Dumb show.

Enter PERICLES and SIMONIDES at one door, with Attendants; a Messenger meets them, kneels, and gives PERICLES a Letter: PERICLES shows it to SIMONIDES; the Lords kneel to PERICLES. Then, enter THAISA with child, and LYCHORIDA: SIMONIDES shows his Daughter the Letter; she rejoices: she and PERICLES take leave of her Father, and all depart.

Gow. By many a dearn and painful perch
Of Pericles the careful search
By the four opposing coignes,
Which the world together joins,
Is made, with all due diligence,
That horse, and sail, and high expence,
Can stead the quest. At last from Tyre
(Fame answering the most strange inquire,)
To the court of king Simonides

Are letters brought, the tenour these:-
Antiochus and his daughter dead:
The men of Tyrus on the head
Of Helicanus would set on

The crown of Tyre, but he will none :
The mutiny he there hastes t' oppress;

Says to them, if king Pericles

Come not home in twice six moons,

He, obedient to their dooms,

Will take the crown.

The sum of this,

Brought hither to Pentapolis,

Yravished the regions round,

And every one with claps 'gan sound,

“Our heir apparent is a king!

Who dream'd, who thought of such a thing?"

Brief, he must hence depart to Tyre:

His queen, with child, makes her desire

(Which who shall cross?) along to go;
Omit we all their dole and woe:
Lychorida, her nurse, she takes,
And so to sea. Then, vessel shakes
On Neptune's billow; half the flood
Hath their keel cut; but fortune's mood2
Varies again: the grizzly north

Disgorges such a tempest forth

That, as a duck for life that dives,
So up and down the poor ship drives.
The lady shrieks, and well-a-near,
Does fall in travail with her fear:
And what ensues in this self storm3
Shall for itself itself perform.

I nill relate1, action may
Conveniently the rest convey,

Which might not what by me is told.
In your imagination hold

This stage the ship, upon whose deck
The seas-tost Pericles appears to speak.

[Exit.

SCENE I

Enter PERICLES, on shipboard.

Per. Thou God of this great vast, rebuke these

surges,

Which wash both heaven and hell; and thou, that hast
Upon the winds command, bind them in brass,

Having call'd them from the deep. O! still
Thy deafening, dreadful thunders; duly quench3

2 - but fortune's MOOD] All the old editions misprint it, "but fortune

mor'd."

3

in this SELF storm,] . e. in this same or self-same storm: all modern editors here corrupt the ancient text of the quartos and folios to "fell storm." 4 I NILL relate,] i. e. I ne will or will not relate.

5 -DULY quench] "Daily quench in the old copies: modern editors, without notice, alter it to "gently quench."

Thy nimble, sulphurous flashes!-O! how, Lychorida,
How does my queen?-Thou storm, venomously
Wilt thou spit all thyself?—The seaman's whistle
Is as a whisper in the ears of death,
Unheard.-Lychorida!—Lucina, O!
Divinest patroness, and midwife', gentle
To those that cry by night, convey thy deity
Aboard our dancing boat; make swift the pangs
Of my queen's travails!-Now, Lychorida-

Enter LYCHORIDA, with an Infant.

Lyc. Here is a thing too young for such a place, Who, if it had conceit, would die as I

Am like to do. Take in your arms this piece

Of your
your dead

Per.

queen.

How! how, Lychorida!

Lyc. Patience, good sir; do not assist the storm. Here's all that is left living of your queen,

A little daughter: for the sake of it,

Be manly, and take comfort.

Per.

O you gods!

Why do you make us love your goodly gifts,

And snatch them straight away? We, here below,

Recall not what we give, and therein may

Use honour with you.

Lyc.

Even for this charge.

Per.

Patience, good sir,

Now, mild may be thy life!

For a more blust'rous birth had never babe :

Quiet and gentle thy conditions!

For thou'rt the rudeliest welcome to this world,

That e'er was prince's child. Happy what follows!

6 THOU storm, venomously] "Then storm" in all the old copies.

7 Divinest patroness, and MIDWIFE,] For "midwife" (substituted by Steevens) the old editions all read my wife.

For thou'rt the rudeliest welcome to this world,

That e'er was prince's child.] The novel founded upon the play of "Pericles "here employs an expression which, as is stated in the Introduction, is

Thou hast as chiding a nativity,

As fire, air, water, earth, and heaven can make,
To herald thee from the womb: even at the first,
Thy loss is more than can thy portage quit,

With all thou canst find here.-Now the good gods
Throw their best eyes upon it!

Enter Two Sailors.

1 Sail. What courage, sir? God save you.
Per. Courage enough. I do not fear the flaw';
It hath done to me the worst: yet, for the love
Of this poor infant, this fresh new sea-farer,
I would it would be quiet.

1 Sail. Slack the bowlines there; thou wilt not, wilt thou?-Blow, and split thyself.

2 Sail. But sea-room, an the brine and cloudy billow kiss the moon, I care not.

1 Sail. Sir, your queen must overboard: the sea works high, the wind is loud, and will not lie till the ship be cleared of the dead.

Per. That's your superstition.

1 Sail. Pardon us, sir; with us at sea it hath been still observed, and we are strong in earnest'. Therefore briefly yield her, for she must overboard straight'.

evidently Shakespearean: it gives this part of the speech of Pericles as follows:"Poor inch of nature! (quoth he) thou art as rudely welcome to the world, as ever princess' babe was, and hast as chiding a nativity, as fire, air, earth and water can afford thee." This quotation also serves to show that Malone was wrong in altering "welcome" to welcom'd: besides the needlessness of the change, the novel proves that "welcome was the poet's word.

91

- I do not fear the FLAW ;] "Flaw" is blast: we have had it in the same sense in other plays; last in " Hamlet," see Vol. vii. p. 329.

1- and we are strong in EARNEST.] The old copies read "strong in eastern," and Monck Mason very plausibly suggested that the letters in the word eastern had been transposed, and that we ought to read "strong in earnest." The chief objection to this is, that in the quarto impressions eastern has one letter too much, being spelt with a final e-easterne: the folio, 1664, first omitted it.

2 for she must overboard straight.] Every old copy, by a strange error, inserts these words in the middle of the reply of Pericles. They may have been meant as a repetition by him.

Per. As you think meet.-Most wretched queen! Lyc. 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;
Where, for a monument upon thy bones,
And aye-remaining lamps', the belching whale,
And humming water must o'erwhelm thy corpse,
Lying with simple shells.-O Lychorida!
Bid Nestor bring me spices, ink and paper,
My casket and my jewels; and bid Nicander
Bring me the satin coffer": lay the babe
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 canst 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

3 As you think meet.] Modern editors, under the pretence probably of improving the metre, which they consider defective, because the line only consists of eight syllables, insert Be it at the beginning of this speech. The pause after "As you think meet" amply makes up the time, and in this play we must generally take the versification as we find it.

4 And AYE-remaining lamps,] Malone's emendation of the old copies, which print "ayre remaining lamps." The allusion, of course, is to the lamps kept burning in monuments.

♪ Bring me the satin COFFER:] Coffin in the old copies; but most likely Pericles was thinking of some ornaments kept by him in a satin "coffer." Malone, Steevens, and others adopted "coffer;" but in the last scene of this Act the word "coffer" occurs again, and there it seems to mean coffin, as if the terms were indifferently employed.

6 Alter thy course for Tyre.] Change thy course, (says Malone) which is now for Tyre, and go to Thursus.