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CLE. We'll bring your grace even to the edge

o'the shore;

Then give you up to the mask'd Neptune, and

The gentleft winds of heaven.

PER.

I will embrace

Your offer. Come, dear'st madam.-O, no tears, Lychorida, no tears :

Look to your little mistress, on whose grace

You may depend hereafter.-Come, my lord.

[Exeunt.

SCENE IV.

Ephefus. A Room in Cerimon's House.

Enter CERIMON and THAISA.

CER. Madam, this letter, and some certain jewels, Lay with you in your coffer: which are now 5 At your command. Know you the character? THAI. It is my lord's.

*-mask'd Neptune,] i. e. infidious waves that wear a treacherous smile:

" Subdola pellacis ridet clementia ponti." Lucretius. This passage in Pericles appears to have been imitated by Fletcher in Rule a Wife &c. 1640 :

"I'll bring you on your way

" And then deliver you to the blue Neptune."

So, in The Merchant of Venice :

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STEEVENS.

which are now -) For the insertion of the word now.

I am accountable. MALONE.

That I was shipp'd at sea, I well remember,
Even on my yearning time; but whether there
Delivered or no, by the holy gods,

I cannot rightly say: But fince king Pericles,
My wedded lord, I ne'er shall fee again,
A vestal livery will I take me to,
And never more have joy.

CER. Madam, if this you purpose as you speak, Diana's temple is not distant far,

Where you may 'bide until your date expire."

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Even on my yearning time;) The quarto, 1619, and the folio, 1664, which was probably printed from it, both read eaning. The first quarto reads learning. The editor of the second quarto seems to have corrected many of the faults in the old copy, without any confideration of the original corrupted reading. MALONE.

Read-yearning time. So, in King Henry V: for Falstaff he is dead,

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"And we must yearn therefore."

To yearn is to feel internal uneasiness. The time of a woman's labour is still called, in low language-her groaning time-her crying out.

Mr. Rowe would read-eaning, a term applicable only to sheep when they produce their young. STEEVENS.

Thaisa evidently means to say, that she was put on ship-board just at the time when the expected to be delivered; and as the word yearning does not express that idea, I should suppose it to be wrong. The obvious amendment is to read even at my yeaning time; which differs from it but by a fingle letter:-Or perhaps we should read, -yielding time.

So, Pericles says to Thaisa in the last scene:

"Look who kneels here! Flesh of thy flesh, Thaisa;

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Thy burden at the fea, and call'd Marina,

"For she was yielded there." M. MASON.

Where you may 'bide until your date expire.] Until you die. So, in Romeo and Juliet :

"The date is out of such prolixity."

The expreffion of the text is again used by our author in The Rape of Lucrece:

Moreover, if you please, a niece of mine
Shall there attend you.

THAI. My recompense is thanks, that's all; Yet my good will is great, though the gift small.

[Exeunt.

ACT IV.

Enter GOWER.8

Gow. Imagine Pericles at Tyre,
Welcom'd to his own defire.

"An expir'd date, cancell'd, ere well begun."

Again, in Romeo and Juliet :

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and expire the term "Of a despised life." MALONE.

8 Enter Gower.) This chorus, and the two following scenes, have hitherto been printed as part of the third Act. In the original edition of this play, the whole appears in an unbroken series. The editor of the folio in 1664, first made the division of Acts and scenes (which has been fince followed,) without much propriety. The poet seems to haveintended that each Act should begin with a chorus. On this principle the present division is made. Gower, however, interpofing eight times, a chorus is necessarily introduced in the middle of this and the ensuing Act.

9 Imagine Pericles &c.] The old copies read:
Imagine Pericles arriv'd at Tyre,
Welcom'd and settled to his own defire.
His woful queen we leave at Ephesus,
Unto Diana there a votaress.

MALONE.

For the fake of uniformity of metre, the words, &c. diftinguished by the Roman character, are omitted. STEEVENS.

His woful queen leave at Ephefs,
To Dian there a votaress.'
Now to Marina bend your mind,
Whom our faft growing scene must find
At Tharsus, and by Cleon train'd
In musick, letters ;3 who hath gain'd
Of education all the grace,

Which makes her both the heart and place

* His woful queen leave at Ephess,

To Dian there a votaress.] Old copy-we leave at Ephesus; but Ephefus is a rhyme so ill corresponding with votaress, that I fuspect our author wrote Ephese or Ephess; as he often contracts his proper names to fuit his metre. Thus Pont for Pontus, Mede for Media, Comagene for Comagena, Sicils for Sicilies, &c. Gower, in the story on which this play is founded, has Dionyze for Dionyza, and Tharfe for Tharsus. STEEVENS.

To Dian there a votaress.] The old copies read-there's a votaress. I am answerable for the correction. MALONE.

2 Whom our fast-growing scene must find-] The fame expreffion occurs in the chorus to The Winter's Tale :

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- your patience this allowing,

I turn my glass, and give my Scene such growing,

As you had flept between." MALONE.

3 In mufick, letters ;) The old copy reads, I think corruptly -In musicks letters. The corresponding passage in Gower's Confeffio Amantis, confirms the emendation now made:

Again:

"My doughter Thaise by your leve

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I thynke shall with you be leve
"As for a tyme: and thus I praie,
"That she be kepte by all waie,
"And whan the hath of age more
"That she be set to tokes lore," &c.

- the dwelleth

"In Tharse, as the Cronike telleth;
"She was well kept, she was well loked,
"She was well taught, she was well boked;
So well the sped hir in hir youth,

"That the of every wysedome couth." MALONE.

Of general wonder.4 But alack!
That monster envy, oft the wrack
Of earned praife, 5 Marina's life
Seeks to take off by treason's knife.
And in this kind hath our Cleon
One daughter, and a wench full grown,

Which makes her both the heart and place
Of general wonder.) The old copies read:
Which makes high both the art and place &c.

The emendation was made by Mr. Steevens.
Which makes her both the heart and place

MALONE.

Of general wonder.] Such an education as rendered her the center and fituation of general wonder. We still use the heart of oak for the central part of it, and the heart of the land in much such another sense. Shakspeare in Coriolanus says, that one of his ladies is" the spire and top of praise." STEEVENS.

So, in Twelfth-Night:

" I will on with my speech in your praise, and then show you

the heart of my message."

Again, in Antony and Cleopatra : - the very heart of loss."

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Again, in The Rape of Lucrece:

"On her bare breast, the heart of all her land." Place here signifies refidence. So, in A Lover's Complaint : "Love lack'd a dwelling, and made him her place." In this sense it was that Shakspeare, when he purchased his

house at Stratford, called it The New Place. MALONE.

5

- oft the wrack

Of earned praise,] Praise that has been well deserved. The fame expression is found in the following lines, which our author has imitated in his Romeo and Juliet :

"How durft thou once attempt to touch the honor of his name?

"Whofe deadly foes do yeld him dew and earned praife." Tragicall Hystorie of Romeus and Juliet, 1562.

So, in A Midsummer-Night's Dream :

"If we have unearned luck-." MALONE.

And in this kind hath our Cleon

One daughter, and a wench full grown,) The old copy reads:

And in this kind our Cleon hath

One daughter, and a full grown wench.

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