Vail to her mistress Dian; still
This Philoten contends in skill
With absolute 8 Marina: so

With the dove of Paphos might the crow
Vie feathers white 9. Marina gets

All praises, which are paid as debts,
And not as given. This so darks
In Philoten all graceful marks,
That Cleon's wife, with envy rare,
A present murderer does prepare
For good Marina, that her daughter
Might stand peerless by this slaughter.
The sooner her vile thoughts to stead,
Lychorida, our nurse, is dead;
And cursed Dionyza hath

The pregnant 10 instrument of wrath

Prest for this blow. The unborn event

I do commend to your content 11:

Only I carry winged time

Post on the lame feet of my rhyme;

Which never could I so convey,

Unless your thoughts went on my way.

Dionyza does appear,

With Leonine, a murderer.

[Exit.

7 Vail is probably a misprint. Steevens suggests that we should read Hail.' Malone proposes to substitute' wail.'

8 i. e. highly accomplished, perfect. So in Antony and Cleopatra :

And in Green's Tu Quoque :-' From an absolute and most complete gentleman, to a most absurd, riduculous, and fond lover.' 9 See vol. iii. p. 386, note 19.

10 Pregnant in this instance means apt, quick. Prest is ready. 'I do commend to your content.'

11

Steevens conjectures that the poet wrote consent instead of content: but observes that perhaps the passage as it stands may mean I wish you to find content in that portion of our play which has not yet been exhibited.'

SCENE I.

Tharsus. An open Place near the Seashore.
Enter DIONYZA and LEONINE.

Dion.Thy oath remember; thou hast sworn to do it;
"Tis but a blow, which never shall be known.
Thou canst not do a thing i'the world so soon,
To yield thee so much profit. Let not conscience,
Which is but cold, inflaming love, thy bosom
Inflame too nicely; nor let pity, which
Even women have cast off, melt thee, but be
A soldier to thy purpose.

Leon. I'll do't; but yet she is a goodly creature.
Dion. The fitter then the gods should have her.
Here

Weeping she comes for her old nurse's death2.
Thou art resolv'd?

Which is but cold, in flaming thy love bosome,
Enflame too nicelie, nor let pitie,' &c.

Which is but cold, inflame love in thy bosom,
Inflame too nicely, nor let pity,' &c.

Steevens proposed to omit the words Inflame too nicely,' and ' which even,' adding the pronoun that, in the following man

ner:

Let not conscience,

Which is but cold, inflame love in thy bosom;

Nor let that pity women have cast off

Melt thee, but be a soldier to thy purpose.'

The reading I have given is sufficiently intelligible, and deviates less from the old copy. Nicely here means tenderly, fondly. 2 The old copy reads:

'Here she comes weeping for her onely mistresse death.' As Marina had been trained in music, letters, &c. and had gained all the graces of education, Lychorida could not have been her only mistress. The suggestion and emendation are Dr. Percy's. VOL. IX.

F F

Enter MARINA, with a Basket of Flowers.

Mar. No, no, I will rob Tellus of her weed,

3

To strew thy green with flowers: the yellows, blues, The purple violets, and marigolds,

Shall, as a chaplet, hang upon thy grave,

While summer days do last*. Ah me! poor maid,
Born in a tempest, when my mother died,
This world to me is like a lasting storm,
Whirring me from my friends.

Dion. How now, Marina! why do you keep alone"!

3 This is the reading of the quarto copy: the folio reads grave. Weed, in old language, meant garment.

4 So in Cymbeline:

with fairest flowers

While summer lasts, and I live here, Fidele,
I'll sweeten thy sad grave,'

The old copy reads, 'Shall as a carpet hang,' &c. the emendation is by Steevens.

5 Thus the earliest copy. The second quarto, and all subsequent impressions, read :—

'Hurrying me from my friends.'

Whirring or whirrying had formerly the same meaning, a bird that flies with a quick motion is still said to whirr away. The verb to whirry is used in the ballad of Robin Goodfellow, Reliques of Ancient English Poetry, vol. ii. p. 203 :— More swift than winds away I go,

O'er hedge and lands,

Thro' pools and ponds,

I whirry, laughing ho, ho, ho.'

Whirring is often used by Chapman in his version of the Iliad : so in book xvii :

through the Greeks and Ilians they rapt

The whirring chariot.'

The two last lines uttered by Marina, very strongly resemble a passage in Homer's Iliad, b. xx. 1. 377 :

τὰς δ' ἐκ ἐθέλοντας ἄελλαι

Πόντον επ' ἰχθυοέντα ΦΙΛΩΝ ΑΠΑΝΕΥΘΕ ΦΕΡΟΥΣΙΝ. 6 So in Macbeth:

How now, my lord! why do you keep alone?"

And in King Henry IV. Part II. :

'How chance thou art not with the prince thy brother?' Milton employs a similar form of words in Comus, v. 508 :How chance she is not in your company?'

How chance my daughter is not with you? Do not
Consume your blood with sorrowing?: you have
A nurse of me. Lord! how your favour's8 chang'd
With this unprofitable woe! Come, come;

Give me your wreath of flowers. Ere the sea mar it,
Walk forth with Leonine9; the air is quick there,
Plercing, and sharpens well the stomach. Come;-
Leonine, take her by the arm, walk with her.

Mar. No, I pray you;

I'll not bereave you of your servant.

Dion.

Come, come; I love the king your father, and yourself, With more than foreign heart 10. We every day Expect him here: when he shall come, and find Our paragon to all reports 11, thus blasted, He will repent the breadth of his great voyage; Blame both my lord and me, that we have ta'en No care to your best courses. Go, I pray you, Walk, and be cheerful once again; reserve That excellent complexion, which did steal The eyes of young and old. Care not for me; home alone.

I can go

Mar.

Well, I will go;

But yet I have no desire to it.

12

Dion. Come, come, I know 'tis good for you,

7 In King Henry VI. Part II. we have blood-consuming sighs.' See also Hamlet, Act. iv. Sc. 7, note.

8 Countenance, look.

9 i. e. ere the sea by the coming in of the tide mar your walk. 10 That is, with the same warmth of affection as if I was his countryman.

11 Our fair charge, whose beauty was once equal to all that fame said of it. So in Othello:

He hath achiev'd a maid

That paragons description and wild fame.'

13 Reserve has here the force of preserve. So in Shakspeare's thirty-second sonnet :

'Reserve them for my love, not for their rhymes.'

Walk half an hour, Leonine, at the least;
Remember what I have said.

Leon.

I warrant you, madam. Dion. I'll leave you, my sweet lady, for a while; Pray you walk softly, do not heat your blood: What! I must have a care of you.

Mar.

Thanks, sweet madam.

[Exit DIONYZA.

South-west.

Is this wind westerly that blows?

Leon.
Mar. When I was born, the wind was north.
Leon.

Was't so?
Mar. My father, as nurse said, did never fear,
But cry'd, Good seamen! to the sailors, galling
His kingly hands with hauling of the ropes;
And, clasping to the mast, endur'd a sea
That almost burst the deck.

Leon. When was this?

Mar. When I was born:

Never was waves nor wind more violent;
And from the ladder-tackle washes off
A canvass-

s-climber 13. Ha! says one, wilt out? And with a dropping industry they skip

From stem to stern: the boatswain whistles, and The master calls, and trebles their confusion 14. Leon. Come, say your prayers.

13 i. e. a sailor, one who climbs the mast to furl or unfurl the canvass or sails.

14 Mr. Steevens thus regulates and reads this passage:That almost burst the deck, and from the ladder-tackle Wash'd off a canvas-climber. Ha! says one,

Wilt out? and, with a dropping industry

They skip from stem to stern: the boatswain whistles,
The master calls, and trebles their confusion.

Leon. And when was this?

It was when I was born:

Mar.
Never was waves nor wind more violent.

Leon. Come, say your prayers speedily.'