THAI. But you, my knight and guest; To whom this wreath of victory I give, And crown you king of this day's happiness. PER. 'Tis more by fortune, lady, than my merit". SIM. Call it by what you will, the day is yours; And here, I hope, is none that envies it. In framing artists, art hath thus decreed, To make some good, but others to exceed ; And you're her labour'd scholar. Come, queen o' the feast 9, (For, daughter, so you are,) here take your place : Marshal the rest, as they deserve their grace. KNIGHTS. We are honour'd much by good Simonides. SIM. Your presence glads our days; honour we love, For who hates honour, hates the gods above. MARSH. Sir, yond's your place. PER. Some other is more fit. 1 KNIGHT. Contend not, sir; for we are gen tlemen, That neither in our hearts, nor outward eyes, 6 You are my guests.] Old copy: You are princes and my guests." But as all the personages addressed were not princes, and as the measure is overburthened by the admission of these words, I have left them out. The change I have made, likewise affords a natural introduction to the succeeding speech of the Princess. STEEVENS. 7 than MY MERIT.] Thus the original quarto, 1609. The second quarto has-by merit. MALONE. 8 In framing artists,] Old copy: "In framing an artist." This judicious emendation is Mr. Malone's. STEEvens. (For, daughter, so YOU ARE,)] So, in The Winter's Tale : 66 present yourself "That which you are, mistress o' the feast." STEEVEns. That neither in our hearts, nor outward eyes, ENVY the great, nor do the low despise.] This is the reading of the quarto 1619. The first quarto reads PER. You are right courteous knights. SIM. Sit, sit, sir; sit. PER. By Jove, I wonder, that is king of thoughts, These cates resist me, she not thought upon 2. "Have neither in our hearts, nor outward eyes, "Envies the great, nor shall the low despise." MALONE. 2 By Jove, I wonder, that is king of thoughts, These cates resist me, SHE not thought upon.] All the copies read he not thought upon "-and these lines are given to Simonides. In the old plays it is observable, that declarations of affection, whether disguised or open, are generally made by both the parties; if the lady utters a tender sentiment, a corresponding sentiment is usually given to her lover.-Hence I conclude, that the author wrote 66 she not thought upon; and that these lines belong to Pericles. If he be right, I would read : 66 he now thought upon." The prince recollecting his present state, and comparing it with that of Simonides, wonders that he can eat. In Gower, where this entertainment is particularly described, it is said of Appollinus, the Pericles of the present play, that "He sette and cast about his eie "And saw the lordes in estate, "And with hym selfe were in debate Thynkende what he had lore: "And such a sorowe he toke therefore, So, in Kyng Appolyn of Thyre, 1510: "at the last he sate him down at the table, and without etynge, he behelde the noble company of lordes and grete estates.-Thus as he looked all about, a great lord that served at the kynge's table sayde unto the kynge, Certes, syr, this man wolde gladly your honour, for he dooth notete, but beholdeth hertely your noble magnifycence, and is in poynt to weep." The words resist me, however, do not well correspond with this idea. Perhaps they are corrupt. MALONE. "These cates resist me," i. e. go against my stomach. I would read, however-be not thought upon. It appears from Gower and the prose novel, as well as many of the following circumstances, that the thoughts of Pericles were not yet employed about the Princess. He is only ruminating on his past misfortunes, on his former losses. The lady had THAI. By Juno, that is queen Of marriage, all the viands that I eat found out what ailed her, long before Pericles had made a similar discovery. STEEVENS. I have no doubt but she is the right reading, that the first of these speeches belongs to Pericles, and that the words "these cates resist me," are justly explained by Steevens. The intention of the poet is to show that their mutual passion had the same effect on Thaisa and Pericles: but as we are not to suppose that his mistress was ever out of his thoughts, the sense requires that we should read "These cates resist me, she but thought upon." Meaning to say, that the slightest thoughts of her took away his appetite for every thing else, which corresponds with what she says in the subsequent speech. There are no two words more frequently mistaken for each other, in the old plays, than not and but. A mistress, when not thought upon, can have no effect with her lover. M. MasoN. If this speech belongs to Pericles, he must mean to say, that when he ceases to think of his mistress, his stomach fails him. Is there any thing unnatural in this? As displeasing sensations are known to diminish appetite, so pleasant ideas may be supposed to increase it. Pyrocles, however, the hero of Sidney's Arcadia, book i. finds himself in the contrary situation, while seated at table with his mistress, Philoclea: " my eyes drank much more eagerly of her beautie, than my mouth did of any other liquor. And so was my common sense deceived (being chiefly bent to her) that as I dranke the wine, and withall stole a look on her, mee seemed I tasted her deliciousnesse." I have not disturbed the speech in question, and yet where would be the impropriety of leaving it in the mouth of Simonides? He is desirous of Pericles for a son-in-law, as Thaisa to possess him as a husband; and if the old gentleman cannot eat for thinking of him, such weakness is but of a piece with what follows, where his Pentapolitan majesty, in a colloquy with the lovers, renders himself as ridiculous as King Arthur in Tom Thumb. Simonides and Thaisa express a sort of family impatience for the attainment of their different purposes. He wonders why his appetite fails him, unless he is thinking on Pericles; she wishes for an exchange of provision; and (as nurses say fondness to their infants) loves her prince so well that she could eat him. The grossness of the daughter can only be exceeded by the anility of the father. I cannot persuade myself that in Do seem unsavoury, wishing him my meat! SIM. He's but a country gentleman; He has done no more than other knights have done ; Broken a staff, or so; so let it pass. THAI. To me he seems like diamond to glass. PER. Yon king's to me, like to my father's picture, Which tells me in that glory once he was; Shakspeare had any hand in producing the Hurlothrumbic character of Simonides. STEEVENS. 2 Had princes SIT,] Should not this be set? Yet from the perpetual occurrence of elliptical phraseology in this play, the old copy may be right. So,in p. 90: "You shall like diamonds sit about his crown." BOSWELL. 3 Where now his son's a glow-worm in the night,] The old copies read-" Where now his son," &c. But this is scarcely intelligible. The slight change that has been made affords an easy sense. Where is, I suppose, here, as in many other places, used for whereas. The peculiar property of the glow-worm, on which the poet has here employed a line, he has in Hamlet happily described by a single word : "The glow-worm shows the matin to be near, 4 For he's their parent, and he is their grave,] So, in Romeo and Juliet: "The earth, that's nature's mother, is her tomb; Milton has the same thought: "The womb of nature, and perhaps her grave." SIM. What, are you merry, knights? 1 KNIGHT. Who can be other, in this royal pre sence ? SIM. Here, with a cup that's stor❜d unto the brim 7, (As you do love, fill to your mistress' lips ",) We drink this health to you. KNIGHTS. SIM. Yet pause a while; We thank your grace. Yon knight, methinks, doth sit too melancholy, Had not a show might countervail his worth. THAI. To me, my father? What is it SIM. In the text the second quarto has been followed. reads: The first "He's both their parent and he is their grave." MALONE. 7 - that's STOR'D unto the brim,] The quarto 1609 reads -that's stur'd unto the brim. MALONE. If stirr'd be the true reading, it must mean, as Milton expresses it, that the liquor 66 dances in its chrystal bounds." But I rather think we should read-stor'd, i. e. replenished. So before in this play: "Their tables were stor'd full." Again: "Were not this glorious casket stor'd with ill." these our ships "Are stor'd with corn-.' STEEVENS. $ (As you do love, fill to your mistress' lips,)] i. e. let the quantity of wine you swallow, be proportioned to the love you bear your mistress: in plainer English-" If you love kissing, drink a bumper." The construction is-As you love your mistresses' lips, so fill to them. STEEVENS. Read-" fill to your mistresses." FARMER. |