2

Be quiet then, as men should be,
Till he hath pass'd necessity.

I'll show you those in trouble's reign,
Losing a mite, a mountain gain.
The good in conversation

(To whom I give my benizon),
Is still at Tharsus, where each man?
Thinks all is writ he spoken can 3:
And, to remember what he does,
Gild his statue to make it glorious*:
But tidings to the contrary

Are brought your eyes; what need speak I?

The good in conversation

(To whom I give my benizon),

Is still at Tharsus, where'

Gower means to say, 'The good prince (on whom I bestow my best wishes) is still engaged at Tharsus, where every man,' &c. Conversation is conduct, behaviour. See the Second Epistle of St. Peter, iii. 11.

3 Pays as much respect to whatever Pericles says, as if it were Holy Writ.'

4 This circumstance, as well as the foregoing, is found in the Confessio Amantis :

:

That thei for ever in remembrance
Made a figure in resemblance
Of hym, and in a common place
Thei set it up; so that his face
Might every maner man beholde,

It was of laton over gylte,' &c.

In King Appolyn of Thyre, 1510 :-'In remembrance they made an ymage or statue of clene golde.' In the fragment of the Old Metrical Romance the statue is of brass:

Tho made they an ymage of bras,

A schef of whete he held an honde,
That to my lieknes maad was,
Uppon a buschel they dyde hym stonde,
And wryte aboute the storye.
To Appolyn this hys ydo

To have hym ever in memorye.'

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, that staid at home5
(Not to eat honey, like a drone,

From others' labours; for though he strive
To killen bad, keep good alive;
And, to fulfil his prince' desire),
Sends word of all that haps in Tyre";
How Thaliard came full bent with sin,
And hid intent, to murder him;

And that in Tharsus was not best
Longer for him to make his rest:
He knowing so, put forth to seas,
Where when men been, there's seldom ease;
For now the wind begins to blow;
Thunder above, and deeps below,
Make such unquiet, that the ship

Should house him safe, is wreck'd and split;
And he, good prince, having all lost,
By waves from coast to coast is tost:
All perishen of man, of pelf,

Ne aught escapen but himself;

Till fortune, tir'd with doing bad,

Threw him ashore, to give him glad :

And here he comes: what shall be next,

Pardon old Gower; this 'longs the text. [Exit.

5 Thus the old copy. Steevens reads:

'Good Helicane hath staid at home.'

6 Old copy: Sav'd one of all,' &c. Steevens's.

The emendation is

7 Pardon old Gower from telling what ensues, it belongs to

SCENE I.

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,

Wash'd me from shore to shore, and left me breath
Nothing to think on, but ensuing death:

Let it suffice the greatness of your powers,
To have bereft a prince of all his fortunes;
And having thrown him from your watery grave,
Here to have death in peace, is all he'll crave.

Enter Three Fishermen.

1 Fish. What, ho, Pilche1!

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 2.

3 Fish. 'Faith, master, I am thinking of the poor men that were cast away before us, even now.

the text, not to his province as chorus.' Steevens justly remarks, that the language of our fictitious Gower, like that of the Pseudo-Rowley, is so often irreconcilable to the practice of any age, that criticism on such bungling imitations is almost thrown away.'

The emendation was suggested by Mr. Tyrwhitt, who remarks, that Pilche is a leathern coat.

2 This expression, which is equivalent to with a mischief, or with a vengeance, is of very frequent occurrence in old writers. It is perhaps from the A. S. panung, detriment, mischief.

1 Fish. Alas, poor souls, it griev'd 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 3 ? they say, they are half fish, half flesh: a plague on them, they ne'er come, but I look to be wash'd. 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 swallow'd 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 swallow'd 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;

3 Sailors have observed, that the playing of porpoises round a ship is a certain prognostic of a violent gale of wind.

4 So in Coriolanus :

like scaled sculls Before the belching whale.'

And from their watery empire recollect
All that may men approve, or men detect!
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 it5.

Per. Nay, see, the sea hath cast upon your coast2 Fish. What a drunken knave was the sea; to cast thee in our way!

Per. A man whom both the waters and the wind, In that vast 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.

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

Per. I never practis'd it.

fishes then?

2 Fish. Nay, then thou wilt starve sure: for here's nothing to be got now-a-days, unless thou canst fish for't.

5 The old copy reads, 'If it be a day fits you search out of the calendar, and nobody look after it.' The preceding speech of Pericles affords no apt introduction to the reply of the fisherman. Some remark upon the day appears to have been omitted. Steevens supplied it thus:

'Per. Peace be at your labour, honest fishermen ; The day is rough, and thwarts your occupation.'

The following speech of Pericles is equally abrupt and inconsistent:

'Y' may see the sea hath cast me upon your coast.'

The emendation is by Steevens.

Dr. Farmer thinks that there may be an allusion to the dies honestissimus of Cicero. The lucky and unlucky days are put down in the old calendars.

6 Thus in Sidney's Arcadia, book v.:-'In such a shadow, &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.'