I came unto your court, for honour's caufe, And he that otherwife accounts of me, Here comes my daughter, the can witness it.? Enter THAISA. PER. Then, as you are as virtuous as fair, THAI. Why, fir, fay you had, Who takes offence at that would make me glad? tame you; I'll bring you in fubjection. Will you, not having my confent, bestow Your love and your affections on a ftranger? (Who, for aught I know to the contrary, Or think, may be as great in blood as I.) [Afide. Nay, come; your hands and lips muft feal it too. No! Here comes my daughter, he can witness it.] Thus all the copies. Simonides, I think, means to fay-Not a rebel to our State!-Here comes my daughter: She can prove, thou art one. Perhaps, however, the author wrote-Now, Here comes, &c. In Othello, we find nearly the fame words: "Here comes the lady, let her witnefs, it." MALONE. Yes, if you love me, fir. What, are you both pleas'd? THAI. PER. Even as my life, my blood that fosters it.3 SIM. What, are you both agreed? Вотн. Yes, 'please your majesty. you wed: SIM. It pleafeth me fo well, I'll fee Then, with what hafte you can, get you to bed.9 [Exeunt. Even as my life, my blood that fofters it.] Even as my life loves my blood that fupports it.The quarto, 1619, and the fubfequent copies, read: Even as my life, or blood that fofters it. MALONE. I cannot approve of Malone's explanation of this line-To make a perfon of life, and to fay it loves the blood that fofters it, is an idea to which I cannot reconcile myself. sters 16 Pericles means merely to fay, that he loves Thaifa as his life, or as the bl blood that fupports it; and it is in this fenfe that the editors of the quarto of 1619, and the fubfequent copies, con-ceived the paffage.-But the infertion of the word or was not neceffary; it was fufficient to point it thus: Even as my life;-the blood that fofters it. M. MASON. Will a preceding line (fee p. 236) befriend the opinion of either commentator? **Withing it fo much blood unto your life." In my opinion, however, the fenfe in the text was meant to coincide with that which is fo much better expreffed in Julius Cæfar: "As dear to me, as are the ruddy drops get you to bed] I cannot difmifs the foregoing fcene, till I have expreffed the moft fupreme contempt of it. Such another grofs, nonfenfical dialogue, would be fought for in vain among the earliest and rudeft efforts of the British theatre. It is impoffible not to with that the Knights had horsewhipped Simonides, and that Pericles had kicked him off the ftage. STEEVENS. ACT III. Enter GoWER. Gow. Now fleep yflaked hath the rout;1 Now fleep yflaked hath the rout; No din but nores, &c.] The quarto, 1609, and the subsequent copies, read: No din but fnores about the house. 'As Gower's speeches are all in rhyme, it is clear that the old copy is here corrupt. It firft occurred to me that the author might have written : Now fleep yflaked hath the roufe i.e. the caroufal. But the mere tranfpofition of the latter part of the fecond line, renders any further change unneceffary. Rout is likewife ufed by Gower for a company in the tale of Appolinus, the Pericles of the prefent play : Again: Upon a tyme with a route "This lord to play goeth hym out." "It fell a daie thei riden oute, "The kinge and queene and all the route." Malone. No din but fnores, the houfe about, Made louder by the o'er-fed breaft- So Virgil, fpeaking of Rhamnes, who was killed in the midnight expedition of Nifus and Euryalus: Rhamneten aggreditur, qui forte tapetibus altis "Extru&us, toto proflabat pettore fomnum." STEEVENS. The quarto 1619, the follos, and Mr. Rowe, all read, o'er fee beaft. The true reading has been recovered from the first quarto. MALONE. 'fore the mouse's hole ;] Old copy: from the moufe's hole; And crickets fing at th' oven's mouth, which may perhaps mean-at fome little diftance from the moufe's hole. I believe, however, we ought to read-fore the mouse's hole. MALONE. And crickets fing at th' oven's mouth, As the blither for their drouth.] So, in Cymbeline: "The crickets fing, and man's o'erlabour'd fenfa Repairs itself by reft." The old copy has-Are the blither &c. The emendation was fuggefted by Mr. Steevens. Perhaps we ought to read: And crickets, finging at the oven's mouth, Are the blither for their drouth. MALONE. This additional fyllable would derange the measure. 5 Hymen hath brought the bride to bed, Where, by the lofs of maidenhead, STEEVENS. A babe is moulded.:] So, in Twine's tranflation: "The bride was brought to bed, and Apollonius tarried not long from her, where he accomplished the duties of marriage, and faire Lucina conceived with childe the fame night." STEEVENS. • Be attent,] This adjective is again ufed in Hamlet, A& I. fc. li. MALONE. 7 With your fine fancies quaintly eche;] i. e. eke out. So, in the Chorus to King Henry V. (first folio): ftill be kind, "And eche out our pèrformance with your mind.” Again, in The Merchant of Venice, quarto, 1600, (Heyes's edition) : " 'tis to peeze the time, "To ech it, and to draw it out in length." MALONE. Dumb fhow. Enter PERICLES and SIMONIDES at one door, with Attendants; a Messenger meets them, kneels, and gives PERICLES a Letter. PERICLES fhows it to SIMONIDES; the Lords kneel to the former.8 Then enter THAISA with child, and LYCHORIDA. SIMONIDES Shows his Daughter the Letter; fhe rejoices: fhe and PERICLES take leave of her Father, and depart. Then SIMONIDES, &c. retire. Gow. By many a dearn and painful perch, Which the world together joins, 8 the Lords kneel to the former.] The Lords kneel to Pericles, because they are now, for the first time, informed by this letter, that he is king of Tyre. "No man," fays Gower, in his Confeffio Amantis: knew the foth cas, "But he hym felfe; what man he was." By the death of Antiochus and his daughter, Pericles has alfo fucceeded to the throne of Antioch, in confequence of having rightly interpreted the riddle propofed to him. MALONE. 9 By many a dearn and painful perch, &c.] Dearn is direful, difmal. See Skinner's Etymol. in v. Dere. The word is ufed by Spenfer, B. II. c. i. ft. 35.-B. III. c. i. ft. 14. The construction is fomewhat involved. The careful fearch of Pericles is made by many a dearn and painful perch, by the four oppofing coignes, which join the world together with all due diligence, &c. MALONE. Dearn fignifies lonely, folitary. See note on King Lear, Vol. XVII. p. 499, n. 6. A perch is a measure of five yards and a half. STEEVENS. I By the four oppofing coignes,] By the four oppofite cornerftones that unite and bind together the great fabrick of the world. The word is again used by Shakspeare in Macbeth : |