2. FISH. Ho! come, and bring away the nets: 1. FISH. What, Patch-breech, I fay! 3. FISH. What fay you, mafter? 1. FISH. Look how thou ftirreft now! come away; or I'll fetch thee with a wannion." 3. FISH. 'Faith, mafter, I am thinking of the poor men that were caft away before us, even now. 1. FISH. Alas, poor fouls, it grieved my heart to hear what pitiful cries they made to us, to help them, when, well-a-day, we could fcarce help our'felves. 3. FISH. Nay, mafter, faid not I as much, when Shakspeare, delighting to defcribe the manners of fuch people, has introduced three filhermen inflead of one, and extended the dialogue to a confiderable length. MALONE. 7 What, ho, Pilch!] All the old copies read-What to pelche. The latter emendation was made by Mr. Tyrwhitt. For the other I am refponfible. Pilche, as he has obferved, is a leathern coat. The context confirms this corredion. The first fisherman appears to be the mafter, and peaks with authority, and fome degree of contempt, to the third fisherman, who is a fervant. His next fpeech, What, Patch-breech, I say is in the fame ftyle. The fecond Fisherman feems to be a fervant likewife; and, after the mafter has called-What, ho, Pilche! (for fo I read,)-explains what it is he wants:-Ha, come, and bring away the nets. MALONE. In Twine's tranflation we have the following paffage:" He was a rough fisherman, with an hoode upon his head, and a filthie Leatherne pelt upon his backe." STEEVENS. 8 - with a waunion.] A phrafe of which the meaning is obvious, though I cannot explain the word at the end of it. It is common in many of our old plays. STEEVENS. Alas, poor fouls, it grieved my heart &c.] So, in The Winter's Tale: the most piteous cry of the poor fouls! Sometimes to fee 'em, and not fee 'em ;-now the hip boring the moon with ber main-maft, and anon fwallowed with yeft and froth, as you'd thruft a cork into a hogfhead. And then for the land-fervice-To fee how the bear tore out his fhoulder-bone; how he cry'd to me før Belp," &c. MALONE. I faw the porpus, how he bounced and tumbled?" they fay, they are half fish, half flesh: a plague on them, they ne'er come, but I look to be wash'd. Mafter, I marvel how the fifhes live in the fea. 1. FISH. Why, as men do a-land; the great ones eat up the little ones: I can compare our rich mifers to nothing fo fitly as to a whale; 'a plays and tumbles, driving the poor fry before him, and at laft devours them all at a mouthful. Such whales have I heard on a'the land, who never leave gaping, till they've fwallow'd the whole parifh, church, fteeple, bells and all. PER. A pretty moral. 3. FISH. But, master, if I had been the fexton, I would have been that day in the belfry. 5 2. FISH. Why, man? 3. FISH. Because he fhould have fwallow'd me too and when I had been in his belly, I would have kept fuch a jangling of the bells, that he when I faw the porpus, how he bounced and tumbled?] The rifing of porpules wear a veifel at fea, has long been confidered by the fuperftition of failors, as the fore-runuer of a form. So, in The Duchefs of Malf, by Webfler, 1623: He lifts up his nofe like a foul porpus before a form," MALONE. Malone confiders this prognoflick as arifing merely from the fuperftition of the failors: but Captain Cook, in his fecond voyage to the fouth feas, mentions the playing of porpuffes round the fhip as a certain fign of a violent gale of wind. M. MASON. 3 a-land; ] This word occuts feveral times in Twine's tranflation. STEEVENS. 4 ➖➖ as to a whale; 'a plays and tumbles,driving the poor fry before him, So, in Coriolanus: like fcaled fculls I would have been that day in the belfry.] That is, I fhould wish to have been that day in the belfry. M. MASON. fhould never have left, till he caft bells, fteeple, church, and parish, up again. But if the good king Simonides were of my mind PER. Simonides? 3. FISH. We would purge the land of thefe drones, that rob the bee of her honey. PER. How from the finny subject of the sea* 2. FISH. Honeft! good fellow, what's that? if it be a day fits you, fcratch it out of the calendar, and no body will look after it. 6 5 the finny fubje& of the fea-] Old copies-fenny. Cof reded by Mr. Steevens. MALONE, This thought is not much unlike another in As you like it: this our life, exempt from publick' baunt, "Finds longues in trees, books in the running brooks, STEEVENS. Hone! good fellow, what's that? if it be a day fits you, scratch it out of the calendar, and no body will look after it.] The old copy reads if it be a day fits you, fearch out of the calendar, and nobody look after it. Part of the emendation fuggefted by Mr. Steevens, is confirmed by a paffage in The Coxcomb, by Beaumont and Fletcher, quoted by Mr. M. Mafon: "I fear fhrewdly, I fhould do fomething "That would quite fcratch me out of the calendar." MALONE, The preceding fpeech of Pericles affords no apt introduction to the reply of the fisherman. Either fomewhat is omitted that cannot now be fupplied, or the whole paffage is obfcured by more than common depravation. It should feem that the prince had made fome remark on the badnefs of the day. Perhaps the dialogue originally ran thus: 66 Per. Peace be at your labour, honeft fishermen;" "The day is rough, and thwarts your occupation." 2. Fish. Honeft! good fellow, what's that? If it be not a day PER. Nay, fee, the fea hath caft upon your coaft 2. FISH. What a drunken knave was the fea, to caft thee in our way!? PER. A man whom both the waters and the wind, In that vaft tennis court, hath made the ball For them to play upon, entreats you pity him; He asks of you, that never us'd to beg. 8 1. FISH. No, friend, cannot you beg? here's them fits you, fcratch it out of the calendar, and nobody will look after it." The following fpeech of Pericles is equally abrupt and incon fequent: May fee the fea hath caft upon your coaft." The folio reads: "Y' may fee the fea hath caft me upon your coaft." I would rather suppose the poet wrote: "Nay, fee the fea hath caft upon your coaft ——, Here the fisherman interpofes. The prince then goes on: "A man" &c. STEEVENS. May not here be an allufion to the dies honefiffimus of Cicero? "If you like the day, find it out in the almanack, and nobody will take it from you." FARMER. The allusion is to the lucky and unlucky days which are put down in fome of the old calendars. DOUCE. Some difficulty, however, will remain, unless we suppose a preceding line to have been loft; for Pericles (as the text ftauds) has faid nothing about the day. I fufped that in the loft line he wifh'd the men a good day. MALONE. to caft thee in our way!] He is playing on the word caft; which anciently was ufed both in the fense of to throw, and to vomit. So, in Macbeth: For them to play upon,] So, in Sidney's Arcadia, Book V: "In fuch a fhadow &c. mankind lives, that neither they know how to foresee, nor what to. feare; and are, like tenis bals, tossed by the racket of the higher powers." STEEVENS. VOL. XX. F in our country of Greece, gets more with begging, than we can do with working. 2. FISH. Can't thou catch any fishes then? PER. I never practis'd it. 2. FISH. Nay, then thou wilt flarve fure; for here's nothing to be got now a-days, unless thou can'ít fifh for't. PER. What I have been, I have forgot to know; But what I am, want teaches me to think on; A man fhrunk up with cold: 9 my veins are chill, And have no more of life,. than may fuffice To give my tongue that heat, to ask your help; Which if you fhall refufe, when I am dead, For I am a man, pray fee me buried. 2 3 1. FISH. Die quoth-a? Now gods forbid! I have a gown here; come, put it on; keep thee warm. Now, afore me, a handfome fellow! 4 Come, thou fhalt go home, and we'll have flelh for holidays, 9 A man fhrunk up with cold: ] Old copy: A man throng'd up with cold;- I fufped that throng'd, which is the reading of all the copies, is corrupt. We might read: A man thrunk up with cold: (It might have been anciently written fhronk.) So, in Cymbeline z The Jhrinking flaves of winter --.” For I am a man,] ma MALONE. Old copy-for that I am. I omit that, which is equally unneceflary to fenie and metre. So, in Othello Haply for I am black." For is becaufe. STEEVENS. 3 — I have a gown here; &c.] In the profe hiftory of Kynge Appolyn of Thyre, already quoted, the fiberman also gives hims one halfe of his blacke mantelle for to cover his body with." 4 STEVENS. afore me, a bandsome fellow!] So, in Twine's tranflation: When the fisherman beheld the comlineffe and beautie of the yoong gentleman, he was mooved with compaflion towardes him, and led him into his houfe, and feated him with fuch fare as he prefently had; and the more amplie to expreffe his great affe&ton, he dilrobed himselfe ofhis poore and fimple cloake" &c. STEEVENS. |