st Fish. What, Patch-breech, I say!

rd Fish. What say you, master?

st Fish. Look how thou stirrest now! come away,
or I'll fetch thee with a wanion.

rd Fish. Faith, master, I am thinking of the poor
men that were cast away before us even now.
st Fish. Alas! poor souls; it grieved my heart to
hear what pitiful cries they made to us to help
them, when, well-a-day, we could scarce help
ourselves.

15

20

ird Fish. Nay, master, said not I as much when I saw the porpus how he bounced and tumbled? 25 they say they're half fish, half flesh; a plague

:6-50. Look ... honey.] Prose first by Malone; irregular lines in Qq, 3, 4, except that lines 20-23 are verse, ending heare . . . them

7. with a wanion] This phrase, so mmon in the literature of the day, d evidently equivalent to "with a ngeance," ""with a curse to you," s never been accounted for. Mr. aig in the Little Quarto Shakespeare ints out that the older form of the ord, waniand, is found in More, atimer and Fox; and that Skeat, llowing an idea of Nares, thinks at the original meaning may have een "in the waning of the moon,' hence the phrase came to mean with a diminution, detriment, illck".

.. our

wayloway, as in the Confessio Amantis) was softened to well-away, and then to well-a-day. Malone here compares The Winter's Tale, III. iii. 91-98.

24, 25. when ... porpus] Malone compares Webster's Duchess of Malfi: "He lifts up his nose like a foul porpus before a storm". Add Eastward Ho, III. iii. 153-155: "there was a porepisce even now seen at London Bridge, which is always the messenger of tempests, he says". Mason remarks that what was supposed to be merely a superstition among sailors was confirmed as a truth by Captain Cook who mentions the playing of porpoises round the ship as a certain sign of a violent gale of wind and modern naturalists note that these mammals are very sensitive to coming changes of weather.

26. half fish, half flesh] Compare the description of the otter, 1 Henry IV. III. iii. 142.

on them! they ne'er come but I look to be
washed. Master, I marvel how the fishes live in
the sea.

30

First Fish. Why, as men do a-land; the great ones eat up the little ones. I can compare our rich misers to nothing so fitly as to a whale; a' plays and tumbles, driving the poor fry before him, and at last devours them all at a mouthful. Such whales have I heard on o' the land, who 35 never leave gaping till they've swallowed the whole parish, church, steeple, bells, and all.

Per. [Aside.] A pretty moral.

Third Fish. But, master, if I had been the sexton, I would have been that day in the belfry.

Second Fish. Why, man?

Third Fish. Because he should have swallowed me

40

too; and when I had been in his belly, I would
have kept such a jangling of the bells, that he
should never have left till he cast bells, steeple, 45
church, and parish, up again. But if the good
King Simonides were of my mind,-

d Fish. We would purge the land of these drones,
that rob the bee of her honey.

[Aside.] How from the finny subject of the sea
These fishers tell the infirmities of men ;
And from their watery empire recollect
All that may men approve or men detect!
Peace be at your labour, honest fishermen.

50

55

the old calendars. The first Quarto
gives "Honest good fellow,' etc.;
the rest, "Honest, good fellow," etc.
Taking these words therefore as the
fisherman's rejoinder to "honest
fisherman," I suggest that, at the
end of his soliloquy, Pericles, in order
to attract the fishermen's attention,
exclaimed:-
"Hoyday!

Peace be at your labour, honest
fishermen."

finny] Malone (Steevens); fenny Qq, Ff 3, 4.
50. drones
honey] Com-
Henry VI. IV. i. 109.
subject] A noun of multitude.
are Hamlet, I. i. 72. In the
the corresponding passage
"and Prince Pericles wondring
om the finny subjects of the sea
poore country people learned
firmities of man, more than
obduracy and dulnes could
one of another," etc.
tell] reckon by analogy.
their... empire] the empire
e sea with whose nature they
intimately conversant.
recollect] gather up and apply.
detect] sc. as being guilty.
are Heywood, If you know
Te, etc. (Pearson, i. 206): "Men
much suspect, But yet.
ny life detect"; also Measure
leasure, III. ii. 130: "I never
the absent duke much detected
Omen ".

...

... none

58. Peace it] The text as nds is meaningless, nor has dation been successful. Malone, ing a note of admiration after st, adopts Steevens's "scratch Or search, with "will" before Steevens would further insert "before a day; but both critics that something must have been co which day refers. Farmer ses an allusion to Cicero's dies tissimus, which seems almost ous, and Douce, with greater bility, to the lucky and unlucky that are set down in some of

=

This not very common exclamation would account for the fisherman's dilemma; and as "and (i.e. an if) nobody look after it" clearly means in case nobody take care to prevent your purloining it, for search I would read "tear it," as being so easily mistaken for that word. The sense would then be good enough: If it be a day that suits you, is likely to prove lucky to you, tear it out of the calendar, provided you can do so without being caught in the act. To "search out of the calendar" or to "scratch it out of the calendar," would be nothing to the purpose; what the fisherman advises is that Pericles should appropriate it. Hoyday," written also "hoy-day," "hoida," "hey-day," and more frequent as an exclamation of surprise, wonder, etc., was also used like our "hallo," "ho," being from G. heida, with that sense. There seems to be allusion to these lucky and unlucky days in The Winter's Tale, III. iii. 142; Macbeth, ïv. i. 134.

66

Second Fish. Honest good fellow, what's that?

If

it be a day fits you, search out of the calendar,
and nobody look after it.

Per. May see the sea hath cast me upon your coast.

Second Fish. What a drunken knave was the sea, to 60

cast thee in our way!

Per. A man whom both the waters and the wind,
In that vast tennis-court, have made the ball
For them to play upon, entreats you pity him;
He asks of you, that never us'd to beg.
First Fish. No, friend, cannot you beg? here's them
in our country of Greece gets more with begging
than we can do with working.

Second Fish. Canst thou catch any fishes then?

Per. I never practised it.

Second Fish. Nay, then thou wilt starve, sure; for

56-58. Honest

65

70

it.] Prose first in Malone; two lines, the first ending you, in Qq, Ff 3, 4. 60, 61. What . . . way !] Prose first in Malone; two lines in Qq, Ff 3, 4. 66-68. No, working.] Prose first in Malone; three lines in Qq, Ff, 3, 4.

peep and pry "Into the actes of mortall tennis balls ". Metaphors from tennis abound in writers of the time, the game being much more in vogue than at present. Compare, e.g., Henry V. 1. i. 262-267; Webster, The White Devil (p. 36, ed. Dyce); Beaumont and Fletcher, The Scornful Lady, I. i. 139, 140 (ed. Bond); The Passionate Morrice (1593), p. 94 (New Shakespeare Society reprints): "Love shall be banded away with the racket of dissimulation, and beaten at last into the hazard Despaire by his sporting enemie".

69. Canst... then?] sc. if you cannot beg.

here's nothing to be got now-a-days unless thou canst fish for 't.

What I have been I have forgot to know,

But what I am want teaches me to think on;

75

I have

80

A man throng'd up with cold; my veins are chill, And have no more of life than may suffice To give my tongue that heat to ask your help; Which if you shall refuse, when I am dead, For that I am a man, pray see me buried. t Fish. Die, quoth-a? Now gods forbid! a gown here; come, put it on; keep thee warm. Now, afore me, a handsome fellow! Come, thou shalt go home, and we'll have flesh for holidays, fish for fasting-days, and moreo'er puddings and 85 flap-jacks; and thou shalt be welcome.

I thank you, sir.

nd Fish. Hark you, my friend; you said you

could not beg.

I did but crave.

nd Fish. But crave! then I'll turn craver too,

and so I shall 'scape whipping.

90

quoth-a?] Malone; ke-tha; (or ke tha,) Qq, Ff 3, 4. 85. moreo'er]

-ne (Farmer conj.); more; or Qq, Ff 3, 4.

] Prose first in Malone; two lines in Qq, Ff 3, 4.

fish] with a play upon the word e figurative sense of "angle". pare Troilus and Cressida, IV. iv.

- throng'd up] clemmed, shri

d up.
. heat] warmth enough to enable
to move his tongue now almost
ing to the roof of his mouth.

82. Die . here] die, does he while I have a gown here? what sense!

2. gown] Overcoat made of

91, 92. But... whip

tarpaulin. Compare
Hamlet, v. ii. 13.

"sea-gown,"

83. afore me] on my soul, by my life (as frequently).

86. Alap-jacks] pancakes, fritters. Rolfe says that the word, obsolete with us, is in common use in New England. Craig shows from Taylor's Great Eater of Kent that flapjacks and pancakes were not always identical.

91. then . . . craver] if it is a mere matter of terms and by calling