The Project Gutenberg eBook of Shakspeare and His Times (Vol. II. of II.), by Nathan Drake, M.D.

[268:A] As this is the only scene in the play which disgusts from its total dereliction of nature, a result at once decisive as to Shakspeare having no property in it; and as the mere omission of a few lines, not a word being either added or altered, will be sufficient to render the whole probable and inoffensive, I cannot avoid wishing that such curtailment might be adopted in every future edition.

SCENE V.

Pentapolis. A Room in the Palace.

Enter Simonides and the Knights: Simonides reading a letter.

Knights. May we not get access to her, my lord?

Sim. 'Faith, by no means; it is impossible.

Knights. Though loath to bid farewell, we take our leaves.

(Exeunt.

Sim. So—
They're well dispatch'd; now to my daughter's letter:
She tells me here, she'll wed the stranger knight;
Well, I commend her choice;
And will no longer have it be delay'd.
Soft, here he comes:—I must dissemble it.

Enter Pericles.

Per. All fortune to the good Simonides!

Sim. To you as much, sir! I am beholden to you,
For your sweet musick this last night: my ears,
I do protest, were never better fed
With such delightful pleasing harmony.

Per. It is your grace's pleasure to commend;

Not my desert.

Sim.. Sir, you are musick's master.

Per. The worst of all her scholars, my good lord.

Sim. Let me ask one thing. What do you think, sir, of

My daughter?

Per. As of a most virtuous princess.

Sim. And she is fair too, is she not?

Per. As a fair day in summer; wondrous fair.

Sim. My daughter, sir, thinks very well of you;

Ay, so well, that——peruse this writing, sir.

Per. What's here!
A letter, that she loves the knight of Tyre?
'Tis the king's subtilty, to have my life.
(Aside.
O, seek not to intrap, my gracious lord,
A stranger and distressed gentleman,
That never aim'd so high, to love your daughter,
But bent all offices to honour her.

Sim. Thou hast bewitch'd my daughter, and thou art

A traitor.

Per. By the gods, I have not, sir.
Never did thought of mine levy offence;
Nor never did my actions yet commence
A deed might gain her love, or your displeasure.
My actions are as noble as my thoughts,
That never relish'd of a base descent.
I came unto your court, for honour's cause,
And not to be a rebel to her state;
And he that otherwise accounts of me,
This sword shall prove he's honour's enemy.

Sim. Now, by the gods, I do applaud his courage.

(Aside.

Here comes my daughter, she can witness it.

Enter Thaisa.

Yea, mistress, are you so perémptory?
(Addressing his daughter.
Will you, not having my consent, bestow
Your love and your affections on a stranger?—
Hear, therefore, mistress; frame your will to mine,—
And you, sir, hear you.—Either be rul'd by me,
Or I will make you—man and wife.—
And for a further grief,—God give you joy!
What, are you both agreed?

Thais. Yes, if you love me, sir.

(Addressing Pericles.

Per. Even as my life, my blood that fosters it.

(Exeunt.

Thus contracted, the scene would no longer excite the "supreme contempt" which Mr. Steevens expresses for it, adding in reference to its original state, "such another gross, nonsensical dialogue, would be sought for in vain among the earliest and rudest efforts of the British theatre. It is impossible not to wish that the Knights had horse-whipped Simonides, and that Pericles had kicked him off the stage."

[271:A] For the sake of perspicuity, I have substituted the word "knowledge," as synonymous with "cunning," the term in the original.

[272:A] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. xxi. p. 181. Act i. sc. 2.

[273:A] Ibid. p. 213, 214. Act ii. sc. 1.

[273:B] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. xxi. p. 221. Act ii. sc. 1.

[273:C] Ibid. p. 353. Act v. sc. 1.

[274:A] Reed's Shakspeare, p. 371. Act v. sc. 1.

[274:B] Ibid. vol. xxi. p. 374. Act v. sc. 1.

[275:A] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. xxi. p. 384. Act v. sc. 3.

[276:A] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. xxi. pp. 284, 285. Act iii. sc. 4.

[276:B] Ibid. vol. xxi. pp. 297-299. Act iv. sc. 1.

[276:C]

—————————— "With fairest flowers,
While summer lasts, and I live here, Fidele,
I'll sweeten thy sad grave. Thou shalt not lack
The flower that's like thy face, pale primrose, nor
The azur'd hare-bell, like thy veins, no nor
The leaf of eglantine, whom not to slander
Out-sweeten'd not thy breath."

[277:A] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. xxi. p. 305. Act iv. sc. 1.

[278:A] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. xxi. p. 341. Act iv. sc. 6.—Much of the dialogue which passes among the worthless inhabitants of this bagnio, is seasoned with the strong and characteristic humour of Shakspeare. Boult, a servant of the place, being ordered to cry Marina through the market of Mitylene, describing her personal charms, is asked, on his return, how he found the inclination of the people, to which he replies,

"'Faith, they listened to me, as they would have hearkened to their father's testament. There was a Spaniard's mouth so watered, that he went to bed to her very description.

"Bawd. We shall have him here to-morrow with his best ruff on.

"Boult. To-night, to-night. But, mistress, do you know the French knight that cowers i' the hams?

"Bawd. Who? Monsieur Veroles?

"Boult. Ay; he offered to cut a caper at the proclamation; but he made a groan at it, and swore he would see her to-morrow."

Act iv. sc. 3.

"If," says Mr. Malone, alluding to the lines in Italics, "there were no other proof of Shakspeare's hand in this piece, this admirable stroke of humour would furnish decisive evidence of it."

[279:A] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. xxi. pp. 365, 366. Act v. sc. 1. The similar passage in Twelfth Night will occur to every one.

[279:B] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. xxi. p 371. Act v. sc. 1.

[279:C] Ibid. p. 388.—Milton appears to have read Pericles with attention, and to have caught some of its phraseology, a circumstance strongly confirmatory of the genuineness of the play: thus Gower, in the opening lines, speaking of Antiochus, says,—

"This king unto him took a pheere,
Who died and left a female heir,
So buxom, blithe, and full of face,
As heaven had lent her all her grace;"

a passage which evidently hung on Milton's ear, when, in his L'Allegro, he is describing the uncertain origin of Euphrosyne:—

"Fill'd her with thee a daughter fair,

So buxom, blithe, and debonair."

Again, in the first edition of Lycidas, v. 157., a very significant epithet seems to have been copied from the same source:—

"Where thou perhaps under the HUMMING tide:"

Milton.

"The belching whale,

And HUMMING water must o'erwhelm thy corpse."

Pericles.

It is remarkable, that when Milton, in his second edition, altered the word to whelming, he still clung to his former prototype.

The notice may appear whimsical or trifling, but I cannot help observing here, that a few lines of the initiatory address of Gower irresistibly remind me of some of the cadences of The Lay of the Last Minstrel; for instance, this contemporary of Chaucer, alluding to the antiquity of his song, says,—

"It hath been sung at festivals,
On ember-eves, and holy ales;
And lords and ladies of their lives,
Have read it for restoratives:—
If you, born in these latter times,
When wit's more ripe, accept my rhymes,
And that to hear an old man sing,
May to your wishes pleasure bring,
I life would wish, and that I might
Waste it for you, like taper-light."

[281:A] Prologue to the Tragedy of Circe, by Charles D'Avenant. 1675.

[282:A]

"Amazde I stood to see a crowd
Of civil throats stretch'd out so lowd:
(As at a new play) all the roomes
Did swarm with gentiles mix'd with groomes;
So that I truly thought all these
Came to see Shore or Pericles."

[282:B] "I was ne'er at one of these before; but I should have seen Jane Shore, and my husband hath promised me any time this twelvemonth to carry me to The Bold Beauchamps."—The Knight of the Burning Pestle.

[282:C]

—————— "There is an old tradition,
That in the times of mighty Tamburlaine,
Of conjuring Faustus, and The Beauchamps Bold,
Your poets used to have the second day."

A Playhouse to be Let.

[283:A] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. ii. p. 249.

[283:B] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. xxi. pp. 152, 153.

[284:A] Many instances of this kind have been pointed out by Mr. Steevens, in his notes on the play; namely, at pages 208. 213. 221. 227, 228. 258. 302.; and the list might be much enlarged by a careful collation of the two productions.

[284:B] Where the chapter is entitled "The pitifull state and story of the Paphlagonian unkinde king and his kinde sonne, first related by the sonne, then by the blind father."

[285:A] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. xxi. p. 400.

[285:B] Vide Censura Literaria, vol. ix. p. 46.

[285:C] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. xxi. p. 407. note.

[285:D] Ibid. p. 391. note.

[286:A] Vide Douce's Illustrations of Shakspeare, vol. ii. pp. 127, 128.

[286:B] Supplemental Apology, pp. 274. et seq.

[286:C] Vol. i. pp. 398-400.

[287:A] For this paragraph, the reader is referred to p. 282. of the original edition, or to p. 46. of the ninth volume of the Censura Literaria.

[287:B] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. xx. p. 461. note.

[288:A] For specimens of the doggrel verse which preceded and accompanied the era of the Comedy of Errors, see Reed's Shakspeare, vol. xx. pp. 462, 463.

[288:B] The addition of the twin servants to their twin masters, doubles the improbability, while it adds to the fund of entertainment.

[289:A] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. ii. p. 262.

[290:A] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. ii. p. 264.

[291:A] Vide Chalmers's Supplemental Apology, pp. 281, 282.; and Douce's Illustrations, vol. i. p. 238.

[291:B] Vol. i. p. 498-9, edit. 1598.

[291:C] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. vii. p. 151. note; and Chalmers's Supplemental Apology, p. 283.

[292:A] Vide Reed's Shakspeare, vol. iii. p. 355. note.

[293:A] An Essay on the Dramatic Character of Sir John Falstaff. 8vo. 1777, p. 49.

[293:B] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. ii. p. 241.—It is conjectured by Mr. Malone, that Shakspeare, for the advantage of his own theatre, having written a few lines in The First Part of King Henry VI., after his own Second and Third Part had been played, the editors of the first Folio conceived this a sufficient warrant for attributing it, along with the others, to him, in the general collection of his works. Vol. xiv. p. 259. His prior supposition, however, "that they gave it a place as a necessary introduction to the two other parts," especially if we consider the great popularity which it had enjoyed, and the general ignorance of the audience in historical lore, will sufficiently account, in those lax times of literary appropriation, for its insertion and attribution.

[293:C] The discovery was made by Mr. Chalmers, vide Supplemental Apology, p. 292.

[294:A] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. ii. p. 126.

[294:B] Mr. Malone, in his "Dissertation on King Henry VI." was of opinion, that the First Part of the Contention, &c. came from the pen of Robert Greene; (vide Reed's Shakspeare, vol. xiv. p. 257.) but in his "Chronological Order," he inclines to the supposition of Marlowe being the author of both Parts; (vol. ii. p. 246.) It is more probable, I think, from the language of the Groatsworth of Wit, that Marlowe, Greene, and Peele, were jointly concerned in their composition.

[295:A] Essay on the Dramatic Character of Falstaff, p. 49. note.

[297:A] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. xiii. p. 307. note.

[298:A] See his Table, in Supplemental Apology, pp. 466, 467, where he tells us that in making it, he has been governed "rather by the influence of moral certainty, than directed by any supposed necessity of fixing some of the dramas to each year;" but where is the evidence that shall reconcile us to the necessity of passing over the years 1610, 1611, and 1612, without the production of a single play, and then ascribing to the year 1613, three such compositions, as The Tempest, The Twelfth-Night, and Henry VIII.?

[300:A] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. ii. p. 251.

[303:A] Vide Ouseley's Persian Miscellanies.

[303:B] The Lays of Lanval and Gruelan have been translated by Way in his Fabliaux, vol. i. p. 157. 177.; a description also of Mourgue La Faye may be found in the preceding tale, called The Vale of False Lovers, taken from the prose romance of Lancelot du Lac, 3 vols. folio. bl. l. Paris. 1520.

[304:A] Thus the Gothic terms Fegur, Alfur, Uitrur, Dwergur, Meyar, Pucke, Drot, are without doubt the prototypes of Fairy, Elf, Wight, Dwarf, Mare, Puck, and Trot.

[305:A] "Votum ille (Svegderus) nuncupavit, de Godheimo, vetustoque illo Othino quærendo. Duodecim viris comitatus, late per orbem vagabatur, delatusque in Tyrklandiam et in Svioniam Magnam, plurimos ibi reperit, sanguinis nexu sibi junctos. Huic peregrinatione quinque annos impendit, reduxque in Sveciam domi aliquam diu mansit.—Iterum Gudhemum quæsitum peregre profectus est Svegderus. In orientali plaga Svioniæ villa est ingens, dicta Stein, ibique positus lapis tantæ molis; ut domum ingentem magnitudine æquet. Quadam vespera post solis occasum, a poculis ad lectum progressurus Svegderus, vidit sub ingenti isto lapide sedentem pygmæum. Ille igitur ejusque comites, vino obruti, cum cursu lapidem petebant, in janua lapidis stans pygmæus, Svegderum jubet ingredi, si cum Othino colloqui vellet. Currit Svegderus in lapidam qui statim clauditur, nec rediit inde Svegderus."—Snor. Sturl. Hist. Reg. Norv. op. Schöning. vol. i. p. 18.

[306:A]

"Thar Motsogner
Mæstur vm ordenn
Dverga allra
En Durenn annar."

Volupsa, Stroph. 10.

There are two who possess sovereign power, Motsogner, who ranks first, and Durin, who otherwise acknowledges no peer.

[306:B]

"Enn dagsciar,
Durins nithia,
Salvaur dudur,
Svegde velti;
Tha er ei Stein,
Hin storgethi:
Dulsa konur,
Ept Dvergi hliop:"

a passage which has been thus translated by Peringskiöld:—"At lucifuga, Nanorum domicilii custos, Svegderum decepit, quando magnanimus ille rex, spe vana delusus, Nanum sequendo, &c."—Yrling. Sag. cap. xv. p. 15.

[306:C] The original is thus interpreted by Snorro:—"Ad nos ethnicos ac iram Odini veritos servule ne ingrediaris, inquit vidua; mulier fœda me mordacibus verbis impetens, se intus Alfis sacrificare dixit, foris vero lupis libare sanguinem mactatorum animalium."—Oläf. Helg. Haroldsons Saga. cap. 92. See also, Snorro apud Schöning, tom. ii. p. 124. Hafn. 1778.

[307:A] "Sæmundus tantum," says a learned commentator on the Voluspa, "qui literas Latinos induxit in Islandiam, e literis Runicis, hæc poëmata in literaturam vulgarem transtulit, non composuit, ut ipsa monumenta testantur."—Gudm. Andr. Not. in Volusp. Stroph. vi.

[307:B] Two chapters of the Edda of Snorro, Myth. 13. 15. are occupied by an illustrative enumeration of these Dvergi or Fairies, and the "Scalda" has catalogued nearly one hundred of the same race.

[308:A] "Sunt adhuc plures tales Norner ad hominum quemlibet in mundum natum venientes, ut dies illi determinent; harum quædam sunt divinæ, quædam ex faunorum (Alfa ættar) quædam ex nanorum genere (Duerga ættar).—Nornæ bonæ (Godar Norner) felicem tribuunt vitam, sed si quis sinistris premitur fatis, hoc malæ (Illar Norner) efficiunt.—Alia illic urbs Alfheimur vocatur (sc. faunorum mundus), quam incolunt illi qui Liös-alfar (sc. lucidi fauni) appellantur, sed Döck-alfar (sc. nigri fauni) viscera terræ inferiora tenent, et sunt prioribus illis valde dissimiles re et aspectu. Liösalfi sunt sole clariores; Döckalfi pice nigriores."—Resen. Edda Island. Myth. xv.

[309:A] "Sunt—Nymphæ albæ—Dominæ bonæ, Itali Fatas, Galli Fees vocant; quarum adventu multum prosperitatis et rerum omnium copiam putarunt superstitiosæ anus domibus contingere quas frequentarint, et ideo domi suæ illis epulas instruxere."—Vide Kornmann Templ. Natur. part iii. cons. 12. p. 113.

[309:B] "In multis locis Septentrionalis regionis, præsertim nocturno tempore, suum saltatorium orbem cum omnium musarum consentu versare solent. Sed post ortum solem quandoque roscidis deprehenduntur vestigiis.—Hunc nocturnum ludum vocant incolæ Choream Elvarum."—Ol. Magn. Gent. Septent. lib. iii. c. 11. p. 107. Chorea Elvarum is here given as a translation of the Elf-dans of the Swedish language.

[309:C] "Fæminæ etiam parturientes olim hasce (sc. Godar Norner) precibus adibant ut facilius dolore ac onere levarentur; quemadmodum neque aniles fabulæ; desunt vulgo de spectris sub mulierum specie sexui parturienti opem ferentibus."—Keysler. de Mulierib. Fatid. sect. 23. p. 394.

"In the Northern Regions," says Loier, speaking of the Fairies, "the report is, that they have a care, and doe diligently attend about little infantes lying in the cradle; that they doe dresse and undresse them in their swathling clothes, and doe performe all that which carefull nurses can doe unto their nurse-children."—Peter le Loier, Treatise of Strange Sights and Apparitions, chap. ii. p. 19. 4to.

[309:D] "Svart-Alfar tenebrarum spiritus; verum hæc species Alforum putata est non esse mere spiritus, nec nudi homines, sed medium inter divos et mortales."—Comment in Volusp. (Str. xv.) ex Biblioth. Resenii.

[310:A] Vide note in p. 308.

[310:B] "Quandoque vero saltum adeo profunde in terram impresserant, ut locus, cui assueverant, insigni ardore orbiculariter peresus, non parit arenti redivivum cespite gramen."—Ol. Magn. Gent. Sept. l. iii. c. 2.

[310:C] "A Matribus sive Mair descendunt aniles nugæ; von der Nachtmar, fæminei sexus spectrum credunt somniantes pondere suo gravans, ut arctius inclusus spiritus ægre possit meare. Angli adpellant Nightmare.—Alp et Alf enim veteribus notat dæmonem montanum. Suecis et Anglis Elf est Franconiæ incolis Ephialtes etiam est die Drud."—Keysler de Mulierib. Fated. sect. 68. p. 497.

[310:D] "Meridianum adpellabatur, quod meridie magis infestum credebatur, unde hodie observant, ut puerperas hora meridiana non sinant esse solas, aut camera exire.—Sæpe tamen etiam pro ephialte vel Incubo usurpatur."—Keysler, sect. 68. p. 497.

[310:E] "Eratque hoc larvarum genus apprime infestum—infantibus lactentibus cunis ad huc inhærentibus."—Wier. De Præstig. Dæm. l. i. c. 16. p. 104.

[311:A] "Sese velut umbras—ostendunt, risusque atque inanes cachinnos, ludicraque præstigia et alia infinita ludibria, quibus infelices decipiunt, vocali sono confingunt."—Ol. Mag. De Gent. Septent. lib. vi. cap. 10.

"Dæmon in forma Viri Ignei, jam maximi, jam parvi sive Virunculi, noctu in campis oberrantis, et brevi hinc inde decurrentis, apparuit."—Becker. Spectrol. p. 120.

[311:B] "Inter cætera mira quædam referuntur de virunculis montanis, quos Bergmanlein vocant, nanorum forma et statura præditis." Vide Kircher. Mund. Subter. lib. viii. sect. 4. c. 4. p. 123.

"Alii nominant virunculos montanos—videntur autem esse seneciores, et vestiti more metallicorum, id est, vittato indusio, et corio circum lumbos dependente induti."—Vide Agricola de Animant. Sub. c. 37. p. 78.

[311:C] "Sunt gladii, aliaque arma, omnium præstantissima, ab Duergis fabricata, quæ omnia penetrare, nec arte magica hebetari credebantur."—Verel. in Hervar. Sag. cap. 7.

[311:D] Vide Verel. in Hervar. Sag. voce Duerga Smithi.

[311:E] See, in the Minor Voluspa, the Hildi-svini of Hyndla, a species of enchanted steed. Stroph. v. et vii.

[312:A] "Columnas frangendo—vel casu petrarum, fractione scalarum, provocatione fætorum, suffocatione ventorum, ruptora funiculorum, opprimunt aut conturbant."—Ol. Magn. de Gent. Septentr. lib. vi. cap. 10.

[312:B] They are sometimes represented as coining the money which they conceal or guard, "in pecunia abundant, quam cudunt ipsimet."—Theophr. Philos. Sag. lib. i. p. 591. ed. Gen. 1658.

[312:C] "Corio circumlumbos dependente."—Vide note B in p. 311.

[312:D] "Trulli, et Guteli; qui et in famulitio viris et fœminis inserviunt conclavia scopis purgant, patinas mundant, ligna portant, equos curant."—Vide Tholossani, lib. vii. cap. 14.

[312:E] "In effigie humana," says Olaus Magnus, "accommodare solent ministeriis hominum, nocturnis horis laborando, equosque et jumenta curando."—De Gent. Sept. lib. iii. c. 11. p. 107.

[313:A] Chaucer apud Chalmers, English Poets, vol. i. p. 51. col. 1.

[313:B] Stoddart's Remarks on Local Scenery and Manners in Scotland, vol. ii. p. 66.

[313:C] Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, 1st edit. vol. ii. p. 213.

[314:A] "Perhaps this epithet," says Mr. Scott, "is only one example, among many, of the extreme civility which the vulgar in Scotland use towards spirits of a dubious, or even a determinedly mischievous nature. The arch-fiend himself is often distinguished by the softened title of the "good-man." This epithet, so applied, must sound strange to a southern ear; but, as the phrase bears various interpretations, according to the places where it is used, so, in the Scotish dialect, the good man of such a place, signifies the tenant, or life-renter, in opposition to the laird, or proprietor. Hence, the devil is termed the good-man, or tenant, of the infernal regions. There was anciently a practice in Scotish villages, of propitiating this infernal being, by leaving uncultivated a croft, or small inclosure, of the neighbouring grounds, which was called the good-man's croft. By doing so, it was their unavowed, but obvious intention, to avert the rage of Satan from destroying their possessions."—Minstrelsy, vol. ii. p. 216.