Mar.

No, nor of any shores:

Yet I was mortally brought forth, and am

No other than I appear.

Per. I am great with woe, and shall deliver weeping My dearest wife was like this maid, and such a one My daughter might have been: my queen's square brows; Her stature to an inch; as wand-like straight;

As silver-voic'd; her eyes as jewel-like,

And cas'd as richly,3. in pace another Juno;4

Who starves the ears she feeds, and makes them hungry,

1 I am great with woe, and shall deliver weeping.] So, in King Richard II:

2

Green, thou art the midwife to my woe,

"And Bolingbroke my sorrow's dismal heir:
"Now hath my soul brought forth her prodigy,
"And I, a gasping, new-deliver'd mother,

"Have woe to woe, sorrow to sorrow join'd." Malone.

such a one

My daughter might have been:] So, Demones in the Rudens of Plautus, exclaims on beholding his long-lost child :

"O filia

"Mea! cum ego hanc video, mearum me absens miseria

rum commones,

"Trima quæ periit mihi: jam tanta esset, si vivit, scio." It is observable that some of the leading incidents in this play strongly remind us of the Rudens. There Arcturus, like Gower, poxo-In the Latin comedy, fishermen, as in Pericles, are brought on the stage, one of whom drags on shore in his net the wallet which principally produces the catastrophe; and the heroines of Plautus and Marina fall alike into the hands of a procurer. A circumstance on which much of the plot in both these dramatick pieces depends. H. White.

3

her eyes as jewel-like,

And cas'd as richly :] So, in King Lear :
and in this habit,

66

"Met I my father with his bleeding rings,
"Their precious stones new-lost."

Again, ibidem:

66

What, with this case of eyes?" Malone.

So, in the third Act, Cerimon says:

"She is alive;-behold

"Her eye-lids, cases to those heavenly jewels,
"Which Pericles has lost,

"Begin to part their fringes of bright gold." M. Mason

in pace another Juno;] So, in The Tempest:

Highest queen of state

"Great Juno comes; I know her by her gait." Malone

The more she gives them speech.5-Where do you live? Mar. Where I am but a stranger: from the deck

You may discern the place.

Per.

And how achiev'd you these endowments, which
You make more rich to owe?

Where were you bred?

Should I tell my history,

Mar. 'Twould seem like lies disdain'd in the reporting.

Per. Pr'ythee speak;

Falseness cannot come from thee, for thou look'st
Modest as justice, and thou seem'st a palace

For the crown'd truth to dwell in: I'll believe thee,
And make my senses credit thy relation,

To points that seem impossible; for thou look'st

5 Who starves the ears she feeds, and makes them hungry, The more she gives them speech.] So, in Antony and Cleopatra : other women cloy

66

"The appetites they feed, but she makes hungry,
"Where most she satisfies."

Again, in Hamlet:

6

"As if increase of appetite did grow

By what it fed on."

Malone.

And how achiev'd you these endowments, which

You make more rich to owe?] To owe in ancient language is to possess. So, in Othello:

that sweet sleep

"That thou ow'dst yesterday."

The meaning of the compliment is:-These endowments, however valuable in themselves, are heighten'd by being in your possession. They acquire additional grace from their owner. Thus also, one of Timon's flatterers:

7

"You mend the jewel by the wearing of it." Steevens.

a palace

For the crown'd truth to dwell in:] It is observable that our poet, when he means to represent any quality of the mind as eminently perfect, furnishes the imaginary being whom he personifies, with a crown. Thus, in his 114th Sonnet:

"Or whether doth my mind, being crown'd with you, "Drink up the monarch's plague, this flattery?"

Again, in his 37th Sonnet:

"For whether beauty, birth, or wealth, or wit,
Or any of these all, or all, or more,

"Entitled in thy parts do crowned sit, —.”

Again, in Romeo and Juliet:

Upon his brow shame is asham'd to sit,

"For 'tis a throne, where honour may be crown'd,
"Sole monarch of the universal earth." Malonė

Like one I lov'd indeed. What were thy friends?
Didst thou not say, when I did push thee back,
(Which was when I perceiv'd thee) that thou cam'st
From good descending?

Mar.

So indeed I did.

Per. Report thy parentage. I think thou said'st Thou hadst been toss'd from wrong to injury,

And that thou thought'st thy griefs might equal mine, If both were open'd.

Mar.

Some such thing indeed
I said, and said no more but what my thoughts
Did warrant me was likely.

Per.
Tell thy story;
If thine consider'd prove the thousandth part
Of my endurance, thou art a man, and I
Have suffer'd like a girl:1 yet thou dost look

Like Patience, gazing on kings' graves, and smiling
Extremity out of act.3 What were thy friends?

How lost thou them? Thy name, my most kind virgin?

8 Didst thou not say,] All the old copies read-Didst thou not stay. It was evidently a false print in the first edition. Malone. 9 Some such thing indeed--] For the insertion of the wordindeed, I am accountable. Malone.

Have suffer'd like a girl:] So, in Macbeth:
"If trembling I inhibit thee, protest me
"The baby of a girl." Malone.

2 Like Patience, gazing on king's graves,] So, in Twelfth

Night:

"She sat like Patience on a monument,

"Smiling at Grief."

Again, in The Rape of Lucrece, 1594:

3

"Onward to Troy with these blunt swains he goes;
"So mild, that Patience seem'd to scorn his woes." Malone.

and smiling

Extremity out of act.] By her beauty and patient meekness disarming Calamity, and preventing her from using her up-lifted sword. So, in King Henry IV, Part II:

"And hangs resolv'd correction in the arm,

"That was uprear'd to execution."

Extremity (though not personified as here) is in like manner used in King Lear, for the utmost of human suffering:

another,

"To amplify too much, would make much more,
"And top extremity." Malone.

Recount, I do beseech thee; come, sit by me.4
Mar. My name, sir, is Marina.

Nay, I'll be patient;

Thou little know'st how thou dost startle me,

To call thyself Marina.

Mar.

The name Marina,

Was given me by one that had some power;

My father, and a king.

Per.

And call'd Marina?

Mar.

How! a king's daughter?

You said you would believe me;

But, not to be a troubler of your peace,5

I will end here.

Per.

But are you flesh and blood?

Have you a working pulse? and are no fairy?

No motion?6-Well; speak on. Where were you born?

4 How lost thou them?-Thy name, my most kind virgin? Recount, I do beseech thee; come, sit by me.] All the old copies read:

How lost thou thy name, my most kind virgin, recount, &c. But Marina had not said any thing about her name. She had indeed told the king, that "Time had rooted out her parentage, and to the world and aukward casualties bound her in servitude."-Pericles, therefore, naturally asks her, by what accident she had lost her friends; and at the same time desires to know her name. Marina answers his last question first, and then proceeds to tell her history. The insertion of the word them, which I suppose to have been omitted by the negligence of the compositor, renders the whole clear. The metre of the line, which was before defective, and Marina's answer, both support the conjectural reading of the text. Malone.

5

a troubler of your peace,] Thus the earliest quarto. So, in King Richard III:

"And then hurl down their indignation

"On thee, the troubler of the poor world's peace." The folios and the modern editions read-a trouble of your peace.

6

Malone.

No motion?] i. e. no puppet dress'd up to deceive me. So, in The Two Gentlemen of Verona:

"O excellent motion! O exceeding puppet!"

Steevens.

Mar. My mother was the daughter of a king;
Who died the very minute I was born,7
As my good nurse Lychorida hath oft
Deliver'd weeping.

Per.

O, stop there a little! This is the rarest dream that e'er dull sleep3 Did mock sad fools withal: this cannot be.

My daughter's buried. [Aside.] Well-where were you bred?

I'll hear you more, to the bottom of your story,
And never interrupt you.

Mar. You'll scarce believe me; 'twere best I did give o'er.9

This passage should be pointed thus:

Have you a working pulse? and are no fairy motion? That is, "Have you really life in you, or are you merely a puppet formed by enchantment? the work of fairies." The present reading cannot be right, for fairies were supposed to be anima ted beings, and to have working pulses as well as men.

M. Mason.

If Mr. M. Mason's punctuation were followed, the line would be too long by a foot. Pericles suggests three images in his question-1. Have you a working pulse? i. e. are you any thing human and really alive? 2. Are you a fairy? 3. Or are you a puppet? Steevens.

In the old copy this passage is thus exhibited:

"But are you flesh and blood?

"Have you a working pulse, and are no fairy?
"Motion well, speak on," &c.

Malone.

7 Who died the very minute I was born,] Thus the old copy. Either the construction is-My mother, who died the very mi nute I was born, was the daughter of a king,-òr we ought to read:

She died the very minute &c.

otherwise it is the king, not the queen, that died at the instant of Marina's birth. In the old copies these lines are given as prose. Steevens.

The word very I have inserted to complete the metre. Malone. 8 This is the rarest dream that e'er dull sleep —] The words, This is the rarest dream &c. are not addressed to Marina, but spoken aside. Malone.

? You'll scarce believe me ; 'twere best I did give o'er] All the