A man throng'd up with cold3: my veins are chill, 1 FISH. Die quoth-a? Now gods forbid! I have a gown here; come, put it on3; 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. 3 A man THRONG'D up with cold:] I suspect that throng'd, which is the reading of all the copies, is corrupt. We might read: (It might have been anciently written shronk.) So, in Cymbeline: 66 The shrinking slaves of winter." MALONE. The expression-shrunk up, is authorised by Pope in his version of the 16th Iliad, 488: "Shrunk up he sat, with wild and haggard eye, "Nor stood to combat, nor had force to fly." STEEVENS. 4 For I am a man,] Old, copy-for that I am. I omit that, which is equally unnecessary to sense and metre. So, in Othello: Haply for I am black." 66 For is because. STEEVENS. 5 - I have a gown here, &c.] In the prose history of Kynge Appolyn of Thyre, already quoted, the fisherman also gives him 66 one halfe of his black mantelle for to cover his body with." STEEVENS. 6 afore me, a HANDSOME FELLOW!] So, in Twine's translation: "When the fisherman beheld the comelinesse and beautie of the yoong gentleman, he was mooved with compassion towardes him, and led him into his house, and feasted him with such fare as he presently had; and the more amplie to expresse his great affection, he disrobed himselfe of his poore and simple cloake," &c. STEEVENS. 7 flesh for HOLIDAYS, fish for fasting-days, and MORE-O'ER puddings and flap-jacks ;] In the old copy this passage is strangely corrupted. It reads "flesh for all days, fish for fasting days, and more, or puddings and flap jacks." Dr. Farmer suggested to me the correction of the latter part of the sentence: for the other emendation I am responsible. Mr. M. Mason would VOL. XXI. F 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 whipped, I would wish no better office than to be beadle. But, master, I'll go draw up the net. [Exeunt Two of the Fishermen. PER. How well this honest mirth becomes their labour! 1 FISH. Hark you, sir! do you know where you are? 1 FISH. Why, I'll tell you: this is called Pentapolis, and our king, the good Simonides. PER. Not well. PER. The good king Simonides, do you call him? 1 FISH. Ay, sir; and he deserves to be so called, 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? read-"flesh for ale-days: " but this was not, I think, the language of the time; though ales and church-ales was common. MALONE. "-flap-jacks." In some counties a flap-jack signifies an apple-puff; but anciently it seems to have meant a pancake. But, whatever it was, mention is made of it in Smith's Sea Grammar, 1627: "For when a man is ill, or at the point of death, I would know whether a dish of buttered rice with a little cynamon, ginger, and sugar, a little minced meat, or rost beefe, a few stewed prunes, a race of greene ginger, a flap-jacke, &c. bee not better than a little poore John," &c. STEEVENS. 8 He is a happy king, &c.] This speech, in the old copies, is printed as follows: I have only transposed a few of the words for the sake of metre: "He is a happy king, since he gains from "His subjects the name of good, by his government." STEEVENS. 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 9. 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'. 9 DID but my fortunes equal my desires, I'D wish to make one there.] The old copy as follows: "I could wish to make one there." As all the speeches of Pericles, throughout this scene, were designed to be in metre, they cannot be restored to it without such petty liberties as I have taken in the present instance. STEEVENS. As these speeches cannot be forced into metre without such violent alterations, I have printed them as prose, which, I believe, was the author's intention. BosWELL. 1 — and what a man cannot get, &c.] This passage, in its present state, is to me unintelligible. We might read :—“ O, sir, things must be as they may; and what a man cannot get, he may not lawfully deal for ;-his wife's soul." Be content; things must be as Providence has appointed ;and what his situation in life does not entitle him to aspire to, he ought not to attempt;-the affections of a woman in a higher sphere than his own.' Soul is in other places used by our author for love. Thus, in Measure for Measure: "Elected him, our absence to supply." MALONE. 'Things must be (says the speaker) as they are appointed to be; and what a man is not sure to compass, he has yet a just right to attempt.'-Thus far the passage is clear. The Fisherman may then be supposed to begin a new sentence-' His wife's soul-but here he is interrupted by his comrades. He might otherwise have proceeded to say-The good will of a wife indeed is one of the things which is difficult of attainment. A husband is in the right to strive for it, but after all his pains may fail to secure it.'-I wish his brother fishermen had called off his attention before he had time to utter his last three words. STEEVENS. The Fisherman means, I think, to say,- "What a man cannot Re-enter the Two Fishermen, drawing up a Net. 2 FISH. Help, master, help; here's a fish hangs in the net, like a poor man's right in the law; 'twill hardly come out. Ha! bots on't 2, 'tis come at last, and 'tis turned to a rusty armour. PER. An armour, friends! I pray you, let me see it. Thanks, fortune, yet, that after all my crosses 3 And though it was mine own, part of mine heritage, Which my dead father did bequeath to me, 'Twixt me and death; (and pointed to this brace 5: get, there is no law against giving, to save his wife's soul from purgatory." FARMER. It is difficult to extract any kind of sense from the passage, as it stands, and I don't see how it can be amended. Perhaps the meaning may be this:- And what a man cannot accomplish, he may lawfully endeavour to obtain;' as for instance, his wife's affection. With respect to Farmer's explanation, I cannot conceive how man can give what he cannot get: besides, if the words were capable of the meaning he supposes, they would not apply to any thing that had passed, or been said before; and this Fisherman is a shrewd fellow, who is not supposed to speak nonsense. 2. M. MASON. BOTS On't,] The bots are the worms that breed in horses. This comick execration was formerly used in the room of one less decent. It occurs in King Henry IV. and in many other old plays. MALONE. See The Reliques of Ancient English Poetry, in the old song of The Miller of Mansfield, Part II. line 65: 3 66 Quoth Dick, a bots on you." PERCY. am answerable. MALONE. my, I 4 And, though it was mine own,] i. e. And I thank you, though it was my own. MALONA. 5 this BRACE:] The brace is the armour for the arm. So, in Troilus and Cressida : For that it sav'd me, keep it; in like necessity It kept where I kept, I so dearly lov'd it; PER. To beg of you, kind friends, this coat of worth, For it was sometime target to a king; I know it by this mark. He lov'd me dearly, And that you'd guide me to your sovereign's court, And if that ever my low fortunes better, "I'll hide my silver beard in a gold beaver, "And in my vant-brace put this wither'd brawn.” Avant bras. Fr. STEEVENS. 6 The which the gods protect thee FROM ! &c.] The old copies read, unintelligibly: "The which the gods protect thee, fame may defend thee." I am answerable for the correction.-The licence taken in omitting the pronoun before have, in a subsequent line of this speech, was formerly not uncommon. See note on the following passage in Othello, Act III. Sc. III. : 66 Give me a living reason she's disloyal." MALONE. Being certain that the metre throughout this play was once regular, I correct the line in question thus : 7 66 in like necessity, "Which gods protect thee from! it may defend thee." STEEVENS. though calm'd, they GIVE'T again:] Old copies : "though calm'd, have given it again." STEEvens. 8 BY will.] Old copy-in his will. For the sake of metre I read by will. So, in As You Like It: " thousand crowns." STEEVENS. By will but a poor ? And if that ever my low FORTUNES better,] Old copy: 66 And if that ever my low fortune's better-." |
