When we with tears parted Pentapolis, [Shows a ring. Per. This, this; no more, you gods! your present kindness Makes my past miseries sport. You shall do well, Melt, and no more be seen. O, come, be buried Mar. Leaps to be My heart gone into my mother's bosom. [Kneels to THAISA. Per. Look, who kneels here! Flesh of thy flesh, Thaisa; Thy burden at the sea, and called Marina, For she was yielded there. Thai. Blessed and mine own! I know you not. Hel. Hail, madam, and my queen! Thai. Per. You have heard me say, when I did fly from Tyre, I left behind an ancient substitute. Can you remember what I called the man? I have named him oft. Thai. 'Twas Helicanus, then. Per. Still confirmation. Embrace him, dear Thaisa; this is he. Now do I long to hear how you were found; Thai. Lord Cerimon, my lord; this man can From first to last resolve you. Per. Reverend sir, The gods can have no mortal officer More like a god than you. Will you deliver Cer. I will, my lord. Beseech you, first go with me to my house, Where shall be shown you all was found with her; Per. Pure Diana! I bless thee for thy vision, and will offer This prince, the fair-betrothed' of your daughter, And what this fourteen years no razor touched, Thai. Lord Cerimon hath letters of good credit, Sir, that my father's dead.2 Per. Heavens make a star of him! Yet there, my queen, We'll celebrate their nuptials, and ourselves Enter GoWER. [Exeunt. Gow. In Antioch,3 and his daughter, you have heard Of monstrous lust the due and just reward. In Pericles, his queen and daughter, seen (Although assailed with fortune fierce and keen,) A figure of truth, of faith, of loyalty; Had spread their cursed deed, and honored name 1 i. e. fairly contracted, honorably affianced. 2 In the fragment of the Old Metrical Romance, the father dies in his daughter's arms. 3 i. e. the king of Antioch. The old copy reads Antiochus. Of Pericles, to rage the city turn; That him and his they in his palace burn. New joy wait on you! Here our play has ending. [Exit GoWER. THAT this tragedy has some merit, it were vain to deny; but that it is the entire composition of Shakspeare, is more than can be hastily granted. I shall not venture, with Dr. Farmer, to determine that the hand of our great Poet is only visible in the last act; for I think it appears in several passages dispersed over each of these divisions. I find it difficult, however, to persuade myself that he was the original fabricator of the plot or the author of every dialogue, chorus, &c. STEEVENS. END OF VOL. VI. 25 |