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PERICLES,

PRINCE OF TYRE,

A

TRAGEDY.

BY

WILLIAM SHAKSPEARE.

ACCURATELY PRINTED

FROM THE TEXT OF

Mr. STEEVENS's LAST EDITION.

Drnamented with Plates.

London:

Printed by T. Bensley, Bolt Court, Fleet Street.

PUBLISHED BY E. HARDING, NO. 98, PALL-MALL;
J. WRIGHT, PICCADILLY; G. SAEL, STRAND;
AND VERNOR AND HOOD, POULTRY.

MOBTIC MEM AORK

OBSERVATIONS.

THE ftory on which this play is formed, is of great antiquity. It is found in a book, once very popular, entitled Gefta Romanorum, which is fuppofed by Mr. Tyrwhitt, the learned editor of The Canterbury Tales of Chaucer, 1775, to have been written five hundred years ago. The earliest impreffion of that work (which I have feen) was printed in 1488; in that edition the hiftory of Appolonius King of Tyre makes the 153d chapter. It is likewife related by Gower in his Confeffio Amantis, lib. viii. p. 175-185, edit. 1554. The Rev. Dr. Farmer has in his poffeffion a fragment of a MS. poem on the fame fubject, which appears, from the hand-writing and the metre, to be more ancient than Gower. There is, also an ancient romance on this subject, calied Kyng Appolyn of Thyre, tranflated 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 Hiftorie of the range Adventures of Prince Appolonius, Lucine his wyfe, and Tharta his daughter." The author of Pericles having introduced Gower in his picce, ie is reafonable to fuppofe that he chiefly followed the work of that poet. It is obfervable, that the hero of this tale is, in Gower's poem, as in the prefent play, called prince of Tyre; in the Gefta Romanorum, and Copland's profe romance, he is entitled king. Most of the incidents of the play are found in the Conf. Amant. and a few of Gower's expreffions are occafionally borrow ed. However, I think it is not unlikely, that there may have been (though I have not met with it) an early profe tranflation of this popular ftory, from the Geft. Roman, in which the name of Appolonius was changed to Pericles; to which, likewife, 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, pleafant, and variable hiftorie of the strange accidents that befell unto Prince Appolonius, the lady Lucina his wife, and Tharfia his daughter, wherein the uncertaintie of this world and the fickle state of man's life are lively defcribed. Tranflated into English by T. Twine, Gent." I have never feen the book, but it was without doubt a republication of that publifhed by W. Howe in 1576.

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Pericles was entered on the Stationers' books, May 2, 1608, by Edward Blount, one of the printers of the firft folio edition of Shak

There are several editions of the Gesta Romanorum before 1488. Douce.

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fpcare's plays; but it did not appear in print till the following year, and then it was published not by Blount, but by Henry Goffon; who had probably anticipated the other, by getting a hafty tranfcript from a play houfe copy. There is, I believe, no play of our author's, perhaps I might fay, in the English language, fo incorrect as this. The most corrupt of Shakspeare's other dramas, compared with Pericles, is purity itself. The metre is feldom attended to; verfe is frequently printed as profe, and the groffeft errors abound in almost every page. mention thefe circumftances, only as an apology to the reader for having taken fomewhat more licence with this drama than would have been justifiable, if the copies of it now extant had been lefs disfigured by the negligence and ignorance of the printer or tranfcriber. The numerous corruptions that are found in the original edition in 1609, which have been carefully preferved and augmented in all the subsequent impreffions, probably arofe from its having been frequently exhibited on the flage. In the four quarto editions it is called the much admired play of PERICLES PRINCE OF TYRE; and it is mentioned by many ancient writers as a very popular performance; particularly, by the author of a metrical pamphlet, entitled Pymlico.of Run Refleap in which the following lines are found

"Amaz'd flood, to fee a crowd

"Of civil throats freerd out to loud:

As at a new plays all the rooms

"Did fwar with gentles mixed with grooms;

So thay thought all thefe

"Came to foe Shore of Pericles.".:

In a former edition of this play I faid, on the authority of another perfon, that this pamphlet had appeared in 1596; but I have fince met with the piece itself, and find that Pymlico, &c. was published in 1609. It might, however, have been a republication.

The prologue to an old comedy called The Hog has loft his Pearl, 1614, likewife exhibits a proof of this play's uncommon fuccefs. The poet fpeaking of his picce, fays:

66

if it prove fo happy as to please,

"We'll fay 'tis fortunate, like Pericles."

By fortunate, I understand highly fuccessful. The writer can hardly be fuppofed to have meant that Pericles was popular rather from accident than merit; for that would have been but a poor eulogy on his own performance.

An obfcure poet, however, in 1652, infinuates that this drama was ill received, or at least that it added nothing to the reputation of its author: "But Shak fpeare, the plebeian driller, was "Founder'd in his Pericles, and must not pafs."

Verfes by J. Tatham, prefixed to Richard Brome's
Jovial Crew, or the Merry Beggars, 4to. 1652.

The

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