Drawn by report, advent'rous by defire, pale, That, without covering, save yon field of stars, For going on death's net, whom none refift. 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:9 For death remember'd, should be like a mirror, Who tells us, life's but breath; to truft it, error. I'll make my will then; and as fick men do, Who know the world, fee heaven, but feeling woe, 6 I without covering, fave yon field of stars,] Thus, Lu can, Lib. VII: - cœlo tegitur qui non habet turnam." STEEVENS. 1 And with deud cheeks advise thee to desist,] Thus, in Romeo and Juliet : 66 think upon these gone; * For going on death's net,] Thus the old copies, and rightly. Mr. Malone would read-From going &c. but for going mean's the fame as for fear of going. So, in The Two Gentlemen of Verona, Lucetta fays of the fragments of a letter: "Yet here they shall not lie for catching cold." i. e. for fear of it. See Vol. IV. p. 195, n. 4. 'It were easy to fubjoin a croud of instances in fupport of this original reading. STEEVENS. I would read-in death's net. PERCY. و like to them, to what I must:] That is, -to prepare this body for that state to which I must come. MALONE. Who know the world, foe heaven, but feeling woe, &c.] The meaning 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 prospect of heaven, have neglected the latter for the Gripe not at earthly joys, as erst they did; But my unspotted fire of love to you. [To the Daughter of ANTIOCHUS. Thus ready for the way of life or death, Scorning advice. ANT. Read the conclufion then ;* Which read and not expounded, 'tis decreed, former; but at length feeling themselves decaying, grasp no longer at temporal pleasures, but prepare calmly for futurity. MALONE. Malone has justly explained the meaning of this passage, but he has not shown how the words, as they stand, will bear that meaning: Some amendment appears to me to be absolutely neceffary, and that which I should propose is to read Who now in the world fee heaven, &c. That is, who at one time of their lives find heaven in the pleafures of the world, but after having tafted of misfortune, begin to be weaned from the joys of it. Were we to make a further alteration, and read-Seek heaven, instead of fee heaven, the expression would be stronger; but that is not neceffary. M. MASON. 2 Read the conclusion then ;] This and the two following lines are given in the first quarto to Pericles; and the word Antiochus, which is now placed in the margin, makes part of his speech. There can be no doubt that they belong to Antiochus. MALONE. These lines in the old copies stand as follows : Unbroken measure, as well as the spirit of this passage, perhaps decide in favour of its present arrangement. STEEVENS. Sharp phyfick is the last : but O you powers! [Takes hold of the hand of the Princess. Were not this glorious casket stor'd with ill: hearken; But, being play'd upon before your time, * Sharp phyfick is the last:] i. e. the intimation in the last line of the riddle that his life depends on refolving it; which he properly enough calls Sharp physick, or a bitter potion. PERCY. That give heaven countless eyes to view men's acts,] So, in A Midsummer Night's Dream: who more engilds the night, " Than all yon fiery oes and eyes of light." MALONE. countless eyes Why cloud they not - So, in Macbeth: 166 -stars, hide your fires, "Let not light fee," &c. STEEVENS. 2 For he's no man on whom perfections wait,] Means no more than-he's no honeft man, that knowing, &c. MALONE. 3 - to make man-] i. e. to produce for man, &c. But &c.. MALONE. Hell only danceth at so harsh a chime:] Somewhat like this occurs in Milton's Ode at a Solemn Musick: - difproportion'd fin "Jarr'd againft nature's chime, and with harsh din Broke the fair musick-." STEEVENS. : ANT. Prince Pericles, touch not, upon thy life,5 For that's an article within our law, PER. Great king, 5 Prince Pericles, touch not, upon thy life,] This is a stroke of nature. The incestuous king cannot bear to fee a rival touch the hand of the woman he loves. His jealousy resembles that of Antony: "to let him be familiar with My play-fellow, your hand; this kingly seal, " And plighter of high hearts." STEEVENS. Malefort, in Maffinger's Unnatural Combat, expresses the like impatient jealoufy, when Beaufort touches his daughter Theocrine, to whom he was betrothed. M. MASON. • For vice repeated, is like the wand'ring wind, Blows dust in others' eyes, to spread itself ;] That is, which blows duft, &c. The man who knows of the ill practices of princes, is unwise if he reveals what he knows; for the publisher of vicious actions resembles the wind, which, while it passes along, blows dust into men's eyes. When the blast is over, the eye that has been affected by the dust, suffers no farther pain, but can fee as clearly as before; fo by the relation of criminal acts, the eyes of mankind (though they are affected, and turn away with horror,) are opened, and fee clearly what before was not even suspected: but by expofing the crimes of others, the relater suffers himself; as the breeze paffes away, so the breath of the informer is gone;" he dies for his temerity. Yet, to stop the course or ventilation of the air, would hurt the eyes; and to prevent informers from divulging the crimes of men would be prejudicial to mankind. Such, I think, is the meaning of this obfcure passage. MALONE The breath is gone, and the fore eyes fee clear : cafts Copp'd hills & towards heaven, to tell, the earth is wrong'd By man's oppreffion; and the poor worm doth die for't.1 The breath is gone, and the fore eyes fee clear: To Stop the air would hurt them.] Malone has mistaken the meaning of this part of the speech of Pericles: -There should be no ftop after the word clear, that line being neceffarily connected with the following words; and the meaning is this: "The breath is gone, and the eyes, though fore, see clear enough to stop for the future the air that would annoy them." Malone supposes the fentence to end with the first of these lines, and makes the other a general political aphorifm, not perceiving that, " to stop the air would hurt them;" means only to "stop the air that would hurt them;" the pronoun being omitted; an ellipfis frequent not only in poetry, but in profe. Pericles means only, by this fimilitude, to show the danger of revealing the crimes of princes; for as they feel themselves hurt by the publication of their shame, they will, of course, prevent a repetition of it, by destroying the person who divulged it: He pursues the same idea in the instance of the mole, and concludes with requesting that the king would "Give his tongue like leave to love his head." That is, that he would not force his tongue to speak what, if spoken, would prove his destruction. In the second scene Pericles says, speaking of the King: "And what may make him blush in being known, "He'll stop the course by which it might be known." Which confirms my explanation. M. MASON. * Copp'd hills-] i. e. rifing to a top or head. So, in P. Holland's tranflation of the eleventh Book of Pliny's Nat. Hist. "And few of them have cops or crefted tufts upon their heads." Copped Hall, in Effex, was so named from the lofty pavilion on the roof of the old house, which has been fince pulled down. The upper tire of masonry that covers a wall is still called the copping or coping. High-crowned hats were anciently called copatain hats. STEEVENE. 9 - the earth is wrong'd By man's oppreffion ;) Old copies-throng'd. For this change I am answerable. STEEVENS. |