60

Of all 'say'd yet, I wish thee happiness!
Per. Like a bold champion I assume the lists,
Nor ask advice of any other thought
But faithfulness and courage.

He reads the riddle.

'I am no viper, yet I feed

On mother's flesh which did me breed.
I sought a husband, in which labor
I found that kindness in a father:
He's father, son, and husband mild;
I mother, wife, and yet his child.
How they may be, and yet in two,
As you will live, resolve it you.'
[Aside] Sharp physic is the last: but, O you

powers

70

That give heaven countless eyes to view men's
acts,

Why cloud they not their sights perpetually,
If this be true, which makes me pale to read it?
Fair glass of light, I loved you, and could still,
Were not this glorious casket stored 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.

62. "Nor ask advice"; these words are in the novel founded on the play: "Pericles armed with these noble armors, faithfulness and courage." The text shows the author's reading in Sidney's Arcadia, the third book of which has the following: “Asking advice of no other thought but faithfulnesse and courage, he presently lighted from his own horse."-H. N. H.

72. "sharp physic is the last"; that is, the intimation in the last line of the riddle, that his life depends on resolving it.-H. N. H. 79. "on whom perfections wait"; that is, he is no perfect or honest man, that knowing, etc.-H. N. H.

You are a fair viol and your sense the strings, 81
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 ex-
pired:

Either expound now or receive

Per. Great king,

your sentence.

91

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

100

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

87. "touch not"; this is a stroke of nature. The incestuous king cannot bear to see a rival touch the hand of the woman he loves.H. N. H.

100. "to stop the air"; "the man who knows the ill practices of princes is unwise if he reveals what he knows; for the publisher of vicious actions resembles the wind, which, while it passes along, blows dust into men's eyes. When the blast is over, the eyes that have been affected by the dust, though sore, see clear enough to stop for the future the air that would annoy them.”—H. N. H.

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 being 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.-Young prince of

Though by the tenor of our strict edict,
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 honor and

110

120

your worth. [Exeunt all but Pericles. 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

113. "cancel of"; Malone's emendation; Ff. 3, 4, "cancel off"; Qq. 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, "counsell of"; Q. 5, “counsel of.”—I. G.

.

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,

130

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.

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,

Aye, and the targets, to put off the shame: 140
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:

128. “untimely”; Wilkins, in the Novel, writes "uncomely," which may, perhaps, give the correct reading of the line.-I. G.

135. "blush," i. e. "who blush"; the omission of the pronoun, personal or relative, is characteristic of the non-Shakespearean portions of the play.-I. G.

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

Enter Thaliard.

Thal. Doth your highness call?

Ant. Thaliard,

You are 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?

Mess. My lord, prince Pericles is fled.

Ant.

[Exit.

As thou Wilt live, fly after: and like an arrow shot From a well experienced archer hits the mark His eye doth level at, so thou ne'er return Unless thou say 'Prince Pericles is dead.' Thal. My lord,

If I can get him within my pistol's length,