To be adjudg'd some direful slaughtering death,
As punishment for his most wicked life. —
Lucius, all hail! Rome's gracious governor."

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,
Thy brother Marcus tenders on thy lips :
O, were the sum of these that I should pay
Countless and infinite, yet would I pay them!

Luc. Come hither, boy; come, come, and learn

of us

To melt in showers. Thy grandsire lov'd thee well;
Many a time he danc'd thee on his knee,
Sung thee asleep, his loving breast thy pillow;
Many a matter hath he told to thee,

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 :
Friends should associate friends in grief and woe.
Bid him farewell; commit him to the grave;

Do him that kindness, and take leave of him.

Boy. O, grandsire, grandsire! even with all my
heart

Would I were dead, so you did live again!—
O Lord! I cannot speak to him for weeping;
My tears will choke me, if I ope my mouth.

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:
If any one relieves or pities him,

For the offence he dies. This is our doom:
Some stay, to see him fasten'd in the earth.

Aar. O! why should wrath be mute, and fury
dumb?

I am no baby, I, that, with base prayers,

I should repent the evils I have done :
Ten thousand, worse than ever yet I did,
Would I perform if I might have my will;
If one good deed in all my life I did,

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
Be closed in our household's monument.
As for that heinous tiger, Tamora,

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:
Her life was beast-like, and devoid of pity;
And, being so, shall have like want of pity.
See justice done to Aaron, that damn'd Moor
By whom our heavy haps had their beginning:
Then, afterwards, to order well the state;
That like events may ne'er it ruinate.

[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