Shakespeare of Stratford
109
dinner, and had Hamlet acted aboard me; which I permit to keep my people from idleness and unlawful games or sleep.
X. Pericles, 1609–1629.
(A) Allusion in anonymous poem called Pimlyco, or Run Red-Cap, 1609.
Amazed I stood, to see a crowd
Of civil throats stretched out so loud,
As at a new play all the rooms
Did swarm with gentles mized with grooms;
So that I truly thought all these
Came to see Shore[1] or Pericles.
Of civil throats stretched out so loud,
As at a new play all the rooms
Did swarm with gentles mized with grooms;
So that I truly thought all these
Came to see Shore[1] or Pericles.
(B) From Prologue to Robert Taylor’s play, The Hog hath Lost his Pearl, 1614.
And if it prove so happy as to please,
We'll say ’tis fortunate, like Pericles.
We'll say ’tis fortunate, like Pericles.
(C) Ben Jonson, Ode to Himself, written after the failure of his play, The New Inn, in 1629.
No doubt some mouldy tale,
Like Pericles, and stale
As the shrieve’s crusts, and nasty as his fish-
Scraps, out of every dish
Thrown forth and raked into the common tub,
May keep up the Play-club.
There sweepings do as well
As the best-ordered meal:
For who the relish of these guests will fit
Needs sets them but the almsbasket of wit.
Like Pericles, and stale
As the shrieve’s crusts, and nasty as his fish-
Scraps, out of every dish
Thrown forth and raked into the common tub,
May keep up the Play-club.
There sweepings do as well
As the best-ordered meal:
For who the relish of these guests will fit
Needs sets them but the almsbasket of wit.
- ↑ Alluding probably to Thomas Heywood’s popular play of Edward IV, in two parts, which dealt largely with the sentimental tale of Jane Shore, that king’s mistress.
