Or pay you with unthankfulness in thought, The curse of heaven and men succeed their evils! Per. Which welcome we'll accept ; feast here a while, Until our stars that frown, lend us a smile. [Exeunt. ACT II. Enter GOWER. Gow. Here have you seen a mighty king (To whom I give my benizon,) But tidings to the contrary Are brought your eyes; what need speak I? Dumb show. Enter at one door PERICLES, talking with CLEON; all the Train with them. Enter at another door, a Gentleman, with a letter to PERICLES; PERICLES shows the letter to CLEON; then gives the Messenger a reward, and knights him. Exeunt PERICLES, CLEON, &c. severally. Gow. Good Helicane hath staid at home, Not to eat honey, like a drone, From others' labours; forth he strive To killen bad, keep good alive; [6] Thinks all is writ he spoken can: Pays as much respect to whatever Pericles says, as if it were holy writ. " As true as the gospel," is still common language. MALONE. And, to fulfil his prince' desire, Where when men been, there's seldom ease; Should house him safe, is wreck'd and split; Ne aught escapen but himself ;7 SCENE I. [Exit. Pentapolis. An open Place by the Sea Side. Enter PERICLES, wet. Per. Yet cease your ire, ye angry stars of heaven! Wind, rain, and thunder, remember earthly man Is but a substance that must yield to you; And I, as fits my nature, do obey you ; Alas, the sea hath cast me on the rocks, Let it suffice the greatness of your powers, And having thrown him from your watry grave, Here to have death in peace, is all he'll crave. [7] Our ancestors had a plural number in their tenses which is now lost. out of the language; e. g. in the present tense, I escape Thou escapest We escapen But it did not, I believe, extend to the preter-imperfects, otherwise than thus: They didden [for did] escape. PERCY. [8] The meaning of this may be-Excuse old Gower from telling you what fallons. The very text to it has proved of ton considerable length already. STEEVENS. Enter Three Fishermen. 1 Fish. What, ho, Pilche! 2 Fish. Ho! come, and bring away the nets. 1 Fish. What Patch-breech, I say! 3 Fish. What say you, master? 1 Fish. Look how thou stirrest now! come away, or I'll fetch thee with a wannion. 3 Fish. 'Faith, master, I am thinking of the poor men that were cast away before us, even now. 1 Fish. Alas, poor souls, it grieved my heart to hear what pitiful cries they made to us to help them, when, well-a-day, we could scarce help ourselves. 3 Fish. Nay, master, said not I as much, when I saw the porpus, how he bounced and tumbled ? they say, they are half fish, half flesh: a plague on them, they ne'er come, but I look to be washed. Master, I marvel how the fishes live in the sea. 1 Fish. Why, as men do a-land; the great ones eat up the little ones: I can compare our rich misers to nothing so fitly as to a whale; 'a plays and tumbles, driving the poor fry before him, and at last devours them all at a mouthful. Such whales have I heard on a' the land, who never leave gaping, till they've swallowed the whole parish, church, steeple, bells and all.. Per. A pretty moral. 3 Fish. But, master, if I had been the sexton, I would have been that day in the belfry. 2 Fish. Why, man? 3 Fish. Because he should have swallowed me too : and when I had been in his belly, I would have kept such a jangling of the bells, that he should never have left, till he cast bells, steeple, 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 these drones; that rob the bee of her honey. Per. How from the finny subject of the sea These fishers tell the infirmities of men ; And from their watry empire recollect All that may men approve or men detect !— [9] Captain Cook, in his second voyage to the South Seas, mentions the playing of porpusses round the ship as a certain sign of a violent gale of wind. M. MASON. Peace be at your labour, honest fishermen. 2 Fish. Honest! 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." Per. Nay, see, the sea hath cast upon your coast 2 Fish. What a drunken knave was the sea, to cast thee in our way! Per. A man whom both the waters and the wind, 1 Fish. No, friend, cannot you beg? here's them in our country of Greece, gets more with begging, than we can do with working. 2 Fish. Canst thou catch any fishes then? Per. I never practis'd it. 2 Fish. Nay, then thou wilt starve sure; for here's nothing to be got now a-days, unless thou canst fish for't. Per. What I have been, I have forgot to know; But what I am, want teaches me to think on; A man shrunk up with cold: my veins are chill, And have no more of life, than may suffice To give my tongue that heat, to ask your help; Which if you shall refuse, when I am dead, For I am a man, pray see me buried. 1 Fish. Die quoth-a? Now gods forbid! I have a gown here; come, put it on; keep thee warm. Now, afore me, a handsome fellow! Come, thou shalt go home, and we'll have flesh for holidays, fish for fastingdays, and moreo'er puddings and flap-jacks; and thou shalt be welcome. Per. I thank you, sir. 2 Fish. Hark you, my friend, you said you could not beg. Per. I did but crave. 2 Fish. But crave? Then I'll turn craver too, and se I shall 'scape whipping. Per. Why, are all your beggars whipped then? 1 Fish. O, not all, my friend, not all for if all your : [1] The preceding speech of Pericles affords no apt introduction to the reply of the fisherman. Either somewhat is omitted that cannot now be supplied, or the whole passage is obscured by more than common deprava. tion. It should seem that the prince had made some remark on the badness of the day. Perhaps the dialogue originally ran thus: "Per. Peace be at your labour, honest fishermen ;" "The day is rough and thwarts your occupation.” "2 Fish. Honest! good fellow, what's that? If it be not a day fits you, scratch it out of the calendar, and nobody will look after it." STEEVENS net. beggars were whipped, I would wish no better office, than to be beadle. But, master, I'll go draw up the [Exeunt two of the Fishermen. Per.How well this honest mirth becomes their labour! 1 Fish, Hark you, sir! do you know where you are? Per. Not well. 1 Fish. Why, I'll tell you: this is called Pentapolis, and our king, the good Simonides. Per. The good king Simonides, do you call him? 1 Fish. Ay, sir; and he deserves to be so called, for his peaceable reign, and good government. Per. He is a happy king, since from his subjects He gains the name of good, by his government. How far is his court distant from this shore ? 1 Fish. Marry, sir, half a day's journey; and I'll tell you, he hath a fair daughter, and to-morrow is her birth-day; and there are princes and knights come from all parts of the world, to just and tourney for her love. Per. Did but my fortunes equal my desires, I'd wish to make one there. 1 Fish. O, sir, things must be as they may; and what a man cannot get, he may lawfully deal for his wife's soul.2 Re-enter the two Fishermen, drawing up a net. 2 Fish. Help, master, help; here's a fish hangs in the net, like a poor man's right in the law; 'twill hardly come out. Ha bots on't, 'tis come at last, and 'tis turned to a rusty armour. Per. An armour, friends! I pray you, let me see it. And, though it was mine own, part of mine heritage, [e] Things must be (says the speaker) as they are appointed to be; and what man is not sure to compass, he has yet a just right to attempt.-Thus far the passage is clear. The Fisherman may then be supposed to begin a new sentence-His wife's soul-but here he is interrupted by his comrades. He might otherwise have proceeded to say-The good will of a wife indeed is one of the things which is difficult of attainment. A husband is in the right to strive for it, but after all his pains may fail to secure it.-1 wish his brother fishermen had called off his attention before he had time to utter his last three words. STEEVENS. |