Upon the pillow; hie thee, whiles I say [Exit LYCHORIDA. 2 SAIL. Sir, we have a chest beneath the hatches, caulk'd and bitumed ready. PER. I thank thee. Mariner, say what coast is this? 2 SAIL. We are near Tharcus. PER. Thither, gentle mariner, Alter thy course for Tyre. When can'st thou reach it? 2 SAIL. By break of day, if the wind cease. There will I visit Cleon, for the babe "Madam, this letter, and some certain jewels, Our ancient coffers were often adorned on the inside with such costly materials. A relation of mine has a trunk which formerly belonged to Katharine Howard when queen, and it is lined throughout with rose-coloured sattin, most elaborately quilted. By the sattin coffer, however, may be only meant the coffer employed to contain sattins and other rich materials for dress. Thus we name a tea-chest, &c. from their contents. Pericles, however, does not mean to bury his queen in this sattin coffer, but to take from thence the cloth of state in which it seems she was afterwards shrowded. It appears likewise that her body was found in the chest caulk'd and bitumed by the sailors. So, in Twine's translation: _ a large chest, and we will seare it all ouer within with pitch and rozen melted together &c. Then took they the body of the faire lady Lucina, and arrayed her in princely apparell, and laid her into the chest" &c. STEEVENS. 9 Alter thy course for Tyre.] Change thy course, which is now for Tyre, and go to Tharsus. MALONE. SCENE II. Ephesus. A Room in Cerimon's House. Enter CERIMON,1 a Servant, and some Persons who have been shipwrecked. CER. Philemon, ho! Enter PHILEMON. PHIL. Doth my lord call? CER. Get fire and meat for these poor men; It has been a turbulent and stormy night. SERV. I have been in many; but such a night as this, Till now, I ne'er endur'd.2 1 Cerimon, In Twine's translation he is called-a Physician. Our author has made a Lord of him. STEEVENS. * I have been in many; but such a night as this, "Threescore and ten I can remember well "Hath trifled former knowings." Again, in King Lear: Since I was man, "Such sheets of fire, such bursts of horrid thunder, "Such groans of roaring wind and rain, I never "Remember to have heard." Again, in Julius Cæsar: " I have seen tempests, when the scolding winds "Did I go through a tempest dropping fire." MALONE. CER. Your master will be dead ere you return; There's nothing can be minister'd to nature, That can recover him. Give this to the 'pothe cary,3 And tell me how it works. [TO PHILEMON. [Exeunt PHILEMON, Servant, and those who had been shipwrecked. Our lodgings, standing bleak upon the sea, Shook, as the earth did quake; 4 The very principals did seem to rend, 5 And all to topple; pure surprize and fear 3 - Give this to the 'pothecary,] The recipe that Cerimon sends to the apothecary, we must suppose, is intended either for the poor men already mentioned, or for some of his other patients. The preceding words show that it cannot be designed for the master of the servant introduced here. MALONE, Perhaps this circumstance was introduced for no other reason than to mark more strongly the extensive benevolence of Cerimon. For the poor men who have just left the stage, kitchen physick only was designed. STEEVENS. 4 Shook, as the earth did quake;] So, in Macbeth: the obscure bird " Clamour'd the live-long night: some say, the earth "Was feverous and did shake." Again, in Coriolanus: "Was feverous and did tremble." MALONE. * The very principals did seem to rend, And all to topple;] The principals are the strongest rafters Made me to quit the house. 2 GENT. That is the cause we trouble you so early; 'Tis not our husbandry. CER. 6 O, you say well. 1 GENT. But I much marvel that your lordship, having Rich tire about you," should at these early hours in the roof of a building. The second quarto, which is followed by the modern copies, reads corruptly-principles. If the speaker had been apprehensive of a general dissolution of nature, (which we must understand, if we read principles,) he did not need to leave his house: he would have been in as much danger without as within. All to is an augmentative often used by our ancient writers. It occurs frequently in the Confessio Amantis. The word topple, which means tumble, is again used by Shakspeare in Macbeth, and applied to buildings: "Though castles topple on their warders' heads." Again, in King Henry IV. Part I: " Shakes the old beldame earth, and topples down Mr. Malone has properly explained the word-principals. So, in Philemon Holland's translation of the 33d Book of Pliny's Nat. Hist. edit. 1601, p. 467:"yea, the jambes, posts, principals, and standerds, all of the same metall." STEEVENS. I believe this only means, and every thing to tumble down. "6 'Tis not our husbandry.] Husbandry here signifies economical prudence. So, in King Henry V: "For our bad neighbours make us early stirrers, See also Hamlet, Act I. sc. iii. MALONE. 7 Rich tire about you, &c.] Thus the quarto, 1609; but the sense of the passage is not sufficiently clear. The gentlemen rose early, because they were but in lodgings which stood exposed near the sea. They wonder, however, to find Lord Cerimon stirring, because he had rich tire about him; meaning perhaps a bed more richly and comfortably furnished, where he could have slept warm and secure in defiance of the tempest. The reason Shake off the golden slumber of repose." Nature should be so conversant with pain, CER. I held it ever, Virtue and cunning were endowments greater Than nobleness and riches: careless heirs May the two latter darken and expend; But immortality attends the former, Making a man a god. 'Tis known, I ever Have studied physick, through which secret art, By turning o'er authorities, I have (Together with my practice,) made familiar To me and to my aid, the blest infusions That dwell in vegetives, in metals, stones;1 And I can speak of the disturbances That nature works, and of her cures; which give me ing of these gentlemen should rather have led them to say-such towers about you; i. e. a house or castle that could safely resist the assaults of weather. They left their mansion because they were no longer secure if they remained in it, and naturally wonder why he should have quitted his, who had no such ap parent reason for deserting it and rising early. STEEVENS. • Shake off the golden slumber of repose.] So, in Macbeth: "Shake off this downy sleep." STEEVENS. • Virtue and cunning-] Cunning means here knowledge. MALONE. So, in Jeremiah, ix. 17: "Send for cunning women that they may come." Again, in Romeo and Juliet: 1 " Sirrah, go hire me twenty cunning cooks." STEEVENS. the blest infusions That dwell in vegetives, in metals, stones;] So, in Romeo and Juliet: "O, mickle is the powerful grace that lies " In plants, herbs, stones, and their true qualities." STEEVENS. |
