*Per. This, this: no more, you gods! your present kind ness * Makes my past miseries sport: you shall do well, *That on the touching of her lips I may *Melt, and no more be seen. O, come, be buried *A second time within these arms. *Mar. My heart *Leaps to be 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 call'd Marina, *Per. You've heard me say, when I did fly from Tyre, *I left behind an ancient substitute: *Can you remember what I call'd the man? *I've 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 is the man, *Through whom the gods have shown their power, that 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 *How this dead Queen re-lives? *Where shall be shown you all was found with her; *Per. Pure Dian, bless thee for thy vision! I *This ornament, *Makes me look dismal, will I clip to form; *And what this fourteen years no razor touch'd, *To grace thy marriage-day, I'll beautify. * Thai. Lord Cerimon hath letters of good credit, sir, *My father's dead. *Per. Heavens make a star of him!4 Yet there, my *Queen, *We'll celebrate their nuptials, and ourselves *Will in that kingdom spend our following days: *Our son and daughter shall in Tyrus reign.— *Lord Cerimon, we do our longing stay *To hear the rest untold: sir, lead's the way. Enter GOWER. [Exeunt. Gow. In Antiochus and his daughter you have heard In Pericles, his Queen and daughter, seen, Led on by Heaven, and crown'd with joy at last : A figure of truth, of faith, of loyalty : In reverend Cerimon there well appears + This notion is borrowed from the ancients, who expressed their mode of conferring divine honours and immortality on men, by placing them among the stars. The worth that learnèd charity aye wears: For wicked Cleon and his wife, when fame Had spread their cursèd deed, and honour'd name That him and his they in his palace burn; The gods for murder seemed so content To punish them, — although not done, but meant. New joy wait on you! Here our play has ending. 5 City as a collective noun, for the aggregate of citizens. [Exit. CRITICAL NOTES. ACT I., GOWER. Page 12. On ember-eves and holy-ales. — The old copies have "holy dayes." Corrected by Farmer. P. 12. The purchase is to make men glorious. —Steevens substituted purpose for purchase. Perhaps rightly. See foot-note 4. P. 12. This King unto him took a fere.—The old copies have Peere. No doubt a misprint for Pheere. P. 12. By custom, what they did begin Was with long use account no sin. In the first of these lines, the old copies have "But custom," and, in the second, account'd, accounted, and counted, for account. ACT I., SCENE 1. P. 13. Bring in our daughter, clothed like a bride, For the embracements even of Jove himself. - The old copies read "Musicke bring in," &c.; where no doubt a stage-direction crept into the text; Musicke being an order from Antiochus to have the music in readiness. I follow the arrangement of Dyce, who makes the music strike up when the Daughter enters. In the second line, the old copies omit the. Sorrow were ever razed, and testy wrath Could never be in her mild company.· -The old copies read "Could never be her mild companion." The correction is Mr. P. A. Daniel's. P. 14. To compass such a boundless happiness! - The old copies have bondlesse. Corrected by Rowe. P. 14. For death, like dragons, here affrights thee hard. — The old copies have affright instead of affrights. The line is commonly printed, "For death-like dragons here affright thee hard." But what can be the meaning of "death-like dragons"? The correction is Mr. P. A. Daniel's. Walker thinks that affright is "certainly wrong"; and proposes affront. As affront was often used in the sense of confront, I have little doubt that we ought to read affronts. P. 14. And which, without desert, because thine eye Presumes to reach, all thy whole heap must die. — The old copies have "all the whole heap." Corrected by Malone. See foot-note 5. -The old copies P. 15. And with dead cheeks advise thee to desist For going on death's met, whom none resist. have net instead of met, which is Mr. P. A. Daniel's correction. See foot-note 6. P. 15. Thus, ready for the way of life or death, I wait the sharpest blow. The old copies read "I wayt the sharpest blow (Antiochus)"; the name having been doubtless meant as a prefix to the next speech. Corrected by Malone. P. 16. How this may be, and yet in two, &c. - The old copies read "How they may be." The correction is made from Wilkins's novel. P. 19. Will shun no course to keep them from the light. -- So Malone. The old copies have shew instead of shun. P. 19. He hath found the meaning, for the which we mean To have his head. So Malone. The old copies have "for which we mean," &c. "found the meaning out." P. 20. It has been proposed anonymously to read Rightly, I suspect. ACT I., SCENE 2. Why should this charge of thoughts, The sad companion, dull-eyed melancholy, Be my so-used a guest, as not an hour, &c.—The old copies have "this change of thoughts," and "By me so usde a guest." The first correction was proposed by Steevens; the other is made by Dyce. See foot-note 1. |