Luc. Set him breast-deep in earth, and famish him; For the offence he dies. This is our doom: Aar. O, why should wrath be mute, and fury I am no baby, I, that, with base prayers, I do repent it from my very soul. Luc. Some loving friends convey the emperor hence, And give him burial in his father's grave: No funeral rite, nor man in mournful weeds, But throw her forth to beasts, and birds of prey: [Exeunt. All the editors and criticks agree 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. JOHNSON. Antiochus, king of Antioch. Pericles, prince of Tyre. Helicanus, Escanes, } two lords of Tyre. Simonides, king of Pentapolis. Cleon, governor of Tharsus. The Daughter of Antiochus. Dionyza, wife to Cleon. Marshal. Boult, their servant. Thaisa, daughter to Simonides. Marina, daughter to Pericles and Thaisa. Lychorida, nurse to Marina. Diana. Lords, Ladies, Knights, Gentlemen, Sailors, Pirates, Fishermen, and Messengers, &c. Scene, dispersedly in various countries*. That the reader may know through how many regions the scene of this drama is dispersed, it is necessary to observe, that Antioch was the metropolis of Syria; Tyre a city of Phoenicia, in Asia; Tarsus, the metropolis of Cilicia, a country of Asia Minor; Mitylene, the capital of Lesbos, an island in the Ægean sea; and Ephesus, the capital of Ionia, a country of the Lesser Asia. PERICLES, PRINCE OF TYRE. АСТ І. Enter Gower*. Before the palace of Antioch. To sing a song of old + was sung, From ashes ancient Gower is come; To glad your ear, and please your eye May to your wishes pleasure bring, *Chorus, in the character of Gower, an ancient English poet, who has related the story of this play in his Confessio Amantis. ti. e. That of old. Whitsun-ales, &c. |