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Who dream'd, who thought of such a thing?"

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5. Y-ravished] Malone (Steevens); Iranyshed Q1; Irauy shed Q 2; uy shed (the rest). 46. fortune's mood] Malone (Steevens); fortune 'd (or moou'd or mov'd) Qq, Ff 3, 4.

2. dooms] judgments, what they

m.

5. Y-ravished] “The participial fix y- is only two or three times d in Shakespeare's plays: y clept, lad, y-slaked. In E.E. y- is preed to other forms of speech beside -ticiples, like the German ge-. But Elizabethan English the y- was olly disused except as a participial fix, and even the latter was archaic. ence we must explain as follows e passage in the text]. Shakecare was probably going to write in the same speech, line 1, 'yked hath') ‘y-ravished the regions

hath,' but the necessity of the rhyme, and the diminished sense of the grammatical force of the participial prefix, made him alter the construction" (Abbott, Shakespearian Grammar, § 345). Peele, the most archaic of the dramatists, has y-clypped, y-blinded, y-born, y-comen, y-clad, etc.

36. can]= gan, ginnan, to begin. See Mr. Craig's note in the Little Quarto Shakespeare.

37. heir-apparent] sc. by marriage with Thaisa, Simonides's only child. 40. with child] being enceinte.

47. grisled] originally "grey," Fr. gris, then "sombre ".

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That, as a duck for life that dives,
So up and down the poor ship drives.
The lady shrieks, and well-a-near
Does fall in travail with her fear;
And what ensues in this fell storm
Shall for itself itself perform.

I nill relate, action may
Conveniently the rest convey,

Which might not what by me is told.
In your imagination hold

This stage the ship, upon whose deck
The sea-tost Pericles appears to speak.

SCENE I.

Enter PERICLES, on shipboard.

55

[Exit. 60

Per. Thou god of this great vast, 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 deafening, dreadful thunders; gently quench 5
Thy nimble, sulphurous flashes. O! how, Lychorida,

60. sea-tost] Rowe; seas tost Qq, Ff 3, 4.

51. well-a-near] well-a-day, alas. I. ii. 327; and vast, wast, waste,
Halliwell, Dict. Arch. and Prov. Hamlet, 1. ii. 198.
Words, gives "Well-an-ere, Alas!
North'

57. Which might . . . told] which (action) could not represent the facts that I, as Chorus, have related.

Scene 1.

I. vast] a substantive, as in The Winter's Tale, 1. i. 33; The Tempest,

3. bind... brass]" in their brazen caves. Compare 2 Henry VI. 1. ii. 89; also Nash, Jack Wilton (Gosse, p. 187), 'If there ever be a blasphemous conjurour, that can call the windes from their brazen caves (Craig).

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4. call'd] Dyce (ed. 2) reads recall'd.

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6. Thy nimble flashes] compare King Lear, 11. iv. 167, IV. vii. 34.

How does my queen? Thou stormest venomously;
Wilt thou spit all thyself? The seaman's whistle

Is as a whisper in the ears of death,

Unheard. Lychorida! Lucina, O!

Divinest patroness, and midwife gentle

To those that cry by night, convey thy deity
Aboard our dancing boat; make swift the pangs
Of my queen's travails.

Enter LYCHORIDA, with an infant.

Now, Lychorida!

c. Here is a thing too young for such a place,
Who, if it had conceit, would die, as I
Am like to do. Take in your arms this piece
Of your dead queen.

er.

How, how, Lychorida!

c. Patience, good sir; do not assist the storm.
Here's all that is left living of your queen,
A little daughter: for the sake of it,
Be manly, and take comfort.

er.

O you gods!

Why do you make us love your goodly gifts,

ΙΟ

15

20

And snatch them straight away? We here below

15-18. Here

7, 8. Thou stormest venomously; Wilt] Dyce; then storme venomously, Wilt
, Ff 3, 4.. II. midwife] Malone; my wife Qq, Ff 3, 4.
queen.] Divided as by Malone; three lines, ending place, doe.
Queene. in Qq, Ff 3, 4.

12. cry] sc. in the throes of childrth.

12. deity] godhood. Compare The inter's Tale, IV. iv. 26.

16. conceit] faculty of conceiving. ompare The Winter's Tale, 1. ii. 224. 17. piece] frequently of persons, as The Winter's Tale, v. i. 94, but

here in a more literal sense as flesh
of her flesh.

19. do not. storm] do not add
to the general turmoil. In The Tem-
pest, 1. i. 15, "You do assist the
storm " has a slightly different sense,
that of interfering with the work of
the sailors.

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That e'er was prince's child. Happy what follows!
Thou hast as chiding a nativity

As fire, air, water, earth, and heaven can make,

35

To herald thee from the womb; even at the first
Thy loss is more than can thy portage quit,
With all thou canst find here. Now the good gods
Throw their best eyes upon

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26, 27. Patience, charge.] Divided as by Malone; one line in Qq, Ff upon 't!] Divided as by Steevens; the lines end heere. upon 't! in Qq, Ff 3, 4.

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3, 4. 34-37. To wombe: ... can...

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26. Vie] Mason's conjecture for Use of Qq, Ff 3, 4, adopted by most modern editors, though the Cambridge Editors retain Use. Compare IV. Prologue, 33, and see note there. 27. Even

charge] if only for the sake of the babe left to your

care.

29. conditions] generally taken as == temper, disposition, as SO frequently. The two next lines, however, seem to indicate the sense of state, manner of life.

30. welcome] altered by Malone to welcom'd, is supported by the text of Wilkins's novel, quoted by Staunton : "Poor inch of nature (quoth he) thou art as rudely welcome to the worlde as ever Princess Babe was, and hast as chiding a nativitie as fire, ayre, earth and water can affoord thee ".

31. Happy what follows !] may your after-life be happy!

Compare 1

32. chiding] noisy. Henry IV. ш. i. 45. 34-36. even here] whatever good hap may hereafter attend you in this new sphere, nothing can make up for the loss you have sustained (in the death of your mother) at the very moment of your safe arrival in the harbour of life.

35. portage] is only once again used by Shakespeare, Henry V. III. i. 10, and there it means "port-hole ". Here the word seems to be used like "harbourage" in I. iv. 100, though that scene is not Shakespeare's. In Titus Andronicus, 1. i. 73 (whoever the author), we have "she weighed her anchorage," which Schmidt explains as "the anchor and all the necessary tackle for anchoring ". To me the phrase seems rather to be a blending of " weighed her anchor" and "left her anchorage". 35. quit] requite.

Enter two Sailors.

rst Sail. What courage, sir? God save you!

r. Courage enough. I do not fear the flaw;

It hath done to me the worst. Yet for the love 40

Of this poor infant, this fresh-new sea-farer,

I would it would be quiet.

rst Sail. Slack the bolins there! Thou wilt not,

wilt thou? Blow, and split thyself.

cond Sail. But sea-room, an the brine and cloudy 45 billow kiss the moon, I care not.

rst Sail. Sir, your queen must overboard: the sea works high, the wind is loud, and will not lie till the ship be cleared of the dead.

lowd, dead. in Qq

·7-49. Sir, . . . dead.] Three lines, ending hie,. Ship. dead. in
1, 2, 3; three lines, ending ouer board,
;, 6, Ff 3, 4.

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9. flaw] Dyce (Glossary) quotes
tgrave: "A flaw (or gust) of wind:
urbillon de vent"; and Smith's Sea
ammar (1627), p. 46: "A flaw of
nd is a gust, which is very violent
on a sudden, but quickly endeth".
3. bolins] are ropes for steady-
a sail when the wind is strong,
tened to the weather side of a
1 by bridles' and passing to the
board or starboard bow. Captain
ith (Accidence for Young Seamen)
the opposite command (see Arber,
ginia, p. 798), 'hawle close your
in bowline
(Craig).
evens quotes The Two Noble
smen, IV. i. 148, 149:-
"the wind is fair:

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Top the bowling". 13, 44. Thou wilt Ostrophising the storm. 4-46. Blow

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not] Compare e Tempest, 1. i. 8: "Blow till thou rst thy wind, if room enough".

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48. works high] runs high. Craig
quotes Drayton, Polyolbion, Song
xxii.: "the high-working sea

48, 49. will not... dead] Steevens
quotes Twine's translation: "My lord,
pluck up your hearte, and be of good
cheere, and consider, I pray you, that
the ship may not abide to carry the
dead carkas, and therefore commaund
it to be cast into the sea, that we may
the better escape". Compare A Cure
for a Cuckold, by Webster and Row-
ley (p. 202, ed. Dyce) :—
"Less.

Shall I go over
In the same bark with you?
Bou.
Not for yon town
Of Calais; you know 'tis danger-

ous

At sea with a dead body."
On this superstition, which though
prevalent among sailors, is not con-
fined to them, some discussion will
be found in the pages of Notes and
Queries at various dates between 29th

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