Did e'er solicit, or my hand subscribe

To any syllable that made love to you?
Thai. Why, sir, say if you had,

Who takes offence at that, would make me glad?
Sim. Yea, mistress, are you so perémptory?

I am glad of it with all my heart. [Aside.] I'll tame you;
I'll bring you in subjection.-

Will you, not having my consent, bestow
Your love and your affections on a stranger
(Who, for ought I know to the contrary,
Or think, may be as great in blood as I.)

r?

[Aside.

Hear, therefore, mistress; frame your will to mine,And you, sir, hear you.-Either be rul'd by me,

Or I will make you-man and wife.

Nay, come; your hands and lips must seal it too.
Aud being join'd, I'll thus your hopes destroy ;—
And for a further grief,-God give you joy!
What, are you both pleas'd?

Thai. Yes, if you love me, sir.

Per. Even as my life, my blood that fosters it.
Sim. What, are you both agreed?
Both. Yes, 'please your majesty.

Sim. It pleaseth me so well, I'll see you wed;

Then, with what haste you can, get you to bed.

[Exeunt.

ACT III.

Enter GoWER.

Gow. Now sleep yslaked hath the rout;
No din but snores, the house about,
Made louder by the o'er-fed breast
Of this most pompous marriage feast.
The cat, with eyne of burning coal,
Now couches 'fore the mouse's hole ;
And crickets sing at th' oven's mouth,
As the blither for their drouth.9
Hymen hath brought the bride to bed,
Where, by the loss of maidenhead,
A babe is moulded ;-Be attent,

[9] So, in Cymbeline:

"The crickets sing, and man's o'erlabour'd sense
"Repairs itself by rest."

MALONE.

And time that is so briefly spent,

With your fine fancies quaintly eche;'

What's dumb in show, I'll plain with speech.

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 the former.2 Then enter THAISA with child, and LYCHORIDA. SIMONIDES shows his Daughter the letter; she rejoices: she and PERICLES take leave of her Father, and depart. Then SIMONIDES, &c. retire.

3

Gow. By many a dearn and painful perch, 3
Of Pericles the careful search
By the four opposing coignes, 4
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 strong inquire,)
To the court of king Simonides

Are letters brought, the tenour these:
Antiochus and his daughter's dead;
The men of Tyrus, on the head

Of Helicanus would set on

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

Says to them, if king Pericles

Come not, in twice six moons, home,

He obedient to their doom,

Will take the crown.

The sum of this,

[1]. So in the Chorus to King Henry V. (first folio):

-still be kind,

"And eche out our performance with your mind." MALONE. [2] The lords kneel to Pericles, because they are now, for the first time, informed by this letter, that he is king of Tyre. By the death of Antiochus and his daughter, Pericles has also succeeded to the throne of Antioch, in consequence of having rightly interpreted the riddle proposed to him. MALONE.

[3] Dearn signifies lonely, solitary. A perch is a measure of five yards and a half. STEEVENS.

[4] By the four opposite corner-stones that unite and bind together the great fabric of the world. The word is again used in Macbeth:

-No jutty, frieze,

"Buttress, or coigne of vantage, but this bird

"Hath made his pendant bed and procreant cradle."

In the passage before us, the author seems to have considered the world as a stupendous edifice artificially constructed. To seek a man in every corner of the globe, is still common language. MALONE.

4

VOL. IX.

Brought hither to Pentapolis,
Y-ravished 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. Their vessel shakes
On Neptune's billow; half the flood
Hath their keel cut; but fortune's mood
Varies again; the grizzled 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 !
Doth fall in travail with her fear:
And what ensues in this fell storm,
Shall, for itself, itself perform.
I nill relate, 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 sea-tost prince appears to speak.

SCENE I.

Enter PERICLES, on a Ship at Sea.

[Exit.

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 deaf'ning,
Thy dreadful thunders; gently quench thy nimble
Sulphureous flashes!-O how, Lychorida,

How does my queen ?-Thou storm, thou! 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 dead queen.
Per. 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

Vie honour with yourselves.

"Lyc. Patience, good sir,

Even for this charge.

Per. 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 welcom'd to this world,
That e'er was prince's child. Happy, what follows!
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,6
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 holins there; thou wilt not, wilt thou? Blow, and split thyself.

[5] Our author uses the same expression, on the same occasion, in The Tempest: "You mar our labour ;-keep your cabins; you do assist the storm.

MALONE.

[6] i. e. thou hast already lost more (by the death of thy mother) than thy safe arrival at the port of life can counterbalance, with all to boot that we can give thee. Portage is used for gate or entrance in one of Shakspeare's historical plays. STEEVENS,

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 still hath been observed; and we are strong in earnest. Therefore briefly yield her; for she must overboard straight. Per. Be it 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, 7
Lying with simple shells. Lychorida,

Bid Nestor bring me spices, ink and paper,
My casket and my jewels; and bid Nicander
Bring me the sattin 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

Cannot hold out to Tyrus: there I'll leave it

At careful nursing. Go thy ways, good mariner;
I'll bring the body presently.

[Exeunt.

[7] 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.

[8] Change thy coarse, which is now for Tyre, and go to Tharsus.

MALONE.