Go search like noblemen, like noble subjects,
And in your fearch spend your adventurous worth;
Whom if you find, and win unto return,
You shall like diamonds fit about his crown.6

1 LORD. To wisdom he's a fool that will not

yield;

And, fince lord Helicane enjoineth us,
We with our travels will endeavour it."

HEL. Then you love us, we you, and we'll clafp

hands;

When peers thus knit, a kingdom ever stands.

[Exeunt.

You shall like diamonds fit about his crown.] As these are the concluding lines of a speech, perhaps they were meant to rhyme. We might therefore read :

and win unto renown.

i. e. if you prevail on him to quit his present obfcure retreat, and be reconciled to glory, you shall be acknowledged as the brightest ornaments of his throne. STEEVENS.

We with our travels will endeavour it.] Old copy:
We with our travels will endeavour.

Endeavour what? I suppose, to find out Pericles. I have therefore added the fyllable which appeared wanting both to metre and fenfe. STEEVENS.

The author might have intended an abrupt fentence.

MALONE. I would readily concur with the opinion of Mr. Malone, had paffion, instead of calm resolution, dictated the words of the speaker. STEEVENS.

SCENE V.

Pentapolis. A Room in the Palace.

Enter SIMONIDES, reading a Letter, the Knights meet him.

1 KNIGHT. Good morrow to the good Simonides.

SIM. Knights, from my daughter this I let you

know,

That for this twelvemonth, she'll not undertake
A married life.

Her reason to herself is only known,
Which from herself by no means can I get.

2 KNIGHT. May we not get access to her, my

my lord ?

SIM. 'Faith, by no means; she hath so strictly

tied her

To her chamber, that it is impoffible.

One twelve moons more she'll wear Diana's livery;

* In The Historie of King Appolyn of Thyre, "two kynges Jones" pay their court to the daughter of Archystrates, (the Simonides of the present play). He sends two rolls of paper to her, containing their names, &c. and defires her to choose which she will marry. She writes him a letter (in answer), of which Appolyn is the bearer,-that the will have the man " which hath paffed the daungerous undes and perylles of the fea-all other to refuse." The same circumftance is mentioned by Gower, who has introduced three suitors inftead of two, in which our author has followed him. MALONE.

In Twine's tranflation, these suitors are also three in number, -Ardonius, Munditius, and Carnillus. STEEVENS.

This by the eye of Cynthia hath she vow'd,
And on her virgin honour will not break it.

५८

3 KNIGHT. Though loath to bid farewell, we take [Exeunt.

SIM. SO

our leaves.

They're well despatch'd; now to my daughter's let

ter:

She tells me here, she'll wed the stranger knight,
Or never more to view nor day nor light.
Mistress, 'tis well, your choice agrees with mine;
I like that well:-nay, how absolute she's in't,
Not minding whether I dislike or no!
Well, I commend her choice;
And will no longer have it be delay'd.
Soft, here he comes :-I must dissemble it.

Enter PERICLES.

PER. All fortune to the good Simonides !
SIM. To you as much, fir! I am beholden to

you,

For your sweet musick this last night : my ears,

9 This by the eye of Cynthia hath she vow'd,] It were to be wished that Simonides (who is represented as a blameless character) had hit on fome more ingenuous expedient for the dismission of these wooers. Here he tells them as a folemn truth, what he knows to be a fiction of his own. STEEVENS.

I do protest, were never better fed ovo odd edg With fuch delightful pleasing harmony. hah

PER. It is your grace's pleasure to commend;

Not my defert.

SIM.

Sir, you are musick's master.

PER. The worst of all her scholars, my good lord.

SIM. Let me ask one thing. What do you think,

fir, of

My daughter?

PER.

As of a most virtuous princess.

SIM. And she is fair too, is the not?

PER. As a fair day in summer; wond'rous fair. SIM. My daughter, fir, thinks very well of you; Ay, fo well, fir, that you must be her mafter, And she'll your scholar be; therefore look to it.

2

PER. Unworthy I to be her schoolmafter.2
SIM. She thinks not fo; peruse this writing else,
PER. What's here!

"To make him chere; and ever he figheth,
"And she him asketh howe him liketh.

"Madame, certes well, he faied;

"But if ye the meafure plaied,)

"Whiche, if you lift, I shall you lere, idadi bodlivi "It were a glad thing for to here.

"A leve, fir, tho quod fhe,

"Nowe take the harpe, and lete me feed of word "Of what measure that ye mene.

"He taketh the harpe, and in his wife

"He tempreth, and of fuch affize
"Synginge he harpeth forth withall,
"That as a voice celeftial

"Hem thought it sowned in her ere,

"As though that it an angell were.'"

MALONE.

to be her Schoolmaster.] Thus the quarto, 1619. The

first copy reads for her schoolmaster. MALONE.

[Afide.

A letter, that she loves the knight of Tyre?
'Tis the king's fubtilty, to have my life.
O, feek not to intrap, my gracious lord,3
A stranger and distressed gentleman,
That never aim'd so high, to love your daughter,
But bent all offices to honour her.

SIM. Thou haft bewitch'd my daughter, and thou

A villain.

PER.

art

By the gods, I have not, fir.
Never did thought of mine levy offence;
Nor never did my actions yet commence
A deed might gain her love, or your difpleasure.

SIM. Traitor, thou lieft.

PER.

SIM.

Traitor!

Ay, traitor, fir.

PER. Even in his throat, (unless it be the king,5)

That calls me traitor, I return the lie.

SIM. Now, by the gods, I do applaud his courage.

[Afide.

PER. My actions are as noble as my thoughts, That never relish'd of a base defcent.6

3

-my gracious lord,] Old copies-me. I am answerable for the correction.

MALONE.

4 Thou hast bewitch'd my daughter,) So, Brabantio, addressing himself to Othello:

5

"Damn'd as thou art, thou hast enchanted her."

STEEVENS.

-the king,] Thus the quarto, 1609. The second copy has a king. MALONE.

• That never relish'd of a base descent.] So, in Hamlet: "That has no relish of salvation in it."

Again, in Macbeth:

"So well thy words become thee as thy wounds;

"'They Smack of honour both." MALONE.