And not so much to feed on, as delight;

All poverty was scorn'd, and pride so great,
The name of help grew odious to repeat.

Dio. O, 'tis too true.

Cle. But see what heaven can do! By this our change,

These mouths, whom but of late, earth, sea, and air,
Were all too little to content and please,

Although they gave their creatures in abundance,
As houses are defil'd for want of use,

They are now starv'd for want of exercise :
Those palates, who not yet two summers younger,
Must have inventions to delight the taste,
Would now be glad of bread and beg for it;
Those mothers who, to nousle? up their babes,
Thought nought too curious, are ready now,
To eat those little darlings whom they lov❜d.
So sharp are hunger's teeth, that man and wife

6 The old copy has:-
:-

"Who not yet too savers younger."

The emendation was proposed by Mason. Steevens remarks that Shakespeare computes time by the same number of summers in Romeo and Juliet:

"Let two more summers wither in their pride," &c. Malone reads:

"Who not used to hunger's savour."

7 Steevens thought that this word should be nursle; but the examples are numerous enough in our old writers to show that the text is right. Thus in New Custom; Dodsley's Old Plays, vol. i. p. 284:

"Borne to all wickedness, and nusled in all evil.”

So Spenser, Faerie Queene, i. vi. 23:—

"Whom, till to ryper years he gan aspyre,

He nousled up in life and maners wilde."

"It were a more vauntage and profit by a great dele that yonge children's wyttes were otherwyse sette a warke, than nossel them in suche errour.'-Horman's Vulgaria, 1519, fo. 86.

"Nousleed in virtuous disposition, and framed to an honest trade of living."-Udal's Apophthegmes, fo. 75.

So in The Death of King Arthur, 1601, cited by Malone:Being nuzzled in effeminate delights."

66

Draw lots, who first shall die to lengthen life :
Here stands a lord, and there a lady weeping;
Here many sink, yet those which see them fall,
Have scarce strength left to give them burial.
Is not this true?

Dio. Our cheeks and hollow eyes do witness it. Cle. O let those cities, that of Plenty's cup And her prosperities so largely taste,

With their superfluous riots, hear these tears!
The misery of Tharsus may be theirs.

Enter a Lord.

Lord. Where's the lord governour?
Cle. Here.

Speak out thy sorrows which thou bring'st, in haste, For comfort is too far for us to expect.

Lord. We have descried, upon our neighbouring shore,

A portly sail of ships make hitherward.

Cle. I thought as much.

One sorrow never comes, but brings an heir,
That may succeed as his inheritor ;

And so in ours: some neighbouring nation,

Taking advantage of our misery,

Hath stuff'd these hollow vessels with their power?,
To beat us down, the which are down already;
And make a conquest of unhappy me10,

Whereas 11 no glory's got to overcome.

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.

8 The old copy has That, instead of Hath.

9 Hollow, applied to ships, is a Homeric epithet. See Iliad, v. 26. By power is meant forces.

10 A letter has been probably dropped at press: we may read, "of unhappy men."

It has been already observed that whereas was sometimes used for where; as well as the converse, where for whereas.

Cle. Thou speak'st like him's 12 untutor❜d to repeat, Who makes the fairest show means most deceit. But bring they what they will, and what they can, 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.

[Exit.

Cle. Welcome is peace, if he on peace consist 13 If wars, we are unable to resist.

Enter PERICLES, with Attendants.

Per. Lord governour, 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 veins, expecting overthrow 14,
Are stor❜d with corn, to make your needy bread,

;

And give them life, whom hunger starv'd half dead. All. The gods of Greece protect you!

And we'll pray for you.

Per.

[Kneel.

Rise, I pray you, rise;

12 The quarto of 1609 reads:

"Thou speak'st like himnes untutor❜d to repeat." Like him's untutor'd, for like him who is untutored. "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 suspected."

13 i. e. if he rest or stand on peace. See 2d Part of K. Henry IV. Act iv. Sc. 1.

14 Thus the old copies; excepting that in the preceding line we have, " was stuffed." It has been usual to print views for veins; but I think without necessity.

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,
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.

Gower.

ERE have you seen a mighty king
His child, I wis, to incest bring;
A better prince, and benign lord,
Prove awful both in deed and word1.
Be quiet then, as men should be,
Till he hath pass'd necessity.

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

(To whom I give my benizon)

Is still at Tharsus, where each man2

1i. e. You have seen a better prince, &c. prove awful, i. e. honest. Vide note on Two Gentlemen of Verona, Act iv. Sc. 1. The verb in the first line is carried on to the third.

2 "The good in conversation

(To whom I give my benizon)

Is still at Tharsus, where," &c.

Gower means to say, "The good prince (on whom I bestow my best wishes) is still engaged at Tharsus, where every man," &c. Conversation is conduct, behaviour. See 2 Peter, iii. 11.

Thinks all is writ he spoken can3:

And, to remember what he does,

Build his statue to make him 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; PERICLES gives the Messenger a reward, and knights him. Exeunt PERICLES, CLEON, &c. severally.

Gow. Good Helicane, that staid at home (Not to eat honey, like a drone,

From others' labours; for thy5 he strive

3 Pays as much respect to whatever Pericles says, as if it were Holy Writ.

4 This circumstance, as well as the foregoing, is found in the Confessio Amantis :

"That thei for ever in remembrance
Made a figure in resemblance

Of hym, and in a common place
Thei set it up; so that his face
Might every maner man beholde,

It was of laton over gylte," &c.

In King Appolyn of Thyre, 1510:-"In remembrance they made an ymage or statue of clene golde." In the fragment of the Old Metrical Romance the statue is of brass :

"Tho made they an ymage of bras,

A schef of whete he held an honde,

That to my lieknes maad was,

Uppon a buschel they dyde hym stonde,

And wryte aboute the storye.

To Appolyn this hys ydo

To have hym ever in memorye."

5 For thy, i. e. therefore. The printer, not understanding this archaism, substituted for though; and thus it has hitherto been given. For thy was not then quite obsolete, Drayton has it in the first edition of his Eclogues, Ecl. vi.