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It hath been fung, at feftivals,

On ember-eves, and holy ales3;

And

An obfcure poet, however, in 1652, infinuates that this drama was ill-received, or at least that it added nothing to the reputation of its author:

"But Shakspeare, the plebeian driller, was

Founder'd in his Pericles, and must not pafs."

Verfes by J. Tateham, prefixed to Richard Brome's Jovial Crew, or the Merry Beggars, 4to. 1652.

The paffages above quoted fhew that little credit is to be given to the affertion contained in these lines; yet they furnish us with an additional proof that Pericles, at no very diftant period after Shakspeare's death, was confidered as unquestionably his performance.

See the notes at the end of the play. MALONE.

The Hiftory of Apollonius King of Tyre was fuppofed by Mark Welfer, when he printed it in 1595, to have been tranflated from the Greek a thoufand years before. [Fabr. Bib. Gr. v. 6. p. 821.] It certainly bears strong marks of a Greek original, though it is not (that I know) now extant in that language, The rythmical poem, under the fame title, in modern Greek, was re-tranflated (if I may fo fpeak) from the Latin-απο Λαλινικής εις Ρωμαϊκην γλώσσαν. Du Frefne, Index Author. ad Gloff, Græc. When Welfer printed it, he probably did not know that it had been published already (perhaps more than once) among the Gefta Romanorum. In an edition, which I have, printed at Rouen in 1521, it makes the 154th chapter. Towards the latter end of the XIIth century, Godfrey of Viterbo, in his Pantheon or Univerfal Chronicle, inferted this romance as part of the hiftory of the third Antiochus, about 200 years before Chrift. It begins thus [Mf, Reg. 14, C. xi.]; Filia Seleuci regis ftat clara decore

Matreque defunctâ pater arfit in ejus amore,

Res habet effectum, preffa puella dolet.

The rest is in the fame metre, with one pentameter only to two hexameters.

Gower, by his own acknowlegement, took his ftory from the Pantheon; as the author (whoever he was) of Pericles, Prince of Tyre, profeffes to have followed Gower. TYRWHITT.

2

that old was fung,] I do not know that old is by any author ufed adverbially. We might read,

To fing a fong of old was fung,

i. e. that of old, &c.

But the poet is fo licentious in the language which he has attributed to Gower in this piece, that I have made no change.

B 3

MALONE.

3 It

And lords and ladies, of their lives *
Have read it for reftoratives.

The purpose is to make men glorious*,
Et bonum, quo antiquius, eo melius.
If you, born in thefe latter times,
When wit's more ripe, accept my rhimes,
And that to hear an old man fing,
May to your wishes pleasure bring,
I life would wifh, 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 fay

3 It hath been fung at feftivals,
On Ember eves, and holidays;]

For the fake of rhime, I fuppofe we should read,
and holy ales;

i. e. church-ales. FARMER.

This emendation appears fo probable, that I have inferted it in the text. Gower's fpeeches were certainly intended to rhime throughout. MALONE.

* in their lives,] Thus all the copies. The emendation now made was suggested by the rev. Dr. Farmer. MALONE.

4 The purchase is

-] Thus all the copies. I fuppofe we

ought to read-purpose. STEEVENS.
The purpose is to make men glorious,
Et bonum quo antiquius eo melius.]

There is an irregularity of metre in this couplet. riation is obfervable in the lyrical parts of Macbeth, Summer Night's Dream:

"I am for the air; this night I'll fpend
"Unto a difmal and a fatal end."

So in the Midfummer Night's Dream:

5

"Pretty foul, fhe durft not lie

"Near to this lack-love, this kill-courtefy."

The fame vaand the Mid

Macbeth.

MALONE.

(I tell you what mine authors fay :[ This is added in imi tation of Gower's manner, and that of Chaucer, Lydgate, &c. who often thus refer to the original of their tales.These chorufes resemble Gower in few other particulars. STEEVENS.

This king unto him took a pheere 6,
Who died and left a female heir,
So buxom, blithe, and full of face",
As Heaven had lent her all his grace:
With whom the father liking took,
And her to incest did provoke ;

Bad child, worfe father! to entice his own
To evil, should be done by none.
By cuftom, what they did begin3,
Was with long ufe, account no fin'.
The beauty of this finful dame,
Made many princes thither frame,
To feek her as a bed-fellow,
In marriage-pleasures play-fellow :

-unto him took a peer,] Thus the quarto of 1609, and all the subsequent copies. I have no doubt that the author wrote pheere, a word frequently used by our ancient poets, fignifying a mate, or companion. Throughout this piece, the poet, though he has not closely copied the language of Gower's poem, has endeavoured to give his fpeeches fomewhat of an antique air.

MALONE. 7 full of face,] i. e. completely, exuberantly beautiful. A full fortune, in Othello, means a complete, a large one. Again, in the Two Noble Kinfmen, 1634:

66

But have you

"A full promise of her ?"

Again, in Antony and Cleopatra:

"One that but performs

"The bidding of the fulleft man, and worthiest
"To have command obey'd." STEEVENS.

By cuftom what they did begin,] All the copies read unintel

ligibly, But custom, &c.

MALONE.

- account no fin.] Account for accounted. So in K.

Jobn. Waft for Wafted:

"Than now the English bottoms have waft o'er.

Again, in Gafcoine's Complaint of Philomene, 1575; "And by the lawde of his pretence

"His lewdness was acquit.'

Again, in Macbeth:

"And this report

STEEVENS.

Hath fo exasperate the king.".

MALONE.

[blocks in formation]

Which to prevent, he made a law,
(To keep her ftill', and men in awe,)
That whofo afk'd her for his wife,
His riddle told not, loft his life :
So for her many a wight did die,
As yon grim looks do teftify".

What enfues, to the judgment of your eye
I give, my cause who best can justify 3.

[Exit.

To keep her fill, and men in are,] The meaning, I think, is, not-to keep her and men in awe-but, to keep her fill to himselfand to deter others from demanding her in marriage. MALONE.

2 As yon grim looks do teftify.] Gower must be fuppofed here to point to the heads of thefe unfortunate wights, which, he tells us, in his poem, were fixed on the gate of the palace at Antioch; "The fader whan he understood

3

"That thei his doughter thus befought,
With all his wit he caft and fought
"Howe that he mighte fynde a lette,
"And such a statute then he fette,
And in this wife his lawe taxeth,
"That what man his doughter axeth,
"But if he couth his question

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Affoyle upon suggestion,

"Of certeyn thinges that befell,
"The which he wolde unto him tell,
He fhulde in certeyn lefe his hede.
And thus there were many dede,
"Her heades fondinge on the gate,
"Till at last, long and late,
"For lack of anfwere in this wife

The remnante, that wexen wyse,
"Efchewden to make affaie."

MALONE.

my caufe who beft can juftify.] The two folios, and the modern editions read-" who beft can teftify."-The reading of the text is that of the earliest quarto. MALONE.

auho best can justify.] i. e. which (the judgment of your eye) best can juftify, i. e. prove its refemblance to the ordinary courfe of nature. So afterwards:

When thou shalt kneel, and justify in knowledge

STEEVENS.

SCENE

SCENE I.

The Palace of Antioch.

Enter Antiochus, Pericles, and Attendants.

Ant. Young prince of Tyre, you have at large receiv'd

The danger of the task you undertake.
Per. I have, Antiochus, and with a foul
Embolden'd with the glory of her praife,

Think death no hazard, in this enterprize. [Mufick.
Ant. Bring in our daughter, clothed like a bride',
For the embracements, even of Jove himself;
At whofe conception, (till Lucina reign'd)
Nature this dowry gave, to glad her prefence ";

The

Young prince of Tyre,] It does not appear in the prefent drama that the father of Pericles is living. By prince, therefore, throughout this play, we are to understand prince regnant. See act ii. fc. iv. and the epitaph in act iii. fc. iii. In the Gefta Romanorum, Apollonius is king of Tyre; and Appolyn, in Copland's tranflation from the French, has the fame title. Our author, in calling Pericles a prince, feems to have followed Gower. MALONE.

5

Bring in our daughter clothed like a bride,] All the copies read,
Mufick, bring in our daughter clothed like a bride.

The metre proves decifively that the word mufick was a marginal direction, inferted in the text by the mistake of the transcriber or printer. MALONE.

For the embracements, even of Jove himself;

At whofe conception, till Lucina reign'd,

Nature this dowry gave to glad her prefence, &c.]

Perhaps the two laft lines fhould be tranfpofed; whofe conception, otherwife, will be the conception of the antecedent, Jove, and the dowry will have been bestowed to glad the antecedent Lucina. The fenfe of the fpeech, however managed, will not be very clear without a flight alteration, her instead of whose.

"Bring in our daughter, clothed like a bride
"For the embracements even of Jove himself.
"Nature this dowry gave to glad her prefence-
At her conception, till Lucina reign'd,

"The

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