Wilt thou spit all thyself?-The seaman's whistle
Is as a whisper in the ears of death,
Unheard.-Lychorida!-Lucina, O

Divinest patroness, and midwife, gentle
To those that cry by night, convey thy deity
Aboard our dancing boat; make swift the pangs
Of my queen's travails!-Now, Lychorida--

Enter LYCHORIDA, with an Infant.

Lyc. Here is a thing

Too young for such a place, who if it had
Conceit3 would die as I am like to do.

Take in your arms this piece of your dead queen.
Per. How! how, Lychorida!

Lyc. Patience, good sir; do not assist the storm. Here's all that is left living of your queen,—

A little daughter; for the sake of it,

Be manly, and take comfort.

Per.

O you gods!

Why do you make us love your goodly gifts,
And snatch them straight away? We, here below,
Recall not what we give, and therein may

Vie honour with you.

Lyc.

Even for this charge.

Per.

Patience, good sir,

Now, mild may be thy life!

For a more blust'rous birth had never babe:

Quiet and gentle thy conditions5!

For thou art the rudeliest welcom'd to this world,
That e'er was prince's child. Happy what follows!
Thou hast as chiding6 a nativity,

As fire, air, water, earth, and heaven can make,
To herald thee from the womb: even at the first,

3 i. e. who if it had thought."

4 That is, contend with you in honour. The old copy reads, Use honour with you. See vol. iii. page 361, note 19. 5 Conditions are qualities, dispositions of mind. p. 137, note 14.

6 i. e. as noisy a one. See vol. ii.p. 262, note 10.

See vol. i. p.

Thy loss is more than ean thy portage quit,
With all thou canst find here.-Now the good gods
Throw their best eyes upon it!

Enter Two Sailors.

1 Sail. What courage, sir? God save you. Per. Courage enough: I do not fear the flaw8; It hath done to me the worst. Yet, for the love Of this poor infant, this fresh-new sea-farer, I would, it would be quiet.

1 Sail. Slack the bolins9 there; thou wilt not, wilt thou? Blow and split thyself.

2 Sail. But sea-room, an the brine and cloudy billow kiss the moon, I care not.

1 Sail. Sir, your queen must overboard; the sea works high, the wind is loud, and will not lie till the ship be cleared of the dead.

Per. That's your superstition.

1 Sail. Pardon us, sir; with us at sea it still hath been observed; and we are strong in custom10. Therefore briefly yield her; for she must overboard straight.

Per. Be it as you think meet.-Most wretched queen!

Lyc. Here she lies, sir.

Per. A terrible child-bed hast thou had, my dear, No light, no fire; the unfriendly elements Forgot thee utterly; nor have I time

To give thee hallow'd to thy grave, but straight

i. e. thou hast already lost more (by the death of thy mother) than thy safe arrival at the port of life can counterbalance, with all to boot that we can give thee. Purtage is here used for conveyance into life.

A flaw is a stormy gust of wind. See Coriolanus, Act v. Sc. 3,

note 8.

9 Bolins or bowlines are ropes by which the sails of a ship are governed when the wind is unfavourable: they are slackened when it is high. Thus in The Two Noble Kinsmen :

———the wind is fair;

Top the bowling.'

10 The old copy reads, strong in easterne. The emendation is Mr. Boswell's.

Must cast thee, scarcely coffin'd, in the oozell;
Where, for a monument upon thy bones,
And aye-remaining12 lamps, the belching whale,
And humming water must o'erwhelm thy corpse,
Lying with simple shells. Lychorida,

Bid Nestor bring me spices, ink, and paper,
My casket and my jewels; and bid Nicander
Bring me the satin coffer13: lay the babe
Upon the pillow: hie thee, whiles I say
A priestly farewell to her: suddenly, woman.
[Exit LYCHORIDA.
2 Sail. Sir, we have a chest beneath the hatches,
caulk'd and bitumed ready.

Per. I thank thee. Mariner, say what coast is this? 2 Sail. We are near Tharsus.

Per. Thither, gentle mariner,

Alter thy course for Tyre9. When canst thou reach it?

2 Sail. By break of day, if the wind cease. Per. O make for Tharsus.

There will I visit Cleon, for the babe

Cannot hold out to Tyrus; there I'll leave it
At careful nursing. Go thy ways, good mariner;
I'll bring the body presently

[Exeunt.

11 Old copy, 'in oare.'

12 The old copies erroneously read :

The air-remaining lamps.'

The emendation is Malone's. The propriety of it will be evident if we recur to the author's leading thought, which is founded on the castoms observed in the pomp of ancient sepulture. Within old monuments and receptacles for the dead perpetual (i. e. ayeremaining) lamps were supposed to be lighted up. Thus Pope, in his Eloisa:

Ah hopeless lasting flames, like those that burn To light the dead, and warm th' unfruitful urn!' Instead of a monument erected over thy bones, and perpetual lamps to burn near them, the spouting whale shall oppress thee with his weight, and the mass of waters shall roll with low heavy murmur over thy head.'

13 The old copies have coffin. Pericles does not mean to bury his queen in this coffer (which was probably one lined with satin), but to take from thence the cloth of state, in which she was afterwards, shrouded.

14 Change thy course, which is now for Tyre, and go to Tharsus.

SCENE II.

Ephesus. A Room in Cerimon's House.

Enter CERIMON, a Servant, and some Persons who have been shipwrecked.

Cer. Philemon, ho!

Enter PHILEMON.

Phil. Doth my lord call?

Cer. Get fire and meat for these poor men; It has been a turbulent and stormy night.

Serv. I have been in many; but such a night as this,

Till now I ne'er endur'd.

Cer. Your master will be dead ere you return; There's nothing can be minister'd to nature, That can recover him. Give this to the 'pothecary, And tell him how it works1. [TO PHILEMON. [Exeunt PHILEMON, Servant, and those who had been shipwrecked.

1 Gent. Sir,

Our lodgings, standing bleak upon the sea,
Shook, as the earth did quake;

The very principals2 did seem to rend,

1 The precedent words show that the physic cannot be designed for the master of the servant here introduced. Perhaps the circumstance was introduced for no other reason than to mark more strongly the extensive benevolence of Cerimon. It could not be meant for the poor men who have just left the stage, to whom he has ordered kitchen physic.

2 The principals are the strongest rafters building.

in the roof of a

And all to topple3; pure surprise and fear
Made me to quit the house.

2 Gent. That is the cause we trouble you so early; "Tis not our husbandry4.

Cer.

O, you say well.

1 Gent. But I much marvel that your lordship,

having

Rich tires about you, should at these early hours Shake off the golden slumber of repose.

It is most strange,

Nature should be so conversant with pain,
Being thereto not compell'd.

Cer.
I held it ever,
Virtue and cunning6 were endowments greater
Than nobleness and riches; careless heirs
May the two latter darken and expend;
But immortality attends the former,
Making a man a god. Tis known, I ever
Have studied physic, through which secret art,
By turning o'er authorities, I have

(Together with my practice), made familiar
To me and to my aid, the blest infusions
That dwell in vegetives, in metals, stones;
And I can speak of the disturbances

That nature works, and of her cures; which give me
A more content in course of true delight

3 Al-to is a common augmentative in old language. The word topple, which means tumble, is used again in Macheth:

Though castles topple on their warders' heads.'

4 Husbandry here signifies economical prudence. So in Hamlet, Act i. Sc. 3:

- borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry."

And in King Henry V.:

For our bad neighbours make us early stirrers,
Which is both healthful and good husbandry.'

5 The gentlemen rose early because they were in lodgings, which stood exposed near the sea. They wonder to find Lord Cerimon stirring, because he had rich tire about him, meaning perhaps a bed more richly and comfortably furnished, where he could have slept warm and secure in defiance of the tempest. Steevens thinks that the reasoning of these gentlemen should have led them rather to say, such towers about you,' i. e. a house or castle that could safely resist the assaults of the weather.

6 i. e. knowledge.