To killen bad, keep good alive;
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,
Make such unquiet, that the ship
Should house him safe, is wrack'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;
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 'longs the text3.

[Exit.

SCENE I. 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

"For the looseness of thy youth art sorry,

And for thy vow'st some solemne pilgrimage."

In later editions therefore is substituted.

Old copy:-" Sav'd one of all," &c. The emendation is Steevens's.

7 Old copies, doing. The correction is by Steevens.

8 Pardon old Gower from telling what ensues, it belongs to the text, not to his province as chorus, Steevens justly remarks, th "the language of our fictitious Gower, like that of the P Rowley, is often irreconcilable to the practice of any ag

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 watery grave,
Here to have death in peace, is all he'll crave.

Enter Three Fishermen.

1 Fish. What, ho, Pilche1!

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

3 Fish. What say you, master?

1 Fish. Look how thou stirrest now! come away, or I'll fetch thee with a wannion 2.

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 griev'd 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 tumbled3? they say, they are half fish, half flesh: a plague on them, they ne'er come, but I look to be wash'd. 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 1 The old copy reads:

"What to pelche."

The emendation was suggested by Mr. Tyrwhitt, who remarks, that Pilche is a leathern coat.

2 This expression, which is equivalent to with a mischief, or with a vengeance, is of very frequent occurrence in old writers. It is perhaps from the A. S. þanung, detriment, mischief.

Sailors have observed, that the playing of porpoises round a ship is a certain prognostic of a violent gale of wind.

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 swallow'd 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 swallow'd 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 watery empire recollect
All that may men approve, or men detect!-
Peace be at your labour, honest fishermen.

2 Fish. Honest! good fellow, what's that? if it be a day fits you, scratch't out of the calendar, and no body will look after it3.

4 So in Coriolanus:

"Like scaled sculls

Before the belching whale."

5 The old copy reads "search out of the calendar, and nobody look after it." The correction is by Steevens, who also suggested that the dialogue may have been intended to run thus:"Per. Peace be at your labour, honest fishermen.

The day is rough and thwarts your occupation."

The preceding speech of Pericles affords no apt introduction to the reply of the fisherman. Some remark upon the day appears to have been omitted.

The following speech of Pericles is equally abrupt and inconsistent:

Per. You may see, the sea hath cast me 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 that I am a man, pray see me buried.

1 Fish. 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 welcome.

"Y' may see the sea hath cast me upon your coast."

Dr. Farmer thinks that there may be an allusion to the dies honestissimus of Cicero. The lucky and unlucky days are put down in the old calendars.

• Thus in Sidney's Arcadia, book v.-" In such a shadow, &c. mankind lives, that neither they know how to foresee, nor what to feare, and are, like tenis bals, tossed by the racket of the higher powers."

1 Flip-jacks are pancakes. Thus in Taylor's Jack a Lent:—

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?

2 Fish. O, not all, my friend, not all; for if all your beggars were whipp'd, I would wish no better office, than to be beadle. But, master, I'll go draw up the [Exeunt two of the Fishermen. Per. How well this honest mirth becomes their

net.

labour !

1 Fish. Hark you, sir! do you know where you are? Per. Not well.

1 Fish. Why, I'll tell you: this is called Pentapolis, and our king, the good Simonides.

Per. The good king Simonides, do you call him? 1 Fish. Ay, sir; and he deserves to be so call'd, for his peaceable reign, and good government.

Per. He is a happy king, since he gains from his subjects the name of good, by his government. How far is his court distant from this shore?

1 Fish. Marry, sir, half a day's journey; and I'll tell you, he hath a fair daughter, and to-morrow is her birth-day; and there are princes and knights come from all parts of the world, to just and tourney for her love.

Per. Were my fortunes equal to my desires, I could wish to make one there.

1 Fish. O, sir, things must be as they may; and what a man cannot get, he may lawfully deal for-his wife's soul.

"Until at last, by the skill of the cooke, it is transformed into the form of a flap-jack, which, in our translation, is cald a pancake.

8 The speaker means— -Things must be as they are appointed to be; and what a man is not sure to compass, he has yet a just right