for it: for if a king bid a man be a villain, ķe is bound by the indenture of his oath to be one.Hush, here come the lords of Tyre.

Enter HELICANUS, ESCANES, and other Lords.

Hel. You shall not need, my fellow peers of Tyre, Further to question of your king's departure. His seal'd commission, left in trust with me, Doth speak sufficiently, he's gone to travel. Thal. How! the king gone!

[Aside.

Hel. If further yet you will be satisfied,
Why, as it were unlicens'd of your loves,
He would depart, I'll give some light unto you.
Being at Antioch-

Thal.

What from Antioch? [Aside.

Hel. Royal Antiochus (on what cause I know not), Took some displeasure at him; at least he judg'd so: And doubting lest that he had err'd or sinn'd, To show his sorrow, would correct himself; So puts himself unto the shipman's toil,

With whom each minute threatens life or death. Thal. Well, I perceive

[Aside.

I shall not be hang'd now, although I would;
But since he's gone, the king it sure must please,
He scap'd the land, to perish on the seas3.-
But I'll present me. Peace to the lords of Tyre!

Hel. Lord Thaliard from Antiochus is welcome.
Thal. From him I come

With message unto princely Pericles;

But, since my landing, as I have understood

or Captaine Skill and Captaine Pill, 1604, p, 27:-'I will therefore commende the poet Philipides, who being demaunded by King Lisimachus, what favour he might doe unto him for that he loved him, made this answere to the king-That your majesty would never impart unto me any of your secrets.

2 Steevens has thought this phrase wanted illustration; but it is of very common occurrence. To put himselfe in daunger of his life; In periculum caput se inferre.'—Baret.

3 The old copy reads:

But since he's gone the king's seas must please:
He scap'd the land, to perish at the sea.'

The emendation is by Dr. Percy.

Your lord has took himself to unknown travels,
My message must return from whence it came.

Hel. We have no reason to desire it, since1
Commended to our master, not to us:
Yet, ere you shall depart, this we desire,-
As friends to Antioch, we may feast in Tyre.

[Exeunt.

SCENE IV.

Tharsus. A Room in the Governor's House.

Enter CLEON, DIONYZA, and Attendants.
Cleo. My Dionyza, shall we rest us here,
And by relating tales of others' griefs,
See if 'twill teach us to forget our own?
Dio. That were to blow at fire, in

hope to

quench it; For who digs hills because they do aspire, Throws down one mountain, to cast up a higher. O my distressed lord, even such our griefs ; Here they're but felt, and seen with mistful eyes1, But like to groves, being topp'd, they higher rise. Cle. O Dionyza,

Who wanteth food, and will not say he wants it, Or can conceal his hunger, till he famish?

Our tongues and sorrows do sound deep our woes Into the air; our eyes do weep, till lungs

4 The adverb since, which is wanting in the old copy, was supplied by Steevens for the sake of sense and metre.

1 The old copy reads:

---and seen with mischiefs eye.'

The alteration was made by Steevens, who thus explains the passage: Withdrawn as we now are from the scene we describe, our sorrows are simply felt, and appear indistinct, as through a mist." Malone reads:

- - - unseen with mischief's eyes.

i. e. unseen by those who would feel a malignant pleasure in our misfortunes, and add to them by their triumph over us.'

Fetch breath that may proclaim them louder; that,
If the Gods slumber2, while their creatures want,
They may awake their helps to comfort them.
I'll then discourse our woes, felt several years,
And wanting breath to speak, help me with tears.
Dio. I'll do my best, sir.

Cle. This Tharsus, o'er which I have government, A city, on whom plenty held full hand

(For riches strew'd herself even in the streets); Whose towers bore heads so high, they kiss'd the clouds,

And strangers ne'er beheld, but wonder'd at;
Whose men and dames so jetted3 and adorn'd,
Like one another's glass to trim them by4:
Their tables were stor'd full, to glad the sight,
And not so much to feed on, as delight;
All poverty was scorn'd, and pride so great,
The name of help grew odious to repeat.
Dio. O, 'tis too true.

Cle. But see what heaven can do! By this our change, These mouths, whom but of late, earth, sea, and air, Were all too little to content and please,

Although they gave their creatures in abundance,
As houses are defil'd for want of use,

They are now starv'd for want of exercise:
Those palates, who not yet two summers younger3,

2 The old copy reads, 'If heaven slumber,' &c. This was probably alteration of the licencer of the press. Sense and grammar require that we should read, If the gods,' &c.

an

3 To jet is to strut, to walk proudly. See vol. i. p. 316, note 3. 4 Thus in the Second Part of King Henry IV.:

———He was indeed the glass,

Wherein the noble youth did dress themselves.'

Again in Cymbeline:

A sample to the youngest, to the more mature
A glass that feated them.'

5 The old copy has :

-who not yet too savers younger.'

The emendation was proposed by Mason. Steevens remarks that Shakspeare computes time by the same number of summers Romeo and Juliet :

'Let two more summers wither in their pride,' &c.

Malone reads:

--who not used to hunger's savour.'

in

Must have inventions to delight the taste,
Would now be glad of bread and beg for it;
Those mothers who, to nousle up their babes,—
Thought nought too curious, are ready now,
To eat those little darlings whom they lov'd.
So sharp are hunger's teeth, that man and wife
Draw lots, who first shall die to lengthen life:
Here stands a lord, and there a lady weeping;
Here many sink, yet those which see them fall,
Have scarce strength left to give them burial.
Is not this true?

Dio. Our cheeks and hollow eyes do witness it. Cle. O, let those cities, that of Plenty's cup And her prosperities so largely taste,

With their superfluous riots, hear these tears!
The misery of Tharsus may be theirs.

Enter a Lord.

Lord. Where's the lord governor ?

Cle. Here.

Speak out thy sorrows which thou bring'st, in haste, For comfort is too far for us to expect.

Lord. We have descried, upon our neighbouring shore,

A portly sail of ships make hitherward.
Cle. I thought as much.

One sorrow never comes, but brings an heir,
That may succeed as his inheritor;

6 Steevens thought that this word should be nursle; but the examples are numerous enough in our old writers to show that the text is right. Thus in New Custom; Dodsley's Old Plays vol. i. p. 284:

Borne to all wickedness, and nusled in all evil.'

So Spenser, Faerie Queene, i. vi. 23 :—

Whom, till to ryper years he gan aspyre,

He nousled up in life and maners wilde,'

'It were a more vauntage and profit by a great dele that yonge children's wyttes were otherwyse sette a warke, than nossel them in suche errour.'-Horman's Fulgaria, 1519, fo. 86.

Nousleed in virtuous disposition, and framed to an honest trade

of living-Udal's Apopthegmes, fo. 75.

So in The Death of King Arthur, 1601, cited by Malone:'Being nuzzled in effeminate delights.'

VOL. IX.

12

And so in ours: some neighbouring nation,
Taking advantage of our misery,

Hath stuff'd these hollow vessels with their power", To beat us down, the which are down already; And make a conquest of unhappy me8,

Whereas no glory's got to overcome.

Lord. That's the least fear: for, by the semblance Of their white flags display'd, they bring us peace, And come to us as favourers, not as foes.

Cle. Thou speak'st like him10 untutor'd to repeat, Who makes the fairest show means most deceit. But bring they what they will, what need we fear? The ground's the low'st, and we are half way there11. Go tell their general, we attend him here,

To know for what he comes, and whence he comes, And what he craves.

Lord. I go, my lord.

[Exit. Cle. Welcome is peace, if he on peace consist12; If wars, we are unable to resist.

Enter PERICLES, with Attendants.

Per. Lord governor, for so we hear you are,
Let not our ships, and number of our men,
Be, like a beacon fir'd, to amaze your eyes.
We have heard your miseries as far as Tyre,
And see the desolation of your streets!

Hollow, applied to ships, is a Homeric epithet. See Iliad, v. 26. By power is meant forces.

8 A letter has been probably dropped at press: we may read, ‘of unhappy men.'

9 It has been already observed that whereas was sometimes used for where; as well as the converse, where for whereas.

10 The quarto of 1609 reads:

Thou speak'st like himnes untutor'd to repeat.' 'Like him untutor'd,' for 'like him who is untutored.' 'Deluded by the pacific appearance of this navy, you talk like one who has never learned the common adage,-that the fairest outsides are most to be suspected.'

11 The quarto of 1619 reads :

But bring they what they will, and what they can,
What need we fear?

The ground's the low'st, and we are halfway there.'

12 i. e, if he rest or stand on peace. See vol. v, p. 319, note 23.