Though I show will in't. So I take my leave.
Good madam, make me blessed in your care
In bringing up my child.

Dion. I have one myself,

Who shall not be more dear to my respect,

Than yours, my lord.

Per. Madam, my thanks and prayers.

Cle. We'll bring your grace even to the edge o'the shore ;

9

Then give you up to the mask'd Neptune, and

The gentlest winds of heaven.

Per. I will embrace

Your offer. Come, dear'st madam.--O, no tears,
Lychorida, no tears:

Look to your little mistress, on whose grace

You may depend hereafter.-Come, my lord. [Exeunt.

SCENE IV.

Ephesus. A Room in CERIMON's House.

and THAISA.

Enter CERIMON

Cer. Madam, this letter, and some certain jewels,
Lay with you in your coffer: which are now
At your command. Know you the character?
Thai. It is my lord's.

That I was shipp'd at sea, I well remember,
Even on my yearning time; but whether there
Delivered or no, by the holy gods,

I cannot rightly say: But since king Pericles,
My wedded lord, I ne'er shall see again,
A vestal livery will I take me to,

And never more have joy.

Cer. Madam, if this you purpose as you speak,

Diana's temple is not distant far,

Where you may 'bide until your date expire."

[8]" Though I appear wilful and perverse by such conduct.” MALONE. [9] Insidious waves that wear a treacherous smile :

"Subdola pellacis ridet clementia ponti." Lucretius. STEEV.

13 Until you die. So, in Romeo and Juliet:

"The date is out of such prolixity."

The expression of the text is again used by our author in The Rape of

Lucrece:

"An expir'd date, cancell'd, ere well begun."

Again, in Romeo and Juliet:

and expire the term

Of a despised life."

MALONE.

Moreover, if you please, a niece of mine
Shall there attend you.

Thai. My recompense is thanks, that's all ;
Yet my good will is great, though the gift small.

[Exeunt.

ACT IV.

Enter Gower.

Gow. Imagine Pericles at Tyre,
Welcom'd to his own desire.
His woful queen leave at Ephess,
To Dian there a votaress.

Now to Marina bend your mind,
Whom our fast growing scene must find
At Tharsus, and by Cleon train'd

In music, letters; who hath gain'd

Of education all the grace,

Which makes her both the heart and place
Of general wonder. But alack!

That monster envy, oft the wrack
Of earned praise, Marina's life
Seeks to take off by treason's knife.
And in this kind hath our Cleon
One daughter, and a wench full grown,
Even ripe for marriage fight;3 this maid
Hight Philoten: and it is said

For certain in our story, she

Would ever with Marina be :

Be't when she weav'd the sleided silk 4
With fingers, long, small, white as milk;
Or when she would with sharp neeld wound
The cambric, which she made more sound
By hurting it; or when to the lute

[2] Such an education as rendered her the center and situation of general wonder. We still use the heart of oak for the central part of it, and the heart of the land in much such another sense. Shakspeare in Coriolanus says, that one of his ladies is-" the spire and top of praise." STEEVENS.

[3] i. e. the combats of Venus; or night, which needs no explanation. "Let heroes in the dusty field delight,

"Those limbs were fashion'd for a softer fight."
Dryden's version of Ovid's Epistle from Helen to Paris.
STEEVENS

[4] Sleided silk is untwisted silk, prepared to be used in the weaver's sley or slay.

PERCY.

She sung, and made the night-bird mute,
That still records with moan; or when
She would with rich and constant pen
Vail to her mistress Dian;5 still
This Philoten contends in skill
With absolute Marina :6 so

With the dove of Paphos might the crow
Vie feathers white. Marina gets
All praises, which are paid as debts,
And not as given. This so darks
In Philoten all graceful marks,
That Cleon's wife, with envy rare,
A present murderer does prepare
For good Marina, that her daughter
Might stand peerless by this slaughter,
The sooner her vile thoughts to stead,
Lychorida, our nurse, is dead;
And cursed Dionyza hath

The pregnant instrument of wrathi

Prest for this blow.8 The unborn event

I do commend to your content :

Only I carry winged time

Post on the lame feet of my rhyme ;

Which never could I so convey,

Unless your thoughts went on my way.

Diony za does appear,

With Leonine, a murderer.

[Exit.

[5] To vail is to bow, to do homage. The author seems to mean-When she would compose supplicatory hymns to Diana, or verses expressive of her gratitude to Dionyza.

We might indeed read-Hail to her mistress Dian; i. e. salute her in verse. STEEVENS.

That Dian, i. e. Diana, is the true reading, may, I think, be inferred from a passage in The Merchant of Venice; which may at the same time perhaps afford the best comment on that before us:

"Come, ho, and wake Diana with a hymn;

"With sweetest touches pierce your mistress' ear,
"And draw her home with music."

Again, in A Midsummer-Night's Dream:

"To be a barren sister all your life,

"Chanting faint hymns to the cold fruitless moon." MALONE,

[6] i. e. highly accomplished, perfect. MALONE.

[7] Pregnant is ready. So, in Hamlet:

"And crook the pregnant hinges of the knee,-". MALONE.

[8] Prest is ready ; pret. Fr. MALONE.

SCENE I.

Tharsus. An open Place near the Sea-shore. Enter DIONYZA and LEONINE.

Dion. Thy oath remember; thou hast sworn to do it:
'Tis but a blow, which never shall be known.
Thou canst not do a thing i' the world so soon,
To yield thee so much profit. Let not conscience,
Which is but cold, inflame love in thy bosom,
Inflame too nicely; nor let pity, which

Even women have cast off, melt thee, but be
A soldier to thy purpose.

Leon. I'll do't; but yet she is a goodly creature.
Dion. The fitter then the gods should have her. 'Here
Weeping she comes for her old nurse's death.
Thou art resolv'd?

Leon. I am resolv'd.

Enter MARINA, with a Basket of Flowers. Mar. No, no, I will rob Tellus of her weed, To strew thy green with flowers: the yellows, blues, The purple violets, and marigolds,

Shall, as a chaplet, hang upon thy grave,

While summer days do last.2 Ah me! poor maid,
Born in a tempest, when my mother died,

This world to me is like a lasting storm,

Whirring me from my friends.3

Dion. How now, Marina! why do you keep alone? How chance my daughter is not with you? Do not Consume your blood with sorrowing: you have

[9] So, in King Richard III:

"O, he was gentle, mild, and virtuous,-
"The fitter for the King of Heaven."

STEEVENS.

[1] By the green, as Lord Charlemont suggests to me, was meant “the green turf with which the grave of Lychorida was covered.”

Weed in old language meant garment.

[2] So, in Cymbeline :

with fairest flowers,

"While summer lasts, and I live here, Fidele,

MALONE.

"I'll sweeten thy sad grave. Thou shalt not lack
The flower, that's like thy face, pale primrose, nor
"The azur'd hare-bell, like thy veins, no, nor
"The leaf of eglantine, whom not to slander
"Out-sweeten'd not thy breath."

MALONE.

[3] A bird that flies with a quick motion, accompanied with noise, is said to whirr away. Thus, Pope :

5*

Now from the brake the whirring pheasant springs." MAL

VOL. IX.

A nurse of me. Lord! how your favour's chang'd
With this unprofitable woe! Come, come ;

Give me your wreath of flowers, ere the sea mar it.4
Walk forth with Leonine; the air is quick there,
Piercing, and sharpens well the stomach.
Come ;-

Leonine, take her by the arm, walk with her.
Mar. No, I pray you;

I'll not bereave you of your servant.

Dion. Come, come;

I love the king your father, and yourself,
With more than foreign heart.5 We every day
Expect him here: when he shall come, and find
Our paragon to all reports, thus blasted,
He will repent the breadth of his great voyage;
Blame both my lord and me, that we have ta'en
No care to your best courses. Go, I pray you,
Walk, and be cheerful once again; reserve
That excellent complexion, which did steal
The eyes of young and old. Care not for me;

I can go home alone.

Mar. Well, I will go ;

But yet I have no desire to it.

Dion. Come, come, I know 'tis good for you. Walk half an hour, Leonine, at the least;

Remember what I have said.

Leon. I warrant you, madam.

Dion. I'll leave you, my sweet lady, for a while;

Pray you, walk softly, do not heat your blood :

What! I must have a care of you.

Mar. Thanks, sweet madam.

Is this wind westerly that blows?
Leon. South-west.

[Exit DIONYZA,

Mar. When I was born, the wind was north.
Leon. Was't so ?

Mar. My father, as nurse said, did never fear,
But cry'd, good seamen! to the sailors, galling

[4] i.e. ere the sea mar your walk upon the shore by the coming in of the tide, walk there with Leonine. We see plainly by the circumstance of the pirates, that Marina, when seized upon, was walking on the sea-shore; and Shakspeare was not likely to reflect that there is little or no tide in the Mediterranean. CHARLEMONT.

MALONE.

[5] With the same warmth of affection as if I was his countrywoman. [6] Our fair charge, whose beauty was once equal to all that fame said of it. So, in Othello:

"He hath achiev'd a maid,

"That paragons description and wild fame.”

MALONE.