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SIMONIDES, King of Pentapolis'.

CLEON, Governor of Tharsus.

LYSIMACHUS, Governor of Mitylene.

CERIMON, a Lord of Ephesus.

THALIARD, a Lord of Antioch.

PHILEMON, Servant to Cerimon.

LEONINE, Servant to Dionyza. Marshal.

A Pander, and his Wife. BOULT, their Servant.
GOWER, as Chorus.

The Daughter of Antiochus. DIONYZA, Wife to Cleon.
THAISA, Daughter to Simonides.

MARINA, Daughter to Pericles and Thaisa.
LYCHORIDA, Nurse to Marina. DIANA.

Lords, Ladies, Knights, Gentlemen, Sailors, Pirates,
Fishermen, and Messengers, &c.

SCENE, dispersedly in various Countries.

1 Pentapolis.] This is an imaginary city, and its name might have been borrowed from some Romance. We meet indeed in history with Pentapolitana regio, a country in Africa, consisting of five cities; and from thence perhaps some novelist furnished the sounding title of Pentapolis, which occurs likewise in the 37th chapter of Kyng Appolyn of Tyre, 1510, as well as in Gower, the Gesta Romanorum, and Twine's translation from it.

It should not however be concealed, that Pentapolis is also found in an ancient map of the world, MS. in the Cotton Library, British Museum, Tiberius, B. V.

That the reader may know through how many regions the scene of this drama is dispersed, it is necessary to observe that Antioch was the metropolis of Syria; Tyre, a city of Phoenicia in Asia; Tharsus, the metropolis of Cilicia, a country of Asia Minor; Mitylene, the capital of Lesbos, an island in the Ægean Sea; and Ephesus, the capital of Ionia, a country of the Lesser Asia.

STEEVENS.

PERICLES,

PRINCE OF TYRE.

ACT I.

Before the Palace of Antioch.

Enter GOWER.

To sing a song of old + was sung,
From ashes ancient Gower is come;
Assuming man's infirmities,

To glad your ear, and please your eyes
It hath been sung at festivals,

On ember-eves, and holy-ales2;
And lords and ladies of their lives
Have read it for restoratives:
'Purpose to make men glorious ‡;
Et quo antiquius, eo melius.

If you, born in these latter times,
When wit's more ripe, accept my rhymes,
And that to hear an old man sing,

May to your wishes pleasure bring,

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ales.

On ember-eves, and holy-ales;] i. e. says Dr. Farmer, church

"The purpose is to make men glorious;

Et bonum quo antiquius, &c."-MALONE.

3

I life would wish, and that I might
Waste it for you, like taper-light.—
This city then, Antioch the great †
Built up for his chiefest seat;
The fairest in all Syria;

(I tell you what mine authors say ;)
This king unto him took a pheere,
Who died and left a female heir,
So buxom, blithe, and full of face',
As heaven had lent her all his grace;
With whom the father liking took,
And her to incest did provoke ;
Bad father! to entice his own ‡
To evil, should be done by none.
By custom, what they did begin,
Was, with long use, account no sin'.
The beauty of this sinful dame
Made many princes thither frame,
To seek her as a bed-fellow,
In marriage-pleasures play-fellow,
Which to prevent, he made a law,
(To keep her still, and men in awe,)
That whoso ask'd her for his wife,
His riddle told not, lost his life:
So for her many a wight did die,

As yon grim looks do testify".

What now ensues, to the judgment of your eye
I give, my cause who best can justify.

"This Antioch then, Antiochus the great,

Built up: This city, for his chiefest seat."-MALONE.

[Exit.

unto him took a pheere,] This word, which is frequently

used by our old poets, signifies a mate or companion.

4

5

6

full of face,] i. e. completely, exuberantly beautiful.

"Bad child, worse father," &c.-MALONE.

account no sin.] Account for accounted.

thither frame,] i. e. shape or direct their course thither.

7 As yon grim looks do testify.] Gower must be supposed here to point to the heads of those unfortunate wights, which he tells us, in his poem, were fixed on the gate of the palace at Antioch.

SCENE I.

Antioch. A Room in the Palace.

Enter ANTIOCHUS, PERICLES, and Attendants.

Ant. Young prince of Tyre, you have at large receiv'd The danger of the task you undertake.

Per. I have, Antiochus, and with a soul Embolden'd with the glory of her praise, Think death no hazard, in this enterprize.

[Musick.

Ant. Bring in our daughter, clothed like a bride,
For the embracements even of Jove himself;
At whose conception, (till Lucina reign'd,)
Nature this dowry gave, to glad her presence,
The senate-house of planets all did sit,
To knit in her their best perfections.

Enter the Daughter of ANTIOCHUS.

Per. See, where she comes, apparell'd like the spring, Graces her subjects, and her thoughts the king

Of

every virtue gives renown to men!

Her face, the book of praises, where is read
Nothing but curious pleasures, as from thence
Sorrow were ever ras'd, and testy wrath
Could never be her mild companion".
Ye gods that made me man, and sway in love,
That have inflam'd desire in my breast,
To taste the fruit of yon 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,-

8

Per. That would be son to great Antiochus.

and testy wrath

Could never be her mild companion.] i. e. the companion of her mildness.

VOL. VII.

Hh

Ant. Before thee stands this fair Hesperides,
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
A countless glory, which desert must gain:
And which, without desert, because thine eye
Presumes to reach, all thy whole heap must die'.
Yon sometime famous princes, like thyself,
Drawn by report, advent'rous by desire,

Tell thee with speechless tongues, and semblance pale,
That, without covering, save yon 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':

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 woe3,
Gripe not at earthly joys, as erst they did;

• A countless glory,] i. e. her face, like the firmament, invites you to a blaze of beauties too numerous to be counted. Mr. Malone reads "her countless glory."

1

all thy whole heap must die.] i. e. thy whole mass must be destroyed. There seems to have been an opposition intended. Thy whole heap, thy body, must suffer for the offence of a part, thine eye. The word bulk, like heap, in the present passage, was used for body by Shakspeare and his contemporaries.

2 like to them, to what I must:] that is,-to prepare this body for that state to which I must come.

3 Who know the world, see heaven, but feeling woe, &c.] The meaning may be-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.

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