ress no surprize if the very title of the piece before after, on good authority, to be discarded? Some ges among papers long hoarded up, have discovercted things as an author's own manuscript of an That indeed of Tancred and Gismund, a much (and differing in many parts from the copy printed ow before me. t needless to observe that our dramatick Pericles ast resemblance to his historical namesake; though es of the former are sometimes coincident with Focles, the hero of Sydney's Arcadia; for the amo. e, shipwrecked, musical, tilting, despairing Prince accomplished knight of romance, disguised under a statesman,- ose resistless eloquence elded at will a fierce democratie, -ok th' arsenal, and fulmin'd over Greece." ney's Pyrocles,--Tros, Tyriusve, e world was all before him, where to choose place of rest;" was tied down to Athens, and could not be rethrone in Phœnicia. No poetick licence will pere, classical, and conspicuous name to be thus untransferred. A Prince of Madagascar must not be 5, nor a Duke of Florence Mithridates; for such pecuons would unseasonably remind us of their great orisors. The playwright who indulges himself in these injudicious vagaries, will always counteract his own Thus, as often as the appropriated name of Pericles erves but to expose our author's gross departure shed manners and historick truth; for laborious 1 not designedly produce two personages more opthe settled demagogue of Athens, and the vagabond yre. rkable, that many of our ancient writers were amhibit Sidney's worthies on the stage; and when his agents were advanced to such honour, how hapat Pyrocles, their leader, should be overlooked ? Muis companion,) Argalus and Parthenia, Phalantus Andromana, &c. furnished titles for different tra. 1 perhaps Pyrocles, in the present instance, was dea like distinction. The names invented or employed had once such popularity, that they were sometimes y poets who did not profess to follow the direct cur could have b "00 "W! Again, in G "Pe C Again, ibide "Pe Such theref ame, in th outhful ora very classi By some ges, it will dopts not r words and p td, it is not ncter to be accident mi sound) i ince corrup beld from grees in a copy "far received Sh * Such a reader who The Third mia," the of "an Ate in The Two dore," in the edition e discarded! Aramatick Penin Damesake: thoud s coincident w dia; for the an Zespairing Prince Gisguised unte Greece." o choose uld not be re cence will per to be thus u ar must not be for such pecu their great on mself in these teract his own le of Pericles ss departure For laborious res more op he vagabond r's were amd when his , how hap oked? MuPhalantus fferent tra e, was deemployed ometimes irect cur have been, that of Pericles could challenge no regard to general predilection. I am aware, that a conclusive argument cannot the false quantity in the second syllable of Peric the Athenian was in our author's mind, he mi taught by repeated translations from fragments c in Sir Thomas North's Plutarch, to call his her for instance, in the following couplet: "O Chiron, tell me, first, art thou indeede Again, in George Gascoigne's Steele Glas: "Pericles was a famous man of warre." Such therefore was the poetical pronunciation name, in the age of Shakspeare. The address c youthful orator-Magni pupille Pericli, is familia every classical reader. By some of the observations scattered over the ges, it will be proved that the illegitimate Pericl adopts not merely the ideas of Sir Philip's heroes, words and phraseology. All circumstances there ed, it is not improbable that our author designed racter to be called Pyrocles, not Pericles,* howeve accident might have shuffled the latter (a name c lar sound) into the place of the former. The tru once corrupted or changed in the theatre, was eff held from the publick; and every commentato agrees in a belief that it must have been printed copy "far as Deucalion off" from the manuser received Shakspeare's revisal and improvement. * Such a theatrical mistake will not appear imp reader who recollects that in the fourth scene of The Third Part of King Henry VI, instead of "ti nia," the players have given us-" tigers of Arc of "an Até," in King John," an ace." Instead o in The Two Gentlemen of Verona," Panthion." In lydore," in Cymbeline,-" Paladour” was continue the editions till that of 1773. L2 ater of Antiochus. Dionyza, wife to Cleon. aughter to Simonides. aughter to Pericles and Thaisa. -, nurse to Marina. Diana. ies, knights, gentlemen, sailors, pirates, fishermen, and messengers, &c. SCENE, Dispersedly in various Countries. volis.] This is an imaginary city, and its name might > reader may know through how many regions the evens. rvant. wife to Clean. a. pirates, fisher jes. its name migis meet indeed rica, consisting ellist furnished likewise in the vell as in Gow from it. ntapolis is also Cotton Libra y regions the observe that of Phœnicia ntry of Asia n the Egean f the Lesser 2 ACT I. Enter GOWER. Before the Palace of ANTIOC To sing a song of old was sung, of old was sung,] I do not know that thor used adverbially. We might read: i. e. that of old &c. But the poet is so licentious in the language tributed to Gower in this piece, that I have not v any change. Malone. I have adopted Mr. Malone's emendation, wh ly wanted. Steevens. 3 Gower is come;) The defect of metre being no rhymes) points out, in my opinion, read: From ashes ancient Gower 's sprung; alluding to the restoration of the Phœnix. Ste 4 It hath been sung at festivals, On ember-eves, and holy-ales;] i. e. says whom this emendation was made, church-ales. has-holy days. Gower's speeches were certa rhyme throughout. Malone. 5 of their lives - The old copies reac The emendation was suggested by Dr. Farmer. urchase is to make men glorious; &c. Steevens. n for the air; this night I'll spend copies read-The purchase &c. Mr. Steevens sugemendation. Malone. convinced that all the irregular lines detected in mer Night's Dream, Macbeth, and Pericles, have ged by interpolations which afford no additional In become more confident in my attempt to mend Defore us. Throughout this play it should seem to quent practice of the reciter, or transcriber, to suphich, for some foolish reason or other, were supwanting. Unskilled in the language of poetry, and lly in that which was clouded by an affectation of ese ignorant people regarded many contractions and ndications of somewhat accidentally omitted; and serted only monosyllables or unimportant words in cancies, they conceived themselves to be doing little iberties of this kind must have been taken with the consideration. The measure of it is too regular Dus in many places, for us to think it was utterly the rest. As this play will never be received as mposition of Shakspeare, and as violent disorders cines of proportionable violence, I have been by no alous in striving to reduce the metre to that exactsuppose it originally to have possessed. Of the I should not have availed myself, had I been emy of the undisputed dramas of our author. Those which we are forbidden to perform on living subroperly be attempted on dead ones, among which nay be reckoned; being dead, in its present form es of the stage, and of no very promising life in the te is to make men glorious, quo antiquius eo melius.] The original saying ismmunius, eo melius. se these lines, with their context, to have originally ws, I have so given them: rds and ladies, of their lives read it as restoratives: ose to make men glorious; > antiquius, eo melius. used by ou copies ha Througho pied the L his speech |