For death-like dragons here affright thee hard:(9)
Her face, like heaven, enticeth thee to view
Her countless glory, which desert must gain;
And which, without desert, because thine eye
Presumes to reach, all thy whole heap must die.(10)
Yon sometime famous princes like thyself,
Drawn by report, adventurous by desire,

Tell thee, with speechless tongues and semblance pale,
That, without covering, save yon field of stars,
Here they stand martyrs, slain in Cupid's wars;
And with dead cheeks advise thee to desist
For going on death's net, whom none resist.

Per. Antiochus, I thank thee, who hath taught
My frail mortality to know itself,

And by those fearful objects to prepare
This body, like to them, to what I must;

For death remember'd should be like a mirror,

(9) for death-like dragons here affright thee hard:] "Certainly wrong. [Affright' should be] affront,' I think, i.e. confront." Walker's Crit. Exam., &c., vol. ii. p. 245.

(10) all thy whole heap must die.] The old eds. have "all the whole," &c.-Mr. Collier in the second edition of his Shakespeare substitutes "all thy whole head must die;" and remarks as follows; "Commentators have been sorely puzzled by the word heap, as it stands in the early impressions it is merely a misprint for 'head' by the accidental turning of the last letter in heap: the antithesis is between 'eye' and 'head,' and Antiochus immediately afterwards refers to the 'heads' of 'yond sometime famous princes. On the next page but one Pericles says, 'Then, give my tongue like leave to save my head."

1. I know not Mr. Collier's authority for asserting that the "commentators have been sorely puzzled by the word heap,"-I believe they never questioned it: the only note on the passage in the Varior. Shakespeare is the following one by Malone; "all thy whole HEAP must die,] e. thy whole mass must be destroyed. There seems to have been an opposition intended. Thy whole heap,' thy body, must suffer for the offence of a part, thine eye. The word bulk, like heap in the present passage, was used for body by Shakespeare and his contemporaries." 2. Does Mr. Collier see nothing extraordinary in a "head dying" 3. The reply of Pericles to the above speech opposes Mr. Collier's alteration;

"Antiochus, I thank thee, who hath taught
My frail mortality to know itself,
And by those fearful objects to prepare
This body, like to them, to what I must," &c.

"?

I am not sure if, in the next line, all the old editions have not "sometimes."

Who tells us life's but breath, to trust it error.
I'll make my will, then; and, as sick men do,
Who know the world, see heaven, but, feeling woe,
Gripe not at earthly joys, as erst they did;

So I bequeath a happy peace to you

And all good men, as every prince should do;
My riches to the earth from whence they came;—
But my unspotted fire of love to you.

[To the Daughter of Antiochus.

Thus ready for the way of life or death,

I wait the sharpest blow. (11)

Ant. Scorning advice,-read the conclusion, then: Which read and not expounded, 'tis decreed,

As these before thee, thou thyself shalt bleed.

Daugh. Of all say'd yet,(12) mayst thou prove prosperous !

Of all say'd yet, I wish thee happiness!

Per. Like a bold champion, I assume the lists,

Nor ask advice of any other thought

But faithfulness and courage.

"I am no viper, yet I feed

[Reads the riddle.

On mother's flesh which did me breed.
I sought a husband, in which labour

I found that kindness in a father:

He's father, son, and husband mild;
I mother, wife, and yet his child.
How they may be,(13) and yet in two,
As you will live, resolve it you."

Sharp physic is the last: but, O you powers
That give heaven countless eyes to view men's acts,
Why cloud they not their sights perpetually,

(11) I wait the sharpest blow, &c.] The quartos have
"I wayt the sharpest blow (Antiochus)
Scorning aduice: read the conclusion then:
Which read," &c.

The third folio prefixes "Ant." to the last of these lines.
(12) Of all say'd yet,] i.e. of all who have yet assayed.-(Mason would
read, both here and in the next line, "In all save that.")
(13) How they may be,] "In Wilkins' novel, 'How this may be,' which
is probably the genuine reading." STAUNTON. See Introd. to the pre-
sent play, p. 3.

If this be true, which makes me pale to read it?—
Fair glass of light, I lov'd you, and could still,

[Takes hold of the hand of the Princess.
Were not this glorious casket stor'd with ill:
But I must tell you,-now my thoughts revolt;
For he's no man on whom perfections wait
That, knowing sin within, will touch the gate.
You're a fair viol, and your sense the strings;

Who, finger'd to make man his lawful music,

Would draw heaven down, and all the gods, to hearken;
But being play'd upon before your time,

Hell only danceth at so harsh a chime.

Good sooth, I care not for you.

Ant. Prince Pericles, touch not, upon thy life,
For that's an article within our law,

As dangerous as the rest. Your time's expir'd:
Either expound now, or receive your sentence.
Per. Great king,

Few love to hear the sins they love to act;
"Twould braid yourself too near for me to tell it.
Who has a book of all that monarchs do,
He's more secure to keep it shut than shown:
For vice repeated is like the wandering wind,
Blows dust in others' eyes, to spread itself;
And yet the end of all is bought thus dear,
The breath is gone, and the sore eyes see clear
To stop the air would hurt them. The blind mole casts
Copp'd hills towards heaven, to tell the earth is throng'd
By man's oppression; and the poor worm doth die for't.
Kings are earth's gods; in vice their law's their will;
And if Jove stray, who dares say Jove doth ill?

It is enough you know; and it is fit,

What being more known grows worse, to smother it.
All love the womb that their first being bred,

Then give my tongue like leave to love my head.

Ant. [aside] Heaven, that I had thy head! he has found the meaning:

But I will gloze with him.-Young Prince of Tyre,
Though by the tenour of our strict edíct,

Your exposition misinterpreting,
We might proceed to cancel of your days;
Yet hope, succeeding from so fair a tree

As your fair self, doth tune us otherwise :
Forty days longer we do respite you;
If by which time our secret be undone,
This mercy shows we'll joy in such a son:
And until then your entertain shall be
As doth befit our honour and

your worth.

[Exeunt all except Pericles.

Per. How courtesy would seem to cover sin,
When what is done is like an hypocrite,
The which is good in nothing but in sight!
If it be true that I interpret false,

Then were it certain you were not so bad
As with foul incest to abuse your soul;
Where now you're both a father and a son
By your untimely claspings with your child,—
Which pleasure fits an husband, not a father;
And she an eater of her mother's flesh

By the defiling of her parent's bed;

And both like serpents are, who though they feed
On sweetest flowers, yet they poison breed.
Antioch, farewell! for wisdom sees, those men
Blush not in actions blacker than the night,
Will shun(14) no course to keep them from the light.
One sin, I know, another doth provoke;

Murder's as near to lust as flame to smoke:

Poison and treason are the hands of sin,

Ay, and the targets, to put off the shame:

Then, lest my life be cropp'd to keep you clear,
By flight I'll shun the danger which I fear.

Re-enter ANTIOCHUS.

[Exit.

Ant. He hath found the meaning, for the which (15) we mean

(14) shun] So Malone.-The old eds. have "shew."

(15) for the which] The old eds. omit "the" but compare, in the preceding speech," The which is good in nothing;" and afterwards, p. 15, "The thing the which is flatter'd."

To have his head.

He must not live to trumpet forth my infamy,
Nor tell the world Antiochus doth sin

In such a loathed manner;

And therefore instantly this prince must die;
For by his fall my honour must keep high.—
Who attends us there?

Thal.

Ant. Thaliard,

Enter THALIARD.

Doth your highness call?

You're of our chamber, and our mind partakes
Her private actions to your secrecy :

And for your faithfulness we will advance you.
Thaliard, behold, here's poison, and here's gold;
We hate the prince of Tyre, and thou must kill him:
It fits thee not to ask the reason why,

Because we bid it. Say, is it done?

Thal.

'Tis done.

My lord,

Ant. Enough.

Enter a Messenger.

As thou

Let your breath cool yourself, telling your haste.
Mess. My lord, Prince Pericles is fled.
Ant.
Wilt live, fly after; and, like an arrow shot (16)
From a well-experienc'd archer, hits the mark
His eye doth level at, so thou ne'er return
Unless thou say "Prince Pericles is dead."
Thal. My lord,

If I can get him within my pistol's length,

[Exit.

I'll make him sure enough: so, farewell to your highness. Ant. Thaliard, adieu! [Exit Thal.] Till Pericles be dead My heart can lend no succour to my head.

as

[Exit.

in the folio

(16) like an arrow shot] Here "like" was altered to " of 1664. But on "Like in the sense of as," see Walker's Crit. Exam., &c., vol. ii. p. 117, and his Editor's note there.