Like motes and shadows fee them move awhile ;5

Your ears unto your eyes I'll reconcile.

In the next line the verfification is defective by one word being printed instead of two. By reading grow on inftead of groan, the sense and metre are both restored. So, in A MidsummerNight's Dream (fol. 1623): "-and so grow on to a point." See Vol. IV. p. 335, n. 2. We might read-go on; but the other appears to be more likely to have been the author's word.

MALONE.

I cannot approve of Malone's amendment, but adhere to the old copies, with this difference only, that I join the words thought and pilot with a hyphen, and read :

think this pilot-thought; -.

That is, "Keep this leading circumstance in your mind, which will ferve as a pilot to you, and guide you through the rest of the story, in such a manner, that your imagination will keep pace with the king's progress." M. MASON.

The plainer meaning feems to be-Think that his pilot had the celerity of thought, so shall your thought keep pace with his operations. STEEVENS.

-who first is gone.] Who has left Tharsus before her father's arrival there. MALONE.

5 Like motes and shadows fee them move awhile ;] So, in Macbeth:

"Come like shadows, so depart." STEEVENS.

e

Dumb Show.

Enter at one door, PERICLES with his Train; CLEON and DIONYZA at the other. CLEON Shows PERICLES the Tomb of MARINA; whereat PERICLES makes lamentation, puts on Sackcloth, and in a mighty passion departs. Then CLEON and DIONYZA retire.

Gow. See how belief may suffer by foul show!
This borrow'd paffion stands for true old woe;"
And Pericles, in forrow all devour'd,
With fighs shot through, and biggest tears

o'ershow'r'd,

Leaves Tharsus, and again embarks. He fwears
Never to wash his face, nor cut his hairs;
He puts on fackcloth, and to sea. He bears
A tempeft, which his mortal veffel tears,"
And yet he rides it out. Now please you wit
The epitaph is for Marina writ

6 for true old woe ;] So, in King Henry V:
Sit and fee,

"

"

Minding true things by what their mockeries be."

MALONE:

- for true old woe ;] i. e. for such tears as were shed when, the world being in its infancy, diffimulation was unknown. All poetical writers are willing to perfuade themselves that fincerity expired with the first ages. Perhaps, however, we ought to read-true told woe. STEEVENS.

7 A tempest, which his mortal vessel tears,] So, in King Richard III:

"O, then began the tempeft to my foul!"

What is here called his mortal vessel, (i. e. his body,) is styled by Cleopatra her mortal house. STEEVENS.

8

- Now please you wit-] Now be pleased to know. So, in Gower:

"In whiche the lorde hath to him writte

"That he would understonde and witte,."

By wicked Dionyza.

[Reads the infcription on MARINA'S Mo

nument.

The fairest, Sweet'st, and best, lies here,
Who wither'd in her spring of year.
She was of Tyrus, the king's daughter,
On whom foul death hath made this flaughter;
Marina was she call'd;' and at her birth,

Thetis, being proud, Swallow'd Some part o'the

earth:2

The editor of the second quarto (which has been copied by all the other editions) probably not understanding the passage, altered it thus :

Now take we our way

"To the epitaph for Marina writ by Dionyfia."

MALONE.

-sweet'st, and best,] Sweetest is here used as a monofyllable. So highest, in The Tempest : "Highest queen of state." &c. MALONE.

We might more elegantly read, omitting the conjunctionand,

I

The fairest, Sweetest, best, lies here-. STEEVENS.

Marina was she call'd; &c.] It might have been expected that this epitaph, which fets out in four-foot verse, would have confined itself to that measure; but instead of preserving such uniformity, throughout the last fix lines it deviates into heroicks, which, perhaps, were never meant by its author. Let us remove a few fyllables, and try whether any thing is loft by their omiffion:

"Marina call'd; and at her birth

" Proud Thetis swallow'd part o'the earth :
"The earth, fearing to be o'erflow'd,
"Hath Thetis' birth on heaven bestow'd:
"Wherefore she swears she'll never stint
"Make battery upon shores of flint."

The image fuggefted by-"Thetis Swallowed" &c. reminds us of Brabantio's speech to the senate, in the first Act of Othello :

my particular grief

"Is of fo floodgate and o'erbearing nature,

"That it engluts and swallows other forrows."

STEEVENS.

Therefore the earth, fearing to be o'erflow'd,
Hath Thetis' birth-child on the heavens be-

ftow'd:

Wherefore she does, (and swears fhe'll never

ftint,)3

Make raging battery upon shores of flint.
No visor does become black villainy,
So well as foft and tender flattery.
Let Pericles believe his daughter's dead,
And bear his courses to be ordered

2 Thetis, being proud swallow'd some part o'the earth:] The modern editions by a strange blunder, read, -That is, being proud, &c.

I formerly thought that by the words-fome part of the earth was meant Thaifa, the mother of Marina. So Romeo calls his beloved Juliet, when he supposes her dead, the dearest morfel of the earth. But I am now convinced that I was mistaken.

!

MALONE.

The infeription alludes to the violent storm which accompanied the birth of Marina, at which time the sea, proudly o'erswelling its bounds, swallowed, as is usual in such hurricanes, some part of the earth. The poet ascribes the swelling of the fea to the pride which Thetis felt at the birth of Marina in her element; and supposes that the earth, being afraid to be overflowed, bestowed this birth-child of Thetis on the heavens; and that Thetis, in revenge, makes raging battery against the shores. The line, Therefore the earth fearing to be o'erflow'd, proves beyond doubt that the words, some part of the earth, in the line preceding, cannot mean the body of Thaifa, but a portion of the continent. M. MASON.

Our poet has many allusions in his works to the depredations made by the sea on the land. So, in his 64th Sonnet: "When I have seen the hungry ocean gain Advantage on the kingdom of the shore, "And the firm foil win of the watry main,

Increasing store with loss, and lofs with store;-." &c. We have, I think, a fimilar description in King Lear and King Henry IV. P. II. MALONE.

3-(and swears she'll never ftint,)) She'll never cease. So, in Romeo and Juliet :

It ftinted, and faid, ay." MALONE.

By lady fortune; while our scenes display 4
His daughter's woe and heavy well-a-day,
In her unholy service. Patience then,
And think you now are all in Mitylen. [Exit.

SCENE V.

Mitylene. A Street before the Brothel.

Enter, from the Brothel, Two Gentlemen.

1 GENT. Did you ever hear the like ?

2 GENT. No, nor never shall do in such a place as this, the being once gone.

1 GENT. But to have divinity preached there! did you ever dream of such a thing?

2 GENT. No, no. Come, I am for no more bawdy-houses: Shall we go hear the vestals fing?

4

- while our scenes display-) The old copies have-while our steare must play.

We might read-our stage-or rather, our scene (which was

formerly spelt sceane). So, in As you like it :

"This wide and universal theatre,

"Presents more woful pageants than the Scene

"Wherein we play."

Again, in The Winter's Tale :

as if

"The Scene you play, were mine."

It should be remembered, that Scene was formerly spelt sceane; so there is only a change of two letters, which in the writing of

the early part of the last century were easily confounded.

I read as in the text. So, in King Henry VIII :

and display'd the effects

" Of difpofition gentle." STEEVENS.

MALONE.