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. The Daughter of Antiochus. DIONYZA, Wife to Cleon. MARINA, Daughter to Pericles and Thaisa. Lords, Ladies, Knights, Gentlemen, Sailors, Pirates, 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, To glad your ear, and please your eyes On ember-eves, and holy-ales2; If you, born in these latter times, May to your wishes pleasure bring, 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 (I tell you what mine authors say ;) As yon grim looks do testify". What now ensues, to the judgment of your eye "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, 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 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, Tell thee with speechless tongues, and semblance pale, And by those fearful objects to prepare For death remember'd, should be like a mirror, • 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. |