Esca. 'Twas very strange. HEL. And yet but just; for though This king were great, his greatness was no guard To bar heaven's shaft, but fin had his reward. Esca. 'Tis very true. Enter Three Lords. 1 LORD. See, not a man in private conference, Or council, has respect with him but he." 2 LORD. It shall no longer grieve without re proof. 3 LORD. And curs'd be he that will not second it. 1 LORD. Follow me then: Lord Helicane, a word. HEL. With me? and welcome: Happy day, my lords. 1 LORD. Know, that our griefs are risen to the top, And now at length they overflow their banks. HEL. Your griefs, for what? wrong not the prince you love. 1 LORD. Wrong not yourself then, noble Heli cane; But if the prince do live, let us falute him, • See, not a man &c.] To what this charge of partiality was designed to conduct, we do not learn; for it appears to have no influence over the rest of the dialogue. STEEVENS. 7 And be resolv'd, he lives to govern us, 2 LORD. Whose death's, indeed, the strongest in our cenfure :9 1 And knowing this kingdom, if without a head, And be resolv'd, he lives to govern us,] Resolv'd is satisfied, free from doubt. So, in a subsequent scene: Refolve your angry father, if my tongue," &c. MALONE. * And leaves us - The quarto, 1609, reads-And leave us, which cannot be right. MALONE. • Whose death's, indeed, the strongest in our censure :] i. e. the most probable in our opinion. Censure is thus used in King Richard III: "To give your cenfures in this weighty business." STEEVENS. The old copies read-whose death indeed, &c. MALONE. * And knowing this kingdom, if without a head,] They did not know that the kingdom had abfolutely loft its governor; for in the very preceding line this Lord observes that it was only more probable that he was dead, than living. I therefore read, with a very flight change, -if without a head. The old copy, for if, has-is. In the next line but one, by supplying the word will, which I suppose was omitted by the carelessness of the compofitor, the sense and metre are both restored. The passage as it stands in the old copy, is not, by any mode of construction, reducible to grammar. MALONE. 2 (Like goodly buildings left without a roof,)] The same thought occurs in King Henry IV. Part II : - leaves his part-created coft "A naked fubject to the weeping clouds, " And waste for churlish winter's tyranny." STEEVENS. ALL. Live, noble Helicane! HEL. Try honour's capse;3 forbear your fuffrages: If that you love prince Pericles, forbear. Take I your wish, I leap into the seas, Where's hourly trouble, for a minute's ease.4 A twelvemonth longer, let me then entreat you To forbear choice i'the absence of your king;5 If in which time expir'd, he not return, I fhall with aged patience bear your yoke. But if I cannot win you to this love, t 3 Try honour's cause ;) Perhaps we should read : * Take I your wish, I leap into the feas, It must be acknowledged that a line in Hamlet, STEEVENS. "Or to take arms against a fea of troubles," as well as the rhyme, adds some support to this reading: yet I have no doubt that the poet wrote: I leap into the feat,-. So, in Macbeth : I have no spur "To prick the fides of my intent, but only Vaulting ambition, which o'er-leaps itself," &c. On ship-board the pain and pleasure may be in the proportion here stated; but the troubles of him who plunges into the fea, (unless he happens to be an expert swimmer) are seldom of an hour's duration. MALONE. Where's hourly trouble, for a minute's ease.] So, in King Richard III : " And each hour's joy wreck'd with a week of teen." MALONE. The expreffion is figurative, and by the words-I leap into the feas, &c. I believe the speaker only means-I embark too hastily on an expedition in which ease is disproportioned to labour. STEEVENS. $ To forbear &c.] Old copy: To forbear the absence of your king. Some word being omitted in this line, I read: To forbear choice i'the absence of your king. STEEVENS. Go search like noblemen, like noble subjects, 1 LORD. To wisdom he's a fool that will not yield; And, fince lord Helicane enjoineth us, HEL. Then you love us, we you, and we'll clafp hands; When peers thus knit, a kingdom ever stands. [Exeunt. You shall like diamonds fit about his crown.] As these are the concluding lines of a speech, perhaps they were meant to rhyme. We might therefore read : and win unto renown. i. e. if you prevail on him to quit his present obscure retreat, and be reconciled to glory, you shall be acknowledged as the brightest ornaments of his throne. STEEVENS. We with our travels will endeavour it.] Old copy: Endeavour what? I suppose, to find out Pericles. I have therefore added the syllable which appeared wanting both to metre and sense. STEEVENS. The author might have intended an abrupt sentence. MALONE. I would readily concur with the opinion of Mr. Malone, had paffion, instead of calm resolution, dictated the words of the fpeaker. STEEVENS. SCENE V. Pentapolis. A Room in the Palace. Enter SIMONIDES, reading a Letter, the Knights meet him. 1 KNIGHT. Good morrow to the good Simonides. SIM. Knights, from my daughter this I let you know, That for this twelvemonth, she'll not undertake Her reason to herself is only known, 2 KNIGHT. May we not get access to her, my my lord? SIM. 'Faith, by no means; the hath so strictly tied her To her chamber, that it is impoffible. One twelve moons more fhe'll wear Diana's livery; • In The Historie of King Appolyn of Thyre, "two kynges fones" pay their court to the daughter of Archystrates, (the Simonides of the present play). He sends two rolls of paper to her, containing their names, &c. and defires her to choose which she will marry. She writes him a letter (in answer), of which Appolyn is the bearer,-that the will have the man " which hath passed the daungerous undes and perylles of the sea-all other to refuse." The fame circumstance is mentioned by Gower, who has introduced three suitors instead of two, in which our author has followed him. MALONE. 1 In Twine's tranflation, these suitors are also three in number, -Ardonius, Munditius, and Carnillus. STEEVENS. |