having been thus new-modelled by our poet, and enriched with many happy strokes from his pen, is unquestionably entitled to that place among his works which it has now obtained. MALONE. SIMONIDES, king of Pentapolis.▾ CLEON, governor of Tharsus. THALIARD, a lord of Antioch. PHILEMON, servant to Cerimon. LEONINE, servant to Dionyza. Marshall. A Pandar, and his Wife. BOULT, their servant. GOWER, as Chorus. The Daughter of Antiochus. THAISA, daughter to Simonides. MARINA, daughter to Pericles and Thaisa. LYCHORIDA, nurse to Marina. DIANA. Lords, Ladies, Knights, Gentlemen, Sailors, Pirates, Fishermen, and Messengers, &c. SCENE, dispersedly in various countries. [1] This is an imaginary city, and its name might have been borrowed from some romance. STEEVENS. PERICLES. ACT I. Enter GOWER. Before the Palace of Antiach. To sing a song of old was sung,' To glad your ear, and please your eyes. (I tell you what mine authors say :) Who died and left a female heir, [1] I do not know that old is by any author used adverbially. We might read: To sing a song of old was sung, i. e. that of old &c. But the poet is so licentious in the language which he has attributed to Gower in this piece, that I have not ventured to make any change. MALONE. [2] i. e. says Dr. Farmer, by whom this emendation was made, churchales. MALONE. [3] This word, which is frequently used by our oid poets, signifies a mate or companion. The old copies have-peer. MALONE, So buxom, blithe, and full of face,4 In marriage-pleasures play-fellow : What now ensues, to the judgment of your eye [Exit. SCENE I. Antioch. A Room in the Palace. Enter ANTIOCHUS, PERICLES, and Attendants. Ant. Young prince of Tyre, you have at large receiv'd The danger of the task you undertake. Per. I have, Antiochus, and with a soul Embolden'd with the glory of her praise, Think death no hazard, in this enterprize. [Music. Ant. Bring in our daughter, clothed like a bride, [4] Completely, exuberantly beautiful. A full fortune, in Othello, means a complete, a large one. MALONE. [5] Gower must be supposed here to point to the heads of those unfortunate wights, which were fixed on the gate of the palace at Antioch MALONE. Enter the Daughter of ANTIOCHUS. Per. See, where she comes, apparell'd like the spring, Her face, the book of praises, where is read Ye gods that made me man, and sway in love, Per. That would be son to great Antiochus. Tell thee with speechless tongues, and semblance pale, For going on death's net, whom none resist. Per. Antiochus, I thank thee, who hath taught My frail mortality to know itself, And by those fearful objects to prepare [6] She comes (says Pericles) adorned with all the colours of the spring; the Graces are proud to enroll themselves among her subjects; and the king, (i. e. the chief) of every virtue that ennobles humanity, impregnates her mind: Graces her subjects, in her thonghts the king In short she has no superior in beauty, yet still she is herself under the dominion of virtue. STEEVENS. [7] This is a bold expression testy wrath could not well be a mild companion to any one; but by her mild companion, Shakspeare means the companion of her mildness. M. MASON. [8] Thy whole heap, thy body, must suffer for the offence of a part, thine eye. The word bulk like heap in the present passage, was used for body by Shakspeare-and his contemporaries. MALONE. |