For vice repeated is like the wandering wind,
Blows dust in others' eyes, to spread itself;
And yet the end of all is bought thus dear,
The breath is gone, and the sore eyes see clear

To stop the air would hurt them. The blind mole casts
Copp'd hills towards heaven, to tell the earth is throng'd
By man's oppression; and the poor worm doth die for 't.
Kings are earth's gods; in vice their law 's their will;
And if Jove stray, who dares say Jove doth ill?
It is enough you know; and it is fit,

What being more known grows worse, to smother it.
All love the womb that their first being bred,
Then give my tongue like leave to love my head.
ANT. [Aside] Heaven, that I had thy head! He has
found the meaning:

But I will gloze with him. — Young Prince of Tyre,
Though by the tenour of our strict edict,

Your exposition misinterpreting,

We might proceed to cancel of your days;

96-102 For vice repeated . . . doth die for 't] The general sense is, that those who repeat to the world the vices of princes find that their intelligence spreads quickly and widely. But the exposure leaves no permanent effects. The harmful report is rejected by those whom it pains. Only the informer is exposed to ruin and death.

101 Copp'd] This epithet, which means rounded or cupola shaped, was frequently applied to mansions with a cupola on the roof. The most famous "Copped Hall" in Elizabethan London was near the present

Vauxhall Station, London.

99

110

throng'd,] crowded, pressed, crushed. Cf. II, i, 73, infra: "A man throng'd up with cold."

113 cancel of] The Folios read cancel off. The Quartos read counsell of.

Yet hope, succeeding from so fair a tree
As your fair self, doth tune us otherwise:
Forty days longer we do respite you;
If by which time our secret be undone,
This mercy shows we 'll joy in such a son:
And until then your entertain shall be
As doth befit our honour and your worth.

[Exeunt all but Pericles.

PER. How courtesy would seem to cover sin,
When what is done is like an hypocrite,
The which is good in nothing but in sight!
If it be true that I interpret false,

Then were it certain you were not so bad
As with foul incest to abuse your soul;
Where now you 're both a father and a son,
By your untimely claspings with your child,
Which pleasure fits a husband, not a father;
And she an eater of her mother's flesh,
By the defiling of her parent's bed;

And both like serpents are, who though they feed
On sweetest flowers, yet they poison breed.
Antioch, farewell! for wisdom sees, those men
Blush not in actions blacker than the night,
Will shun no course to keep them from the light.

The line means, "we might proceed to deliberate how long you shall be allowed to live."

127 Where] Whereas.

120

130

135 Blush not in actions] The ellipse of the relative pronoun "who," before "blush," is very characteristic of the non-Shakespearean portions of

this play.

One sin, I know, another doth provoke;
Murder's as near to lust as flame to smoke:
Poison and treason are the hands of sin,
Ay, and the targets, to put off the shame:
Then, lest my life be cropp'd to keep you clear,
By flight I'll shun the danger which I fear.

Re-enter ANTIOCHUS

[Exit.

ANT. He hath found the meaning, for the which we

mean

To have his head.

He must not live to trumpet forth my infamy,

Nor tell the world Antiochus doth sin

In such a loathed manner;

And therefore instantly this prince must die;
For by his fall my honour must keep high.
Who attends us there?

Enter THALIARD

THAL. Doth your highness call?

ANT. Thaliard,

You are of our chamber, and our mind partakes
Her private actions to your secrecy:

And for your faithfulness we will advance you.
Thaliard, behold, here's poison, and here 's gold;
We hate the prince of Tyre, and thou must kill him:
It fits thee not to ask the reason why,

140 targets

shame] the shields, which protect from shame.

140

153 partakes] Shakespeare occasionally uses "partake" transitively in the sense of "impart."

150

Let your breath cool yourself, telling your haste.
MESS. My lord, prince Pericles is fled.
ANT.

As thou

Wilt live, fly after: and like an arrow shot
From a well experienced archer hits the mark
His eye doth level at, so thou ne'er return
Unless thou say "Prince Pericles is dead."
THAL. My lord,

If I can get him within my pistol's length,

[Exit.

I'll make him sure enough: so, farewell to your highness. ANT. Thaliard, adieu! [Exit Thal.] Till Pericles be

dead,

My heart can lend no succour to my head.

[Exit.

SCENE II-TYRE

A ROOM IN THE PALACE

Enter PERICLES

PER. [To Lords without] Let none disturb us. Why should this change of thoughts,

The sad companion, dull-eyed melancholy,

1 change of thoughts] thus the Quartos and the Folios, for which Malone substituted charge of thoughts, i. e., burden of cares. "Change of

169

Be my so used a guest as not an hour,

In the day's glorious walk, or peaceful night,

The tomb where grief should sleep, can breed me quiet?
Here pleasures court mine eyes, and mine eyes shun them,
And danger, which I fear'd, is at Antioch,

Whose arm seems far too short to hit me here:
Yet neither pleasure's art can joy my spirits,
Nor yet the other's distance comfort me.
Then it is thus: the passions of the mind,

That have their first conception by mis-dread,
Have after-nourishment and life by care;

And what was first but fear what might be done,
Grows elder now and cares it be not done.
And so with me: the great Antiochus,
'Gainst whom I am too little to contend,
Since he's so great can make his will his act,

Will think me speaking, though I swear to silence;
Nor boots it me to say I honour him,

If he suspect I may dishonour him:

And what may make him blush in being known,
He'll stop the course by which it might be known:
With hostile forces he 'll o'erspread the land,
And with the ostent of war will look so huge,
Amazement shall drive courage from the state,

thoughts" probably means "change in disposition of mind," i. e., this unusual propensity to melancholy.

3 Be my] This is Dyce's emendation of the early reading By me, which

is unintelligible.

12 by mis-dread] owing to dread of evil.

15 cares] makes provision that.