Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB

105

The curse of heaven and men succeed their evils! Till when, the which I hope shall ne'er be seen, Your grace is welcome to our town and us. Per. Which welcome we'll accept; feast here awhile, Until our stars that frown lend us a smile.

[merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small]

ACT II.

Enter GOWER.

Here have you seen a mighty king
His child, I wis, to incest bring;

A better prince and benign lord,

That will prove awful both in deed and word.

Be quiet then as men should be,

Till he hath pass'd necessity.

I'll show you those in trouble's reign
Losing a mite, a mountain gain.
The good in conversation,
To whom I give my benison,
Is still at Tarsus, where each man
Thinks all is writ he speken can;

[merged small][merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small]
[merged small][ocr errors]

title of the chapter in Gesta Romanorum in which the story of Apollonius is told, viz., "De tribulatione temporali quae in gaudium sempiternum postremo commutabitur ".

[ocr errors]

9. The .. conversation] the man of blameless life (Pericles). For conversation, compare Antony and Cleopatra, 11. vi. 131; Peter iii. II. 12. Thinks can] "pays as much respect to whatever Pericles says as if it were holy writ . . .' (Malone).

12. speken] an obsolete form of "speak," is Grant White's correction of "spoken," the reading of the old copies.

And, to remember what he does,

Build his statue to make him glorious:

But tidings to the contrary

Are brought your eyes; what need speak I?

Dumb-show.

15

Enter at one door PERICLES, talking with CLEON; all the Train with them. Enter at another door a Gentleman, with a letter to PERICLES; PERICLES shows the letter to CLEON; then gives the Messenger a reward, and knights him. Exeunt PERICLES, CLEON, etc.,

severally.

Good Helicane, that stay'd at home,

Not to eat honey like a drone

From others' labours; for though he strive

To killen bad, keep good alive;

And to fulfil his prince' desire,

Sends word of all that haps in Tyre:

21. prince'] Malone; prince Qq 1, 2, 3; princes (the rest). 13. remember] commemorate.

14. Build] Steevens, quoting Kyng Appolyn of Tyre (1510)," in remembrance they made an ymage or statue of clene gold," reads "gild," which seems unnecessary. He also omits the words to make him ".

[ocr errors]

19. for... strive] No satisfactory explanation has here been given. Steevens reads "forth," i.e. thoroughly, from beginning to end, comparing Measure for Measure, v. i. 255, "Whom it concerns to hear this matter forth," though there the sense is ""forward,' on," "to a further extent". Nicholson, putting "that labours" in a parenthesis, and reading "keeps" in line 20, conjectures "for-though". The simplest

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

20

way out of the difficulty is, with Hudson, to omit for. Possibly the pseudo Gower may have written far

afar off, in which case, putting a comma only after alive, we might render, "Good Helicane, though afar off he administers the government in accordance with justice and his prince's wishes, yet at the same time sends," etc.

21. prince'] the uninflected genitive. 22. Sends word] This conjecture of Steevens, adopted by Malone, is confirmed by a passage from the novel quoted by the Cambridge Editors: "Good Helycanus as provident at home, as his prince was prosperous abroade, let no occasion slip wherein hee might send word to Tharsus of

[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]

SCENE I.-Pentapolis. An open Place by the Sea-side.

Enter PERICLES, wet.

Per. Yet cease your ire, you angry stars of heaven!
Wind, rain, and thunder, remember, earthly man

Is but a substance that must yield to you;
And I, as fits my nature, do obey you.

Alas! the sea hath cast me on the rocks,

5

Wash'd me from shore to shore, and left me breath
Nothing to think on but ensuing death:

Let it suffice the greatness of your powers

To have bereft a prince of all his fortunes;

And having thrown him from your watery grave, 10
Here to have death in peace is all he'll crave.

Enter three Fishermen.

First Fish. What, ho, Pilch!

Second Fish. Ha! come and bring away the nets.

Pentapolis]"This is an imaginary city, and its name might have been borrowed from some romance. We meet indeed in history with Pentapolitana regio, a country in Africa, consisting of five cities; and from thence perhaps some novelist furnished the sounding title of Pentapolis which occurs likewise in the 37th chapter of Kyng Appolyn of Tyre (1560), as well as in Gower, the Gesta Romanorum, and Twine's translation from it" (Steevens).

12. Pilch!] The old copies give "What, to pelch?" whence Malone, "What, ho, Pilch!" Tyrwhitt having conjectured, "What, Pilche!" "Pilches or pilchers are skins (from pellis), and, in a more general sense, coverings of furs, woollen, etc. Shakespeare [Romeo and Juliet, III. i. 84] uses the word for the sheath of a sword; and

his contemporaries for that 'most sweet robe of durance, a buff jerkin'. Nash speaks of a carman in a leathern pilche; and Decker [The Untrussing of the Humorous Poet (Pearson, i. 229)] twits Jonson more than once with wearing it: "Thou hast forgot how thou ambled'st in a leather pilche by a play waggon, and took'st mad Jeronimo's part to get service amongst the mimicks "" (Gifford's note on the Poetaster, iii. 1). Here the name of the garment is given to the wearer of it, as Patch-breech (line 14). In Twine's novel (chap. iii.) the fisherman approaches with "a filthie leathern pelt upon his back, unseemely clad and homely to behold".

13. bring away] bring here without delay. Compare King Lear, 11. ii. 146: "Come, bring away the stocks. [Stocks brought out.]"

« ZurückWeiter »