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And lords and ladies in their lives
Have read it for restoratives:

The purchase is to make men glorious;

Et bonum quo antiquius, eo melius.
If you, born in these latter times,
When wit's more ripe, accept my rimes,
And that to hear an old man sing
May to your wishes pleasure bring,
I life would wish, and that I might
Waste it for you like taper-light.

This Antioch, then, Antiochus the Great
Built up, this city, for his chiefest seat,
The fairest in all Syria,

I tell you what mine authors say:
This king unto him took a fere,

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21. fere] Peere Qq; Peer Ff 3, 4. consumed. . . . There were bride-ales, church-ales, give-ales, lamb-ales, leet-ales, Midsummer-ales, Scot-ales, Whitsun-ales, and several more (Nares, Glossary), such as help-ales, soule-ales, dirge-ales. Stubbes in his Anatomy of Abuses, 1583 (ed. Furnivall, pp. 150, 151), attacks these "ales," and says: "In this kind of practice they continue six weeks, a quarter of a yeer, yea, half a yeer togither, swilling and gulling, night and day, till they be as drunke as Apes, and as blockish as beasts".

8. restoratives] sc. of their spirits. Compare Romeo and Juliet, v. iii. 166. 9. purchase] gain, profit. Clarke quotes The Advancement of Learning [ii. 23, 37]: "Some fall in love with accesse to princes, others with popular fame and applause, supposing that they are things of great purchase.

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Add id. i. 2, 5: "taking pleasure in the action itself, and not in the purchase". The verb in such sense is frequent in the dramatists.

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10. antiquius] Steevens points out that the common saying has communius.

II. If you] For that omitted and afterwards inserted, see Abbott, Shakespearian Grammar, § 285.

12. wit] intelligence, knowledge.

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16. Waste. taper-light] spend it freely on your behalf like a candle burnt by bookworms. See Introduction.

18. his chiefest seat] Steevens quotes Twine's Patterne of Painefull Aduenters, originally taken from the Gesta Romanorum: "The most famous and mighty King Antiochus, which builded the goodlie citie of Antiochia in Syria, and called it after his owne name, as the chiefest seat of all his dominions

20. mine authors] the authorities from whom I draw the materials of my story.

21. fere] companion, partner, whether male or female. Often spelt "pheere" by imitators of the antique,

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Made many princes thither frame,

ccount] Malone; account'd (or accounted) Qq; counted Ff 3, 4.
"fere "is really the older form.
e Titus Andronicus, IV. i.

d swear with me, as with the voeful fere

d father of that chaste dishonour'd dame";

g's Ovid, Metamorphoses, ii.: o loves and longs to have this e for his fere".

uxom] literally flexible, pliant; bow," to bend, and " some x); but "exhibiting a singular of meaning, from the original of obedience to that of brisk, 1, healthy in the confined tion of modern times. . . . ableness and gentleness are Estinguishing features of a , the word seems to have been applied as a term of comtion to a young woman, and have passed on to designate admired characteristics of society, cheerfulness, liveliness, at tends to produce it" (WedgDictionary).

full of face] replete with every charm.

With whom... took] with the father fell in love.

29, 30. But custom . . . sin] A blending of "But by custom (familiarity) what they did begin was with long use accounted no sin," and "But custom caused what they did begin to be accounted no sin". In the Confessio Amantis :

"And such delite he tooke ther inne,

Hym thouht that it was no synne, And she dorst hym no thinge withseye".

For the curtailed form of the participle, see Abbott, Shakespearian Grammar, § 342.

32. frame]" shape or direct their course" (Malone). Of" frame" used thus absolutely, I have met with no other instance; but Heywood, The Shipwreck (Pearson, vi. 100), has

"O, if I can

But get to land safe, pilgrimage
I'll frame

Unto the blessed Maid of Wal-
singhame";

and Spenser, Faerie Queene, iii. I,

20:

"A stately castle far away she spied

To which her steps directly she did frame".

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To seek her as a bedfellow,
In marriage-pleasures playfellow :
Which to prevent he made a law,
To keep her still, and men in awe,
That whoso ask'd her for his wife,
His riddle told not, lost his life :-
So for her many a wight did die,
As yon grim looks do testify.

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What now ensues, to the judgement of your eye
I give, my cause who best can justify.

[Exit.

SCENE I.-Antioch. A Room in the Palace.

Enter ANTIOCHUS, PERICLES, and Attendants. Ant. Young Prince of Tyre, you have at large receiv'd The danger of the task you undertake.

36. To keep... awe] to keep her for his own enjoyment, and to keep men in awe; a zeugma.

38. His riddle] the riddle made and propounded by him (the father).

40. grim looks] the heads of those who had failed to solve the riddle, fixed on the gate of the palace. Steevens quotes the Confessio Amantis, bk. viii. :—

"And thus there were many dede, Her hedés stonding on the gate"; and remarks," I suppose the audience were here entertained with a view of a kind of Temple Bar at Antioch ". 41, 42. the judgement . justify] to be witnessed and judged by you who can best decide as to the merits of the matter with which I deal. For cause we might perhaps read "course 19 as more in keeping with ensues, though cause suits justify: who, by some taken as = which; rather, I think, referring to 'you in your.

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Scene I.

Enter... Pericles] Malone quotes an epigram of Flecknoe, 1670, "On the Play of the Life of Pyrocles," and Steevens argues that the hero of Sidney's Arcadia was also the hero of this play. "It is remarkable," he says, "that our ancient authors were ambitious to exhibit Sidney's worthies on the stage; and when his subordinate agents were advanced to such honour, how happened it that Pyrocles, their leader, should be overlooked?" Quotations from the Arcadia, which will be found in the notes, support this conjecture.

1. Prince] "It does not appear in the present drama that the father of Pericles is living. By prince, therefore, throughout this play, we are to understand prince regnant. See Act II. iv. and in the epitaph, Act III. iii. In the Gesta Romanorum, Apollonius is King of Tyre; and Appolyn, in

I have, Antiochus, and, with a soul,
Embolden'd with the glory of her praise,
Think death no hazard in this enterprise.
Bring in our daughter, clothed like a bride,
For the embracements even of Jove himself;
At whose conception, till Lucina reign'd,
Nature this dowry gave, to glad her presence,
The senate-house of planets all did sit,

To knit in her their best perfections.

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I enterprise.] Arranged as by Malone; in Qq, Ff 3, 4, lines 3, 4 nboldned . . . hazard.

3; reigned Qq 4, 5, 6.

8. reign'd] Ff 3, 4; rained Q 1; raigned

nd's translation from the French, he same title. Our author, in Pericles a prince, seems to followed Gower" (Malone). Bring in, etc.] The old copies Musicke, bring in," etc., which e first saw to be a stage-direcor the musicians to be ready their music.

For the . . . himself] clothed as le fit for, etc. 1. At whose

perfections] ne says, "I think the construcis, at whose conception the e-house of planets all did sit,' and that the words 'till Lucina 'd, Nature,' etc., are parenthetbut he does not explain the contion of those parenthetical words. -n, taking till as = while, renders, whose birth, during the time of mother's labour, over which na was supposed to preside, the ets all sat," etc. This, again, to take into account the words ture presence," while, furconception and birth are conded. Steevens conjectured "by se concession," i.e., by whose (sc. 's) grant or leave, nature," etc., ould read "her conception ". I

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"At whose conception, till Lucina reign'd,

Nature rich dowry gave; to glad her presence

The senate-house," etc., i.e., at her conception, and while she was yet in the womb, Nature endowed her richly; at her birth, to give comeliness to her appearance on life's stage, the planets in council combined to invest her with every perfection. It would not be at her conception, as Malone says, but at her birth, according to the belief in planetary influence, that such influence would be exercised. In Wilkins's novel the passage runs: "This Antiochus had increase by his Quéene one onely daughter so excellent in beauty, as if Nature and all Perfection had long studied to seeme only absolute at her birth. This Ladie growing to like ripeness of age, as shée had full endowment of outward ornaments," etc. For the two last lines, Steevens compares Sidney's Arcadia, bk. ii., " The senate-house of the planets was at no time so set for the decreeing of perfection in a man," etc.

8. Lucina] the goddess of light, as bringing children into the world.

Music. Enter the Daughter of ANTIOCHUS.

Per. See, where she comes apparell'd like the spring,
Graces her subjects, and her thoughts the king
Of every virtue gives renown to men!

Her face the book of praises, where is read
Nothing but curious pleasures, as from thence
Sorrow were ever raz'd, and testy wrath
Could never be her mild companion.

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You gods, that made me man, and sway in love,
That have inflam'd desire in my breast
To taste the fruit of yon celestial tree
Or die in the adventure, be my helps,
As I am son and servant to your will,
To compass such a boundless happiness!
Ant. Prince Pericles,-

Per. That would be son to great Antiochus.
Ant. Before thee stands this fair Hesperides,

With golden fruit, but dangerous to be touch'd;

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praises,] Pointed as by Malone; King,
17. raz'd] ras'd Malone; racte Qq 1, 2;

3, 4.

13-15. king of men I men.... prayses, Qq, Ff 3, 4. racket Q3; rackt Qq 4, 5, 6, Ff 14. gives] sc. which gives; the common ellipsis of the relative.

15. the book of praises] the volume in which everything worth praise is bound up. Compare Romeo and

Juliet, 1. iii. 81-88; Love's Labour's
Lost, IV. ii. 113.

16. curious] choice, exquisite. Compare Cymbeline, v. v. 361:"He, sir, was lapp'd

In a most curious mantle ". 18. her mild companion] the companion of her gentle nature.

20. desire] a trisyllable here. 23. As] according as.

27. Hesperides] properly the daughters of Hesperus who dwelt in the

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garden of trees with golden fruit, but mistaken by many old writers for the garden itself. Thus Shakespeare, Love's Labour's Lost, iv. iii. 341, has "climbing trees in the Hesperides"; Greene, Orlando Furioso, pp. 90/1 (ed. Dyce), "And richer than the plot Hesperides "; Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay, p. 167/2, "That watch'd the garden call'd Hesperides". Malone points out that the mistake in the original list of dramatis persona of giving Hesperides as the name of the king's daughter was due to this line in which for the treasures of her beauty she is likened to the garden of the Hesperides.

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