Chaucer also refers to this story in The Man of Lawe's Pro logue: "Or elles of Tyrius Appolonius, "How that the cursed king Antiochus "Beraft his doughter of hire maidenhede, "That is so horrible a tale for to rede" &c. There are three French translations of this tale, viz.-" La Chronique d'Appollin, Roy de Thyr;" 4to. Geneva, b. 1. no date; and "Plaisante et agreable Histoire d'Appollonius Prince de Thyr en Affrique, et Roi d'Antioche; traduit par Gilles Corozet," 8vo. Paris, 1530;-and (in the seventh volume of the Histoires Tragiques &c. 12mo. 1604, par François Belle-Forest, &c.) "Accidens diuers aduenus à Appollonie Roy des Tyriens: ses malheurs sur mer, ses pertes de femme & fille, & la fin heureuse de tous ensemble." In the introduction to this last novel, the translator says:Ayant en main une histoire tiree du Grec, & icelle ancienne, comme aussi je l'ay recuellie d'un vieux livre écrit à la main" &c. But the present story, as it appears in Belle-forest's collection, (Vol. VII. p. 113, & seq.) has yet a further claim to our notice, as it had the honour (p. 148-9) of furnishing Dryden with the outline of his Alexander's Feast. Langbaine, &c. have accused this great poet of adopting circumstances from the Histoires Tragiques, among other French novels; a charge, however, that demands neither proof nor apology. The popularity of this tale of Apollonius, may be inferred from the very numerous MS. in which it appears. Tho Both editions of Twine's translation are now before me. mas Twine was the continuator of Phaer's Virgil, which was left imperfect in the year 1558. In Twine's book our hero is repeatedly called-" Prince of Tyrus." It is singular enough that this fable should have been re-published in 1607, the play entered on the books of the Stationers' Company in 1608, and printed in 1609. I must still add a few words concerning the piece in question. Numerous are our unavoidable annotations on it. Yet it has been so inveterately corrupted by transcription, interpolation, &c. that were it published, like the other dramas of Shakspeare, with scrupulous warning of every little change which necessity compels an editor to make in it, his comment would more than treble the quantity of his author's text. If, therefore, the silent insertion or transposition of a few harmless syllables which do not affect the value of one sentiment throughout the whole, can obviate those defects in construction and harmony which have hitherto molested the reader, why should not his progress be facilitated by such means, rather than by a wearisome appeal to remarks that disturb attention, and contribute to diminish whatever interest might otherwise have been awakened by the scenes before him? If any of the trivial supplements, &c. introduced by the present editor are found to be needless or improper, let him be freely censured by his successors, on the score of rashness or want of judgment. Let the Nimrods of ifs and ands pursue him; let the champions of nonsense that bears the stamp of antiquity, couch their rusty lances at the desperate innovator. To the severest hazard, on this account, he would more cheerfully expose himself, than leave it to be observed that he had printed many passages in Pericles without an effort to exhibit them (as they must have originally appeared) with some obvious meaning, and a tolerable flow of versification. The pebble which aspires to rank with diamonds, should at least have a decent polish bestowed on it. Perhaps the piece here exhibited has merit insufficient to engage the extremest vigilance of criticism. Let it on the whole, however, be rendered legible, before its value is estimated, and then its minutia (if they deserve it) may become objects of contention. The old perplexed and vitiated copy of the play is by no means rare; and if the reader, like Pericles, should think himself qualified to evolve the intricacies of a riddle, be it remembered, that the editor is not an Antiochus, who would willingly subject him to such a labour. That I might escape the charge of having attempted to conceal the liberties taken with this corrupted play, have I been thus ample in my confession. I am not conscious that in any other drama I have changed a word, or the position of a syllable, without constant and formal notice of such deviations from our author's text. To these tedious prolegomena may I subjoin that, in consequence of researches successfully urged by poetical antiquaries, I should express no surprize if the very title of the piece before us were hereafter, on good authority, to be discarded? Some lucky rummages among papers long hoarded up, have discovered as unexpected things as an author's own manuscript of an ancient play. That indeed of Tancred and Gismund, a much older piece, (and differing in many parts from the copy printed in 1592) is now before me. It is almost needless to observe that our dramatick Pericles has not the least resemblance to his historical namesake; though the adventures of the former are sometimes coincident with those of Pyrocles, the hero of Sidney's Arcadia; for the amorous, fugitive, shipwrecked, musical, tilting, despairing Prince of Tyre is an accomplished knight of romance, disguised under the name of a statesman, "Whose resistless eloquence "Wielded at will a fierce democratie, "Shook th' arsenal, and fulmin'd over Greece." As to Sidney's Pyrocles,-Tros, Tyriusve, "The world was all before him, where to choose but Pericles was tied down to Athens, and could not be removed to a throne in Phoenicia. No poetick licence will permit a unique, classical, and conspicuous name to be thus unwarrantably transferred. A Prince of Madagascar must not be called Æneas, nor a Duke of Florence Mithridates; for such peculiar appellations would unseasonably remind us of their great original pos sessors. The playwright who indulges himself in these wanton and injudicious vagaries, will always counteract his own purpose. Thus, as often as the appropriated name of Pericles occurs, it serves but to expose our author's gross departure from established manners and historick truth; for laborious fiction could not designedly produce two personages more opposite than the settled demagogue of Athens, and the vagabond Prince of Tyre. こ It is remarkable, that many of our ancient writers were ambitious to exhibit Sidney's worthies on the stage; and when his subordinate agents were advanced to such honour, how happened it that Pyrocles, their leader, should be overlooked? Musidorus, (his companion,) Argalus and Parthenia, Phalantus and Eudora, Andromana, &c. furnished titles for different tragedies; and perhaps Pyrocles, in the present instance, was defrauded of a like distinction. The names invented or employed by Sidney, had once such popularity, that they were sometimes borrowed by poets who did not profess to follow the direct current of his fables, or attend to the strict preservation of his characters. Nay, so high was the credit of this romance, that many a fashionable word and glowing phrase selected from it, was applied, like a Promethean torch, to contemporary sonnets, and gave a transient life even to those dwarfish and enervate bantlings of the reluctant Muse. I must add, that the Appolyn of the Story-book and Gower, could have been rejected only to make room for a more favourite name; yet, however conciliating the name of Pyrocles might have been, that of Pericles could challenge no advantage with regard to general predilection. I am aware, that a conclusive argument cannot be drawn from the false quantity in the second syllable of Pericles; and yet if the Athenian was in our author's mind, he might have been taught by repeated translations from fragments of satiric poets in Sir Thomas North's Plutarch, to call his hero Pericles; as for instance, in the following couplet: "O Chiron, tell me, first, art thou indeede the man. Again, in George Gascoigne's Steele Glas: "Pericles stands in rancke amongst the rest." Again, ibidem: "Pericles was a famous man of warre." Such therefore was the poetical pronunciation of this proper name, in the age of Shakspeare. The address of Persius to a youthful orator-Magni pupille Pericli, is familiar to the ear of every classical reader. By some of the observations scattered over the following pages, it will be proved that the illegitimate Pericles occasionally adopts not merely the ideas of Sir Philip's heroes, but their very words and phraseology. All circumstances therefore considered, it is not improbable that our author designed his chief character to be called Pyrocles, not Pericles, however ignorance or accident might have shuffled the latter (a name of almost similar sound) into the place of the former. The true name, when once corrupted or changed in the theatre, was effectually withheld from the publick; and every commentator on this play agrees in a belief that it must have been printed by means of "far as a copy Deucalion off" from the manuscript which had received Shakspeare's revisal and improvement. STEEVENS. * Such a theatrical mistake will not appear improbable to the reader who recollects that in the fourth scene of the first Act of The Third Part of King Henry VI. instead of "tigers of Hircania," the players have given us-"tigers of Arcadia." Instead of “an Até,” in King John," an ace." Instead of "Panthino," in The Two Gentlemen of Verona,-"Panthion." Instead of "Polydore," in Cymbeline,-" Paladour" was continued through all the editions till that of 1773. Antiochus, King of Antioch. Helicanus, two Lords of Tyre. Escanes, Simonides, King of Pentapolis.' Thaliard, a Lord of Antioch. Philemon, Servant to Cerimon. Leonine, Servant to Dionyza. Marshall. A Pandar, and his Wife. Boult, their Servant. Gower, as Chorus. The Daughter of Antiochus. Dionyza, Wife to Cleon. Marina, Daughter to Pericles and Thaisa. Lords, Ladies, Knights, Gentlemen, Sailors, Pirates, 1 SCENE, dispersedly in various Countries. 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 novellist 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; Tarsus, 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. |