yon

in love,

Could never be her wild companion.
Ye gods that made me man, and sway
That have inflam'd desire in my breast,
To taste the fruit of celestial tree,
Or die in the adventure, be my helps,
As I am son and servant to your will,
To compass such a boundless happiness!
Ant. Prince Pericles,-

Per. That would be son to great Antiochus.
Ant. Before thee stands this fair Hesperides7,
With golden fruit, but dangerous to be touch'd;
For death-like dragons here affright thee hard:
Her face, like heaven, enticeth thee to view
Her countless glory, which desert must gain :
And which, without desert, because thine eye
Presumes to reach, all thy whole heap must die.
Yond sometime famous princes, like thyself,
Drawn by report, advent'rous by desire,

Tell thee with speechless tongues, and semblance pale,
That without covering, save yond field of stars,
They here stand martyrs, slain in Cupid's wars
And with dead cheeks advise thee to desist,
For going on death's net, whom none resist.
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 10

6 The old copies have her mild companion, most probably a misprint for wild. If mild were to be understood for mildness, it would require to be in the genitive case, mild's.

7 Hesperides is here taken for the name of the garden in which the golden apples were kept; as we find it in Love's Labour's Lost, Act iv. See vol. ii. p. 254, note 30.

8 Thus Lucan, lib. vii.—

"Cœlo tegitur qui non habet urnam."

9 i. e. for fear of going, or, lest they should go. Dr. Percy proposed to read "in death's net;" but on and in were anciently used the one for the other.

10 That is, to prepare this body for that state to which I must

come.

For death remember'd, should be like a mirror,
Who tells us, life's but breath; to trust it, error.
I'll make my will then; and as sick men do,
Who know the world, see heaven, but feeling woe11,
Gripe not at earthly joys, as erst they did;
So I bequeath a happy peace to you,

And all good men, as every prince should do;
My riches to the earth from whence they came;
But my unspotted fire of love to you.

[To the Daughter of ANTIOCHUS.

Thus ready for the way of life or death,

I wait the sharpest blow, Antiochus.

Ant. Scorning advice.-Read the conclusion then"; Which read and not expounded, 'tis decreed, As these before thee thou thyself shalt bleed. Daugh. Of all 'say'd yet, may'st thou prove prosperous !

Of all 'say'd yet, I wish thee happiness 12!

Per. Like a bold champion, I assume the lists, Nor ask advice of any other thought

But faithfulness, and courage 13.

[He reads the Riddle.]

I am no viper, yet I feed

On mother's flesh, which did me breed :
I sought a husband, in which labour,

I found that kindness in a father.

11 "I will act as sick men do; who having had experience of the pleasures of the world, and only a visionary and distant prospect of heaven, have neglected the latter for the former; but at length, feeling themselves decaying, grasp no longer at temporal pleasures, but prepare calmly for futurity."

a This and the two next lines form part of the speech of Pericles in the quartos. In the folio the first line only is given to Pericles. 12 This is the reading of the old copy, which Malone changed, at the suggestion of Mason, to " In all save that." The meaning is evidently, "Of all who have yet essay'd."

13 This is from the old novel; Steevens pointed out the same expression in the third book of Sidney's Arcadia :-" Whereupon asking advice of no other thought but faithfulnesse and courage, he presently lighted from his own horse," &c.

He's father, son, and husband mild,
I mother, wife, and yet his child.
How they may be, and yet in two,

As you will live, resolve it you.

Sharp physick is the last 14: but, O you powers!
That give heaven countless eyes 15 to view men's acts,
Why cloud they not their sights perpetually 16,
If this be true, which makes me pale to read it?
Fair glass of light, I lov'd you, and could still,

[Takes hold of the Hand of the Princess.
Were not this glorious casket stor❜d with ill:
But I must tell you,-now, my thoughts revolt;
For he's no man on whom perfections wait 17,
That knowing sin within, will touch the gate.
You're a fair viol, and your sense the strings:
Who, finger'd to make man his lawful musick,
Would draw heaven down, and all the gods to
hearken;

But, being play'd upon before your time,
Hell only danceth at so harsh a chime :
Good sooth, I care not for you.

Ant. Prince Pericles, touch not 18, upon thy life, For that's an article within our law,

14 i. e. the intimation in the last line of the riddle, that his life depends on resolving it; which he properly enough calls sharp physick, or a bitter potion.

15 Thus in A Midsummer-Night's Dream :

"Who more engilds the night

Than all yon fiery oes and eyes of light."
16" Stars, hide your fires,

Let not light see," &c. Macbeth.

17 i. e. he is no perfect or honest man, that knowing, &c.

18 This is a stroke of nature. The incestuous king cannot bear to see 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."

Malefort, in Massinger's Unnatural Combat, expresses the like impatient jealousy, when Beaufort touches his daughter Theo. crine, to whom he was betrothed.

As dangerous as the rest.

Your time's expir'd ;

Either expound now, or receive your sentence.

Per. Great king,

Few love to hear the sins they love to act;

'Twould 'braid yourself too near for me to tell it.
Who has a book of all that monarchs do,

He's more secure to keep it shut, than shown;
For vice repeated, is like the wand'ring wind,
Blows dust in others' eyes, to spread itself 19 ;
And yet the end of all is bought thus dear,
The breath is gone, and the sore eyes see clear:
To stop the air would hurt them. The blind mole casts
Copp'd 20 hills towards heaven, to tell the earth is

throng'd

By man's oppression 21; and the

for't.

poor worm

22 doth die

Kings are earth's gods: in vice their law's their will;
And if Jove stray, who dares say, Jove doth ill?
It is enough you know; and it is fit,

19 "The man who knows 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 eyes that have been affected by the dust, though sore, see clear enough to stop for the future the air that would annoy them." Pericles means by this similitude to show the danger of revealing the crimes of princes; for as they feel 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.

20 Copp'd hills, are hills rising in a conical form, something of the shape of a sugarloaf. Thus in Horman's Vulgaria, 1519: "Sometime men wear copped caps like a sugar loaf." So Baret: "To make copped, or sharpe at top; cacumino." In A. S. cop is a head. See Taming of the Shrew, Act v. Sc. 1, note 3, p. 211. 21 The earth is oppressed by the injuries which crowd upon her. Steevens altered throng'd to wrong'd; but apparently without necessity.

22 The mole is called poor worm as a term of commiseration. In The Tempest, Prospero, speaking to Miranda, says, "Poor worm, thou art infected." The mole remains secure till it has thrown up those hillocks which betray its course to the mole-catcher.

What being more known grows worse, to smother it.
All love the womb that their first beings bred,
Then give my tongue like leave to love my head.
Ant. Heaven, that I had thy head! he has found
the meaning ;-

But I will gloze 23 with him. [Aside.] Young prince of Tyre,

Though by the tenour of our strict edíct,

Your exposition misinterpreting,

We might proceed to cancel of your days 24;
Yet hope, succeeding from so fair a tree
As your fair self, doth tune us otherwise :
Forty days longer we do respite you;
If by which time our secret be undone,
This mercy shows, we'll joy in such a son:
And until then, your entertain shall be,
As doth befit our honour, and your worth.

[Exeunt ANT. his Daughter, and Attend.
Per. How courtesy would seem to cover sin!
When what is done is like a hypocrite,
The which is good in nothing but in sight.
If it be true that I interpret false,

Then were it certain, you were not so bad,
As with foul incest to abuse your soul;
Where 25 now you're both a father and a son,
By your untimely claspings with your child,
(Which pleasure fits a husband, not a father);
And she an eater of her mother's flesh,
By the defiling of her parent's bed;

And both like serpents are, who though they feed
On sweetest flowers, yet they poison breed.

23 Gloze, i. e. flatter, insinuaté.

24 i. e. to the destruction of your life; cancel for cancelment. 25 Where has here the power of whereas; as in other passages. See Two Gentlemen of Verona, Act iii. Sc. 1, note 7; Merchant of Venice, Act iv. Sc. 1, note 4. It occurs again with the same meaning in Act ii. Sc. 3, of this play.