The fenate-house of planets all did fit, Enter the daughter of Antiochus. Per. See where she comes, apparel'd like the spring, Her face, the book of praises, where is read "The fenate-house of planets all did fit Sorrow, Bring forth, (fays Antiochus) our daughter, &c. Nature beftowed this advantage to make her prefence welcome.-From her conception, to the inftant of her birth, the fenate-house of planets were fitting in confultation how best she might be adorned. The thought is expreffed as follows in Kyng Appolyn of Thyre, For nature had put nothynge in oblyvyon at the 1510. fourminge of her, but as a chef operacyon had fet her in the fyght of the worlde." 66 In the fucceeding fpeech of Pericles, perhaps another tranfpofition is neceffary. We might therefore read: See where the comes, apparel'd like the king, Graces her fubjects, and her thoughts the fpring Of every virtue, &c. Antiochus had commanded that his daughter should be cloathed in a manner fuitable to the bride of Jove; and thus drest in royal robes, she may be faid to be apparelled like the king. STEEVENS, In the fpeech now before us, the words whofe and her may refer to the daughter of Antiochus, without greater licence than is taken by Shakspeare in many of his plays. MALONE, 7 The fenate-boxfe of planets all did fit To knit in her their beft perfections.] We have here a fentiment expreffed with lefs affectation in J lius Cæfar: the elements "So mix'd in him, that nature might stand up Her face the book of praifes, where is read STEEVENS. In what fenfe a lady's face can be styled a book of praises (un lefs by a very forced conftruction it be understood to mean an ag gregate Sorrow were ever ras'd, and tefty wrath Ye gods that made me man, and fway in love, Per. That would be fon to great Antiochus. With gregate of what is praife-worthy) I profefs my inability to underftand. I fufpect indeed, from what follows, that our author (with fufficient pedantry) wrote, "Her face a book of phrafes comparing the lady to fuch books as Udall's Flowers of Speaking; England's Parnaffus, or the choiceft Flowers of our modern Poets; Belvidere, or the Garden of the Mufes, &c. works which confift only of felected phrases, and beautiful paffages, from writers of the age of Shakspeare, STEEVENS. Her face, the book of praifes, where is read I am fatisfied with Mr. Steevens's first interpretation of this paffage. The fame thought occurs in Romeo and Juliet: "Read o'er the volume of young Paris face, "And find delight writ there with beauty's pen." MALONE. • Sorrow were ever ras'd,- The fecond quarto, and all the fubfequent copies, read rackt. The first quarto racte-which is only the old fpelling for ras'd. The metaphor in the preceding line-" Her face the book of praises"-fhews clearly that this was the author's word. MALONE. 1 That have inflam'd defire in my breaft,] It should be remembered that defire was fometimes pronounced as a trifyllable.-The later editors, not attending to this, read-" within my breast." MALONE. 2 To compafs fuch a boundless happiness.] All the old copies have bondlefs. The reading of the text was furnished by Mr. Rowe. MALONE. 3 Before thee ftands this fair Hefperides,] In the enumeration of the perfons, prefixed to this drama, which was first made by the editor of Shakspeare's plays in 1664, and copied without alteration by Mr. Rowe, the daughter of Antiochus is, by a ridi culous With golden fruit, but dangerous to be touch'd; Tell thee with fpeechlefs tongues, and femblance pale, culous mistake, called Hefperides, an error to which this line feems to have given rife.-Shakspeare was not quite accurate in his idea of the Hefperides, but he certainly never intended to give this appellation to the princefs of Antioch; for it appears from Love's Labour Loft, act iv. fcene the laft, that he thought Hefperides was the name of the garden in which the golden apples were kept; in which fenfe the word is clearly used in the paffage now before us: "For valour is not love a Hercules, "Still climbing trees in the Hefperides ?" In the first quarto edition of this play, this lady is only called Antiochus' daughter. If Shakspeare had wifhed to have introduced a female name derived from the Hefperides, he has elsewhere fhewn that he knew how fuch a name ought to be formed; for in As You Like It, mention is made of " Hefperia, the princess gentlewoman." MALONE. • Her countless glory,] The countless glory of a face, feems a harth expreflion-but the poet, probably, was thinking of the ftars, the countless eyes of heaven, as he calls them in page 15. MALONE. 5 all thy whole heap muft die.] i. e. thy whole mafs must be destroyed. There feems to have been an oppofition intended. Thy whole heap, thy body, must fuffer for the offence of a part, thine eye. The word bulk, like heap in the present paffage, is apparently used for body, in Heywood's Rape of Lucrece, 1615: "Had I thy heart to tread upon the bulk "Of my dead father?" And again, in The Love of King David and fair Bethfabe, 1599: And in this ditch amidft this dark fome word "Bury his bulk beneath a heap of stones." Again, in K. Richard III. "But fmother'd it within my fleeting bulk." MALONE. Yen fometime famous princes,] See before, p. 8, note 2. MALONE. That, That, without covering, fave yon field of stars, And by thofe fearful objects to prepare This body, like to them, to what I muft: And all good men, as every prince should do; [To the daughter of Antiochus. Thus ready for the way of life or death, I wait the fharpest blow. 7 From going on death's net,] The old copies read, I think corruptly, for going, &c. MALONE. like to them, to what I muft:] That is,-to prepare MALONE. this body for that state to which I must come. 9 to truft it error.] The modern editions read, unintelligibly, -to truft in error- MALONE. Who know the world, fee heaven, but feeling woe,] I strongly fufpect this line to be corrupt. Perhaps the author wrote Who know the world's a heaven, but feeling woe, &c. i. e. who captivated by the pleasures of the world, looked no farther, making this earth, their heaven;-but at length feeling, &c. So in the Comedy of Errors: 66 My food, my fortune, and my fweet hope's aim, My fole earth's heaven” The meaning, however, may be-I will act as fick men do; who having had experience of the pleasures of the world, and only a vifionary and diftant profpect of heaven, have neglected the latter for the former; but at length feeling themselves decaying, grafp no longer at temporal pleasures, but prepare calmly for futurity. As this meaning may with fome difficulty be extracted from the text, as it is exhibited in all the ancient copies, I have made no change. MALONE. Ant. Ant. Scorning advice.-Read the conclufion then *; Of all faid yet, I wish thee happiness 3 ! But faithfulness, and courage. The Riddle 4. I am no viper, yet I feed On mother's flesh which did me breed: -Read the conclufion then ;] This and the two following lines are given in the firft quarto to Pericles;-and the word Antiochus, which is now placed in the margin, makes part of his fpeech. There can be no doubt that they belong to Antiochus. MALONE. Daugh. Of all faid yet, may'ft thou prove profperous! As this lady utters fo little, it is natural to wish that little were more easy to be understood. Perhaps we ought to read in both lines-For all faid yet On account of all thou haft hitherto faid (fays fhe) I wish thee profperity and happinefs. Her confcience muft fupprefs a farther wish in his behalf; for it fhould be remembered that Pericles could fucceed only by his juft interpretation of a riddle which tended to reveal her incestuous commerce with her father.-Her wish indeed, with poetical juftice, is accomplished. He is prof perous in atchieving a more worthy bride, and is difmifled to hap pinefs at the conclufion of the play. STEEVENS. The riddle is thus defcribed in Gower: Queftio regis Antiochis -Scelere vehor, maternâ carne vefcor, quero patrem meum, matris mea virum, uxoris meæ filium. With felonie I am upbore “I ete, and have it not forlore, "Hereof I am inquifitife. "And who that can my tale fave "All quite he fhall my doughter have. "Of his anfwere and if he faile, "He shall be dead withouten faile." MALONE. I fought |