3 FISH. We would purge the land of these drones, that rob the bee of her honey. PER. How from the finny subject of the sea All that may men approve, or men detect!- 8 2 FISH. Honest! good fellow, what's that? if it be a day fits you, scratch it out of the calendar, and no body will look after it 9. - 8 the FINNY subject of the sea-] Old copies-fenny. Corrected by Mr. Steevens. MALONE. This thought is not much unlike another in As You Like It: this our life, exempt from publick haunt, 66 "Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, STEEVENS. 9 Honest! good fellow, what's that? if it be a day fits you, SCRATCH it out of the calendar, and no body will look after it.] The old copy reads-if it be a day fits you, search out of the calendar, and nobody look after it. Part of the emendation suggested by Mr. Steevens, is confirmed by a passage in The Coxcomb, by Beaumont and Fletcher, quoted by Mr. Mason: "I fear shrewdly, I should do something “That would quite scratch me out of the calendar." MALONE. The preceding speech of Pericles affords no apt introduction to the reply of the fisherman. Either somewhat is omitted that cannot now be supplied, or the whole passage is obscured by more than common depravation. It should seem that the prince had made some remark on the badness of the day. Perhaps the dialogue originally ran thus: "Per. Peace be at your labour, honest fishermen ; "The day is rough and thwarts your occupation." "2 Fish. Honest! good fellow, what's that? If it be not a day fits you, scratch it out of the calendar, and nobody will look after it.' The following speech of Pericles is equally abrupt and inconsistent: May see the sea hath cast upon your coast." The folio reads: "Y' may see the sea hath cast me upon your coast." I would rather suppose the poet wrote: PER. Nay, see, the sea hath cast upon your coast 2 FISH. What a drunken knave was the sea, to cast thee in our way1! PER. A man whom both the waters and the wind, In that vast tennis-court, hath made the ball For them to play upon 2, entreats you pity him; ! He asks of you, that never us'd to beg. 1 FISH. No, friend, cannot you beg? here's them in our country of Greece, gets more with begging, than we can do with working. 2 FISH. Can'st thou catch any fishes then? PER. I never practis'd it. 2 FISH. Nay, then thou wilt starve sure; for here's nothing to be got now a-days, unless thou cans't* fish for❜t. PER. What I have been, I have forgot to know; But what I am, want teaches me to think on; 66 Nay, see the sea hath cast upon your coast Here the fisherman interposes. The prince then goes on: "A man," &c. STEEVENS. May not here be an allusion to the dies honestissimus of Cicero ?, "If you like the day, find it out in the almanack, and nobody will take it from you." FARMER. The allusion is to the lucky and unlucky days which are put down in some of the old calendars. DOUCE. Some difficulty, however, will remain, unless we suppose a preceding line to have been lost; for Pericles (as the text stands) has said nothing about the day. I suspect that in the lost line he wished the men a good day. MALONE. I to CAST thee in our way!] He is playing on the word cast, which anciently was used both in the sense of to throw, and to vomit. So, in Macbeth: 66 yet I made a shift to cast him." It is used in the latter sense above: " up again." MALONE. 2 - hath made the ball till he cast bells, &c. For them to play upon,] So, in Sidney's Arcadia, book v.: "In such a shadow, &c. mankind lives, that neither they know how to foresee, nor what to feare, and are, like tenis bals, tossed by the racket of the higher powers." STEEVENS. A man throng'd up with cold3: my veins are chill, 1 FISH. Die quoth-a? Now gods forbid! I have a gown here; come, put it on'; keep thee warm. Now, afore me, a handsome fellow! Come thou shalt go home, and we'll have flesh for holidays, fish for fasting-days, and moreo'er puddings and flap-jacks'; and thou shalt be welcome. 3 A man THRONG'D up with cold:] I suspect that throng'd, which is the reading of all the copies, is corrupt. We might read: "A man shrunk with cold; up (It might have been anciently written shronk.) So, in Cymbeline: "The shrinking slaves of winter." MALONE, The expression-shrunk up, is authorised by Pope in his version of the 16th Iliad, 488: "Shrunk up he sat, with wild and haggard eye, "Nor stood to combat, nor had force to fly." STEEVENS. 4 For I am a man,] Old copy-for that I am. I omit that, which is equally unnecessary to sense and metre. So, in Othello: "Haply for I am black." For is because. STEEVENS. 5 I have a gown here, &c.] In the prose history of Kynge Appolyn of Thyre, already quoted, the fisherman also gives him one halfe of his black mantelle for to cover his body with." STEEVENS. 66 6 afore me, a HANDSOME FELLOW!] So, in Twine's translation: "When the fisherman beheld the comelinesse and beautie of the yoong gentleman, he was mooved with compassion towardes him, and led him into his house, and feasted him with such fare as he presently had; and the more amplie to expresse his great affection, he disrobed himselfe of his poore and simple cloake," &c. STEEVENS. 7 flesh for HOLIDAYS, fish for fasting-days, and More-o'er puddings and flap-jacks ;] In the old copy this passage is strangely corrupted. It reads-" flesh for all days, fish for fasting days, and more, or puddings and flap jacks." Dr. Farmer suggested to me the correction of the latter part of the sentence: for the other emendation I am responsible. Mr. M. Mason would VOL. XXI. F PER. I thank you, sir. 2 FISH. Hark you, my friend, you said you could not beg. PER. I did but crave. 2 FISH. But crave? Then I'll turn craver too, and so I shall 'scape whipping. PER. Why, are all your beggars whipped then! 2 FISH. O, not all, my friend, not all; for if all your beggars were whipped, I would wish no better office than to be beadle. But, master, I'll go draw up the net. [Exeunt Two of the Fishermen. PER. How well this honest mirth becomes their labour! 1 FISH. Hark you, sir! do you know where you are? 1 FISH. Why, I'll tell you: this is called Pentapolis, and our king, the good Simonides. PER. Not well. PER. The good king Simonides, do you call him? 1 FISH. Ay, sir; and he deserves to be so called, for his peaceable reign, and good government. PER. He is a happy king, since he gains from his subjects the name of good, by his government. How far is his court distant from this shore? read- "flesh for ale-days: " but this was not, I think, the language of the time; though ales and church-ales was common. MALONE. 66 flap-jacks." In some counties a flap-jack signifies an apple-puff; but anciently it seems to have meant a pancake. But, whatever it was, mention is made of it in Smith's Sea Grammar, 1627: "For when a man is ill, or at the point of death, I would know whether a dish of buttered rice with a little cynamon, ginger, and sugar, a little minced meat, or rost beefe, a few stewed prunes, a race of greene ginger, a flap-jacke, &c. bee not better than a little poore John," &c. STEEVENS. 8 He is a happy king, &c.] This speech, in the old copies, is printed as follows: I have only transposed a few of the words for the sake of metre: "He is a happy king, since he gains from "His subjects the name of good, by his government.” STEEVENS. 2 1 FISH. Marry, sir, half a day's journey; and I'll tell you, he hath a fair daughter, and to-morrow is her birth-day; and there are princes and knights come from all parts of the world, to just and tourney for her love. PER. Were my fortunes equal to my desires, I could wish to make one there 9. 1 FISH. O, sir, things must be as they may; and what a man cannot get, he may lawfully deal for— his wife's soul1. 9 DID but my fortunes equal my desires, I'D wish to make one there.] The old copy as follows: "I could wish to make one there." As all the speeches of Pericles, throughout this scene, were designed to be in metre, they cannot be restored to it without such petty liberties as I have taken in the present instance. STEEVENS. As these speeches cannot be forced into metre without such violent alterations, I have printed them as prose, which, I believe, was the author's intention. BOSWELL. I - and what a man cannot get, &c.] This passage, in its present state, is to me unintelligible. We might read :-"O, sir, things must be as they may; and what a man cannot get, he may not lawfully deal for ;-his wife's soul." Be content; things must be as Providence has appointed ;and what his situation in life does not entitle him to aspire to, he ought not to attempt;-the affections of a woman in a higher sphere than his own.' Soul is in other places used by our author for love.―Thus, in Measure for Measure : - we have with special soul "Elected him, our absence to supply." MALONE. 'Things must be (says the speaker) as they are appointed to be; and what a man is not sure to compass, he has yet a just right to attempt.'-Thus far the passage is clear. The Fisherman may then be supposed to begin a new sentence- His wife's soul-but here he is interrupted by his comrades. He might otherwise have proceeded to say-The good will of a wife indeed is one of the things which is difficult of attainment. A husband is in the right to strive for it, but after all his pains may fail to secure it.'-I wish his brother fishermen had called off his attention before he had time to utter his last three words. STEEVENS. The Fisherman means, I think, to say,-"What a man cannot |