HEL. Royal Antiochus (on what cause I know not,) Took some displeasure at him; at least he judg'd SO: And doubting lest that he had err'd or sinn'd, With whom each minute threatens life or death. [Aside. With message unto princely Pericles; But, since my landing, as I have understood, ISO PUTS himself unto the shipman's toil,] Thus, in King Henry VIII. : 66 Hath into monstrous habits put the graces "That once were his." Again, in Chapman's version of the fifth Odyssey: since his father's fame 66 "He puts in pursuite," &c. STEEVENS. 2-although I would ;] So, Autolycus, in The Winter's Tale : "If I had a mind to be honest, I see, Fortune would not suffer me; she drops bounties into my mouth." MALONE. 3 But since he's gone, the king IT SURE must please, 66 He 'scap'd the land, to perish on the seas.] Old copy- STEEVENS. -the king's seas must please: " i. e. must do their pleasure; must treat him as they will. A rhyme was perhaps intended. We might read in the next line: "He 'scap'd the land, to perish on the seas." So, in The Taming of the Shrew : "I will bring you gain, or perish on the seas." MALONE. Perhaps we should read: "But since he's gone, the king it sure must please, My message must return from whence it came. SCENE IV. [Exeunt. Tharsus. A Room in the Governor's House. Enter CLEON, DIONYZA, and Attendants. CLE. My Dionyza, shall we rest us here, DIO. That were to blow at fire, in hope to quench it; For who digs hills because they do aspire, 4 We have no reason to desire it,] Thus all the old copies. Perhaps a word is wanting. We might read: "We have no reason to desire it told.” Your message being addressed to our master, and not to us, there is no reason why we should desire you to divulge it. If, however, desire be considered as a trisyllable, the metre, though, perhaps, not the sense, will be supplied. MALONE. I have supplied the adverb-since, both for the sake of sense and metre. STEEVENS. s Yet, ere you shall depart, this we desire,— As friends to Antioch, we may feast in Tyre.] Thus also Agamemnon addresses Æneas in Troilus and Cressida : "Yourself shall feast with us, before you go, "And find the welcome of a noble foe." STEEVENS. 6 Here they're but felt, UNSEEN with MISCHIEF's eyes,] The quarto 1609 reads and seen. The words and seen, and that which I have inserted in my text, are so near in sound, that they might easily have been confounded by a hasty pronunciation, or an inattentive transcriber. By mischief's eyes, I understand, the But like to groves, being topp'd, they higher rise. Who wanteth food, and will not say he wants it, Our tongues and sorrows too' sound deep our woes Into the air; our eyes do weep, till lungs 8 eyes of those who would feel a malignant pleasure in our misfortunes, and add to them by their triumph over us.' The eye has been long described by poets as either propitious, or malignant and unlucky. Thus in a subsequent scene in this play: "Now the good gods throw their best eyes upon it!" MALONE. I suspect this line, like many others before us, to be corrupt, and therefore read-mistful instead of mischiefs. So, in King Henry V. Act IV. Sc. VI.: 66 For, hearing this, I must perforce compound "With mistful eyes, or they [tears] will issue too." The sense of the passage will then be,- Withdrawn, as we now are, from the scene we describe, our sorrows are simply felt, and appear indistinct, as through a mist. When we attempt to reduce our griefs by artful comparison, that effort is made to our disadvantage, and our calamities encrease, like trees, that shoot the higher, because they have felt the discipline of the pruning knife. Shakspeare has an expression similar to the foregoing: I see before me, neither here nor there, "Nor what ensues, but have a fog in them Which I cannot pierce through." I 66 Cymbeline, Act III. Sc. I. may, however, have only exchanged one sort of nonsense for another; as the following comparison in Mr. Pope's Essay on Criticism, v. 392, seems to suggest a different meaning to the observation of Dionyza : "As things seem large which we through mists descry;" thus sorrow is always apt to magnify its object. STEEvens. 7 Our tongues and sorrows Too-] The original copy hasto, here and in the next line; which cannot be right. To was often written by our old writers for too; and in like manner too and two were confounded. The quarto of 1619 reads do in the first line. I think Cleon means to say- Let our tongues and sorrows too sound deep,' &c. MALONE. Mr. Steevens, I think with more probability, reads with the quarto of 1619-" our tongues and sorrows do." BosWELL. 8 till LUNGS-] The old copy has-tongues. The correction was made by Mr. Steevens. MALONE. Fetch breath that may proclaim them louder; that, CLE. This Tharsus, o'er which I have government, (A city, on whom plenty held full hand,) For riches, strew'd herself even in the streets'; Whose towers bore heads so high, they kiss'd the clouds 2 9 They may awake their HELPS to comfort them.] Old copyhelpers. STEEVENS. Perhaps we should read-helps. So before: 66 be my helps, "To compass such a boundless happiness! MALONE. I have adopted Mr. Malone's very natural conjecture. STEEVENS. 1 FOR riches, strew'd HERSELF even in the streets;] For, in the present instance, I believe, means-' with respect to, with regard to riches.' Thus, in Coriolanus : 66 "Rather our state's defective for requital, "Than we to stretch it out." Strew'd herself" referring to city, is undoubtedly the true reading. Thus, in Timon of Athens: "Thou'lt give away thyself in paper shortly." STEEVENS. Shakspeare generally uses riches as a singular noun. Thus, in Othello: "The riches of the ship is come ashore." Again, ibid. : "But riches fineless is as poor as winter-." Again, in his 87th Sonnet : "And for that riches where is my deserving?" MALONE. I should propose to read richness, instead of riches, which renders the passage not only correct, but much more poetical. Malone must also prove that he uses riches to express a person, or it will not agree with the word herself, or answer in this place. This last line should be in a parenthesis. M. MASON. 2 bore heads so high, they KISS'D THE CLOUDS,] So, in Hamlet: And strangers ne'er beheld, but wonder'd at; 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, They are now starv'd for want of exercise: Again, in The Rape of Lucrece, 1594: 66 Threat'ning cloud-kissing Ilion with annoy." Again, more appositely, in Troilus and Cressida : 3 66 Yon towers whose wanton tops do buss the clouds." SO JETTED and adorn'd,] To jet is to strut, to walk proudly. So, in Twelfth-Night: "Contemplation makes a rare turkey-cock of him how he jets under his advanced plumes!" STEEVENS. 4 Like one another's glass to trim them by :] The same idea is found in Hamlet: Ophelia, speaking of the prince, says he was"The glass of fashion, and the mould of form, "The observ'd of all observers." Again, in Cymbeline: "A sample to the youngest, to the more mature Again, in The Second Part of King Henry IV.: 66 He was indeed the glass, "Wherein the noble youth did dress themselves." MALONE. 5 Those palates, &c.] The passage is so corrupt in the old copy, that it is difficult even to form a probable conjecture upon it. It reads "who not yet two savers younger." The words which I have inserted in my text, afford sense, and are not very |