Luc. Set him breast-deep in earth, and famish him;
There let him stand, and rave and cry for food:
If any one relieves or pities him,

For the offence he dies. This is our doom:
Some stay, to see him fasten'd in the earth.

Aar. O, why should wrath be mute, and fury
dumb?

I am no baby, I, that, with base prayers,
I should repent the evils I have done;
Ten thousand, worse than ever yet I did,
Would I perform, if I might have my will;
If one good deed in all my life I did,

I do repent it from my very soul.

Luc. Some loving friends convey the emperor hence,

And give him burial in his father's grave:
My father, and Lavinia, shall forthwith
Be closed in our household's monument.
As for that heinous tiger, Tamora,

No funeral rite, nor man in mournful weeds,
No mournful bell shall ring her burial;

But throw her forth to beasts, and birds of prey:
Her life was beast-like, and devoid of pity;
And, being so, shall have like want of pity.
See justice done to Aaron, that damn'd Moor,
By whom our heavy haps had their beginning:
Then, afterwards, to order well the state;
That like events may ne'er it ruinate.

[Exeunt.

All the editors and criticks agree in supposing this play spurious. I see no reason for differing from them; for the colour of the style is wholly different from that of the other plays. JOHNSON.

PERICLE S.

Antiochus, king of Antioch.

Pericles, prince of Tyre.

Helicanus,

Escanes,

}

two lords of Tyre.

Simonides, king of Pentapolis.

Cleon, governor of Tharsus.
Lysimachus, governor of Mitylene.
Cerimon, a lord of Ephesus.
Thaliard, a lord of Antioch.
Philemon, servant to Cerimon.
Leonine, servant to Dionyza.
A Pandar, and his Wife.
Gower, as chorus.

The Daughter of Antiochus.

Dionyza, wife to Cleon.

Marshal.

Boult, their servant.

Thaisa, daughter to Simonides.

Marina, daughter to Pericles and Thaisa.

Lychorida, nurse to Marina.

Diana.

Lords, Ladies, Knights, Gentlemen, Sailors, Pirates, Fishermen, and Messengers, &c. Scene, dispersedly in various countries*.

That the reader may know through how many regions the scene of this drama is dispersed, it is necessary to observe, 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 capital of Lesbos, an island in the Ægean sea; and Ephesus, the capital of Ionia, a country of the Lesser Asia.

PERICLES, PRINCE OF TYRE.

АСТ І.

Enter Gower*.

Before the palace of Antioch.

To sing a song of old + was sung,

From ashes ancient Gower is come;
Assuming man's infirmities,

To glad your ear, and please your eye
It hath been sung at festivals,
On ember-eves, and holy ales‡ ;
And lords and ladies of their lives
Have read it for restoratives:
'Purpose to make men glorious;
Et quo antiquius, eo melius.
If you, born in these latter times,
When wit's more ripe, accept my rhymes
And that to hear an old man sing,

May to your wishes pleasure bring,

*Chorus, in the character of Gower, an ancient English poet, who has related the story of this play in his Confessio Amantis.

ti. e. That of old.

Whitsun-ales, &c.