ing: "I find that, just about the time when Pericles was written, George Wilkins was joined with John Day and William Rowley in writing The Travels of the Three English Brothers, Sir Thomas, Sir Anthony, and Sir Robert Shirley, an Historical Play, printed in Quarto, 1607.' This makes assurance doubly sure, that Rowley and Wilkins were also joint-writers in the Pericles." Here the question may, I think, be safely allowed to rest, though a good deal more might easily be said upon it. — There remains but to add, that in several of the preceding plays I have distinguished by asterisks the portions judged not to be Shakespeare's; but, in the present instance, as the Shakespeare portions are much smaller than the others, I reverse the previous order, leaving the Wilkins and Rowley portions unstarred. This has been to me a very easy task, Mr. Fleay having printed the Shakespeare portions by themselves, and these being withal so easily identified that there can hardly be any difference of judgment respecting them. PERICLES, PRINCE OF TYRE. PERSONS REPRESENTED. ANTIOCHUS, King of Antioch. SIMONIDES, King of Pentapolis. A Pandar, and his Wife. The Daughter of Antiochus. LYCHORIDA, Nurse to Marina. Lords, Ladies, Knights, Gentlemen, Sailors, Pirates, Fishermen, and Mes sengers, &c. SCENE. Dispersedly in various Countries,1 ACT I. Enter GOWER. Before the Palace of Antioch. To sing a song that old 2 was sung, 1 To show into how many regions the scene is dispersed, it may be ob served that Antioch was the metropolis of Syria; Tyre, a city of Phoenicia in Asia; Tarsus, the metropolis of Cilicia, a country of Asia Minor; Mitylene, the city of Lesbos, an island in the Egean sea; Ephesus, the capital of Ionia, a country of the Lesser Asia. 2 Old here means anciently, or, as we should say, of old. Assuming man's infirmities, To glad your ear and please your eyes. It hath been sung at festivals, On ember-eves and holy-ales; 3 And lords and ladies in their lives Have read it for restoratives: 4 The purchase is to make men glorious; This Antioch, then, Antiochus the Great I tell you what mine authors say: So buxom, blithe, and full of face,6 As Heaven had lent her all his grace; With whom the father liking took, And her to incest did provoke : Bad child; worse father! to entice his own To evil should be done by none: By custom, what they did begin Was with long use account? no sin. The beauty of this sinful dame 3 Holy-ales was the name of certain rural festivals; sometimes also called church-ales. See vol. i. page 194, note 3. 4 Purchase was sometimes used in the sense of gain or profit. 5 Fere is an old word for mate or companion; here meaning wife. That is, completely beautiful. Account for accounted. Many preterites were so formed. What now ensues, to th' judgment of your eye SCENE I. Antioch. A Room in the Palace. Enter ANTIOCHUS, PERICLES, and Attendants. [Exit. Ant. Young Prince of Tyre,' you have at large received. The danger of the task you undertake. Per. I have, Antiochus, and, with a soul Embolden'd with the glory of her praise, Think death no hazard in this enterprise. Ant. Bring in our daughter, clothed like a bride, At whose conception, till Lucina reign'd, 8 That is, shape or direct their course thither. Referring to the heads of the unsuccessful suitors set up over the palacegate, which is supposed to be in the sight of the audience. 10 Who for which, referring to eye, or to "judgment of your eye." 1 It does not appear that the father of Pericles is living. By prince, therefore, throughout this play, we are to understand prince regnant. In the Gesta Romanorum, Apollonius is king of Tyre; in Twine's translation he is repeatedly called prince of Tyrus, as he is in Gower. 2 The words whose and her refer to the daughter of Antiochus. "Till Lucina reign'd" is till the time of birth. The construction is, "Nature this |