"Whofe refiftless eloquence "Wielded at will a fierce democratie, "Shook th' arfenal, and fulmin'd over Greece." As to Sidney's Pyrocles,-Tros, Tyriufve, "The world was all before him, where to choose "His place of rest." but Pericles was tied down to Athens, and could not be removed to a throne in Phoenicia. No poetick licence will permit a unique, claffical, and confpicuous name to be thus unwarrantably transferred. A Prince of Madagascar muft not be called Æneas, nor a Duke of Florence Mithridates; for fuch peculiar appellations would unfeasonably remind us of their great original poffeffors. The playwright who indulges himself in these wanton and injudicious vagaries, will always counteract his own purpose. Thus, as often as the appropriated name of Pericles occurs, it ferves but to expofe our author's grofs departure from established manners and hiftorick truth; for laborious fiction could not defignedly produce two perfonages more oppofite than the fettled demagogue of Athens, and the vagabond Prince of Tyre. It is remarkable, that many of our ancient writers were ambitious to exhibit Sidney's worthies on the ftage; and when his fubordinate agents were advanced to fuch honour, how happened it that Pyrocles, their leader, should be overlooked? Mufidorus, (his companion,) Argalus and Parthenia, Phalantus and Eudora, Andromana, &c. furnished titles for different tragedies; and perhaps Pyrocles, in the prefent inftance, was defrauded of a like diftinction. The names invented or employed by Sidney, had once fuch popularity, that they were fometimes borrowed by poets who did not profefs to follow the direct current of his fables, or attend to the ftrict prefervation of his characters. Nay, fo high was the credit of this romance, that many a fashionable word and glowing phrase selected from it, was applied, like a Promethean torch, to contemporary fonnets, and gave a tranfient life even to those dwarfish and enervate bantlings of the reluctant Mufe. I must add, that the Appolyn of the Story-book and Gower, could have been rejected only to make room for a more favourite name; yet, however conciliating the name of Pyrocles might have been, that of Pericles could challenge no advantage with regard to general predilection. I am aware, that a conclufive argument cannot be drawn from the falfe quantity in the fecond fyllable of Pericles; and yet if the Athenian was in our author's mind, he might have been taught by repeated translations from fragments of fatiric poets in Sir Thomas North's Plutarch, to call his hero Pericles; as for inftance, in the following couplet: “O Chiron, tell me, first, art thou indeede the man Again, in George Gascoigne's Steele Glas: "Pericles ftands in rancke amongst the rest." Again, ibidem: "Pericles was a famous man of warre." Such therefore was the poetical pronunciation of this proper name, in the age of Shakspeare. The addrefs of Perfius to a youthful orator-Magni pupille Pericli, is familiar to the ear of every claffical reader. By fome of the observations fcattered over the following pages, it will be proved that the illegitimate Pericles occafionally adopts not merely the ideas of Sir Philip's heroes, but their very words and phrafeology. All circumftances therefore confidered, it is not improbable that our author defigned his chief character to be called Pyrocles, not Pericles, however ignorance or accident might have fhuffled the latter (a name of almost fimilar found) into the place of the former. The true name, when once corrupted or changed in the theatre, was effectually withheld from the publick; and every commentator on this play agrees in a belief that it must have been printed by means of a copy "far as Deucalion off" from the manufcript which had received Shakspeare's revifal and improvement. STEEVENS. Such a theatrical mistake will not appear improbable to the reader who recollects that in the fourth scene of the first A&t of The Third Part of King Henry VI. inftead of " tigers of Hircania," the players have given us tigers of Arcadia." Inftead of " an Até," in King John," an ace." Instead of "Panthino," in The Two Gentlemen of Verona," Panthion." Inftead of "Polydore," in Cymbeline,-“ Paladour" was continued through all the editions till that of 1773. Antiochus, King of Antioch. Helicanus, two Lords of Tyre. Simonides, King of Pentapolis.' Philemon, Servant to Cerimon. Leonine, Servant to Dionyza, Marshall. A Pandar, and his Wife. Boult, their Servant. Gower, as Chorus. The Daughter of Antiochus. Dionyza, Wife to Cleon. Marina, Daughter to Pericles and Thaifa. Lords, Ladies, Knights, Gentlemen, Sailors, Pirates, I SCENE, difperfedly in various Countries. Pentapolis.] This is an imaginary city, and its name might have been borrowed from fome romance. We meet indeed in hiftory with Pentapolitana regio, a country in Africa, confifting of five cities; and from thence perhaps fome novellift furnished the founding title of Pentapolis, which occurs likewise in the 37th chapter of Kyng Appolyn of Tyre, 1510, as well as in Gower, the Gefta Romanorum, and Twine's tranflation from it. It should not, however, be concealed, that Pentapolis is also found in an ancient map of the world, MS. in the Cotton Library, British Museum, Tiberius, B. V. That the reader may know through how many regions the scene of this drama is difperfed, it is neceffary to obferve that Antioch was the metropolis of Syria; Tyre, a city of Phoenicia in Afia; Tarfus, the metropolis of Cilicia, a country of Afia Minor; Mitylene, the capital of Lesbos, an island in the Ægean Sea; and Ephefus, the capital of Ionia, a country of the Leffer Afia, STEEVENS. PERICLES, PRINCE OF TYRE. 2 ACT I. Enter Gower. Before the Palace of ANTIOCH. To fing a fong of old was fung,2 To glad your ear, and please your eyes. On ember-eves, and holy ales ;4 of old was fung,] I do not know that old is by any author used adverbially. We might read : To fing a fong of old was fung, i. e. that of old &c. But the poet is fo licentious in the language which he has attributed to Gower in this piece, that I have not ventured to make any change. MALONE. I have adopted Mr. Malone's emendation, which was evidently wanted. STEEVENS. 3 Gower is come;] The defect of metre (sung and come being no rhymes) points out, in my opinion, that we should read : From afhes ancient Gower's fprung; alluding to the restoration of the Phoenix. STEEvens. • It hath been fung at feftivals, On ember-eves, and holy-ales;] i. e. fays Dr. Farmer, by And lords and ladies of their lives 5 whom this emendation was made, church-ales. The old copy has-holy days. Gower's fpeeches were certainly intended to rhyme throughout. MALONE. S of their lives] The old copies read-in their lives. The emendation was fuggefted by Dr. Farmer. 6 MALONE. 'Purpose to make men glorious; &c.] Old copy: The purchafe is to make men glorious; &c. STEEVENS. There is an irregularity of metre in this couplet. The fame variation is obfervable in Macbeth: "I am for the air; this night I'll spend Upon a difmal and a fatal end.' The old copies read-The purchase &c. Mr. Steevens fuggefted this emendation, MALONE. Being now convinced that all the irregular lines detected in The Midfummer Night's Dream, Macbeth, and Pericles, have been prolonged by interpolations which afford no additional beauties, I am become more confident in my attempt to mend the paffage before us. Throughout this play it should seem to be a very frequent practice of the reciter, or tranfcriber, to fupply words which, for fome foolish reafon or other, were fuppofed to be wanting. Untkilled in the language of poetry, and more efpecially in that which was clouded by an affectation of antiquity, thefe ignorant people regarded many contractions and ellipfes, as indications of fomewhat accidentally omitted; and while they inferted only monofyllables or unimportant words in imaginary vacancies, they conceived themselves to be doing little mischief. Liberties of this kind must have been taken with the piece under confideration. The measure of it is too regular and harmonious in many places, for us to think it was utterly neglected in the reft. As this play will never be received as the entire compofition of Shakspeare, and as violent diforders require medicines of proportionable violence, I have been by no means fcrupulous in ftriving to reduce the metre to that exactness, which I fuppose it originally to have poffeffed. Of the fame licenfe I fhould not have availed myself, had I been employed on any of the undifputed dramas of our author. Thofe experiments which we are forbidden to perform on living fubjects, may properly be attempted on dead ones, among which our Pericles may be reck |