Thai.

Now I know you better.

When we with tears parted Pentapolis,
The king, my father, gave you such a ring.

[Shows a Ring.

Per. This, this; no more, you gods! your pre

sent kindness

Makes my past miseries sport7: You shall do well, That on the touching of her lips I may

Melt, and no more be seen3. O come, be buried

A second time within these arms.

Mar.
My heart
Leaps to be gone into my mother's bosom.

[Kneels to THAISA.

Per. Look, who kneels here! Flesh of thy flesh,

Thaisa;

Thy burden at the sea, and call'd Marina,

For she was yielded there.

Thai.

Bless'd and mine own!

I know you not.

Hel. Hail, madam, and my queen!

Thai.

Per. You have heard me say, when I did fly

from Tyre,

I left behind an ancient substitute.

Can you remember what I call'd the man?

I have nam'd him oft.

Thai.

'Twas Helicanus then.

Per. Still confirmation:

7 So in King Lear :

'It is a chance that does redeem all sorrows

That ever I have felt.'

This is a sentiment which Shakspeare never fails to introduce on occasions similar to the present. So in the 39th Psalm:'O spare me a little, that I may recover my strength, before I go hence and be no more seen.' The same thought is expressed by Perdita in The Winter's Tale :—

'Not like a corse;-or if-not to be buried
But quick, and in mine arms.'

Embrace him, dear Thaisa: this is he.
Now do I long to hear how you were found;
How possibly preserv'd; and whom to thank,
Besides the gods, for this great miracle.

Thai. Lord Cerimon, my lord; this man

Through whom the gods have shown their power; that can

From first to last resolve you.

Per.

Reverend sir,

The gods can have no mortal officer

More like a god than you. Will you deliver
How this dead queen relives?

Cer.
I will, my lord.
Beseech you, first go with me to my house,

Where shall be shown you all was found with her;
How she came placed here within the temple;

No needful thing omitted.

Per.

Pure Diana!

I bless thee for thy vision, and will offer

My night oblations to thee.

Thaisa,

This prince, the fair-betrothed9 of your daughter,
Shall marry her at Pentapolis. And now,

This ornament that makes me look so dismal,
Will I, my lov'd Marina, clip to form;

And what this fourteen years no razor touch'd,
To grace thy marriage-day, I'll beautify 10.

9 i. e. fairly contracted, honourably affianced.

10 The author has here followed Gower or the Gesta Roma

norum:

this a vowe to God I make

That I shall never for hir sake,

My berde for no likynge shave,
Till it befalle that I have

In convenable time of age

Besette her unto marriage.'

The poet has, however, been guilty of a slight inadvertency. If Pericles made the vow almost immediately after the birth of Marina, it was hardly necessary for him to make it again, as he has done, when he arrived at Tharsus.

Thai. Lord Cerimon hath letters of good credit, Sir, that my father's dead 11.

Per. Heavens make a star of him 12! Yet there,
my queen,

We'll celebrate their nuptials, and ourselves
Will in that kingdom spend our following days;
Our son and daughter shall in Tyrus reign.
Lord Cerimon, we do our longing stay,
To hear the rest untold.-Sir, lead the way.

Enter Gower.

[Exeunt.

Gow. In Antioch 13, and his daughter, you have heard

Of monstrous lust the due and just reward:

11 In the fragment of the Old Metrical Romance the father dies in his daughter's arms.

'Zitt was hys fader-in-lawe a lyve
Archistrates the goud kyng,
Folk come ageynes hym so blyve
As eny myght by oth' thyng;
They song daunsede & were blythe,
That ever he myghte that day yseo,
And thonked God a thousand sythe,
The kynge was gladdest ever be ye.
Tho he saw hem alle by fore

Hys dought & hys sone in lawe,
And hys dought so fair y core,
A kyngis wyfe heo was wel fawe,
And her chyld ther also
Al clene of kyngis blod,
He buste hem, ho was glad tho
But the olde kyng so goud.

He made hem dwelle that yer

AND DEYDE IN HYS DOUGHTRS ARM.'

12 This notion is borrowed from the ancients, who expressed their mode of conferring divine honours and immortality on men, by placing them among the stars.

13 i. e. the king of Antioch. The old copy reads Antiochus. Steevens made the alteration, observing that in Shakspeare's other plays we have France for the king of France; Morocco for the king of Morocco, &c.

In Pericles, his queen and daughter, seen
(Although assail'd with fortune fierce and keen),
Virtue preserv'd from fell destruction's blast,
Led on by heaven, and crown'd with joy at last.
In Helicanus may you well descry

A figure of truth, of faith, of loyalty:
In reverend Cerimon there well appears,
The worth that learned charity aye wears.
For wicked Cleon and his wife, when fame
Had spread their cursed deed, and honour'd name
Of Pericles, to rage the city turn;

That him and his they in his palace burn.
The gods for murder seemed so content
To punish them; although not done, but meant.
So on your patience evermore attending,

New joy wait on you! Here our play has ending. [Exit GOWER.

THAT this tragedy has some merit, it were vain to deny ; but that it is the entire composition of Shakspeare, is more than can be hastily granted. I shall not venture with Dr. Farmer, to determine that the hand of our great poet is only visible in the last act; for I think it appears in several passages dispersed over each of these divisions. I find it difficult, however, to persuade myself that he was the original fabricator of the plot, or the author of every dialogue, chorus, &c. STEEVENS.