Malone corrected the error, making Musick a stage direction. Dyce first transferred this stage direction to follow line 11. Mr NOTE IV. 1. 1. 55-57. The first Quarto, followed substantially by the rest, has here: 'I wayte the sharpest blow (Antiochus) Scorning aduice; read the conclusion then : The Folios: 'I waite the sharpest blow (Antiochus) Malone first made the correction adopted in our text. Steevens gave the following arrangement: Ant. I wait the sharpest blow, Antiochus, Which read, &c.' Read the conclusion then; NOTE V. I. 2. 74. Steevens (1793) tells us that he once thought a line was wanting to complete the sense of the passage, and that the deficiency might be supplied as follows: 'a glorious beauty, From whence an issue I might propagate; Bring arms to princes, and to subjects joy.' In Malone's edition of 1780 the last line in Steevens's note stands as it does in our text. NOTE VI. I. 4. 39. We have followed Steevens in adopting Mason's conjecture, on account of its agreement with the following passage from Wilkins' Novel: The ground of which forced lamentation was, to see the power of change, that this their City, who not two summers younger, did so excell in pompe, &c.' The reading 'Sends word,' II. prol. 22, adopted by Malone and Steevens, and suggested, according to Mr Halliwell, by a MS. note of Theobald's, is also confirmed by the novel. 'Good Helycanus as prouident at home, as his Prince was prosperous abroade, let no occasion slip wherein hee might send word to Tharsus of what occurrents soeuer had happened in his absence, &c.' See other instances; II. 1. 48, 119, 153; 11. 2. 30; 11. 4. 10. NOTE VII. II. 1. 52–55. Steevens conjectures that the dialogue originally ran thus: 'Per. Peace be at your labour, honest fishermen ; The day is rough and thwarts your occupation. 2. Fish. Honest! good fellow, what's that? If it be not a day fits you, scratch it out of the calendar, and nobody will look after it.' He inserts in his text 'scratch it' and 'will,' but not the former alterations. Perhaps, as Malone suggested, Pericles had said: 'Peace be at your labour, honest fishermen ! good day.' And the fisherman replies 'Honest! Good! Fellow what's that?' NOTE VIII. II. 3. 74. Two leaves, signatures D, and D., are wanting in the unique copy of the Quarto of 1611, which is now in the British Museum. The part omitted extends from 11. 3. 74 to 11. 5. 36 inclusive. 1. Pardon vs, sir; with vs at Sea it hath bin still obserued. The second and third Quartos omit the colon after 'straight,' and the fourth and sixth put a comma. The second and third have 'yeeld 'er,' the rest 'yeeld her.' For ouer board,' the fourth has 'ore board' and the sixth 'ore boord.' The fifth Quarto has: 1. Pardon vs sir; this is a lye with vs at Sea it hath bin still obserued And we are strong in easterne, therefore briefly yeeld her. Per. As you thinke meete, for she must ore board straight, Most wretched Queene.' The Folios follow as usual the sixth Quarto, reading however, still hath bin' (F) and 'still hath been' (F.) instead of 'hath beene still' (Q6). They also read 'Eastern' for 'easterne' (QQ2 Q3 Q4Q5) and Easterne' (Q6). Freads Pericles' speech as three lines. Malone was the first who read the whole passage as prose, and transferred the words 'for she must over-board straight' to the Sailor's speech. For 'eastern' Steevens first adopted Mason's conjecture 'earnest,' and Singer first adopted Boswell's conjecture 'custom.' Steevens himself had guessed credence.' Mr Knight, adopting Jackson's conjecture, reads, 'And we are strong in, astern,' i.e. we are driving strongly in shore astern. Malone, who retained 'Eastern,' supposed the words to mean 'There is a strong Easterly wind.' Steevens reads 'Be it as you think meet' for the sake of metre. [Sir Philip Perring conjectures 'strong in extreme.'] NOTE X. III. 2. 60-65. We have left the arrangement of this passage as it stands in the Quartos and Folios. Various attempts have been made to turn it into verse. NOTE XI. III. 3. 30. The conjectures of Steevens and Malone are confirmed by the following from Wilkins' Novel: 'vowing solemnely by othe to himselfe, his head should grow unscisserd, his beard vntrimmed, himselfe in all vncomely, since he had lost his Queene, &c.' NOTE XII. iv. 1. 58-67. Steevens makes a violent alteration here, reading: 'That almost burst the deck, and from the ladder-tackle Wash'd off a canvas-climber confusion. Leon. And when was this? Mar. It was when I was born: Never was waves nor wind more violent. Leon. Come, say your prayers speedily.' This transposition was suggested to him by Mr M. Mason's note to lines 61 sqq.: "Malone suspects that some line preceding these has been lost, but that I believe is not the case, this being merely a continuation of Marina's description of the storm which was interrupted by Leonine's asking her, When was that? and by her answer, When I was born, never were waves nor wind more violent. Put this question and answer in a parenthesis, and the description goes on without difficulty: 'endur'd a sea That almost burst the deck, And from the ladder-tackle washes off, &c.'" The line which Malone supposed to have dropped out between lines 60 and 61 of the text "may," he says, "perhaps have been of this import: 'O'er the good ship the foaming billow breaks.'" NOTE XIII. IV. 4. 13-16. The first Quarto, followed substantially by the rest, arranges this passage as follows: 'Old Helicanus goes along behind, Is left to gouerne it, you beare in mind. Old Escenes, whom Hellicanus late Aduancde in time to great and hie estate.' Dr Nicholson would punctuate thus: Mr Daniel, adopting the arrangement of the early copies, punctuates thus: His punctuation is substantially adopted by Hudson (1881), and as it gives a certain kind of sense it seems preferable to the more violent alteration, proposed by Steevens and followed by Malone, which we put in the text of our first edition : 'Old Escanes, whom Helicanus late Advanc'd in time to great and high estate, NOTE XIV. IV. 4. 38-43. Steevens proposes to read these lines as follows: 'Marina call'd; and at her birth Proud Thetis swallow'd part o' the earth: Make battery upon shores of flint.' NOTE XV. IV. 6. 24. Mr Collier suggests that 'impunity,' the reading of some of the early copies, is a misprint for 'impurity.' NOTE XVI. v. 13. Malone says that the corresponding rhyme, coast, shews that lest, in the first edition, was only a misprint for lost. The three copies of the first edition with which we are acquainted including that at the Bodleian which once belonged to Malone himself, all read 'left' not 'lest.' |