To be adjudg'd some direful slaughtering death, Luc. Thanks, gentle Romans: May I govern so, To heal Rome's harms, and wipe away her woe! But, gentle people, give me aim awhile,®For nature puts me to a heavy task:S and all aloof; but, uncle, draw you near, To shed obsequious tears upon this trunk. O! take this warm kiss on thy pale cold lips, [Kisses TITUS. These sorrowful drops upon thy blood-stain'd face, The last true duties of thy noble sou! - Mar. Tear for tear, and loving kiss for kiss, Luc. Come hither, boy; come, come, and learn of us To melt in showers. Thy grandsire lov'd thee well; Meet, and agreeing with thine infancy: In that respect, then, like a loving child, Shed yet some small drops from thy tender spring, 5 Modern editions generally assign this and the first line of the speech to the assembled Romans. All the old copies make the two lines a part of Marcus' speech. Of course it is to be under stood that the people present signify their assent. Moreover, Marcus is Tribune, and so speaks the people's voice, as their or ran. H. This is the only instance known of aim so used. To suit the vord to the action, we should read, "give me room awhile," as Lucius says, just after, "stand all aloof." Aim has by some been thought a misprint for room. The meaning, however, may be, let me take my own course," or "let me follow my own heart." H. Because kind nature doth require it so : Do him that kindness, and take leave of him. Boy. O, grandsire, grandsire! even with all my Would I were dead, so you did live again!— Enter Attendants, with AARON. 1 Rom. You sad Andronici, have done with woes. Give sentence on this execrable wretch, That hath been breeder of these dire events. Luc. Set him breast-deep in earth, and famish him; There let him stand, and rave and cry for food: For the offence he dies. This is our doom: Aar. O! why should wrath be mute, and fury I am no baby, I, that, with base prayers, I should repent the evils I have done : I do repent it from my very soul. Luc. Some loving friends convey the emperor hence, And give him burial in his father's grave: My father, and Lavinia, shall forthwith No funeral rite, nor man in mournful weeds, No mournful bell shall ring her burial; But throw her forth to beasts, and birds of prey: [Exeunt. INTRODUCTION ΤΟ PERICLES, PRINCE OF TYRE. "THE late and much admired Play, called PERICLES, PRINCE OF TYRE. With the true relation of the whole History, Adventures, and Fortunes of the said Prince; as also the no less strange and worthy accidents in the Birth and Life of his Daughter Marina. As it hath been divers and sundry times acted by his Majesty's Servants, at the Globe on the Bank-side. By WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. Imprinted at London for Henry Gosson, and are to be sold at the sign of the Sun in Paternoster-row, &c., 1609." Such is the title-page of the earliest known edition of Pericles, which was a quarto pamphlet of thirty-five leaves. The play was also reissued in 1611, 1619, 1630, and 1635; but was not included in any collection of the Poet's dramas, till the folio of 1664. There can be little doubt that the first issue of Pericles was unauthorised; and from the broken and disordered state of the text it seems not improbable that the copy may have been made up, in part at least, from short-hand reports taken at the theatre. The lay, along with Antony and Cleopatra, was entered at the Staioners by Edward Blount, on the 20th of May, 1608, as "The Book of Pericles, Prince of Tyre." Whether the issue of 1609 had any connection with this entry, and, if so, why it was "im printed" for Gosson instead of Blount, are matters not likely to be ascertained. Blount may have transferred his interest to Gos son, or the latter may have managed to get a copy in advance of the former. As the play was vastly popular on the stage, this of course would render the company the more unwilling to let it be printed, and at the same time render publishers the more eager to get hold of it. Mr. Collier has discovered that different copies of the first issue vary considerably in the text; which shows that corections were made while the matter was going through the press. It seems not unlikely, too, from this circumstance, that the work was done with some haste, and perhaps alterations made as they |