2

ANT. Heaven, that I had thy head! he has found the meaning;

But I will gloze with him.3 [Afide.] Young prince of Tyre,

Though, by the tenour of our firict edict,4
Your expofition mifinterpreting,

We might proceed to cancel of your days;
Yet hope, fucceeding from fo fair a tree

Heaven, that I had thy head!] The speaker may either mean to fay, 0, that I had thy ingenuity! or, 0, that I had thy head, fever'd from thy body! The latter, I believe, is the meaning.

3 But I will gloze with him.] So, Gower:
The kinge was wondre forie tho,
"And thought, if that he said it oute,
"Then were he fhamed all aboute:
With flie wordes and with felle

"He fayth: My fonne I fhall thee telle,

"Though that thou be of littel witte," &e.

MALONE

MALONE.

our fria eaid, ] The old copy has - your fria edia.

Corrèded in the folio. MALONE.

5 Your expofition misinterpreting, ] Your expofition of the riddle being a miftaken one; not interpreting it rightly. MALONE

G - to cancel of your days;] The quarto, 1609, reads—to counfri of your days; which may mean, to deliberate how long you Shall be permitted to live. But I believe that counfel was merely an error of the prefs, which the editor of the folio, 1664, corre&ed by reading to cancel off your days. The fubftitution of off for of is unneceffary; for cancel may have been used as a fubftantive. We might proceed to the cancellation or deftruction of your life. Shakspeare ufes the participle cancell'd in the fenfe required here, in his Rape of Lucrece, 1594:

"An expir'd date, cancell'd ere well begun."

The following lines in King Richard III. likewife confirm the reading that has been chofen:

Cancel his bond of life, dear God, I pray,

That I may live to fay, the dog is dead.", MALONE.

To omit the article was formerly a pradice not uncommon. So, in Titus Andronicus: (8 Afcend, fair queen, Pantheon,” i. e. the

Pantheon. STEEVENS.

Again, in King Lear:

Hot queftriits after him, met him at gate." MALONE.

As your fair felf, doth tune us otherwife:
Forty days longer we do refpite you;'
If by which time our fecret be undone,
This mercy fhows, we'll joy in fuch a fon:
And until then, your entertain fhall be,
As doth befit our honour, and your worth.

8

[Exeunt ANTIOCHUS, his daughter, and Attend.
PER. How courtely would feem to cover fin!
When what is done is like an hypocrite,
The which is good in nothing but in fight.
If it be true that I interpret false,

Then were it certain, you were not fo bad,
As with foul inceft to abuse your foul;
Where now you're both a father and a fon,"

7 Forty days longer we do refpite you; ] In The Gefta Romanorum, Confeffio Amantis, and The History of King Appolyn, thirty days only are allowed for the folution of this queftion. It is difficult to account for this minute variation, but by supposing that our author copied fome tranflation of the Gefta Romanorum hitherto undifcovered. MALONE.

It is thirty days in Twine's tranflation. Forty, as I have observed in a note on fome other play (I forget which) was the familiar term when the number to be mentioned was not of arith metical importance. STEEVENS.

8 - your entertain fhall 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 : •your entertain fhall be,

Or,

As doth befit our honour, your degree.

As doth our honour fit and your degree.

So, in King Richard III. A& III. fc. vii:

"Beft fitteth my degree, and your condition.”

STEEVENS.

• Where now you're both a father and a fon.] Where, in this place, has the power of whereas. So, in The Two Gentlemen of Verona:

"And where I thought the remuant of mine age

Should have been cherish'd by her childlike duty, "I am now full refolv'd to take a wife."

By your untimely clafpings with your child,
(Which pleasure fits an hufband, not a father; }
And the an cater of her mother's flesh,

By the defiling of her parent's bed;

And both like ferpents are, who though they feed
On sweetest flowers, yet they poifon breed.
Antioch, farewell! for wifdom fees, thofe men
Blush not in actions blacker than the night,
Will fhun no courfe to keep them from the light.*
One fin, I know, another doth provoke;
Murder's as near to luft, as flame to fmoke.
Poifon and treafon are the hands of fin,
Ay, and the targets, to put off the fhame:
Then, left my life be cropp'd to keep you clear,"
By flight I'll fhun the danger which I fear.

[Exit.

Where (and with the fame meaning) occurs again in A& II. fc. iii. of this play:

3

Where now his fon's a glow-worm" &c. STEEVENS.

-for wisdom fees, thofe men

Brugh not in actions blacker than the night,

Will fhuu no course to keep them from the light] All the old copies read-will fhew, but fhew is evidently a corruption. The word that I have ventured to infert in the text, in its place, was fuggefted by thefe lines in a fubfequent fcene, which appear to me ftrongly to fupport this emendation:

"And what may make him blush in being known,

“He'll flop the course by which it might be known."

We might read fchew for efchew, if there were any inftance of fuch an abbreviation being used.

The expreffion is here, as in many places in this play, elliptical: for wifaom fees, that those who do not blush to commit actions blacker than the night, will not fhun any course, in order to preserve them from being made publick. MALONE.

3

to keep you clear,] To prevent any fufpicion from falling So, in Matheth:

always thought, that I

Require a clearness."

MALONE.

Re-enter ANTIOCHUS.

ANT. He hath found the meaning, for the which

We mean

To have his head.

He must not live to trumpet forth my infamy,
Nor tell the world, Antiochus doth fin

In fuch a loathed manner:

And therefore inflantly this prince must die;
For by his fall my honour muft keep high.
Who attends on us there?

THAL:

Enter THALIARD.'

Doth your highnefs call? ANT. Thaliard, you're of our chamber, and our

mind

6

Partakes her private actions' to your fecrefy;
And for your faithfulnefs we will advance you.
Thaliard, behold, here's poison, and here's gold;
We hate the prince of Tyre, and thou muit kill

him;

He hath found the meaning,] So, in Twine's book: "Apollonius prince of Tyre hath found out the folution of my quellion; wherefore take shipping" &c. STEEVENS.

• Thaliard. ]

This name is fomewhat corrupted from Thaliarch, i. e. Thaliarchus, as it ftands in Twine's tranflation.

STEEVENS.

6 Thaliard, you're of our chamber, &c.] So, in Twine's tranfla tion: Thaliarchus, the only faithfull and truflie minister of my fecrets" &c. The reft of the feene is formed on the fame origival. STEEVENS.

7 Partakes her private actions -

Our author in The Winter's Tale ufes the word partake in an active fenfe, for participate:

your exaltation

It fits thee not to ask the reason why,
Because we bid it. Say, is it done? 5

THAL.

'Tis done.

Enter a Meffenger.

My lord,

ANT. Enough;

Left your breath cool yourfelf, telling your hafte. MESS. My lord, prince Pericles is fled.

ANT.

[Exit Meffenger. As thou

Wilt live, fly after: and as' an arrow, fhot
From a well-experienc'd archer, hits the mark
His eye doth level at, fo thou ne'er return,
Unless thou fay, Prince Pericles is dead.
THAL. My lord, if I

Can

get him once within my piftol's length,

I'll make him fure: fo farewell to your highness.

Say, is it done?] We might point differently:

It fits thee not to ask the reafon why:
Becaufe we bid it, fay is it dons?

• Left your breath &c.] Old copy -

MALONE.

[Exit.

and

Let your breath cool yourself, telling your hafte. This paffage is little better than nonienfe, as it ftands, evidently requires amendment. The words are addreffed, not tớ the Meffenger, but to Thaliard, who has told the King that he may confider Pericles as already dead; to which the King replies,

Enough;

Left your breath cool yourself, telling you hafle.

แ

That is, Say no more of it, left your breath, in defcribing your alacrity, fhould cool your ardour." The words let and lef might easily have been confounded. M. MASON.

See (for inftances of the fame typographical error,) Vol. XIX. p. 367. n. 5. STEEVENS.

7

an arrow.

and, as Thus the folio. The quarto reads and like

MALONE.