THAI. That Thaisa am I, supposed dead,

And drown'd.'

PER. Immortal Dian!

THAI.

Now I know you better.When we with tears parted Pentapolis, The king, my father, gave you such a ring.

[Shows a Ring.

PER. This, this: no more, you gods! your present kindness

Makes my past miseries sport: You shall do well,
That on the touching of her lips I may
Melt, and no more be seen. O come, be buried
A second time within these arms.*

1- supposed dead,

And drown'd.] Supposed dead, and that my death was by drowning. MALONE.

Drown'd, in this instance, does not signify suffocated by water, but overwhelmed in it. Thus, in Knolles's History: "Galleys might be drowned in the harbour with the great ordnance, before they could be rigged." STEEVENS.

This, this: no more, you gods! your present kindness
Makes my past miseries sport:] So, in King Lear:
"It is a chance that does redeem all sorrows
"That ever I have felt."

MALONE.

I may

Melt, and no more be seen.] This is a sentiment which Shakspeare never fails to introduce on occasions similar to the present. So, in Othello:

66 - If it were now to die
""Twere now to be most happy," &c.

Again, in The Winter's Tale:

"If I might die within this hour, I have liv'd
"To die when I desire." MALONE.

Melt, and no more be seen.] So, in the 39th Psalm:-"0 spare me a little, that I may recover my strength, before I go hence, and be no more seen.' STEEVENS.

99

O come, be buried

A second time within these arms.] So, in The Winter's Tale:

MAR

Leaps to be

gone

into my

1 me a TMy heart mother's bosom.

[Kneels to THAISA.

PER. Look, who kneels here! Flesh of thy flesh,

Thaisa;

Thy burden at the sea, and call'd Marina,
For she was yielded there..

THAI.
Bless'd, and mine own!"
HEL. Hail, madam, and my queen!

I know

VOL. XXI.

THAI

you not.

PER. You have heard me say, when I did fly from
Tyre,

I left behind an ancient substitute.

!

Can you remember what I call'd the man?

I have nam'd him oft.

THAI.

'Twas Helicanus then.

PER. Still confirmation:
Embrace him, dear Thaisa; this is he.
Now do I long to hear how you were found;
How possibly preserv'd; and whom to thank,
Besides the gods, for this great miracle.

THAI. Lord Cerimon, my lord; this man Through whom the gods have shown their power;

that can

From first to last resolve you.

PER.

"Not like a corse; or if not to be buried,
“But quick, and in mine arms.' MALONE.

99

Reverend sir,

5 Bless'd, and mine own!] So, in The Winter's Tale:

"Tell me, mine own,

"Where hast thou been preserv'd? Where liv'd? How

found

"Thy father's court?"

MALONE.

2 c

The gods can have no mortal officer
More like a god than you, Will you deliver
How this dead queen re-lives?

CER.

I will, my lord. Beseech you, first go with me to my house, Where shall be shown you all was found with her; How she came placed here within the temple; No needful thing omitted.

PER.

Thaisa,

Pure Diana! I bless thee for thy vision, and will offer My night oblations to thee. This prince, the fair-betrothed" of your daughter, Shall marry her at Pentapolis, And now, This ornament that makes me look so dismal, Will I, my lov'd Marina, elip to form; And what this fourteen years no razor touch'd, To grace thy marriage-day, I'll beautify."

8

I bless thee] For the insertion of the personal pronoun I am responsible. "MALONE.

7

the fair betrothed-] i. e. fairly contracted, honourably affianced, STEEVENS.

-Thaisa,

This prince, the fair-betrothed of your daughter,

Shall marry her at Pentapolis.] So, in the last scene of The Winter's Tale, Leontes informs Paulina:

66

This your son-in-law,

"And son unto the king, (whom heavens directing,) Is troth-plight to your daughter." MALONE.

And now,

This ornament that makes me look so dismal,
Will I, my lov'd Marina, clip to form;

And what this fourteen years no razor touch'd,

"C

To grace thy marriage-day, I'll beautify.] So, in Much Ado about Nothing: the barber's man hath been seen with him; and the old ornament of his cheek hath already stuffed tennis balls."

The author has here followed Gower, or Gesta Romanorum:

THAI. Lord Cerimon hath letters of good credit, Sir, that my father's dead.

PER. Heavens make a star of him! Yet there, my queen,

We'll celebrate their nuptials, and ourselves
Will in that kingdom spend our following days;
Our son and daughter shall in Tyrus reign.
Lord Cerimon, we do our longing stay,
To hear the rest untold.-Sir, lead the way.2

[Exeunt.

- this a vowe to God I make "That I shall never for hir sake, "My berde for no likynge shave, "Till it befalle that I have "In convenable time of age "Besette hir unto marriage." The word so in the first line, and the words-my lov'd Marina, in the second, which both the sense and metre require, I have supplied. MALONE.

Confessio Amantis.

The author is in this place guilty of a slight inadvertency. It was but a short time before, when Pericles arrived at Tharsus, and heard of his daughter's death, that he made a vow never to wash his face or cut his hair. M. MASON.

See p. 283, n. 3; where, if my reading be not erroneous, a proof will be found that this vow was made almost immediately after the birth of Marina; and consequently that Mr. M. Mason's present remark has no sure foundation. ŠTEevens.

"

1 Heavens make a star of him!] So, in Romeo and Juliet: "Take him and cut him into little starsAgain, in Cymbeline :

66

for they are fit

"To inlay heaven with stars." STEEVENS.

Sir, lead the way.] Dr. Johnson has justly objected to the lame and impotent conclusion of The Second Part of King Henry IV: "Come, will you hence?" The concluding line of The Winter's Tale furnishes us with one equally abrupt, and nearly resembling the present:-"Hastily lead away.' This passage will justify the correction of the old copy now made. It reads-Sir, leads the way. MALONE.

95

Enter GoWER.

Gow. In Antioch, and his daughter, you
have heard

Of monstrous lust the due and just reward:
In Pericles, his queen and daughter, seen
(Although assail'd with fortune fierce and
keen,)

Virtue preserv'd from fell destruction's blast,
Led on by heaven, and crown'd with joy at
last.*

In Helicanus may you well descry
A figure of truth, of faith, of loyalty:
In reverend Cerimon there well appears,
The worth that learned charity aye wears.
For wicked Cleon and his wife, when fame
Had spread their cursed deed, and honour'd
name5

Of Pericles, to rage the city turn;
That him and his they in his palace burn.

In Antioch, and his daughter,] The old copies read-In Antiochus and his daughter, &c. The correction was suggested by Mr. Steevens. "So, (as he observes,) in Shakspeare's other plays, France, for the king of France; Morocco, for the king of Morocco," &c. MALONE.

f

Virtue preserv'd from fell destruction's blast,

Led on by heaven, and crown'd with joy at last.] All the copies are here, I think, manifestly corrupt.-They read: Virtue preferr'd from fell destruction's blast——:

The gross and numerous errors of even the most accurate copy of this play, will, it is hoped, justify the liberty that has been taken on this and some other occasions.

It would be difficult to produce from the works of Shakspeare many couplets more spirited and harmonious than this.

MALONE.

5

and honour'd name-] The first and second quarto read the honour'd name. The reading of the text, which appears to me more intelligible, is that of the folio 1664. The city is here used for the collective body of the citizens. MALONE.