(Like goodly buildings left without a roof1)
Will soon to ruin fall, your noble self,

That best know'st how to rule, and how to reign.
We thus submit unto,-our sovereign.

All. Live, noble Helicane!

Hel. Try honour's cause; forbear your suffrages:
If that you love prince Pericles, forbear.

Take I your wish, I leap into the seas,
Where 's hourly trouble, for a minute's ease.3

know that the kingdom had absolutely lost its governor; for in the very preceding line this Lord observes that it was only more probable that he was dead, than living. I therefore read, with a very slight change,-if without a head. The old copy, for if, has-is. In the next line but one, by supplying the word will, which I suppose was omitted by the carelessness of the compositor, the sense and metre are both restored. The passage as it stands in the old copy, is not, by any mode of construction, reducible to grammar. Malone.

1 (Like goodly buildings left without a roof)] The same thought occurs in King Henry IV, Part II:

2

leaves his part-created cost

"And naked subject to the weeping clouds,
"And waste for churlish winter's tyranny."

Try honour's cause;] Perhaps we should read:
Try honour's course;

Steevens.

3 Take I your wish, I leap into the seas,

Steevens.

Where's hourly trouble, &c.] Thus the old copy. Steevens. It must be acknowledged that a line in Hamlet,

"Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,"

as well as the rhyme, adds some support to this reading: yet I have no doubt that the poet wrote:

I have no spur

"To prick the sides of my intent, but only

"Vaulting ambition, which o'er-leaps itself," &c.

On ship-board the pain and pleasure may be in the proportion here stated; but the troubles of him who plunges into the sea, (unless he happens to be an expert swimmer) are seldom of an hour's duration. Malone.

Where's hourly trouble, for a minute's ease,] So, in King Richard III:

"And each hour's joy wreck'd with a week of teen."

Malone.

The expression is figurative, and by the words-I leap into the seas, &c. I believe the speaker only means-I embark too hastily on an expedition in which case is disproportioned to labour.

Steevens.

A twelvemonth longer, let me then entreat you
To forbear choice i' the absence of your king ;+
If in which time expir'd, he not return,
I shall with aged patience bear your yoke.
But if I cannot win you to this love,

Go search like noblemen, like noble subjects,
And in your search, spend your adventurous worth:
Whom if you find, and win unto return,

You shall like diamonds sit about his crown.5

1 Lord. To wisdom he 's a fool that will not yield; And, since lord Helicane enjoineth us,

We with our travels will endeavour it.6

Hel. Then you love us, we you, and we 'll clasp hands; When peers thus knit, a kingdom ever stands. [Exeunt.

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,

4 To forbear &c.] Old copy:

To forbear the absence of your king.

Some word being omitted in this line, I read :

5

To forbear choice i' the absence of your king. Steevens.

and win unto return,

You shall like diamonds sit 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 obscure retreat, and be reconciled to glory, you shall be acknowledged as the brightest ornaments of his throne. Steevens.

6 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 syllable which appeared wanting both to metre and sense. Steevens.

The author might have intended an abrupt sentence. Malone. I would readily concur with the opinion of Mr. Malone, had passion, instead of calm resolution, dictated the words of the speaker. Steevens.

7 In The Historie of Kyng Appolyn of Thyre, “two kynges

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 lord? Sim. 'Faith, by no means; she hath so strictly tied her To her chamber, that it is impossible.

One twelve moons more she 'll wear Diana's livery;
This by the eye of Cynthia hath she vow'd,"

And on her virgin honour will not break it.

3 Knight. Though loth to bid farewel, we take our leaves. [Exeunt.

Sim. So

They 're well despatch'd; now to my daughter's letter:
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, sir! I am beholden to you,
For your sweet musick this last night:9 my ears,

sones" 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 desires her to choose which she will marry. She writes him a letter (in answer), of which Appolyn is the bearer,-that she will have the man "which hathi passed the daungerous undes and perylles of the sea-all other to refuse." The same circumstance is mentioned by Gower, who has introduced three suitors instead of two, in which our author has followed him. Malone.

In Twine's translation, these suitors are also three in number, -Ardoninus, Munditius, and Carnillus. Steevens.

8 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 some more ingenuous expedient for the disposition of these wooers. Here he tells them as a solemn truth, what he knows to be a fiction of his own. Steevens.

9

I am beholden to you,

For your sweet musick this last night:] Here also our author has followed Gower:

do protest, were never better fed

With such delightful pleasing harmony.

Per. It is your grace's pleasure to commend ; Not my desert.

Sim.

Sir, you are musick's master.

Per. The worst of all her scholars, my good lord. Sim. Let me ask you one thing. What do you think, sir, of

My daughter?

Per.

As of a most virtuous princess.
Sim. And she is fair too, is she not?

Per. As a fair day in summer; wond'rous fair.
Sim. My daughter, sir, thinks very well of you;
Ay, so well, sir, that you must be her master,
And she 'll your scholar be; therefore look to it.
Per. Unworthy I to be her schoolmaster.1

Sim. She thinks not so; peruse this writing else.
Per. What 's here!

A letter, that she loves the knight of Tyre?
'Tis the king's subtilty, to have my life.
O, seek not to intrap, my gracious lord,2

1

"She, to doone hir faders hest,
"Hir harpe fet, and in the feste
"Upon a chaire, whiche thei sette,
"Hir selfe next to this man she sette.
"With harpe both and eke with mouth
"To him she did all that she couth,
"To make him chere; and ever he sigheth,
"And she him asketh howe him liketh.
"Madame, certes well, he saied;
"But if ye the measure plaied,

"Whiche, if you list, I shall you lere,
"It were a glad thing for to here,
"A leve, sir, tho quod she,

"Nowe take the harpe, and lete me see
"Of what measure that ye mene.-

"He taketh the harpe, and in his wise
"He tempreth, and of such assize
"Synginge he harpeth forth withall,
"That as a voice celestial

"Hem thought it sowned in her ere,
"As though that it an angell were."

Malone.

[Aside.

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

first copy reads-for her schoolmaster.

2

Malone.

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

A stranger and distressed gentleman,

That never aim'd so high, to love your daughter,
But bent all offices to honour her.

Sim. Thou hast bewitch'd my daughter,' and thou art A villain.

Per.

By the gods, I have not, sir. Never did thought of mine levy offence;

Nor never did my

actions yet commence A deed might gain her love, or you displeasure. Sim. Traitor, thou liest.

Per.

Sim.

Traitor!

Ay, traitor, sir. Per. Even in his throat, (unless it be the king') That calls me traitor, I return the lie.

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

Per. My actions are as noble as my thoughts,
That never relish'd of a base descent.5
I came unto your court, for honour's cause,
And not to be a rebel to her state;

And he that otherwise accounts of me,

This sword shall prove, he 's honour's enemy.
Sim. No!-

Here comes my daughter, she can witness it."
Enter THAISA.

Per. Then, as you are as virtuous as fair,
Resolve your angry father, if my tongue

[Aside.

3 Thou hast bewitch'd my daughter,] So, Brabantio, addressing himself to Othello:

4

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

the king] Thus the quarto, 1609. The second copy bas-a king. Malone.

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

Again, in Macbeth:

6

"So well thy words become thee as thy wounds;
"They smack of honour both." Malone.

No!

Here comes my daughter, she can witness it.] Thus all the copies. Simonides, I think, means to say--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.— Othello, we find nearly the same words:

"Here comes the lady, let her witness it." Matone