the other editions) probably not understanding the paffage, altered it thus:

66

Now take we our way

"To the epitaph for Marina writ by Dionyfia."

MALONE. -fweet'ft, and beft,] Sweeteft is here used as a monofyllable. So higheft, in The Tempeft: "Higheft queen of

ftate." &c.

MALONE.

We might more elegantly read, omitting the conjunction— and,

The faireft, fweeteft, beft, lies here. STEEVENs.

1 Marina was the call'd; &c.] It might have been expected that this epitaph, which fets out in four-foot verfe, would have confined itself to that measure; but inftead of preserving such uniformity, throughout the laft fix lines it deviates into heroicks, which, perhaps, were never meant by its author. Let us remove a few syllables, and try whether any thing is loft by their omiffion :

"Marina call'd; and at her birth

"Proud Thetis fwallow'd part o'the earth:
"The earth, fearing to be o'erflow'd,
"Hath Thetis' birth on heaven beftow'd:
"Wherefore the fwears fhe'll never ftint
"Make battery upon fhores of flint."

The image fuggefted by-" Thetis fwallowed" &c. reminds us of Brabantio's fpeech to the fenate, in the first Act of Othello : my particular grief

"Is of fo floodgate and o'erbearing nature,
"That it engluts and fwallows other forrows."

STEEVENS.

Therefore the earth, fearing to be o'erflow'd,
Hath Thetis' birth-child on the heavens be-

ftow'd:

Wherefore he does, (and fwears he'll never
Stint,)3

Make raging battery upon fhores of flint.

No vifor does become black villainy,
So well as foft and tender flattery.
Let Pericles believe his daughter's dead,
And bear his courfes to be ordered

2 Thetis, being proud fwallow'd fome part o'the earth:] The modern editions by a ftrange blunder, read,-That is, being proud, &c.

I formerly thought that by the words-fome part of the earth was meant Thaifa, the mother of Marina. So Romeo calls his beloved Juliet, when he fuppofes her dead, the dearest morfel of the earth. But I am now convinced that I was miftaken."

MALONE.

The infeription alludes to the violent ftorm which accompanied the birth of Marina, at which time the fea, proudly o'erfwelling its bounds, fwallowed, as is ufual in fuch hurricanes, fome part of the earth. The poet afcribes the fwelling of the fea to the pride which Thetis felt at the birth of Marina in her element; and fuppofes that the earth, being afraid to be overflowed, beftowed this birth-child of Thetis on the heavens; and that Thetis, in revenge, makes raging battery against the fhores. The line, Therefore the earth fearing to be o'erflow'd, proves beyond doubt that the words, fome part of the earth, in the line preceding, cannot mean the body of Thaifa, but a portion of the continent. M. MASON.

Our poet has many allufions in his works to the depredations made by the fea on the land. So, in his 64th Sonnet:

"When I have seen the hungry ocean gain

66

Advantage on the kingdom of the fhore,

"And the firm foil win of the watry main,

Increasing store with lofs, and lofs with ftore ;-." &c. We have, I think, a fimilar defcription in King Lear and King Henry IV. P. II. MALONE,

3(and fwears he'll never ftint,)] She'll never cease. So, in Romeo and Juliet:

"It fiinted, and faid, ay." MALONE.

By lady fortune; while our scenes difplay 4
His daughter's woe and heavy well-a-day,
In her unholy fervice. Patience then,
And think you now are all in Mitylen. [Exit.

SCENE V.

Mitylene. A Street before the Brothel.

Enter, from the Brothel, Two Gentlemen.

1 GENT. Did you ever hear the like?

2 GENT. No, nor never fhall do in fuch a place as this, the being once gone.

did

1 GENT. But to have divinity preached there! you ever dream of fuch a thing?

2 GENT. No, no. Come, I am for no more bawdy-houses: Shall we go hear the veftals fing?

while our scenes difplay-] The old copies have— -while our fteare must play.

We might read-our Stage-or rather, our Scene (which was formerly fpelt Sceane). So, in As you like it:

"This wide and univerfal theatre,

"Presents more woful pageants than the Scene
"Wherein we play."

Again, in The Winter's Tale:

66

as if

"The scene you play, were mine.”

It should be remembered, that fcene was formerly fpelt fceane; fo there is only a change of two letters, which in the writing of the early part of the last century were eafily confounded.

I read as in the text. So, in King Henry VIII:

66

and difplay'd the effects

"Of difpofition gentle." STEEVENS.

MALONE.