Few love to hear the sins they love to act; He's more secure to keep it shut, than shown: casts 6 For vice repeated, is like the wand'ring wind, Blows dust in others' eyes, to spread itself;] That is, which blows dust, &c. The man who knows of the ill practices of princes, is unwise if he reveals what he knows; for the publisher of vicious actions resembles the wind, which, while it passes along, blows dust into men's eyes. When the blast is over, the eye that has been affected by the dust, suffers no farther pain, but can see as clearly as before; so by the relation of criminal acts, the eyes of mankind (though they are affected, and turn away with horror,) are opened, and see clearly what before was not even suspected: but by exposing the crimes of others, the relater suffers himself; as the breeze passes away, so the breath of the informer is gone; he dies for his temerity. Yet, to stop the course or ventilation of the air, would hurt the eyes; and to prevent informers from divulging the crimes of men would be prejudicial to mankind. Such, I think, is the meaning of this obscure passage. MALONE. 7 The breath is gone, and the sore eyes see clear: To stop the air would hurt them.] Malone has mistaken the meaning of this part of the speech is Pericles :-There should be no stop after the word clear, that line being necessarily connected with the following words; and the meaning is this: "The breath is gone, and the eyes, though sore, see clear enough to stop for the future the air that would annoy them." Malone supposes the sentence to end with the first of these lines, and makes the other a general political aphorism, not perceiving that, "to stop the air would hurt them; means only to "stop the air that would hurt them;" the pronoun being omitted; an ellipsis frequent not only in poetry, but in prose. Pericles means only, by this similitude, to show the danger of revealing the crimes of princes; for as they feel themselves hurt by 5 8 Copp'd hills towards heaven, to tell, the earth is throng'd By man's oppression; and the poor worm doth die for't'. Kings are earth's gods; in vice their law's their will; What being more known grows worse, to smother it. All love the womb that their first beings bred, Then give my tongue like leave to love my head. the publication of their shame, they will, of course, prevent a repetition of it, by destroying the person who divulged it: He pursues the same idea in the instance of the mole, and concludes with requesting that the king would "Give his tongue like leave to love his head." That is, that he would not force his tongue to speak what, if spoken, would prove his destruction. In the second scene Pericles says, speaking of the King: "And what may make him blush in being known, "He'll stop the course by which it might be known." Which confirms my explanation. M. MASON. 8 COPP'D hills-] i. e. rising to a top or head. So, in P. Holland's translation of the eleventh book of Pliny's Natural History, "And few of them have cops or crested tufts upon their heads." Copped Hall, in Essex, was so named from the lofty pavilion on the roof of the old house, which has been since pulled down. The upper tire of masonry that covers a wall is still called the copping or coping. High-crowned hats were anciently called copatain hats. STEEVENS. By man's oppression ;] Old copies-throng'd. change I am answerable. STEEVENS. For this The old reading is more forcible. The earth is oppressed by the injuries which crowd upon her. So, in the Tatler, as quoted by Johnson in his Dictionary in voc.: "His mother could not longer bear the agitation of so many passions as thronged upon her." Boswell. - and the POOR WORM doth die for't,] I suppose he means to call the mole, (which suffers in its attempts to complain of man's injustice) a poor worm, as a term of commiseration. Thus, in The Tempest, Prospero speaking to Miranda, says: "Poor worm! thou art infected." The mole remains secure till he has thrown up those hillocks, ANT. Heaven, that I had thy head! he has found the meaning; But I will gloze with him3. [Aside.] Young prince of Tyre, Though by the tenour of our strict edíct1, Your exposition misinterpreting3, We might proceed to cancel of your days; which, by pointing out the course he is pursuing, enable the vermin-hunter to catch him. STEEVENS. 2 Heaven, that I had thy head!] The speaker may either mean to say, "O, that I had thy ingenuity! or, "O, that I had thy head, sever'd from thy body!" The latter, I believe, is the meaning. MALONE. 3 But I will gloze with him.] So, Gower: "The kinge was wondre sorie tho, "And thought, if that he said it oute, "With slie wordes and with felle "He sayth: My sonne I shall thee telle, 66 Though that thou be of littel witte," &c. MALOne. OUR strict edíct,] The old copy has-your strict edict. Corrected in the folio. 4 MALONE. 5 Your exposition misinterpreting,] Your exposition of the riddle being a mistaken one; not interpreting it rightly. MALONE. to CANCEL of your days;] The quarto, 1609, reads-to counsel of your days; which may mean, to deliberate how long you shall be permitted to live.' But I believe that counsel was merely an error of the press, which the editor of the folio, 1664, corrected by reading-to cancel off your days. The substitution of off for of is unnecessary; for cancel may have been used as a substantive. "We might proceed to the cancellation or destruction of your life." Shakspeare uses the participle cancell'd in the sense required here, in his Rape of Lucrece, 1594: "An expir'd date, cancell'd ere well begun." The following lines in King Richard III. likewise confirm the reading that has been chosen: 66 Cancel his bond of life, dear God, I pray, "That I may live to say, the dog is dead." MALone. To omit the article was formerly a practice not uncommon. So, in Titus Andronicus: " Ascend, fair queen, Pantheon," i. e. the Pantheon. STEEVENS. Again, in King Lear : "Hot questrists after him, met him at gate." MALONE. As your fair self, doth tune us otherwise; [Exeunt ANTIOCHUS, his Daughter, and PER. How courtesy would seem to cover sin! Then were it certain, you were not so bad, 7 FORTY days longer we do respite you ;] In The Gesta Romanorum, Confessio Amantis, and The History of King Appolyn, thirty days only are allowed for the solution of this question. It is difficult to account for this minute variation, but by supposing that our author copied some translation of the Gesta Romanorum hitherto undiscovered. MALone. It is thirty days in Twine's translation. Forty, as I have observed in a note on some other play (I forget which) was the familiar term when the number to be mentioned was not of arithmetical importance. STEEVENS. Mr. Steevens's note may be found in vol. ix. p. 421. BOSWELL. 8 - your entertain shall BE, As doth befit our honour, and your WORTH.] I have no doubt but that these two lines were intended to rhyme together in our author's copy, where originally they might have stood thus: Or, 66 your entertain shall be, "As doth befit our honour, your degree." "As doth our honour fit and your degree." So, in King Richard III. Act III. Sc. VII.: STEEVENS. Where, in this "Best fitteth my degree, and your condition." 9 WHERE now you're both a father and a son.] place, has the power of whereas. So, in The Two Gentlemen of Verona : "And where I thought the remnant of mine age By your untimely claspings with your child, By the defiling of her parent's bed; And both like serpents are, who though they feed On sweetest flowers, yet they poison breed. One sin, I know, another doth provoke; Murder's as near to lust, as flame to smoke. Poison and treason are the hands of sin, Ay, and the targets, to put off the shame: [Exit. Where (and with the same meaning) occurs again in Act II. Sc. III. of this play: "Where now his son's a glow-worm," &c. I for wisdom sees, those men Blush not in actions blacker than the night, STEEVENS. Will SHUN NO course to keep them from the light.] All the old copies read-will shew, but shew is evidently a corruption. The word that I have ventured to insert in the text, in its place, was suggested by these lines in a subsequent scene, which appear to me strongly to support this emendation : "And what may make him blush in being known, "He'll stop the course by which it might be known." We might read 'schew for eschew, if there were any instance of such an abbreviation being used. The expression is here, as in many places in this play, elliptical for wisdom sees, that those who do not blush to commit actions blacker than the night, will not shun any course in order to preserve them from being made publick.' MALONE. 2 to keep you clear,] To prevent any suspicion from falling on you. So, in Macbeth: "always thought, that I 66 Require a clearness." MALONE. |