I fought a husband, in which labour,
I found that kindness in a father.
He's father, fon, and husband mild,
I mother, wife, and yet his child.
How they may be, and yet in two,
As you will live, refolve it you 5.

Sharp phyfick is the laft: but O ye powers!
That give heav'n countless eyes to view mens' acts
Why cloud they not their fights perpetually,
If this be true, which makes me pale to read it?
Fair glass of light, I lov'd you, and could still,

Takes hold of the hand of the princess.
Were not this glorious cafket ftor'd with ill:
But I must tell you,-now, my thoughts revolt;
For he's no man on whom perfections wait",
That knowing fin within, will touch the gate.
You're a fair viol, and your fense the strings;

5 As you will live, refolve it you.] This duplication is common in our ancient writers. So, in K. Henry IV:

"I'll drink no more, for no man's pleasure, I."

MALONE.

That give heav'n countless eyes to view men's acts,] So in MidSummer Night's Dream:

66

who more engilds the night

"Than all yon fiery o's and eyes of light."

Again, in Romeo and Juliet:

"Spread thy clofe curtains, love-performing night,
"That runaway's eyes may wink.”

countless eyes

Why cloud they not

So in Macbeth:

66

-]

ftars, bide your fires,

MALONE.

"Let not light fee, &c." STEEVENS.

Why cloud they not their fights perpetually,] The folios and Rowe read, unintelligibly,

"Why could they not their fights perpetually," The reading of the text is found in the quarto, 1609.

MALONE.

For be's no man on whom perfections wait,] Means no more

than- he's no boneft man, that knowing, &c. MALONE.

Who,

Who, finger'd to make man his lawful mufick",
Would draw heav'n down, and all the gods to hearken,
But being play'd upon before your time,

Hell only danceth at fo harfh a chime :
Good footh I care not for you.

Ant. Prince Pericles, touch not upon thy life',
For that's an article within our law,

As dangerous as the reft. Your time's expir'd;
Either expound now, or receive your fentence.
Per. Great king,

Few love to hear the fins they love to act;
'Twould 'braid yourself too near for me to tell it.
Who hath a book of all that monarchs do,
He's more fecure to keep it fhut, than fhewn:
For vice repeated, is like the wand'ring wind,
Blows duft in others' eyes, to fpread itfelf3;

9

to make man -] i. e. to produce for man, &c.

MALONE.

Prince Pericles, touch not upon thy life,] This is a stroke of nature. The incestuous king cannot bear to see a rival touch the hand of the woman he loves. His jealousy resembles that of Antony:

2

"My play fellow your hand; this kingly feal, "And plighter of high hearts." STEEVENS. For vice repeated, is like the wand'ring wind, Blows duft in others' eyes, to fpread itfelf, &c.] That is ;-which blows duft, &c.

The man who knows of the ill practices of princes, is unwife if he reveals what he knows; for the publisher of vicious actions refembles the wind, which, while it paffes along, blows duft into men's eyes. When the blaft is over, the eye that has been affected by the duft, fuffers no farther pain, but can fee as clearly as before; fo by the relation of criminal acts, the eyes of mankind, (though they are affected and turn away with horror) are opened, and fee clearly what before was not even fufpected: But by expofing the crimes of others, the relater fuffers himself; as the breeze paffes away, fo the breath of the informer is gone; he dies for his temerity. Yet, to ftop the course or ventilation of the air, would hurt the eyes; and to prevent informers from divulging the crimes of men would be prejudicial to mankind. Such, I think, is the meaning of this obfcure paffage.

MALONE.

And

And yet the end of all is bought thus dear,

The breath is gone, and the fore eyes fee clear;
To stop the air would hurt them. The blind mole cafts
Copp'd hills toward heaven, to tell, the earth is
throng'd

By man's oppreffion'; and the poor worm doth die for't.
Kings are earth's gods: in vice their law's their will;
And if Jove ftray, who dares fay, Jove doth ill.
It is enough you know; and it is fit,

What being more known grows worse, to fmother it.-
All love the womb that their first being bred",
Then give my tongue like leave to love my head.
Ant. Heaven that I had thy head! he has found
the meaning!

But I will gloze with him. Young prince of Tyre,
Though

• Copp'd bills] i. e. rifing to a top or head. Copped Hall, in Effex, was fo named from the lofty pavilion on the roof of the old house, which has been fince pulled down. The upper tire of masonry that covers a wall is still called the copping or coping. High-crowned hats were anciently called copatain hats. STEEVENS.

the earth is throng'd

By man's oppreffion;]

Perhaps we should read-wrong'd. STEEVENS.

6

and the poor worm doth die for't.] I fuppofe he means to call the mole, (which suffers in its attempts to complain of man's injuftice) a poor worm, as a term of commiferation. Thus in the Tempeft, Profpero fpeaking to Miranda, fays,

"Poor worm! thou art infected."

The mole remains fecure till he has thrown up thofe hillocks, which, by pointing out the course he is purfuing, enable the vermin-hunter to catch him. STEEVENS.

1 -— that their first being bred,] The folios and Mr. Rowe read, "All love the womb that their being bred."

The earliest quarto fupplied the prefent reading. MALone. Heav'n that I had thy head!- ] The fpeaker may either mean to say O that I bad thy ingenuity! bad thy head, fever'd from thy body! meaning. MALONE.

or — O that I The latter, I believe is the

• But I will gloze with him.] So Gower:

"The kinge was wondre forie tho "And thought, if that he faid it oute, "Then were he fhamed all aboute: VOL. II.

C

"With

Though by the tenour of our strict edict,
Your expofition mif-interpreting',

We might proceed to cancel of your days";
Yet hope, fucceeding from fo fair a tree.
As your fair felf, doth tune us otherwise :
Forty days longer we do respite you 3,
If by which time our fecret be undone,
This mercy fhews, we'll joy in fuch a fon :
And until then, your entertain fhall be,
As doth befit our honour, and your worth.

[Exeunt Ant. and bis daughter.
Per. How courtefy 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 falfe,

Then were it certain, you were not so bad,
As with foul inceft to abufe your foul;
Where now you're both a father and a fon,
By your untimely claspings with your child,

"With flie wardes and with felle

"He fayth: My fonne I fhall thee telle,
"Though that thou be of littel witte, &c.

MALONE. Your expofition mifinterpreting,] Your expofition of the riddle being a mistaken one; not interpreting it rightly. MALONE. to cancel of your days;] The first and fecond quarto read-" to counsel of your days"The folio 1664-" to cancel off your days."-Perhaps the earliest reading may be right-We might proceed to deliberate how long you should be permitted to live. It is unneceffary to read" cancel off," for cancel may be understood fubftantively. We might proceed to the cancellation or deftruction of your life.-The author ufes the participle cancel'd in the fenfe required here, in his Rape of Lucrece, 1594: "An expir'd date, cancel'a ere well begun." MALONE. To omit the article was formerly a practice not uncommon. So in Titus Andronicus: " Afcend fair queen, Pantheon," i. c. the Pantheon. STEEVENS.

3 Forty days longer we do refpite you,] In the Gefta Romanorum, Confefio Amantis, and the Hiftory of Kyng Appolyn, thirty days only are allowed for the folution of this question. It is difficult to account for this minute variation, but by fuppofing that our author copied fome tranflation of the Gefta Romanorum hitherto undifcovered, MALONE.

(Which pleasure fits an hufband, not a father);
And the an eater 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 farewel! for wisdom 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.
Poison and treafon are the hands of fin,
Ay, and the targets, to put off the fhame :
Then, left my life be crop'd to keep you clear",
By flight I'll fhun the danger which I fear.

Re-enter Antiochus.

[Exite

Ant. He hath found the meaning, for the which

we mean

To have his head;

for wifdom, fees thofe men

Blush not in actions blacker than the night,

Will fhew no courfe to keep them from the light.]

Thus all the old copies-but he is evidently a corruption. The word that I have ventured to infert in the text, in its place, was fuggefted by these lines in a fubfequent fcene, which appear to me strongly to fupport this emendation:

"And what may make him blub in being known, He'll flop the courfe by which it might be known. We might read chew 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 avifdom fees that thofe who do not blub to commit actions blacker than the night, will not fbun any courfe, in order to preferve them from being made publick. MALONE.

5

to keep you clear,] To prevent any fufpicion from falling on you. So in Macbeth:

always thought that I

"Require a clearness."

Again, in Marlowe's Luft's Dominion, 1657:
I know myself am clear

66

"As is the new-born infant." MALONE.