THAI. By Juno, that is queen Of marriage, all the viands that I eat found out what ailed her, long before Pericles had made a similar discovery. STEEVENS. I have no doubt but she is the right reading, that the first of these speeches belongs to Pericles, and that the words "these cates resist me," are justly explained by Steevens. The intention of the poet is to show that their mutual passion had the same effect on Thaisa and Pericles: but as we are not to suppose that his mistress was ever out of his thoughts, the sense requires that we should read "These cates resist me, she but thought upon." Meaning to say, that the slightest thoughts of her took away his appetite for every thing else, which corresponds with what she says in the subsequent speech. There are no two words more frequently mistaken for each other, in the old plays, than not and but. A mistress, when not thought upon, can have no effect with her lover. M. MasoN. If this speech belongs to Pericles, he must mean to say, that when he ceases to think of his mistress, his stomach fails him. Is there any thing unnatural in this? As displeasing sensations are known to diminish appetite, so pleasant ideas may be supposed to increase it. Pyrocles, however, the hero of Sidney's Arcadia, book i. finds himself in the contrary situation, while seated at table with his mistress, Philoclea: " my eyes drank much more eagerly of her beautie, than my mouth did of any other liquor. And so was my common sense deceived (being chiefly bent to her) that as I dranke the wine, and withall stole a look on her, mee seemed I tasted her deliciousnesse." I have not disturbed the speech in question, and yet where would be the impropriety of leaving it in the mouth of Simonides? He is desirous of Pericles for a son-in-law, as Thaisa to possess him as a husband; and if the old gentleman cannot eat for thinking of him, such weakness is but of a piece with what follows, where his Pentapolitan majesty, in a colloquy with the lovers, renders himself as ridiculous as King Arthur in Tom Thumb. Simonides and Thaisa express a sort of family impatience for the attainment of their different purposes. He wonders why his appetite fails him, unless he is thinking on Pericles; she wishes for an exchange of provision; and (as nurses say in fondness to their infants) loves her prince so well that she could eat him. The grossness of the daughter can only be exceeded by the anility of the father. I cannot persuade myself that Do seem unsavoury, wishing him my meat! SIM. He's but a country gentleman; He has done no more than other knights have done ; Broken a staff, or so; so let it pass. THAI. To me he seems like diamond to glass. PER. Yon king's to me, like to my father's picture, Which tells me in that glory once he was; Shakspeare had any hand in producing the Hurlothrumbic character of Simonides. STEEVENS. 2 Had princes SIT,] Should not this be set? Yet from the perpetual occurrence of elliptical phraseology in this play, the old copy may be right. So,in p. 90: "You shall like diamonds sit about his crown." BOSWELL. 3 Where now his son's a glow-worm in the night,] The old copies read-" Where now his son," &c. But this is scarcely intelligible. The slight change that has been made affords an easy sense. Where is, I suppose, here, as in many other places, used for whereas. The peculiar property of the glow-worm, on which the poet has here employed a line, he has in Hamlet happily described by a single word: "The glow-worm shows the matin to be near, "And 'gins to pale his uneffectual fire." MALOne. 4 For he's their parent, and he is their grave,] So, in Romeo and Juliet: "The earth, that's nature's mother, is her tomb; Milton has the same thought: "The womb of nature, and perhaps her grave." VOL. XXI. G SIM. What, are you merry, knights? 1 KNIGHT. Who can be other, in this royal pre sence ? SIM. Here, with a cup that's stor'd unto the brim 7, (As you do love, fill to your mistress' lips ",) We drink this health to you. KNIGHTS. SIM. Yet pause a while; We thank your grace. Yon knight, methinks, doth sit too melancholy, Had not a show might countervail his worth. THAI. To me, my father? SIM. What is it O, attend, my daughter; Princes, in this, should live like gods above, In the text the second quarto has been followed. The first reads: 7 "He's both their parent and he is their grave." MALONE. that's STOR'D unto the brim,] The quarto 1609 reads -that's stur'd unto the brim. MALONE. If stirr'd be the true reading, it must mean, as Milton expresses it, that the liquor 66 - dances in its chrystal bounds." But I rather think we should read-stor'd, i. e. replenished. So before in this play: "Their tables were stor'd full." Again: "Were not this glorious casket stor'd with ill." these our ships "Are stor'd with corn-.' STEEVENS. $ (As you do love, fill to your mistress' lips,)] i. e. let the quantity of wine you swallow, be proportioned to the love you bear your mistress in plainer English" If you love kissing, drink a bumper." The construction is-As you love your mistresses' lips, so fill to them. STEEVENS. Read-" fill to your mistresses." FARMER. Are like to gnats, which make a sound, but kill'd Therefore to make his entrance more sweet', Here say we drink this standing-bowl of wine to him2. THAI. Alas, my father, it befits not me Do as I bid you, or you'll move me else. Are like to gnats, which make a sound, but kill'd ARE WONDER'D AT.] i. e. when they are found to be such small insignificant animals, after making so great a noise. PERCY. The sense appears to be this.-When kings, like insects, lie dead before us, our admiration is excited by contemplating how in both instances the powers of creating bustle were superior to those which either object should seem to have promised. The worthless monarch, and the idle gnat, have only lived to make an empty bluster; and when both alike are dead, we wonder how it happened that they made so much, or that we permitted them to make it ::-a natural reflection on the death of an unserviceable prince, who having dispensed no blessings, can hope for no better character. I cannot, however, help thinking that this passage is both corrupted and disarranged, having been originally designed for one of those rhyming couplets with which the play abounds: "And princes, not doing so, are like the gnat, "Which makes a sound, but kill'd is wonder'd at." STEEVENS. 'Therefore to make's ENTRANCE more sweet, here say,] Old copy "Therefore to make his entrance more sweet, Entrance was sometimes used by our old poets as a word of three syllables. MALONE. By his entrance, I believe, is meant his present trance, the reverie in which he is supposed to be sitting. STEEVENS. 2 this STANDING-BOWL of wine to him.] A standing-bowl was a bowl resting on a foot. STEEVENS. THAI. Now, by the gods, he could not please me 3 better ". [Aside. SIM. And further tell him, we desire to know, Of whence he is, his name and parentage *. THAI. The king my father, sir, has drunk to you. PER. I thank him. THAI. Wishing it so much blood unto your life. PER. I thank both him and you, and pledge him freely. 5 THAI. And further he desires to know of you, A gentleman of Tyre, who only by Of ships and men, and cast upon this shore. 3 Now, by the gods, he could not please me better.] Thus, in Twine's translation: "Then Lucina having already in her heart professed to do him good, and now perceiving very luckily her father's mind to be inclined to the desired purpose," &c. STEEVENs. + Of whence he is, his name and parentage.] So, in the Confessio Amantis : "His doughter "He bad to go on his message, "And asketh whens and what he was, "And praithe he shulde his thought leve." MALone. BEING in arts and arms ;)] The old copies have-been. I am responsible for the correction; and for the introduction of the words has been in the following speech. MALONE. |
