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Tell us,
Or who hath brought the fatal engine in,

what Sinon hath bewitch'd our ears,

That gives our Troy, our Rome, the civil wound.-
My heart is not compact of flint, nor steel;

Nor can I utter all our bitter grief,

But floods of tears will drown my oratory,

And break my very utterance; even i'the time
When it should move you to attend me most,
Lending your kind commiseration :
Here is a captain, let him tell the tale:

Your hearts will throb and weep to hear him speak.
Luc. Then, noble auditory, be it known to you,
That cursed Chiron and Demetrius

Were they that murdered our emperor's brother;
And they it were that ravished our sister:
For their fell faults our brothers were beheaded;
Our father's tears despis'd; and basely cozen'd
Of that true hand, that fought Rome's quarrel out,
And sent her enemies unto the grave.

Lastly, myself unkindly banished,

The gates shut on me, and turn'd weeping out,
To beg relief among Rome's enemies;
Who drown'd their enmity in my true tears,
And op'd their arms to embrace me as a friend:
And I am the turn'd-forth, be it known to you,
That have preserv'd her welfare in my blood;
And from her bosom took the enemy's point,
Sheathing the steel in my advent'rous body.
Alas! you know, I am no vaunter, I;

My scars can witness, dumb although they are,
That my report is just, and full of truth.
But, soft; methinks, I do digress too much,
Citing my worthless praise; O, pardon me;
For when no friends are by, men praise themselves.
Mar. Now is my turn to speak; Behold this child,
[Pointing to the Child in the arms of an Attendant.
Of this was Tamora delivered;

The issue of an irreligious Moor,

Chief architect and plotter of these woes;

P

and basely cozen'd-] i. e. And he basely cozened.-MALONE.

The villain is alive in Titus' house,

Damn'd as he is, to witness this is true.
Now judge what cause had Titus to revenge
These wrongs, unspeakable, past patience,
Or more than any living man could bear.

Now you have heard the truth, what say you, Romans?
Have we done aught amiss? Show us wherein,
And, from the place where you behold us now,
The poor remainder of Andronici

Will, hand in hand, all headlong cast us down,
And on the ragged stones beat forth our brains,
And make a mutual closure of our house.

Speak, Romans, speak; and, if you say, we shall,
Lo, hand in hand, Lucius and I will fall.

Emil. Come, come, thou reverend man of Rome,
And bring our emperor gently in thy hand,
Lucius our emperor; for, well I know,

The common voice do cry, it shall be so.

Rom. [Several speak.] Lucius, all hail; Rome's royal emperor !

LUCIUS, &c. descend.

Mar. Go, go into old Titus' sorrowful house;

[To an Attendant.

And hither hale that misbelieving Moor,

To be adjudg'd some direful slaughtering death,

As punishment for his most wicked life.

Rom. [Several speak.] Lucius, all hail; Rome's gracious governor!

Luc. Thanks, gentle Romans; May I govern so,
To heal Rome's harms, and wipe away her woe!
But, gentle people, give me aim awhile,―
For nature puts me to a heavy task;—
Stand all aloof ;-but, uncle, draw you near,
To shed obsequious tears upon this trunk :-
O, take this warm kiss on thy pale cold lips.

[Kisses TITUS. These sorrowful drops upon thy blood-stain'd face, The last true duties of thy noble son!

Mar. Tear for tear, and loving kiss for kiss,

Thy brother Marcus tenders on thy lips :
O, were the sum of these that I should pay
Countless and infinite, yet would I pay them!

Luc. Come hither, boy; come, come, and learn of us To melt in showers: Thy grandsire lov'd thee well: Many a time he danc'd thee on his knee,

Sung thee asleep, his loving breast thy pillow;
Many a matter hath he told to thee,

Meet, and agreeing with thine infancy;

In that respect then, like a loving child,
Shed yet some small drops from thy tender spring,
Because kind nature doth require it so:

Friends should associate friends in grief and woe:
Bid him farewell; commit him to the grave;
Do him that kindness, and take leave of him.

Boy. O grandsire, grandsire! even with all my heart
Would I were dead, so you did live again!
O lord, I cannot speak to him for weeping;
My tears will choke me, if I ope my mouth.

Enter Attendants, with AARON.

1 Rom. You sad Andronici, have done with woes; Give sentence on this execrable wretch,

That hath been breeder of these dire events.

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,

to see him fasten'd in the earth.] That justice and cookery may go hand in hand to the conclusion of this play, in Ravenscroft's alteration of it, Aaron is at once racked and roasted on the stage.-STEEVENS.

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.'

r All the editors and criticks agree with Mr. Theobald 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, and there is an attempt at regular versification, and artificial closes, not always inelegant, yet seldom pleasing. The barbarity of the spectacles, and the general massacre, which are here exhibited, can scarcely be conceived tolerable to any audience; yet we are told by Jonson, that they were not only borne but praised. That Shakspeare wrote any part, though Theobald declares it incontestible, I see no reason for believing.

The testimony by which it is ascribed to Shakspeare, is by no means equal to the argument against its authenticity, arising from the total difference of conduct, language, and sentiments, by which it stands apart from all the rest. Meres had probably no other evidence than that of a title-page,a which, though in our time it be sufficient, was then of no great authority; for all the plays which were rejected by the first collectors of Shakspeare's works, and admitted in later editions, and again rejected by the critical editors, had Shakspeare's name on the title, as we must suppose, by the fraudulence of the printers, who, while there were yet no gazettes, nor advertisements, nor any means of circulating literary intelligence, could usurp at pleasure any celebrated name. Nor had Shakspeare any interest in detecting the imposture, as none of his fame or profit was produced by the press.-JOHNSON.

a The name of the author was not mentioned in the title-page of any of the three quarto editions of this play; and Meres most probably had other evidence, for he appears to have been personally acquainted with Shakspeare; and speaks in commendation of his sonnets, at a time when he could only have seen them in the MS.

PRINCE OF TYRE.

THIS play was entered at Stationers' Hall, May 2, 1608, by Edward Blount, one of the printers of the first folio edition of Shakspeare's works; but it did not appear in print till the following year, and then it was published not by Blount but by Henry Gosson, who had probably anticipated the other, by getting a hasty transcript from a play-house copy. There is no play of the author's, perhaps not in the English language, of which the text is as corrupted as that of this tragedy. The most corrupt of Shakspeare's other dramas is purity itself compared with Pericles.

The story on which this play is formed, is of great antiquity. It is found in a book, once very popular, entitled Gesta Romanorum, which is supposed by Mr. Tyrwhitt, the learned editor of The Canterbury Tales of Chaucer, 1775, to have been written five hundred years ago. The earliest impression of that work (which I have seen) was printed in 1488; in that edition the history of Appolonius King of Tyre makes the 153d chapter. It is likewise related by Gower in his Confessio Amantis, lib. viii. p. 175–185, edit. 1554. The Rev. Dr. Farmer has in his possession a fragment of a MS. poem on the same subject, which appears from the hand-writing and the metre, to be more ancient than Gower. There is also an ancient Romance on this subject, called Kyng Appolyn of Thyre, translated from the French by Robert Copland, and printed by Wynkyn de Worde in 1510. In 1576 William Howe had a licence for printing The most excellent, pleasant, and variable Historie of the strange Adventures of Prince Appolonius, Lucine his wyfe, and Tharsa his daughter. The author of Pericles having introduced Gower in his piece, it is reasonable enough to suppose that he chiefly followed the work of that poet. It is observable, that the hero of this tale is, in Gower's poem, as in the present play, called Prince of Tyre; in the Gesta Romanorum, and Copland's prose Romance, he is entitled King. Most of the incidents of the play are found in the Conf. Amant. and a few of Gower's expressions are occasionally borrowed. However, I think it is not unlikely, that there may have been (though I have not met with it) an early prose translation of this popular story from the Gest. Roman. in which the name of Appolonius was changed to Pericles; to which, likewise, the author of this drama may have been indebted. In 1607 was published at London, by Valentine Sims, "The patterne of painful adventures, containing the most excellent, pleasant, and variable Historie of the strange Accidents that befell unto Prince Appolonius, the lady Lucina his wife, and Tharsia his daughter, wherein the uncertaintie of this world and the fickle state of man's life are lively described. Translated into English by T. Twine, Gent." I have never seen the book, but it was without doubt a re-publication of that published by W. Howe in 1577. This play seems to have been particularly successful. In the four quarto editions it is called, the "much admired" play of Pericles, prince of Tyre, and is mentioned by many ancient writers as a popular performance. -MALONE.

Rowe, in his first edition of Shakspeare, says, "It is owned that some part of Pericles certainly was written by him, particularly the last act. Farmer thinks the hand of Shakspeare may be sometimes seen in the latter part of the play, but there only."

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