Hel. Behold him, sir: [PERICLES discovered.] this was a goodly person, Till the disaster, that, one mortal night3, Lys. Sir king, all hail! the gods preserve you! Hail, Hail, royal sir! Hel. It is in vain; he will not speak to you. 1 Lord. Sir, we have a maid in Mitylene, I durst wager, Would win some words of him1. Lys. "Tis well bethought. She, questionless, with her sweet harmony And other choice attractions, would allure, And make a battery through his deafen'd parts5, Which now are midway stopp'd: She is all happy as the fairest of all, And, with her fellow maids, is now upon [He whispers one of the attendant Lords.- 2 Few of the stage-directions, that have been given in this and the preceding acts, are found in the old copy. In the original representation Pericles was probably placed in the back part of the stage, concealed by a curtain, which was here drawn open. The ancient narratives represented him as remaining in the cabin of his ship; but as in such a situation Pericles would not be visible to the audience, a different stage-direction is now given. 3 The old copies read, one mortal wight. The emendation is Malone's. Mortal is here used for deadly, destructive. 4 This circumstance resembles another in All's Well that Ends Well, where Lafeu gives an account of Helena's attractions to the king before she is introduced to attempt his cure. 5 The old copy reads, defend parts. Malone made the alteration, which he explains thus: i. e. his ears, which are to be assailed by Marina's melodious voice."', Steevens would read, deafen'd ports,' meaning the oppilated doors of hearing.' 6 Steevens prints this passage in the following manner; corrected and amended so as to run smooth no doubt, but with sufficient licence : She all as happy as of all the fairest, Is with her fellow maidens now within. Difficulties have been raised about this passage as it stands; but surely it is as intelligible as many others in this play. Upon a leafy shelter, which is the great stumbling-block, appears to mean Upon a spot which is sheltered.' Hel. Sure all's effectless; yet nothing we'll omit That bears recovery's name. But, since your kindness, We have stretch'd thus far, let us beseech you further, That for our gold we may provision have, O, sir, a courtesy, Lys. Hel. Sit, sir, I will recount it; But see, I am prevented. Enter, from the Barges, Lord, MARINA, and a Lys. Young Lady. O, here is The lady that I sent for. Welcome, fair one! Hel. A gallant lady. No better choice, and think me rarely wed. There can be little doubt that the poet wrote:- We have no example of to inflict used by itself for to punish. 'Fair on all goodness that consists in beauty, &c. The present circumstance puts us in mind of what passes between Helena and the King, in All's Well that Ends Well. Expect even here, where is a kingly patient: Mar. Sir, I will use See, she will speak to him. Mar. Hail, sir! my lord, lend ear: My lord, that ne'er before invited eyes, But have been gaz'd on, like a comet: she speaks. Who stood equivalent with mighty kings12: 10 The old copy has artificial fate.' The emendation is by Dr. Percy. 11 This song (like most of those that were sung in the old plays) has not been preserved. It may have been formed on the lines in Gesta the Romanorum. The reader desirous of consulting the Latin hexameters, or Twine's translation of them, may consult the Variorum Shakspeare. There was not merit enough in them to warrant their production in this abridged commentary. 12 So in Othello : I fetch my birth From men of royal siege.' 13 Awkward is adverse. So in King Henry VI. Part 11.:And twice by awkward wind from England's bank Drove back again.' But there is something glows upon my cheek, Per. I pray you, turn your eyes again upon me.— Mar. No, nor of any shores: Yet I was mortally brought forth, and am No other than 1 appear. Per. I am great with woe, and shall deliver weeping. My dearest wife was like this maid, and such a one My daughter might have been16: my queen's square brows; 14 This seems to refer to a part of the story that is made no use of in the present scene. Thus in Twine's translation:- Then Appolonius fell in rage, and forgetting all courtesie, &c. rose up sodainly and stroke the maiden,' &c. Pericles however afterwards say8 Did'st thou not say, when I did push thee back 15 This passage is strangely corrupt in the old copies :'Per. I do think so, pray you turne your eyes upon me, your like something that, what country women heare of these shewes, &c. Mar. Nor of any shewes,' &c. For the ingenious emendation, shores instead of showes, as well as the regulation of the whole passage, Malone confesses his obligation to the earl of Charlemont. 16 So Dæmones, in the Rudens of Plautus, exclaims, on beholding his long lost child: O filia Mea! cum ego hanc video, mearum me absens miseriarum commones. Trima quæ periit mihi: jam tanta esset, si vivit, scio.' It is observable that some of the leading incidents in this play strongly remind us of the Rudens. There Arcturus, like Gower, лooloуisei. In the Latin comedy, fishermen, as in Pericles, are brought on the stage, one of whom drags on shore in his net the wallet which principally produces the catastrophe; and the heroine of Plautus, and Marina fall alike into the hands of a procurer: a circumstance on which much of the plot in both these dramatic pieces depends.-Holt White, Her stature to an inch; as wand-like straight; And cas'd as richly: in pace another Juno; Who starves the ears she feeds, and makes them hungry, The more she gives them speech.- Where do you live? Mar. Where I am but a stranger: from the deck You may discern the place. Per. And how achiev'd you these endowments, which You make more rich to owel?? Where were you bred? Should I tell my history, Mar. "Twould seem like lies disdain'd in the reporting. Per. Pr'ythee speak; Falseness cannot come from thee, for thou look'st Modest as justice, and thou seem'st a palace For the crown'd18 truth to dwell in: I'll believe thee, To points that seem impossible; for thou look'st Mar. Per. Report thy parentage. I think thou said'st Thou hadst been toss'd from wrong to injury, And that thou thought'st thy griefs might equal mine, If both were open'd. Mar. Some such thing indeed 17 i. e. possess. The meaning of the compliment is :-These endowments, however valuable in themselves, are heightened by being in your possession: they acquire additional grace from their owner. One of Timon's flatterers says, You mend the jewel by wearing of it.' 18 Shakspeare when he means to represent any quality of the mind, &c. as eminently perfect, furnishes the personification with a crown. See the 37th and 144th Sonnets. So in Romeo and Juliet: Upon his brow shame is asham'd to sit; For 'tis a throne, where honour may be crown'd |