To beat us down, the which are down already;
And make a conquest of unhappy me,

Whereas no glory's got to overcome.3

Lord. That's the least fear; for, by the semblance Of their white flags display'd, they bring us peace, And come to us as favourers, not as foes.

Cle. Thou speak'st like him's untutor'd to repeat,
Who makes the fairest show, means most deceit.*
But bring they what they will, what need we fear?
The ground's the low'st, and we are half way there.
Go tell their general, we attend him here,

To know for what he comes, and whence he comes,
And what he craves.

Lord. I go, my lord.

Cle. Welcome is peace, if he on peace consist ;5 If wars, we are unable to resist.

Enter PERICLES, with Attendants.

Per. Lord governor, for so we hear you are,
Let not our ships and number of our men,
Be, like a beacon fir'd, to amaze your eyes.
We have heard your miseries as far as Tyre,
And seen the desolation of your streets :
Nor come we to add sorrow to your tears,
But to relieve them of their heavy load;
And these our ships you happily may think
Are, like the Trojan horse, war-stuff'd within,
With bloody views, expecting overthrow,

[Exit.

Are stor❜d with corn, to make your needy bread,
And give them life, who are hunger-starv'd, half dead.
All. The gods of Greece protect you!

And we'll pray for you.

Per. Rise, I pray you, rise;

We do not look for reverence, but for love,
And harbourage for ourself, our ships, and men.
Cle. The which when any shall not gratify,

[S] Whereas, it has been already observed, was anciently used for where.

MALONE.

[4] Perhaps we should read---him who is, and regulate the metre as follows:

Thou speak'st

Like him who is untutor'd to repeat, &c.

The sense is---Deluded by the pacific appearance of this navy, you talk like one, who has never learned the common adage," that the fairest outsides are most to be suspect ed."

STEEVENS.

[5] If he stands on peace. A Latin sense.

MALONE.

Or pay you with unthankfulness in thought,
Be it our wives, our children, or ourselves,

The curse of heaven and men succeed their evils!
Till when, (the which, I hope, shall ne'er be seen,)
Your grace is welcome to our town and us.

Per. Which welcome we'll accept ; feast here a while, Until our stars that frown, lend us a smile.

[Exeunt.

ACT II.

Enter Gower.

Gow. Here have you seen a mighty king
is child, I wis, to incest bring;

A better prince, and benign lord,
Prove awful both in deed and word.

Be quiet then, as men should be,

Till he hath pass'd necessity.

I'll show you those in troubles reign,
Losing a mite, a mountain gain.
The good in conversation

(To whom I give my benizon,)
Is still at Tharsus, where each man
Thinks all is writ he spoken can :
And, to remember what he does,
Gild his statue glorious :

But tidings to the contrary

Are brought your eyes; what need speak I ?

Dumb show. Enter at one door PERICLES, talking with CLEON; all the Train with them. Enter at another door, a Gentleman, with a letter to PERICLES; PERICLES shows the letter to CLEON; then gives the Messenger a reward, and knights him. Exeunt PERICLES, CLEON, &c. severally.

Gow. Good Helicane hath staid at home,

Not to eat honey, like a drone,

From others' labours; forth he strive
To killen bad, keep good alive;

[6] Thinks all is writ he spoken can: Pays as much respect to whatever Pericles says, as if it were holy writ. "As true as the gospel," is still common language.

MALONE.

And, to fulfil his prince' desire,
Sends word of all that haps in Tyre:
How Thaliard came full bent with sin,
And hid intent, to murder him;
And that in Tharsus was not best
Longer for him to make his rest:

He knowing so, put forth to seas,

Where when men been, there's seldom ease;
For now the wind begins to blow;
Thunder above, and deeps below,
Makes such unquiet, that the ship
Should house him safe, is wreck'd and split ;
And he, good prince, having all lost,
By waves from coast to coast is tost;
All perishen of man, of pelf,
Ne aught escapen but himself ;7
Till fortune, tir'd with doing bad,

Threw him ashore, to give him glad :
And here he comes: what shall be next,
Pardon old Gower; this long's the text.

SCENE I.

[Exit.

Pentapolis. An open Place by the Sea Side. Enter PERICLES,

wet.

Per. Yet cease your ire, ye angry stars of heaven! Wind, rain, and thunder, remember earthly man

Is but a substance that must yield to you ́;

And I, as fits my nature, do obey you;

Alas, the sea hath cast me on the rocks,

Wash'd me from shore to shore, and left me breath
Nothing to think on, but ensuing death :
Let it suffice the greatness of your powers.
To have bereft a prince of all his fortunes;
And having thrown him from your watry grave,
Here to have death in peace, is all he'll crave.

[7] Our ancestors had a plural number in their tenses which is now lost out of the language; e. g. in the present tense,

I escape
Thou escapest

He escapeth

But it did not, I

We escapen
Ye escapen

They escapen.

believe, extend to the preter-imperfects, otherwise than thus: They didden [for did escape.

PERCY.

[8] The meaning of this may be--Excuse old Gower from telling you what follows. The very text to it has proved of too considerable length already.

STEEVENS.

Enter Three Fishermen.

1 Fish. What, ho, Pilche!

2 Fish. Ho! come, and bring away the nets. 1 Fish. What Patch-breech, I say!

3 Fish. What say yoŭ, master ?

1 Fish. Look how thou stirrest now! come away, or I'll fetch thee with a wannion.

3 Fish. 'Faith, master, I am thinking of the poor men that were cast away before us, even now.

1 Fish. Alas, poor souls, it grieved my heart to hear what pitiful cries they made to us to help them, when, well-a-day, we could scarce help ourselves.

3 Fish. Nay, master, said not I as much, when I saw the porpus, how he bounced and tumbled ?9 they say, they are half fish, half flesh: a plague on them, they ne'er come, but I look to be washed. Master, I marvel how the fishes live in the sea.

1 Fish. Why, as men do a-land; the great ones eat up the little ones: I can compare our rich misers to nothing so fitly as to a whale; 'a plays and tumbles, driving the poor fry before him, and at last devours them all at a mouthful. Such whales have I heard on a' the land, who never leave gaping, till they've swallowed the whole parish, church, steeple, bells and all.

Per. A pretty moral.

3 Fish. But, master, if I had been the sexton, I would have been that day in the belfry. *

2 Fish. Why, man?

3 Fish. Because he should have swallowed me too. and when I had been in his belly, I would have kept such a jangling of the bells, that he should never have left, till he cast bells, steeple, church, and parish, up again. But if the good king Simonides were of my mind

Per. Simonides?

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
These fishers tell the infirmities of men ;
And from their watry empire recollect

All that may men approve or men detect!—

[9] Captain Cook, in his second voyage to the South Seas, mentions the playing of porpusses round the ship as a certain sign of a violent gale of wind.

M. MASON.

Peace be at your labour, honest fishermen.

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.'

Per. Nay, see, the sea hath cast upon your coast

2 Fish. What a drunken knave was the sea, to cast thee in our way!

Per. A man whom both the waters and the wind, In that vast tennis-court, hath made the ball

For them to play upon, 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. Canst 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 canst fish for't. Per. What I have been, I have forgot to know; But what I am, want teaches me to think on ; A man shrunk up with cold: my veins are chill, And have no more of life, than may suffice To give my tongue that heat, to ask your help; Which if you shall refuse, when I am dead,

For I am a man, pray see me buried.

1 Pish. 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 wel

come.

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?

1 Fish. O, not all, my friend, not all for if all your

[1] The preceding speech of Pericles affords no apt introduction to the reply of the fisherman. Either somewhat is ommitted 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."

STEEVENS.