Malone reads, for the metre, "the very minute," &c. P. 434. (191) "this cannot be: My daughter's buried." Here the old eds. omit "'", see notes (70), (78), (175). P. 434. (192) “You scorn: believe me, 'twere best I did give o'er.” In consequence of what immediately follows, Malone altered this to "You'll scarce believe me; 'twere best I did give o'er." P. 435. (193) "She never would tell," &c. The usual modern alteration, for the metre, is " She would never tell," &c. P. 436. (194) "Thou'st been godlike perfect,—thou'rt the heir of kingdoms, The old eds. have "Thou hast beene God-like perfit, the heir of kingdomes, And another like to Pericles thy father," which cannot be right.—Malone prints, "Thou hast been godlike perfect,-the heir of kingdoms, I adopt, with a slight variation, the conjectural emendation of Mason,- And another life to Pericles thy father." (In his preceding speech Pericles addresses Marina as "Thou that begett'st him that did thee beget;" and afterwards,-see note (197),—the old eds. have, by mistake, "like" for "life").—Still the passage, as it now stands, is not Shakesperian in metre ;— and here the hand of Shakespeare is visible ;-nor does the regulation of the old eds. go for any thing: qy. “Thou hast been godlike perfect,—thou art then The heir of kingdoms, and another life To Pericles thy father"? P. 436. (195) 66 'My lord, I hear. [Music." The old eds. have "Musicke my Lord, I heare." But in this speech, as in an earlier one (see note (3)), “Musicke” is a stage-direction crept into the text. The author evidently intended that the Music (a prelude to the appearance of Diana), which had already been ringing in the ears of Pericles, should now be heard by the audience, though those on the stage with Pericles were supposed not to hear it. (The modern editors print, strangely enough, P. 436. (196) 66 Music? My lord, I hear—”) "Well, my companion friends," &c. Malone would read "Well, my companion friend," &c., making this a speech of Marina to her female companion; or else, retaining the old text here with the prefix Marina, he would read in a former speech, p. 432, “my companion maids," since we have been told, p. 431, that Marina was "with her fellow maids," &c. 66 The old eds. have " to the like ;"-which Mr. Knight retains! and which Mr. Collier (though he prints "life") says was most probably an error of the press," "—as if there could be any doubt of it, a rhyme being required to "wife.”—The earlier part of this speech is mutilated; the whole having been originally in rhyme. P. 437. (198) “Or perform my bidding, or thou liv'st in woe; Awake, and tell thy dream." In the first line the usual modern reading is "Perform my bidding," &c.; in the second "Do't, and be happy," &c.,-quite wrong, for the context shows that "and happy" is equivalent to "and thou liv'st happy."-Mr. Knight's punctuation, “by my silver bow Awake, and tell thy dream." destroys all meaning. Diana declares "by her silver bow" that Pericles shall be either wretched or happy, as he disobeys or obeys her bidding. So Malone. The old eds. have "another sleight." Rowe printed "then done."-"There are many as imperfect rhymes in this play [and in the much earlier writers who are imitated in Gower's speeches] as that of the present couplet. So, in a former chorus, moons and dooms. Again, at the end of this, soon and doom" [but see note (202)]. MALONE. P. 437. (201) "This, my last boon, give me,— For such kindness must relieve me,-" &c. Steevens reads "This, as my last," &c. ;-an addition which, as he himself confesses, only partially assists the metre. (What the author wrote was perhaps not unlike—“ This, my last boon, deign to give me,—”) Steevens, for the rhyme, gives "thankful boon,” and cites in support of the change the third line of this speech: see, however, note (200). P. 438. (203) "At Pentapolis the fair Thaisa." Usually altered by the modern editors to "The fair Thaisa at Pentapolis." With the exception of the fourth folio, the old eds. have "whom, O Goddesse," &c. (See vol. iv. p. 528, note (43). "Whom" as a nominative is much less endurable in a modern edition than "who" (see the next line but one) as an accusative.) So the quarto of 1619 and the later old eds.-The first quarto has "What meanes the mum ?" from which perhaps we might elicit "What means she? mum !" P. 440. (206) "Lord Cerimon, my lord; this man,” &c. The author, I should suppose, wrote here, "Lord Cerimon, my lord; this man, through whom A speech so corrupted that it admits of no tolerable arrangement.-I follow here the quarto of 1609, except that in the second line I have added the pronoun "L"-The usual modern refiction is, "Pure Diana, I bless thee for thy vision, and [so the sec. quarto] will offer My night oblations to thee. Thaisa, This prince, the fair betrothed of your daughter Shall marry her at Pentapolis. And now This ornament, that [so the sec. quarto] makes me look so dismal, Will I, my lov'd Marina, clip to form," &c. |