Luc.

Sooth. Here, my good lord.
Luc.

Philarmonus,

Read, and declare the meaning. Sooth. [Reads.] When as a lion's whelp shall, to himself unknown, without seeking find, and be embraced by a piece of tender air; and when from a stately cedar shall be lopped branches, which, being dead many years, shall after revive, be jointed to the old stock and freshly grow; then shall Posthumus end his miseries, Britain be fortunate, and flourish in peace and plenty.

Thou, Leonatus, art the lion's whelp;
The fit and apt construction of thy name,
Being Leo-natus, doth import so much:

My peace we will begin. And, Caius Lucius,
Although the victor, we submit to Cæsar,
And to the Roman empire; promising
To pay our wonted tribute, from the which
We were dissuaded by our wicked queen;
Whom heavens, in justice, both on her and hers
Have laid most heavy hand.

Sooth. The fingers of the powers above do tune
The harmony of this peace. The vision
Which I made known to Lucius, ere the stroke
Of this yet scarce-cold battle, at this instant
Is full accomplished: for the Roman eagle,
From south to west on wing soaring aloft,

[To Cymbeline.] The piece of tender air, thy virtu- Lessened herself and in the beams o' the sun

ous daughter,

Which we call mollis aer; and mollis aer
We term it mulier: which mulier I divine,
Is this most constant wife; who, even now,
Answering the letter of the oracle,
Unknown to you, unsought, were clipped about
With this most tender air.

Cym.
This hath some seeming.
Sooth. The lofty cedar, royal Cymbeline,
Personates thee: and thy lopped branches point
Thy two sons forth: who, by Belarius stolen,
For many years thought dead, are now revived,
To the majestic cedar joined; whose issue
Promises Britain peace and plenty.
Cym.

178

So vanished which foreshowed our princely eagle,
The imperial Cæsar, should again unite
His favour with the radiant Cymbeline,
Which shines here in the west.

Well,

1417

PERICLES, PRINCE OF TYRE.

THIS play was not included in the Folio of 1623. It first appears in print in quarto in 1609, with the title, "The late and much admired Play, called Pericles, Prince of Tyre. With the true relation of the whole Historie, adventures and fortunes of the said Prince: As also, the no lesse strange and worthy accidents, in the Birth and Life of his daughter Mariana. As it hath been divers and sundry times acted by his Majesties Servants, at the Globe on the Banck-side. By William Shakespeare." Other quarto editions appeared in 1611, 1619, 1630, 1635, 1639: after which it was inserted in the Third Folio, 1664, and the Fourth Folio, 1685. Though the authorship, as we have seen, is distinctly claimed on the title-page of the first known edition, the omission of the play by the editors of the Folio of 1623, with certain difficulties in the story and the execution, have caused its claims to be considered the entire work of Shakespeare to be regarded very generally with suspicion. "This impression," as Staunton remarks, "is derived partly from the style, the general structure of the verse and the want of individualization in the characters, and partly from the nature of the fable: the revolting story of Antiochus and his daughter being one which it is not easy to believe Shakespeare would ever have chosen as a subject for representation." It may be remarked, however, that the beautiful nature of Marina, with the character of Pericles and their interesting vicissitudes of fortune, go far to redeem the incidental grossness of particular passages. This is shown in the fine use of the play by Charles Lamb in his beautiful transcript of the story in his "Tales from Shakespeare." In the opinion of Knight, Pericles was "in some form a very early work of Shakespeare, with the character of the early drama impressed upon it.”

The mediæval story upon which the play is founded was introduced by Gower as one of the narratives in his "Confessio Amantis," an imitation of whose style appears in the verses assigned to the poet in the drama. There was also a prose translation of the old Latin story published in English in 1576. The apparent imperfections of the text derived from the Quartos cause regret that this play, like the others preceding it, had not the benefit of being printed under the supervision of the editors of the First Folio. In the choice of readings we have been indebted to the edition by Knight, and more particularly to that of the Cambridge editors, Messrs. Clark and Wright.

PERICLES, PRINCE OF TYRE.

ACT I.