Lrs. Sir, king, all hail! the gods preferve you! Hail, Hail, royal fir! HEL. It is in vain; he will not speak to you. 1 LORD. Sir, we have a maid in Mitylene," I durft wager, Would win fome words of him. Lys. 'Tis well bethought. She, questionless, with her fweet harmony And other choice attractions, would allure, And make a battery through his deafen'd parts, Which now are midway stopp'd:7 Sir, we have a maid &c.] This circumftance resembles another in All's well that ends well, where Lafeu gives an account of Helena's attractions to the King, before the is introduced to attempt his cure. STEEVENS. And make a battery through his deafen'd parts, Which now are midway Stopp'd:] The earlieft quarto reads -defend parts. I have no doubt that the poet wrote-through his deafen'd parts,i. e. ears; which were to be affailed by the melodious voice of Marina. In the old quarto few of the parti ciples have an elifion-mark. This kind of phrafeology, though it now appears uncouth, was common in our author's time. Thus, in the poem entitled Romeus and Juliet: "Did not thy parts, fordon with pain, languish away and pine" Again, more appofitely, ibidem: "Her dainty tender parts 'gan fhiver all for dread; Again, in our poet's Venus and Adonis : Or, were I deaf, thy outward parts would move "Each part in me that were but fenfible." Again, in his 69th Sonnet: "Those parts of thee, that the world's eye doth view," &c. Stopp'd is a word which we frequently find connected with the ear. So, in King Richard II: "Gaunt. My death's fad tale may not undeaf his ear. MALONE. She, all as happy as of all the faireft, [He whispers one of the attendant Lords.- Mr. Malone's explanation is fully fupported by a line in Antony and Cleopatra: "Make battery to our ears with the loud mufick." HOLT WHITE, Perhaps we should read his deafen'd ports. Thus, in Timon: "Defcend, and open your uncharged ports." i. e. gates. Deafen'd ports would mean the oppilated doors of hearing. In King Henry IV. Part II. we have " the gates of breath." STEEVENS. She, all as happy as of all the faireft, Is, with her fellow maidens, now within &.] Old copy: And, with her fellow-maids, is now upon Marina might be faid to be under the leafy fhelter, but I know not how the could be upon it; nor have I a clear idea of a fhelter abutting against the fide of an island. I would read: is now upon. i. e. the Shelving bank near the fea-fide, fhaded by adjoining It appears from Gower, that the feast of Neptune was celebrated on the strand: trees. "The lordes both and the commune "The high feftes of Neptune Upon the ftronde, at rivage, "As it was cuftome and usage, 66 So, before in this scene: "Being on hore, honouring of Neptune's triumphs,-." Marina, and her fellow-maids, we may fuppofe, had retired a little way from the croud, and feated themselves under the adjoining trees, to fee the triumph. This circumftance was an invention of the poet's. In King Appolyn of Thyre, Tharfye, the Marina of this play, is brought from the bordel where the had HEL. Sure, all's effectlefs; yet nothing we'll omit That bears recovery's name. But, fince your kindnefs We have stretch'd thus far, let us befeech you fur ther, That for our gold we may provifion have, Lys. been placed. In the Confeffio Amantis, he is fummoned, by order of the governor, from the honeft house to which she had retreated. The words with and is, which I have inferted, are not in the old copy. MALONE. If any alteration be thought neceffary, I would read: "And is now about the leafy fhelter," inftead of upon. M. MASON. Mr. M. Mason's alteration cannot be admitted, as the words about and abut would be fo near each other as to occafion the most barbarous diffonance.-I have at least printed the paffage fo as to afford it smoothness, and fome apparent meaning. STEEVENS. • Exit Lord, in the Barge of Lyfimachus.] It may seem ftrange that a fable should have been chosen to form a drama upon, in which the greater part of the bufinefs of the laft Act fhould be tranfacted at fea; and wherein it fhould even be neceffary to produce two veffels on the scene at the fame time. But the cuftoms and exhibitions of the modern ftage give this objection to the play before us a greater weight than it really has. It appears, that, when Pericles was originally performed, the theatres were furnished with no fuch apparatus as by any stretch of the imagination could be fuppofed to prefent either a fea, or a fhip; and that the audience were contented to behold veffels failing in and out of port, in their mind's eye only. This li cence being once granted to the poet, the lord, in the inftance now before us, walked off the ftage, and returned again in a few minutes, leading in Marina, without any fenfible impropriety; and the present drama, exhibited before fuch indulgent Ipectators, was not more incommodious in the representation than any other would have been. See The Hiftorical Account of the English Stage, Vol. III. MALONE. For every graff would fend a caterpillar, HEL. Sit, fir, I will recount it ; But fee, I am prevented. Enter, from the Barge, Lord, MARINA, and a Lys. young Lady. O, here is The lady that I fent for. Welcome, fair one! HEL. A gallant lady. Lrs. She's fuch, that were I well affur'd fhe came Of gentle kind, and noble stock, I'd wish And fo inflict our province.] Thus all the copies. But I do not believe to inflict was ever used by itself in the sense of to punish. The poet probably wrote-And so afflict our province. MALONE. 2 Sit, fir,] Thus the eldeft quarto. The modern editions read -Sir, fir. MALONE. 3 Is't not a goodly prefence?] Is the not beautiful in her form? So, in King John: "Lord of thy prefence, and no land befide.” All the copies read, I think corruptedly, Is it not a goodly prefent? MALONE. Mr. Malone's emendation is undoubtedly judicious. So, in Romeo and Juliet: "Show a fair presence, and put off these frowns.”. STEEVENS. • Fair one, all goodness that confifts in bounty Expect even here, where is a kingly patient:] The quarto, 1609, reads: If that thy profperous-artificial feat 5 Fair on, all goodness that confifts in beauty &c. The editor of the fecond quarto in 1619, finding this unintelligible, altered the text, and printed-Fair and all goodness, &c. which renders the paffage nonfenfe.-One was formerly written on; and hence they are perpetually confounded in our ancient dramas. See Vol. X. p. 443, n. 6. The latter part of the line, which was corrupt in all the copies, has been happily amended by Mr. Steevens. MALONE. I should think, that inftead of beauty we ought to read bounty. All the good that confifts in beauty fhe brought with her. But she had reason to expect the bounty of her kingly patient, if the proved fuccefsful in his cure. Indeed Lyfimachus tells her fo afterwards in clearer language. The prefent circumstance puts us in mind of what paffes between Helena and the King, in All's well that ends well. STEEVENS. 5 If that thy profperous-artificial feat &c.] Old copy: If that thy profperous and artificial &c. STEEVENS. “Veni ad me, Tharfia;" (fays Athenagoras) "ubi nunc ars ftudiorum tuorum ut confoleris dominum navis in tenebris fedentem; ut provoces eum exire ad lucem, quia nimis dolet pro conjuge et filia fuâ ?"—Gefta Romanorum, p. 586, edit. 1558. The old copy has-artificial fate. For this emendation the reader is indebted to Dr. Percy. Feat and fate are at this day pronounced in Warwickshire alike; and fuch, I have no doubt, was the pronunciation in the time of Queen Elizabeth. Hence the two words were eafily confounded. [See Mr. Malone's Supplement, &c. to Shakspeare, Vol. I. p. 411, n. 1.] A paffage in Measure for Measure may add support to Dr. Percy's very happy emendation : In her youth "There is a prone and speechless dialect, "Such as moves men; befides, the hath a profperous art "When she will play with reason and discourse, "And well she can perfuade." MALONE. Percy reads feat, inftead of fate, which may poffibly be the right reading; but in that case we ought to go further, and strike -out the word and: If that thy profperous, artificial feat. The amendment I should propofe is to read If that thy profperous artifice and fate. M. MASON. |
