If this be true, which makes me pale to read it?
Fair glass of light, I lov'd you, and could still,
Were not this glorious casket stor'd with ill;
But I must tell you,-now, my thoughts revolt,
For he's no man on whom perfections wait,
That, knowing sin within, will touch the gate.
You're a fair viol, and your sense the strings,
Who, finger'd to make man his lawful music,
Would draw heaven down and all the gods to
hearken;

But being play'd upon before your time,
Hell only danceth at so harsh a chime.
Good sooth, I care not for you.

Ant. Prince Pericles, touch not, upon thy life,
For that's an article within our law,

As dangerous as the rest. Your time's expir'd:
Either expound now, or receive your sentence.
Per. Great king,

Few love to hear the sins they love to act;
"Twould 'braid yourself too near for me to tell it.
Who has a book of all that monarchs do,
He's more secure to keep it shut, than shown;
For vice repeated is like the wandering wind,
Blows dust in others' eyes, to spread itself;
And yet the end of all is bought thus dear,
The breath is gone, and the sore eyes see clear:

To stop the air would hurt them. The blind mole

casts

Copp'd hills towards heaven, to tell the earth is throng'd

By man's oppression; and the poor worm doth die for't.
Kings are earth's gods; in vice their law's their will,
And if Jove stray, who dares say Jove doth ill?
It is enough you know; and it is fit,

What being more known grows worse, to smother it.
All love the womb that their first beings bred,
Then, give my tongue like leave to love my head.

Ant. [Aside.] Heaven, that I had thy head! he has found the meaning;

But I will gloze with him. [To him.] Young prince

of Tyre,

Though by the tenour of our strict edict 6,
Your exposition misinterpreting,

We might proceed to cancel of your days;
Yet hope, succeeding from so fair a tree
As your fair self, doth tune us otherwise.
Forty days longer we do respite you;
If by which time our secret be undone,
This mercy shows, we'll joy in such a son:
And until then your entertain shall be,
As doth befit our honour, and your worth.

[Exeunt ANTIOCHUS, his Daughter, and
Attendants.

Per. How courtesy would seem to cover sin,
When what is done is like an hypocrite,
The which is good in nothing but in sight!
If it be true that I interpret false,

Then were it certain, you were not so bad,
As with foul incest to abuse your soul;
Where now you're both a father and a son,
By your untimely claspings with your child,
(Which pleasure fits a husband, not a father)
And she an eater of her mother's flesh,
By the defiling of her parent's bed;

And both like serpents are, who though they feed
On sweetest flowers, yet they poison breed.
Antioch, farewell! for wisdom sees, those men
Blush not in actions blacker than the night,
Will shun no course' to keep them from the light:

6 of OUR strict edict,] The quartos read, "of your strict edict," but the folio, 1664, corrects the mistake. Two lines lower, it properly changes counsel of the quartos to "cancel."

7 Will SHUN no course-] All the old editions, with evident corruption, read "Will shew no course. Malone conjectured that 'schew, for eschew, might be the word, but he printed "shun."

One sin, I know, another doth provoke;

Murder's as near to lust, as flame to smoke.
Poison and treason are the hands of sin,

Ay, and the targets, to put off the shame:
Then, lest my life be cropp'd to keep you clear,
By flight I'll shun the danger which I fear.

Re-enter ANTIOCHUS.

[Exit.

Ant. He hath found the meaning, for the which we

mean

To have his head.

He must not live to trumpet forth my infamy,
Nor tell the world, Antiochus doth sin

In such a loathed manner:

And therefore instantly this prince must die;
For by his fall my honour must keep high.
Who attends us there?

Enter THALIARD.

Thal.

Doth your highness call?

Ant. Thaliard,

You're of our chamber, and our mind partakes
Her private actions to your secrecy;

And for your faithfulness we will advance you.
Thaliard, behold, here's poison, and here's gold;
We hate the prince of Tyre, and thou must kill him:
It fits thee not to ask the reason why,

Because we bid it. Say, is it done?

Thal.

"Tis done.

My lord,

Enter a Messenger.

Ant. Enough.

Let

your breath cool yourself, telling your haste.

8 Thaliard,

You're of our chamber,] The quarto, 1609, alone, repeats Thaliard after chamber. The measure, here unattended to by ancient and modern editors, detects the error.

Mess. My lord, prince Pericles is fled.

Ant.

[Exit Messenger.

Wilt live, fly after: and, as an arrow, shot
From a well-experienc'd archer, hits the mark
His eye doth level at, so ne'er return,
Unless thou say Prince Pericles is dead.

Thal. My lord, if I

As thou

Can get him once within my pistol's length,

I'll make him sure: so, farewell to your highness.

[Exit

Ant. Thaliard, adieu.-Till Pericles be dead, My heart can lend no succour to my head.

[Exit.

SCENE II.

Tyre. A Room in the Palace.

Enter PERICLES, HELICANUS, and other Lords.

Per. Let none disturb us: why should this change

of thoughts'?

The sad companion, dull-ey'd melancholy,

By me so us'd a guest is, not an hour,

In the day's glorious walk, or peaceful night,

The tomb where grief should sleep, can breed me quiet.

Here pleasures court mine eyes, and mine eyes shun them,

9

and, as an arrow,] The quartos, "and like an arrow:" altered in the folio, 1664.

10

- why should this CHANGE of thoughts?] So every old copy: every modern one, without necessity, alters "change to charge. It must be admitted, however, that change for charge, and vice versa, was a very common misprint. See this Vol. p. 8. Two lines lower, as of the old copies was necessarily altered to "is" by Malone, for the sake of the sense, which is somewhat obscure. We might read, "By me's so us'd a guest, as not an hour," &c.

And danger, which I feared, is at Antioch,
Whose arm seems far too short to hit me here;
Yet neither pleasure's art can joy my spirits,
Nor yet the other's distance comfort me.
Then, it is thus: that passions of the mind,
That have their first conception by mis-dread,
Have after-nourishment and life by care;

And what was first but fear what might be done,
Grows elder now, and cares it be not done:
And so with me:-the great Antiochus
('Gainst whom I am too little to contend,
Since he's so great, can make his will his act)
Will think me speaking, though I swear to silence;
Nor boots it me to say, I honour,

If he suspect I may dishonour him:

And what may make him blush in being known,
He'll stop the course by which it might be known.
With hostile forces he'll o'erspread the land,
And with the ostent of war' will look so huge,
Amazement shall drive courage from the state;
Our men be vanquish'd ere they do resist,
And subjects punish'd that ne'er thought offence:
Which care of them, not pity of myself,

(Who am no more but as the tops of trees,
Which fence the roots they grow by, and defend them)
Makes both my body pine, and soul to languish,

And punish that before, that he would punish.

1 Lord. Joy and all comfort in your sacred breast. 2 Lord. And keep your mind, till you return to us, Peaceful and comfortable.

Hel. Peace, peace! and give experience tongue. They do abuse the king, that flatter him:

1 And with the OSTENT of war-] So amended by Tyrwhitt, from stint of the old copies, and not stent, as Steevens misprinted it: he quoted several instances of the use of the expression "ostent of war" in writers of the time, and such were probably the author's words in this play.

2 (Who AM no more-] The old copies read, " Who once no more." Steevens followed Farmer in the reading of our text.