5 And lords and ladies of their lives' Have read it for restoratives: The purpose is to make men glorious"; of their lives-] The old copies read-in their lives. The emendation was suggested by Dr. Farmer. MALONE. I cannot think it necessary. Lords and ladies, who lived long ago, whilst they lived, read it with delight.' Boswell. 6 'PURPOSE to make glorious; &c.] Old copy: "The purchase is to make men glorious; "&c. STEEVENS. There is an irregularity of metre in this couplet. The same variation is observable in Macbeth: "I am for the air; this night I'll spend "Unto a dismal and a fatal end." The old copies read-The purchase, &c. Mr. Steevens suggested this emendation of purpose for purchase. MALONE. Being now convinced that all the irregular lines detected in The Midsummer-Night's Dream, Macbeth, and Pericles have been prolonged by interpolations which afford no additional beauties, I am become more confident in my attempt to mend the passage before us. Throughout this play it should seem to be a very frequent practice of the reciter, or transcriber, to supply words which, for some foolish reason or other, were supposed to be wanting. Unskilled in the language of poetry, and more especially in that which was clouded by an affectation of antiquity, these ignorant people regarded many contractions and ellipses, as indications of somewhat accidentally omitted; and while they inserted only monosyllables or unimportant words in imaginary vacancies, they conceived themselves to be doing little mischief. Liberties of this kind must have been taken with the piece under consideration. The measure of it is too regular and harmonious in many places, for us to think it was utterly neglected in the As this play will never be received as the entire composition of Shakspeare, and as violent disorders require medicines of proportionable violence, I have been by no means scrupulous in striving to reduce the metre to that exactness which I suppose it originally to have possessed. Of the same license I should not have availed myself, had I been employed on any of the undisputed dramas of our author. Those experiments which we are forbidden to perform on living subjects, may properly be attempted on dead ones, among which our Pericles may be reckoned; being dead, in its present form, to all purposes of the stage, and of no very promising life in the closet. rest. "The purpose is to make men glorious, "Et bonum quo antiquius eo melius." The original saying isBonum quo communius, eo melius. If you, born in these latter times, As I suppose these lines, with their context, to have originally stood as follows, I have so given them : "And lords and ladies, of their lives This innovation may seem to introduce obscurity; but in huddling words on each other, without their necessary articles and prepositions, the chief skill of our present imitator of antiquated rhyme appears to have consisted. Again, old copy: "This Antioch then, Antiochus the great "Built up; this city, for his chiefest seat." I suppose the original lines were these, and as such have printed them: "This city then, Antioch the great "Built up for his chiefest seat." Another redundant line offers itself in the same chorus: "Bad child, worse father! to entice his own—.” which I also give as I conceive it to have originally stood, thus: "Bad father! to entice his own." The words omitted are of little consequence, and the artificial comparison between the guilt of the parent and the child, has no resemblance to the simplicity of Gower's narratives. The lady's frailty is sufficiently stigmatized in the ensuing lines. See my further sentiments concerning the irregularities of Shakspeare's metre, in a note on The Tempest, vol. xv. p. 84, n.9; and again in vol. xi. p. 182, n. 1. STEEVENS. See them opposed in the Essay on Shakspeare's Versification, vol. ii. BosWELL. 7 - for his CHIEFEST SEAT;] So, in Twine's translation :"The most famous and mighty King Antiochus, which builded the goodlie city of Antiochia in Syria, and called it after his owne name, as the chiefest seat of all his dominions." STEEVENS. The fairest in all Syria; (I tell you what mine authors say ":) Bad child, worse father! to entice his own By custom, what they did begin2, Was, with long use, account no sin3. (I tell you what mine authors say :)] This is added in imitation of Gower's manner, and that of Chaucer, Lydgate, &c. who often thus refer to the original of these tales.-These choruses resemble Gower in few other particulars. STEEVENS. 9 unto him took a PHEERE,] This word, which is frequently used by our old poets, signifies a mate or companion. The old copies have peer. For the emendation I am answerable. Throughout this piece, the poet, though he has not closely copied the language of Gower's poem, has endeavoured to give his speeches somewhat of an antique air. MALONE. -FULL of face,] i. e. completely, exuberantly beautiful. A full fortune, in Othello, means a complete, a large one. MALONE. 2 By custom, what they did begin,] All the copies read, unintelligibly-But custom, &c. MALONE. John, waft for wafted: Account for accounted. So, in King "Than now the English bottoms have waft o'er." STEEVENS. Again, in Gascoigne's Complaint of Philomene, 1575: "And by the lawde of his pretence "His lewdness was acquit." The old copies read account'd. For the correction I am answerable. MALONE. 11 thither FRAME,] i. e. shape or direct their course thither. MALONE. To seek her as a bed-fellow, In marriage pleasures play-fellow : 5 (To keep her still, and men in awe,)] The meaning, I think, is not to keep her and men in awe,' but 'to keep her still to himself, and to deter others from demanding her in marriage.' MALONE. Mr. Malone has properly interpreted this passage. So, in Twine's translation: ". which false resemblance of hateful marriage, to the intent that he might alwaies enjoy, he invented, &c. to drive away all suitors that should resort unto her, by propounding," &c. STEEVENS. many a wight-] The quarto 1609 reads-many of wight. Corrected in the folio. MALONE. Perhaps the correction is erroneous, and we should read, nearer to the traces of the old copy "So for her many of might did die-." i. e. many men of might. Thus, afterwards : "Yon sometime famous princes," &c. The w in the quarto 1609, might be only an m reversed. STEEVENS. 7 As yon grim looks do testify.] Gower must be supposed here to point to the heads of those unfortunate wights, which, he tells us, in his poem, were fixed on the gate of the palace at Antioch : "The fader, whan he understood "That thei his doughter thus besought, "Of certeyn thinges that befell, "And thus there were many dede, What now ensues, to the judgment of your eye I give, my cause who best can justify". [Exit. Enter ANTIOCHUS, PERICLES, and Attendants. ANT. Young prince of Tyre', you have at large receiv'd "Her heades stonding on the gate; "For lack of answere in this wise "The remenant, that wexen wyse, MALONE. "As yon grim looks do testify." This is an indication to me of the use of scenery in our ancient theatres. I suppose the audience were here entertained with a view of a kind of Temple Bar at Antioch. STEEVENS. 8 What Now ensues.] The folio-What ensues. The original copy has-What now ensues. MALONE. 9 my cause who best can justify.] i. e. which (the judgment of your eye) best can justify, i. e. prove its resemblance to the ordinary course of nature. So, afterwards: "When thou shalt kneel, and justify in knowledge-." But as no other of the four next chorusses concludes with a heroick couplet, unless through interpolation, I suspect that the two lines before us originally stood thus: "What now ensues, "I give to the judgment of your eye, 66 My cause who best can justify." In another of Gower's monologues there is an avowed hemis tich: "And yet he rides it out. Now please you wit 66 The epitaph is for Marina writ By wicked Dionyza." See Act IV. Sc. IV. STEEVens. 1 Young PRINCE of Tyre,] It does not appear in the present drama, that the father of Pericles is living. By prince, therefore, throughout this play, we are to understand prince regnant. See |