And now at length they overflow their banks. HEL. Your griefs, for what? wrong not the prince you love. 1 LORD. Wrong not yourself then, noble Heli cane; But if the prince do live, let us salute him, Or know what ground's made happy by his breath. Or dead, gives cause to mourn his funeral, 8 2 LORD. Whose death's, indeed, the strongest in our censure 9: And knowing this kingdom, if without a head1, (Like goodly buildings left without a roof,) Will soon to ruin fall, your noble self, 7 And be RESOLV'D, he lives to govern us,] Resolv'd is satisfied, free from doubt. So, in a subsequent scene: "Resolve your angry father, if my tongue," &c. MALone. 8 And LEAVES US-) The quarto, 1609, reads-And leave us, which cannot be right. MALONE. 9 Whose death's, indeed, THE STRONGEST IN OUR CENSURE:] i. e. the most probable in our opinion. Censure is thus used in King Richard ÌII.: "To give your censures in this weighty business." STeevens. The old copies read-whose death indeed, &c. MALONE. 'And knowing this kingdom, IF without a head,] They did not know that the kingdom had absolutely lost its governor; for in the very preceding line this Lord observes that it was only more probable that he was dead, than living. I therefore read, with a very slight change, if without a head. The old copy, for if, has-is. In the next line but one, by supplying the word will, which I suppose was omitted by the carelessness of the compositor, the sense and metre are both restored. The passage, as it stands in the old copy, is not, by any mode of construction, reducible to grammar. MALONE, 2 (Like goodly buildings LEFT without a roof,)] The same thought occurs in King Henry IV. Part II. : 66 66 leaves his part-created cost A naked subject to the weeping clouds, "And waste for churlish winter's tyranny." STEEvens. That best know'st how to rule, and how to reign, We thus submit unto,-our sovereign. ALL. Live, noble Helicane! HEL. Try honour's cause; forbear your suffrages: If that you love prince Pericles, forbear. Take I your wish, I leap into the seat, Where's hourly trouble, for a minute's ease *. I shall with aged patience bear your yoke. 3 Try honour's CAUSE ;] Perhaps we should read: 4 Take I your wish, I leap into the SEAS, It must be acknowledged that a line in Hamlet,"Or to take arms against a sea of troubles," As well as the rhyme, adds some support to this reading: yet I have no doubt that the poet wrote: 66 I leap into the seat So, in Macbeth : 66 I have no spur "To prick the sides of my intent, but only "Vaulting ambition, which o'er-leaps itself," &c. On ship-board the pain and pleasure may be in the proportion here stated; but the troubles of him who plunges into the sea, (unless he happens to be an expert swimmer) are seldom of an hour's duration. MALONE. "Where's hourly trouble, for a minute's ease." So, in King Richard III. : "And each hour's joy wreck'd with a week of teen," MALONE. The expression is figurative, and by the words-"I leap into the seas," &c. I believe the speaker only means-' I embark too hastily on an expedition in which ease is disproportioned to labour." 5 To forbear, &c.] Old copy: STEEVENS. "To forbear the absence of your king." Some word being omitted in this line, I read : "To forbear choice i' the absence of your king." STEEVENS. But if I cannot win you to this love, Go search like noblemen, like noble subjects, You shall like diamonds sit about his crown. 1 LORD. To wisdom he's a fool that will not yield; And, since lord Helicane enjoineth us, We with our travels will endeavour it 7. HEL. Then you love us, we you, and we'll clasp hands: When peers thus knit, a kingdom ever stands. [Exeunt. SCENE V. Pentapolis. A Room in the Palace. Enter SIMONIDES, reading a Letter, the Knights meet him. 6 1 KNIGHT. Good morrow to the good Simonides. and win unto RETURN, You shall like diamonds sit about his crown.] As these are the concluding lines of a speech, perhaps they were meant to rhyme. We might therefore read: 66 and win unto renown." i. e. if you prevail on him to quit his present obscure retreat, and be reconciled to glory, you shall be acknowledged as the brightest ornaments of his throne. STEEVENS. 7 We with our travels will endeavour IT.] Old copy: 66 We with our travels will endeavour." Endeavour what? I suppose, to find out Pericles. I have therefore added the syllable which appeared wanting both to metre and sense. STEEVENS. The author might have intended an abrupt sentence. MALONE. I would readily concur with the opinion of Mr. Malone, had passion, instead of calm resolution, dictated the words of the speaker. STEEVENS. & Enter SIMONIDES, reading a Letter,] In The Historie of SIM. Knights, from my daughter this I let you know, That for this twelvemonth, she'll not undertake Her reason to herself is only known, Which from herself by no means can I get. 2 KNIGHT. May we not get access to her, my lord? SIM. 'Faith, by no means; she hath so strictly tied her To her chamber, that it is impossible. One twelve moons more she'll wear Diana's livery; This by the eye of Cynthia hath she vow'd, And on her virgin honour will not break it. 3 KNIGHT. Though loath to bid farewell, we take our leaves. SIM. SO [Exeunt. They're well despatch'd; now to my daughter's letter: She tells me here, she'll wed the stranger knight, Or never more to view nor day nor light. Mistress, 'tis well, your choice agrees with mine; I like that well:-nay, how absolute she's in't, Not minding whether I dislike or no! King Appolyn of Thyre, "two kynges sones" pay their court to the daughter of Archystrates, (the Simonides of the present play). He sends two rolls of paper to her, containing their names, &c. and desires her to choose which she will marry. She writes him a letter (in answer), of which Appolyn is the bearer,—that she I will have the man "which hath passed the daungerous undes and perylles of the sea-all other to refuse." The same circumstance is mentioned by Gower, who has introduced three suitors instead of two, in which our author has followed him. MALONE. In Twine's translation, these suitors are also three in number,— Ardonius, Munditius, and Carnillus. STEEVENS. 9 This by the eye of Cynthia hath she vow'd,] It were to be wished that Simonides (who is represented as a blameless character) had hit on some more ingenuous expedient for the dismission of these wooers. Here he tells them as a solemn truth, what he knows to be a fiction of his own. STEEVENS. Well, I commend her choice; And will no longer have it be delay'd. PER. All fortune to the good Simonides! With such delightful pleasing harmony. PER. It is your grace's pleasure to commend; Not my desert. SIM. Sir, you are musick's master. PER. The worst of all her scholars, my good lord. SIM. Let me ask one thing. What do you think, sir, of My daughter? As of a most virtuous princess. I am beholden to you, For your sweet musick this last night:] Here also our author has followed Gower: "She, to doone hir faders hest, "Hir harpe set, and in the feste 66 Upon a chaire, whiche thei sette, "Hir selfe next to this man she sette. "To make him chere; and ever he sigheth, Madame, certes well, he saied; "But if ye the measure plaied, 66 66 Whiche, if you list, I shall you lere, It were a glad thing for to here. "Nowe take the harpe, and lete me see "He taketh the harpe, and in his wise "He tempreth, and of such assize Synginge he harpeth forth withall, "That as a voice celestial "Hem thought it sowned in her ere, "As though that it an angell were." MALONE. |