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Then give you up to the mask'd Neptune5; and
The gentlest winds of heaven.

I will embrace

Per. 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.

Ephesus. 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
At your command. Know you the character?
Thai. It is my lord's.

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

I cannot rightly say: But since King Pericles,
My wedded lord, I ne'er shall see 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 expire2.

5 i. e. Insidious waves that wear a treacherous smile. 'Subdola quem ridet placidi pellacia ponti.'

Lucret. ii. v. 599. 1 The quarto, 1619, and the folio, 1664, which was probably printed from it, both read eaning. The first quarto reads learning. Steevens asserts that eaning is a term only applicable to sheep when they produce their young, and substituted yearning, which he interprets her groaning time.' But it should be observed that to ean or yean, in our elder language, as in the Anglo Saxon, signified to bring forth young, without any particular reference to sheep. I have therefore preferred the reading in the text to Steeven's conjecture.

2 i. e. until you die. So in Romeo and Juliet :

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The date is out of such prolixity.

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 1.

Gow. Imagine Pericles arriv'd at Tyre,
Welcom'd and settled to his own desire.
His woful queen leave at Ephesus,
Unto Diana there a votaress.
Now to Marina bend your mind,

Whom our fast growing scene must find2
At Tharsus, and by Cleon train'd

In music, letters; who hath gain'd

Of education all the grace,

Which makes her both the heart and place3
Of general wonder. But alack!

That monster envy, oft the wrack

Again, in the same play :

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and expire the term

Of a despised life.'

And in the Rape of Lucrece :

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

1 This chorus, and the two following scenes, in the old editions are printed as part of the third act.

2 The same expression 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 slept between.'

3 The old copies read:

'Which makes high both the art and place."

The emendation is by Steevens. We still use the heart of oak for the central part of it, and the heart of the land in much such another sense. Place here signifies residence. So in A Lover's Complaint:

Love lack'd a dwelling, and made him her place.'

Of earned praise, 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,
Even ripe for marriage fight; this maid
Hight Philoten: and it is said

For certain in our story, she
Would ever with Marina be:

Be't when she weav'd the sleided4 silk
With fingers long, small, white as milk;
Or when she would with sharp neeld5 wound
The cambric, which she made more sound
By hurting it; or when to the lute

She sung, and made the night-bird mute,
That still records6 with moan; or when
She would with rich and constant pen
Vail to her mistress Dian; still

This Philoten contends in skill
With absolute8 Marina: so

With the dove of Paphos might the crow
Vie feathers white9. Marina gets
All praises, which are paid as debts,
And not as given. This so darks
In Philoten all graceful marks,
That Cleon's wife, with envy rare,
A present murderer does prepare
For good Marina, that her daughter

4 Sleided silk' is unwrought silk, prepared for weaving by passing it through the weaver's sley or reed-comb.

5 The old copies read needle, but the metre shows that we should read neeld. The word is thus abbreviated in a subsequent passage in the first quarto. See King John, Act v. Sc. 2, p. 393.

6 To record anciently signified to sing. Thus in Sir Philip Sydney's Ourania, by [Nicholas Breton] 1606 :

Recording songs unto the Deitie.'

The word is still used by bird fanciers. See vol. i. p. 162, note 1. Vail is probably a misprint. Steevens suggests that we should read Hail. Malone proposes to substitute wail.

8 i. c. highly accomplished, perfect. So in Antony and Cleopatra :—

at sea

He is an absolute master.'

And in Green's Tu Quoque: From an absolute and most complete gentleman, to a most absurd, ridiculous, and fond lover. 9 See vol. iii. p. 361. note 19.

Might stand peerless by this slaughter.
The sooner her vile thoughts to stead,
Lychorida, our nurse, is dead;

And cursed Dionyza hath

The pregnant10 instrument of wrath
Prest for this blow. The unborn event

I do commend to your content11:

Only I carry winged time.

Post on the lame feet of my rhyme;

Which never could I so convey,

Unless your thoughts went on my way.

Dionyza does appear,

With Leonine, a murderer.

[Exit.

SCENE I.

Tharsus. An open Place near the Seashore.
Enter DIONYZA and LEonine.

Dion. Thy oath remember; thou hast sworn to do it;

"Tis but a blow, which never shall be known.
Thou canst not do a thing i'the world so soon,
To yield thee so much profit. Let not conscience,
Which is but cold, inflaming love, thy bosom
Inflame too nicely1; nor let pity, which

10 Pregnant in this instance means apt, quick. Prest is ready. 'I do commend to your content.

11

Steevens conjectures that the poet wrote consent instead of content: but observes that perhaps the passage as it stands may mean ‘I wish you to find content in that portion of our play which has not yet been exhibited.'

The first quarto reads:

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Let not conscience,

Which is but cold, in flaming thy love bosome,
Enflame too nicelie, nor let pitie,' &c.

Malone reads:

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Let not conscience,

Which is but cold, inflame love in thy bosom,
Inflame too nicely, nor let pity,' &c.

Steevens proposed to omit the words 'Inflame too nicely,' and 'which even,' adding the pronoun that, in the following manner :

Even women have cast off, melt thee, but be
A soldier to thy purpose.

Leon. I'll do't; but yet she is a goodly creature.
Dion. The fitter then the gods should have her.
Here

Weeping she comes for her old nurse's death2.
Thou art resolv'd?

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Enter MARINA, with a Basket of Flowers.

Mar. No, no, I will rob Tellus of her weed, To strew thy green3 with flowers: the yellows, blues, The purple violets, and marigolds,

Shall, as a chaplet, hang upon thy grave,

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While summer days do last. Ah me! poor maid,
Born in a tempest, when my mother died,
This world to me is like a lasting storm,
Whirring me from my friends.

Let not conscience,

Which is but cold, inflame love in thy bosom ;
Nor let that pity women have cast off

Melt thee, but be a soldier to thy purpose.'

The reading I have given is sufficiently intelligible, and deviates less from the old copy. Nicely here means tenderly, fondly.

2 The old copy reads:

'Here she comes weeping for her onely mistresse death.'

As Marina had been trained in music, letters, &c. and had gained all the graces of education, Lychorida could not have been her only mistress. The suggestion and emendation are Dr. Percy's.

3 This is the reading of the quarto copy: the folio reads grave. Weed, in old language, meant garment.

4 So in Cymbeline:6

with fairest flowers

While summer lasts, and I live here, Fidele,

I'll sweeten thy sad grave."

The old copy reads, Shall as a carpet hang,' &c. the emendation

is by Steevens.

5 Thus the earliest copy. The second quarto, and all subsequent impressions, read:

Hurrying me from my friends.'

Whirring or whirrying had formerly the same meaning, a bird that flies with a quick motion is still said to whirr away. The verb to whirry is used in the ballad of Robin Goodfellow, Reliques of Ancient English Poetry, vol. ii. p. 203

More swift than winds away I go,

O'er hedge and lands,

Thro' pools aud ponds,

I whirry, laughing ho, ho, ho.`

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