ANT. Prince Pericles, touch not, upon thy life,5 For that's an article within our law, As dangerous as the reft. Your time's expir'd; Few love to hear the fins they love to act; 5 Prince Pericles, touch not, upon thy life,] This is a stroke of nature. The incestuous king cannot bear to fee a rival touch the hand of the woman he loves. His jealoufy resembles that of Antony : to let him be familiar with "My play-fellow, your hand; this kingly feal, "And plighter of high hearts." STEEVENS. Malefort, in Maffinger's Unnatural Combat, expreffes the like impatient jealoufy, when Beaufort touches his daughter Theocrine, to whom he was betrothed. M. MASON. For vice repeated, is like the wand'ring wind, Blows duft in others' eyes, to spread itself;] That is, which blows duft, &c. The man who knows of the ill practices of princes, is unwife if he reveals what he knows; for the publisher of vicious actions resembles the wind, which, while it paffes along, blows duft into men's eyes. When the blaft is over, the eye that has been af fected by the duft, fuffers no farther pain, but can fee as clearly as before; fo by the relation of criminal acts, the eyes of mankind (though they are affected, and turn away with horror,) are opened, and fee clearly what before was not even fufpected: but by expofing the crimes of others, the relater fuffers himself; as the breeze paffes away, fo the breath of the informer is gone; he dies for his temerity. Yet, to ftop the course or ventilation of the air, would hurt the eyes; and to prevent informers from divulging the crimes of men would be prejudicial to mankind. Such, I think, is the meaning of this obfcure passage. MALONE. The breath is gone, and the fore eyes fee clear: cafts Copp'd hills towards heaven, to tell, the earth is wrong'd By man's oppreffion;9 and the poor worm doth die for't.' The breath is gone, and the fore eyes fee clear: To Stop the air would hurt them.] Malone has mistaken the meaning of this part of the fpeech of Pericles :-There should be no ftop after the word clear, that line being neceffarily connected with the following words; and the meaning is this: "The breath is gone, and the eyes, though fore, fee clear enough to ftop for the future the air that would annoy them." Malone fuppofes the fentence to end with the first of these lines, and makes the other a general political aphorifm, not perceiving that, "to ftop the air would hurt them;" means only to ftop the air that would hurt them;" the pronoun being omitted; an ellipfis frequent not only in poetry, but in profe. Pericles means only, by this fimilitude, to fhow the danger of revealing the crimes of princes; for as they feel themselves hurt by the publication of their fhame, they will, of course, prevent a repetition of it, by deftroying the perfon who divulged it: He pursues the fame idea in the inftance of the mole, and concludes with requefting that the king would "Give his tongue like leave to love his head." That is, that he would not force his tongue to speak what, if fpoken, would prove his destruction. In the second scene Pericles fays, fpeaking of the King: "And what may make him blush in being known, "He'll flop the course by which it might be known." Which confirms my explanation. M. MASON. 8 Copp'd hills i. e. rifing to a top or head. So, in P. Holland's tranflation of the eleventh Book of Pliny's Nat. Hift. And few of them have cops or crested tufts upon their heads." Copped Hall, in Effex, was fo named from the lofty pavilion on the roof of the old house, which has been fince pulled down. The upper tire of masonry that covers a wall is ftill called the copping or coping. High-crowned hats were anciently called copatain hats. STEEVENS. 9 the earth is wrong'd By man's oppreffion;] Old copies-throng'd. change I am anfwerable. STEEVENS. For this Kings are earth's gods: in vice their law's their will; And if Jove ftray, who dares fay, Jove doth ill? What being more known grows worse, to fmother it. All love the womb that their first beings bred, But I will gloze with him.3 [Afide.] Young prince of Tyre, Though by the tenour of our strict edíct,4 I and the poor worm doth die for't.] I fuppofe he means to call the mole, (which fuffers in its attempts to complain of 'man's injuftice) a poor worm, as a term of commiferation. Thus, in The Tempest, Profpero speaking to Miranda, fays: "Poor worm thou art infected." The mole remains fecure till he has thrown up those hillocks, which, by pointing out the course he is pursuing, enable the vermin-hunter to catch him. STEEVENS. 2 Heaven, that I had thy head !] The speaker may either mean to fay, 0, that I had thy ingenuity! or, O, that 1 had thy head, fever'd from thy body! The latter, I believe, is the meaning. MALONE. 3 But I will gloze with him.] So, Gower: "With flie wordes and with felle "He fayth: My fonne I fhall thee telle, Though that thou be of littel witte," &c. MALONE, 4- our strict edict,] The old copy has-your strict edict. Corrected in the folio. MALONE. s Your expofition misinterpreting,] Your expofition of the riddle being a mistaken one; not interpreting it rightly. MALONE. We might proceed to cancel of your days ;6 [Exeunt ANTIOCHUS, his Daughter, and Attendants. to cancel of your days;] The quarto, 1609, readsto counfel of your days; which may mean, to deliberate how long you shall be permitted to live. But I believe that counsel was merely an error of the prefs, which the editor of the folio, 1664, corrected by reading to cancel off your days. The fubftitution of off for of is unneceffary; for cancel may have been used as a fubftantive. We might proceed to the cancellation or destruction of your life. Shakspeare uses the participle cancell'd in the fenfe required here, in his Rape of Lucrece, 1594: "An expir'd date, cancell'd ere well begun." The following lines in King Richard III. likewife confirm the reading that has been chofen : "Cancel his bond of life, dear God, I pray, "That I may live to say, the dog is dead." MALONE. To omit the article was formerly a practice not uncommon. So, in Titus Andronicus: " Afcend, fair queen, Pantheon," i. e. the Pantheon. STEEVENS. Again, in King Lear: "Hot queftrifts after him, met him at gate." MALONE. 7 Forty days longer we do refpite you ;] In The Gefta Romanorum, Confeffio Amantis, and The Hiftory of King Appolyn, thirty days only are allowed for the folution of this question. It is difficult to account for this minute variation, but by fuppofing that our author copied fome tranflation of the Gefta Romanorum hitherto undiscovered. MALONE. It is thirty days in Twine's tranflation. Forty, as I have obferved in a note on fome other play (I forget which) was the familiar term when the number to be mentioned was not of arithmetical importance. STEEVENS. As doth befit our honour, and your worth.] I have no doubt PER. How courtefy would feem to cover fin! Then were it certain, you were not fo bad, your child, By the defiling of her parent's bed; And both like ferpents are, who though they feed but that these two lines were intended to rhyme together in our author's copy, where originally they might have ftood thus: your entertain fhall be, Or, As doth befit our honour, your degree. As doth our honour fit and your degree. So, in King Richard III. A& III. fe. vii: "Beft fitteth my degree, and your condition." STEEVENS. 9 Where now you're both a father and a fon.] Where, in this place, has the power of whereas. So, in The Two Gentle men of Verona : "And where I thought the remnant of mine age Where (and with the fame meaning) occurs again in A& ÍÏ. fc. iii. of this play: I "Where now his fon's a glow-worm" &c. STEEVENS. -for wisdom fees, thofe men Blush not in actions blacker than the night, Will fhun no courfe to keep them from the light.] All the old copies read-will shew-, but fhew is evidently a corruption. The word that I have ventured to infert in the text, in its place, |