Sharp phyfick is the laft :8 but O you powers! --- [Takes hold of the hand of the Princess. But, being play'd upon before Sharp phyfick is the laft: i. e. the intimation in the laft line of the riddle that his life depends on refolving it; which he properly enough calls Sharp phyfick, or a bitter potion. PERCY. That give heaven countless eyes to view men's acts,] So, in A Midfummer Night's Dream: who more engilds the night, "Than all yon fiery oes and eyes of light." MALONE. I countless eyes Why cloud they not-] So, in Macbeth: itars, hide your fires, "Let not light fee," &c. STEEVENS. For he's no man on whom perfections wait,] Means no more than-he's no honeft man, that knowing, &c. MALONE. 3 to make man-] i. e. to produce for man, &c. • But &c. MALONE. Hell only danceth at fo harth a chime:] Somewhat like this occurs in Milton's Ode at a Solemn Mufick: "Jarr'd againft nature's chime, and with harsh din STEEVENS. ANT. Prince Pericles, touch not, upon thy life,5 For that's an article within our law, As dangerous as the reft. Your time's expir'd; PER. Great king, your fentence. Few love to hear the fins they love to act; 5 Prince Pericles, touch not, upon thy life,] This is a stroke of nature. The inceftuous king cannot bear to see a rival touch the hand of the woman he loves. His jealoufy resembles that of Antony : to let him be familiar with "My play-fellow, your hand; this kingly feal, Malefort, in Maflinger's Unnatural Combat, expreffes the like impatient jealoufy, when Beaufort touches his daughter Theocrine, to whom he was betrothed. M. MASON. • For vice repeated, is like the wand'ring wind, Blows duft in others' eyes, to spread itself;] That is, which blows duft, &c. The man who knows of 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 paffes along, blows duft into men's eyes. When the blaft is over, the eye that has been affected by the duft, fuffers no farther pain, but can fee as clearly as before; fo by the relation of criminal acts, the eyes of mankind (though they are affected, and turn away with horror,) are opened, and fee clearly what before was not even fufpected: but by expofing the crimes of others, the relater fuffers himself; as the breeze paffes away, fo the breath of the informer is gone; he dies for his temerity. Yet, to ftop the courfe or ventilation of the air, would hurt the eyes; and to prevent informers from divulging the crimes of men would be prejudicial to mankind. Such, I think, is the meaning of this obfcure paffage. The breath is gone, and the fore eyes fee clear: To ftop the air would hurt them. The blind mole cafts 8 Copp'd hills towards heaven, to tell, the earth is wrong'd By man's oppreffion; and the poor worm doth die for't.1 7 The breath is gone, and the fore eyes fee clear: To Stop the air would hurt them.] Malone has mistaken the meaning of this part of the fpeech of Pericles :-There should be no ftop after the word clear, that line being neceffarily connected with the following words; and the meaning is this: "The breath is gone, and the eyes, though fore, fee clear enough to ftop for the future the air that would annoy them." Malone fuppofes the sentence to end with the first of these lines, and makes the other a general political aphorifm, not perceiving that," to stop the air would hurt them;" means only to "stop the air that would hurt them;" the pronoun being omitted; an ellipfis frequent not only in poetry, but in prose. Pericles means only, by this fimilitude, to show the danger of revealing the crimes of princes; for as they feel themselves hurt by the publication of their fhame, they will, of course, prevent a repetition of it, by deftroying the perfon who divulged it: He pursues the fame idea in the inftance of the mole, and concludes with requesting that the king would "Give his tongue like leave to love his head." That is, that he would not force his tongue to speak what, if fpoken, would prove his destruction. In the second scene Pericles fays, fpeaking of the King: "And what may make him blush in being known, "He'll flop the courfe by which it might be known." Which confirms my explanation. M. MASON. 8 Copp'd hills-] i. e. rifing to a top or head. So, in P. Holland's tranflation of the eleventh Book of Pliny's Nat. Hift. "And few of them have cops or crefted tufts upon their heads." Copped Hall, in Effex, was fo named from the lofty pavilion on the roof of the old house, which has been fince pulled down. The upper tire of mafonry that covers a wall is ftill called the copping or coping. High-crowned hats were anciently called cópatain hats. STEEVENS. 9the earth is wrong'd By man's oppreffion;] Old copies throng'd. For this change I am answerable. STEEVENS. Kings are earth's gods: in vice their law's their will; And if Jove stray, who dares say, Jove doth ill? What being more known grows worse, to smother it. All love the womb that their firft beings bred, But I will gloze with him.3 [Afide.] Young prince of Tyre, Though by the tenour of our ftrict edíct,4 I and the poor worm doth die for't.] I fuppofe he means to call the mole, (which fuffers in its attempts to complain of man's injuftice) a poor worm, as a term of commiferation. Thus, in The Tempest, Profpero speaking to Miranda, fays: "Poor worm! thou art infected." The mole remains fecure till he has thrown up thofe hillocks, which, by pointing out the course he is pursuing, enable the vermin-hunter to catch him. STEEVENS. 2 Heaven, that I had thy head!] The fpeaker may either mean to fay, O, that I had thy ingenuity! or, O, that I had thy head, fever'd from thy body! The latter, I believe, is the meaning. MALONE. 3 But I will gloze with him.] So, Gower: "And thought, if that he said it oute, Though that thou be of littel witte," &c. MALONE. our firict edict,] The old copy has-your ftri&t edict. Corrected in the folio. MALONE. 5 Your expofition misinterpreting,] Your expofition of the riddle being a miftaken one; not interpreting it rightly. We might proceed to cancel of your days ;6 [Exeunt ANTIOCHUS, his Daughter, and Attendants. to cancel of your days;] The quarto, 1609, readsto counsel of your days; which may mean, to deliberate how long you shall be permitted to live. But I believe that counfel was merely an error of the prefs, which the editor of the folio, 1664, corrected by reading to cancel off your days. The fubftitution of off for of is unneceffary; for cancel may have been used as a fubftantive. We might proceed to the cancellation or deftruction of your life. Shakspeare ufes the participle cancell'd in the sense required here, in his Rape of Lucrece, 1594: "An expir'd date, cancell'd ere well begun." The following lines in King Richard III. likewife confirm the reading that has been chosen : "Cancel his bond of life, dear God, I pray, "That I may live to say, the dog is dead." MAlone. To omit the article was formerly a practice not uncommon. So, in Titus Andronicus: " Afcend, fair queen, Pantheon," i. e. the Pantheon. STEEVENS. Again, in King Lear: "Hot queftrifts after him, met him at gate." MALONE. 7 Forty days longer we do refpite you ;] In The Gefta Romanorum, Confeffio Amantis, and The Hiftory of King Appolyn, thirty days only are allowed for the folution of this question. It is difficult to account for this minute variation, but by fuppofing that our author copied fome tranflation of the Gesta Romanorum hitherto undifcovered. MALONE. It is thirty days in Twine's tranflation. Forty, as I have obferved in a note on fome other play (I forget which) was the familiar term when the number to be mentioned was not of arithmetical importance. STEEVENS. 8 your entertain fhall be, As doth befit our honour, and your worth.] I have no doubt |