Nor never did my actions yet commence A deed might gain her love, or your displeasure. Sim. Traitor, thou liest. Per. Sim. Traitor! Ay, traitor, sir. Per. Even in his throat (unless it be the king), That calls me traitor, I return the lie. Sim. Now, by the gods, I do applaud his courage. [Aside. Per. My actions are as noble as my thoughts, That never relish'd2 of a base descent. I came unto your court, for honour's cause, And not to be a rebel to her state; And he that otherwise accounts of me, This sword shall prove he's honour's enemy. Sim. No! Here comes my daughter, she can witness it. Enter THAISA. Per. Then, as you are as virtuous as fair, Who takes offence at that would make me glad? tame you; I'll bring you in subjection. Will you, not having my consent, bestow Your love and your affections on a stranger? (Who, for aught I know to the contrary, Or think, may be as great in blood as I). [Aside. Hear therefore, mistress; frame your will to mine.— 2 So in Hamlet: That has no relish of salvation in it.' And in Macbeth : So well thy words become thee as thy wounds, And you, sir, hear you.-Either be rul'd by me, Nay, come; your hands and lips must seal it too.- What, are you both pleas'd? Thai. Yes, if you love me, sir. Per. Even as my life, my blood that fosters it3. Sim. What, are you both agreed? Both. Yes, please your majesty. Sim. It pleaseth me so well, I'll see you wed; Then, with what haste you can, get you to bed. [Exeunt. ACT III. Enter GoWER. Gow. Now sleep yslaked hath the rout; 3 The quarto of 1619 reads: 'Even as my life or blood that fosters it.' We have the same thought most exquisitely expressed in Julius Cæsar: As dear to me, as are the ruddy drops That visit my sad heart.' 1 So Virgil, speaking of Rhamnes, who was killed in the midnight expedition of Nisus and Euryalus: "Rhamneten aggreditur, qui forte tapetibus altis Extructus, toto proflabat pectore somnum.' A babe is moulded;-Be attent, And time that is so briefly spent, With your fine fancies quaintly eche2; What's dumb in show, I'll plain with speech. Dumb Show. Enter PERICLES and SIMONIDES at one door, with Attendants: a Messenger meets them, kneels, and gives PERICLES a Letter. PERICLES shows it to SIMONIDES; the Lords kneel to the former3. Then enter THAISA with child, and LYCHORIDA. SIMONIDES shows his Daughter the Letter; she rejoices: she and PERICLES take leave of her Father, and depart. Then SIMONIDES, &c. retire. Gow. By many a dearn and painful perch4 Of Pericles the careful search By the four opposing coignes, Which the world together joins, Is made, with all due diligence, That horse, and sail, and high expense, Are letters brought; the tenour these: 2 Eke out. 3 The Lords kneel to Pericles, because they are now, for the first time, informed by this letter, that he is king of Tyre. 'No man,' says Gower, in his Confessio Amantis : knew the soth cas, But he hym selfe; what man he was.' By the death of Antiochus and his daughter, Pericles has also succeeded to the throne of Antioch, in consequence of having rightly interpreted the riddle proposed to him. 4 Dearn signifies lonely, solitary. A perch is a measure of five yards and a half. The careful search of Pericles is made by many a dearn and painful perch,-by the four opposing coignes which join the world together; with all due diligence.' 5 i. e. help, befriend, or assist the search. So in Measure for Measure: VOL. IX. can you so stead me 13 Of Helicanus would set on The crown of Tyre, but he will none: Come not home, in twice six moons, Will take the crown. The sum of this, Brought hither to Pentapolis, And every one with claps 'gan sound, Who dream'd, who thought of such a thing? That, as a duck for life that dives, Which might not what by me is told8. This stage, the ship9, upon whose deck 6 i. e. to suppress: opprimere. An exclamation equivalent to well-a-day. [Exit. 8 The further consequences of this storm I shall not describe; what ensues may be conveniently exhibited in action; but action could not well have displayed all the events that I have now related.' 9 It is clear from these lines that when the play was originally performed, no attempt was made to exhibit either a sea or a ship. SCENE I. Enter PERICLES, on a Ship at Sea. Per. Thou God of this great vast1, rebuke these surges, Which wash both heaven and hell; and thou, that hast Upon the winds command, bind them in brass, Having call'd them from the deep! O still thy deaf'ning, Thy dreadful thunders; gently quench thy nimble Sulphureous flashes!-O how, Lychorida, How does my queen! -Thou storm, thou! venomously2 The ensuing scene and some others must have suffered considerably in the representation, from the poverty of the stage apparatus in the time of the author. It should be remembered that Pericles is supposed to speak from the deck. Lychorida, on whom he calls, is supposed to be in the cabin beneath. Tis great vast is this wide expanse.' See vol. i. p. 26, note 32. This speech is exhibited in so strange a form in the old editions, that it is here given to enable the reader to judge in what a corrupt state it has come down to us, and be induced to treat the attempts to restore it to integrity with indulgence: The God of this great vast, rebuke these surges, Unheard Lychorida? Lucina oh! Divinest patrioness and my wife gentle To those that cry by night, convey thy deitie Aboard our dauncing boat, make swift the pangues Pericles, having called to Lychorida, without the power to make her hear on account of the tempest, at last with frantic peevishness addresses himself to it : Thou storm thou! venemously Having indulged himself in this question, he grows cooler, and observes that the very boatswain's whistle has no more effect on the sailors than the voices of those who speak to the dead. He then repeats his inquiries of Lychorida, but receiving no answer, concludes with a prayer for his queen. 2 Maliciously. |
