ACT IIIEnterGower.GOWER.Now sleep yslaked hath the rouse;No din but snores about the house,Made louder by the o’erfed breastOf this most pompous marriage feast.The cat, with eyne of burning coal,Now couches fore the mouse’s hole;And crickets sing at the oven’s mouth,Are the blither for their drouth.Hymen hath brought the bride to bed,Where, by the loss of maidenhead,A babe is moulded. Be attent,And time that is so briefly spentWith your fine fancies quaintly eche:What’s dumb in show I’ll plain with speech.Dumb-show. Enter,PericlesandSimonidesat one door with Attendants; a Messenger meets them, kneels, and gives Pericles a letter: Pericles shows it Simonides; the Lords kneel to him. Then enterThaisawith child, withLychorida,a nurse. The King shows her the letter; she rejoices: she and Pericles take leave of her father, and depart, with Lychorida and their Attendants. Then exeunt Simonides and the rest.By many a dern and painful perchOf Pericles the careful search,By the four opposing coignsWhich the world together joins,Is made with all due diligenceThat horse and sail and high expenseCan stead the quest. At last from Tyre,Fame answering the most strange enquire,To th’ court of King SimonidesAre letters brought, the tenour these:Antiochus and his daughter dead;The men of Tyrus on the headOf Helicanus would set onThe crown of Tyre, but he will none:The mutiny he there hastes t’oppress;Says to ’em, if King PericlesCome not home in twice six moons,He, obedient to their dooms,Will take the crown. The sum of this,Brought hither to PentapolisY-ravished the regions round,And everyone with claps can sound,‘Our heir apparent is a king!Who dreamt, who thought of such a thing?’Brief, he must hence depart to Tyre:His queen with child makes her desire—Which who shall cross?—along to go:Omit we all their dole and woe:Lychorida, her nurse, she takes,And so to sea. Their vessel shakesOn Neptune’s billow; half the floodHath their keel cut: but fortune’s moodVaries again; the grisled northDisgorges such a tempest forth,That, as a duck for life that dives,So up and down the poor ship drives:The lady shrieks, and well-a-nearDoes fall in travail with her fear:And what ensues in this fell stormShall for itself itself perform.I nill relate, action mayConveniently the rest convey;Which might not what by me is told.In your imagination holdThis stage the ship, upon whose deckThe sea-tost Pericles appears to speak.[Exit.]SCENE I.EnterPericles,on shipboard.PERICLES.Thou god of this great vast, rebuke these surges,Which wash both heaven and hell; and thou that hastUpon the winds command, bind them in brass,Having call’d them from the deep! O, stillThy deafening, dreadful thunders; gently quenchThy nimble, sulphurous flashes! O, how, Lychorida,How does my queen? Thou stormest venomously;Wilt thou spit all thyself? The seaman’s whistleIs as a whisper in the ears of death,Unheard. Lychorida! - Lucina, O!Divinest patroness, and midwife gentleTo those that cry by night, convey thy deityAboard our dancing boat; make swift the pangsOf my queen’s travails! Now, Lychorida!EnterLychoridawith an infant.LYCHORIDA.Here is a thing too young for such a place,Who, if it had conceit, would die, as IAm like to do: take in your arms this pieceOf your dead queen.PERICLES.How? how, Lychorida?LYCHORIDA.Patience, good sir; do not assist the storm.Here’s all that is left living of your queen,A little daughter: for the sake of it,Be manly, and take comfort.PERICLES.O you gods!Why do you make us love your goodly gifts,And snatch them straight away? We here belowRecall not what we give, and therein mayVie honour with you.LYCHORIDA.Patience, good sir.Even for this charge.PERICLES.Now, mild may be thy life!For a more blustrous birth had never babe:Quiet and gentle thy conditions! forThou art the rudeliest welcome to this worldThat ever was prince’s child. Happy what follows!Thou hast as chiding a nativityAs fire, air, water, earth, and heaven can make,To herald thee from the womb.Even at the first thy loss is more than canThy portage quit, with all thou canst find here,Now, the good gods throw their best eyes upon’t!Enter twoSailorsFIRST SAILOR.What courage, sir? God save you!PERICLES.Courage enough: I do not fear the flaw;It hath done to me the worst. Yet, for the loveOf this poor infant, this fresh new sea-farer,I would it would be quiet.FIRST SAILOR.Slack the bolins there! Thou wilt not, wilt thou? Blow, and split thyself.SECOND SAILOR.But sea-room, and the brine and cloudy billow kiss the moon, I care not.FIRST SAILOR.Sir, your queen must overboard: the sea works high, the wind is loud and will not lie till the ship be cleared of the dead.PERICLES.That’s your superstition.FIRST SAILOR.Pardon us, sir; with us at sea it has been still observed; and we are strong in custom. Therefore briefly yield her; for she must overboard straight.PERICLES.As you think meet. Most wretched queen!LYCHORIDA.Here she lies, sir.PERICLES.A terrible childbed hast thou had, my dear;No light, no fire: th’unfriendly elementsForgot thee utterly; nor have I timeTo give thee hallow’d to thy grave, but straightMust cast thee, scarcely coffin’d, in the ooze;Where, for a monument upon thy bones,And e’er-remaining lamps, the belching whaleAnd humming water must o’erwhelm thy corpse,Lying with simple shells. O Lychorida.Bid Nestor bring me spices, ink and paper,My casket and my jewels; and bid NicanderBring me the satin coffer: lay the babeUpon the pillow: hie thee, whiles I sayA priestly farewell to her: suddenly, woman.[ExitLychorida.]SECOND SAILOR.Sir, we have a chest beneath the hatches, caulked and bitumed ready.PERICLES.I thank thee. Mariner, say what coast is this?SECOND SAILOR.We are near Tarsus.PERICLES.Thither, gentle mariner,Alter thy course for Tyre. When canst thou reach it?SECOND SAILOR.By break of day, if the wind cease.PERICLES.O, make for Tarsus!There will I visit Cleon, for the babeCannot hold out to Tyrus. There I’ll leave itAt careful nursing. Go thy ways, good mariner:I’ll bring the body presently.[Exeunt.]SCENE II. Ephesus. A room in Cerimon’s house.EnterCerimon,with aServant,and some Persons who have been shipwrecked.CERIMON.Philemon, ho!EnterPhilemon.PHILEMON.Doth my lord call?CERIMON.Get fire and meat for these poor men:’T has been a turbulent and stormy night.SERVANT.I have been in many; but such a night as this,Till now, I ne’er endured.CERIMON.Your master will be dead ere you return;There’s nothing can be minister’d to natureThat can recover him. [To Philemon.] Give this to the ’pothecary,And tell me how it works.[Exeunt all butCerimon.]Enter twoGentlemen.FIRST GENTLEMAN.Good morrow.SECOND GENTLEMAN.Good morrow to your lordship.CERIMON.Gentlemen, why do you stir so early?FIRST GENTLEMAN.Sir, our lodgings, standing bleak upon the sea,Shook as the earth did quake;The very principals did seem to rend,And all to topple: pure surprise and fearMade me to quit the house.SECOND GENTLEMAN.That is the cause we trouble you so early;’Tis not our husbandry.CERIMON.O, you say well.FIRST GENTLEMAN.But I much marvel that your lordship, havingRich tire about you, should at these early hoursShake off the golden slumber of repose.’Tis most strange,Nature should be so conversant with pain.Being thereto not compell’d.CERIMON.I hold it ever,Virtue and cunning were endowments greaterThan nobleness and riches: careless heirsMay the two latter darken and expend;But immortality attends the former,Making a man a god. ’Tis known, I everHave studied physic, through which secret art,By turning o’er authorities, I have,Together with my practice, made familiarTo me and to my aid the blest infusionsThat dwell in vegetives, in metals, stones;And I can speak of the disturbancesThat nature works, and of her cures; which doth give meA more content in course of true delightThan to be thirsty after tottering honour,Or tie my pleasure up in silken bags,To please the fool and death.SECOND GENTLEMAN.Your honour has through Ephesus pour’d forthYour charity, and hundreds call themselvesYour creatures, who by you have been restored:And not your knowledge, your personal pain, but evenYour purse, still open, hath built Lord CerimonSuch strong renown as time shall never—Enter two or threeServantswith a chest.FIRST SERVANT.So, lift there.CERIMON.What’s that?FIRST SERVANT.Sir, even nowDid the sea toss upon our shore this chest:’Tis of some wreck.CERIMON.Set’t down, let’s look upon’t.SECOND GENTLEMAN.’Tis like a coffin, sir.CERIMON.Whate’er it be,’Tis wondrous heavy. Wrench it open straight:If the sea’s stomach be o’ercharged with gold,’Tis a good constraint of fortune it belches upon us.SECOND GENTLEMAN.’Tis so, my lord.CERIMON.How close ’tis caulk’d and bitumed!Did the sea cast it up?FIRST SERVANT.I never saw so huge a billow, sir,As toss’d it upon shore.CERIMON.Wrench it open;Soft! it smells most sweetly in my sense.SECOND GENTLEMAN.A delicate odour.CERIMON.As ever hit my nostril. So up with it.O you most potent gods! what’s here? a corpse!FIRST GENTLEMAN.Most strange!CERIMON.Shrouded in cloth of state; balm’d and entreasuredWith full bags of spices! A passport too!Apollo, perfect me in the characters![Reads from a scroll.]Here I give to understand,If e’er this coffin drives a-land,I, King Pericles, have lostThis queen, worth all our mundane cost.Who finds her, give her burying;She was the daughter of a king:Besides this treasure for a fee,The gods requite his charity.If thou livest, Pericles, thou hast a heartThat even cracks for woe! This chanced tonight.SECOND GENTLEMAN.Most likely, sir.CERIMON.Nay, certainly tonight;For look how fresh she looks! They were too roughThat threw her in the sea. Make a fire withinFetch hither all my boxes in my closet.[Exit aServant.]Death may usurp on nature many hours,And yet the fire of life kindle againThe o’erpress’d spirits. I heard of an EgyptianThat had nine hours lain dead,Who was by good appliance recovered.Re-enter aServantwith napkins and fire.Well said, well said; the fire and cloths.The rough and woeful music that we have,Cause it to sound, beseech youThe viol once more: how thou stirr’st, thou block!The music there!—I pray you, give her air.Gentlemen, this queen will live.Nature awakes; a warmth breathes out of her.She hath not been entranced above five hours.See how she ’gins to blow into life’s flower again!FIRST GENTLEMAN.The heavens, through you, increase our wonderAnd sets up your fame for ever.CERIMON.She is alive; behold, her eyelids,Cases to those heavenly jewels which Pericles hath lost,Begin to part their fringes of bright gold;The diamonds of a most praised water doth appear,To make the world twice rich. Live, and make us weepTo hear your fate, fair creature, rare as you seem to be.[She moves.]THAISA.O dear Diana,Where am I? Where’s my lord? What world is this?SECOND GENTLEMAN.Is not this strange?FIRST GENTLEMAN.Most rare.CERIMON.Hush, my gentle neighbours!Lend me your hands; to the next chamber bear her.Get linen: now this matter must be look’d to,For her relapse is mortal. Come, come;And Aesculapius guide us![Exeunt, carrying her away.]SCENE III. Tarsus. A room in Cleon’s house.EnterPericles, Cleon, DionyzaandLychoridawithMarinain her arms.PERICLES.Most honour’d Cleon, I must needs be gone;My twelve months are expired, and Tyrus standsIn a litigious peace. You and your lady,Take from my heart all thankfulness! The godsMake up the rest upon you!CLEON.Your shafts of fortune, though they hurt you mortally,Yet glance full wanderingly on us.DIONYZA.O, your sweet queen!That the strict fates had pleased you had brought her hither,To have bless’d mine eyes with her!PERICLES.We cannot but obeyThe powers above us. Could I rage and roarAs doth the sea she lies in, yet the endMust be as ’tis. My gentle babe Marina,Whom, for she was born at sea, I have named so,Here I charge your charity withal,Leaving her the infant of your care;Beseeching you to give her princely training,That she may be manner’d as she is born.CLEON.Fear not, my lord, but thinkYour grace, that fed my country with your corn,For which the people’s prayers still fall upon you,Must in your child be thought on. If neglectionShould therein make me vile, the common body,By you relieved, would force me to my duty:But if to that my nature need a spur,The gods revenge it upon me and mine,To the end of generation!PERICLES.I believe you;Your honour and your goodness teach me to’t,Without your vows. Till she be married, madam,By bright Diana, whom we honour, allUnscissored shall this hair of mine remain,Though I show ill in’t. So I take my leave.Good madam, make me blessed in your careIn bringing up my child.DIONYZA.I have one myself,Who shall not be more dear to my respectThan yours, my lord.PERICLES.Madam, my thanks and prayers.CLEON.We’ll bring your grace e’en to the edge o’the shore,Then give you up to the mask’d Neptune andThe gentlest winds of heaven.PERICLES.I will embrace your offer. Come, dearest madam.O, no tears, Lychorida, no tears.Look to your little mistress, on whose graceYou may depend hereafter. Come, my lord.[Exeunt.]SCENE IV. Ephesus. A room in Cerimon’s house.EnterCerimonandThaisa.CERIMON.Madam, this letter, and some certain jewels,Lay with you in your coffer, which areAt your command. Know you the character?THAISA.It is my lord’s.That I was shipp’d at sea, I well remember,Even on my groaning time; but whether thereDeliver’d, by the holy gods,I cannot rightly say. But since King Pericles,My wedded lord, I ne’er shall see again,A vestal livery will I take me to,And never more have joy.CERIMON.Madam, if this you purpose as ye speak,Diana’s temple is not distant far,Where you may abide till your date expire.Moreover, if you please, a niece of mineShall there attend you.THAISA.My recompense is thanks, that’s all;Yet my good will is great, though the gift small.[Exeunt.]
EnterGower.
GOWER.Now sleep yslaked hath the rouse;No din but snores about the house,Made louder by the o’erfed breastOf this most pompous marriage feast.The cat, with eyne of burning coal,Now couches fore the mouse’s hole;And crickets sing at the oven’s mouth,Are the blither for their drouth.Hymen hath brought the bride to bed,Where, by the loss of maidenhead,A babe is moulded. Be attent,And time that is so briefly spentWith your fine fancies quaintly eche:What’s dumb in show I’ll plain with speech.
Dumb-show. Enter,PericlesandSimonidesat one door with Attendants; a Messenger meets them, kneels, and gives Pericles a letter: Pericles shows it Simonides; the Lords kneel to him. Then enterThaisawith child, withLychorida,a nurse. The King shows her the letter; she rejoices: she and Pericles take leave of her father, and depart, with Lychorida and their Attendants. Then exeunt Simonides and the rest.
By many a dern and painful perchOf Pericles the careful search,By the four opposing coignsWhich the world together joins,Is made with all due diligenceThat horse and sail and high expenseCan stead the quest. At last from Tyre,Fame answering the most strange enquire,To th’ court of King SimonidesAre letters brought, the tenour these:Antiochus and his daughter dead;The men of Tyrus on the headOf Helicanus would set onThe crown of Tyre, but he will none:The mutiny he there hastes t’oppress;Says to ’em, if King PericlesCome not home in twice six moons,He, obedient to their dooms,Will take the crown. The sum of this,Brought hither to PentapolisY-ravished the regions round,And everyone with claps can sound,‘Our heir apparent is a king!Who dreamt, who thought of such a thing?’Brief, he must hence depart to Tyre:His queen with child makes her desire—Which who shall cross?—along to go:Omit we all their dole and woe:Lychorida, her nurse, she takes,And so to sea. Their vessel shakesOn Neptune’s billow; half the floodHath their keel cut: but fortune’s moodVaries again; the grisled northDisgorges such a tempest forth,That, as a duck for life that dives,So up and down the poor ship drives:The lady shrieks, and well-a-nearDoes fall in travail with her fear:And what ensues in this fell stormShall for itself itself perform.I nill relate, action mayConveniently the rest convey;Which might not what by me is told.In your imagination holdThis stage the ship, upon whose deckThe sea-tost Pericles appears to speak.
[Exit.]
EnterPericles,on shipboard.
PERICLES.Thou god of this great vast, rebuke these surges,Which wash both heaven and hell; and thou that hastUpon the winds command, bind them in brass,Having call’d them from the deep! O, stillThy deafening, dreadful thunders; gently quenchThy nimble, sulphurous flashes! O, how, Lychorida,How does my queen? Thou stormest venomously;Wilt thou spit all thyself? The seaman’s whistleIs as a whisper in the ears of death,Unheard. Lychorida! - Lucina, O!Divinest patroness, and midwife gentleTo those that cry by night, convey thy deityAboard our dancing boat; make swift the pangsOf my queen’s travails! Now, Lychorida!
EnterLychoridawith an infant.
LYCHORIDA.Here is a thing too young for such a place,Who, if it had conceit, would die, as IAm like to do: take in your arms this pieceOf your dead queen.
PERICLES.How? how, Lychorida?
LYCHORIDA.Patience, good sir; do not assist the storm.Here’s all that is left living of your queen,A little daughter: for the sake of it,Be manly, and take comfort.
PERICLES.O you gods!Why do you make us love your goodly gifts,And snatch them straight away? We here belowRecall not what we give, and therein mayVie honour with you.
LYCHORIDA.Patience, good sir.Even for this charge.
PERICLES.Now, mild may be thy life!For a more blustrous birth had never babe:Quiet and gentle thy conditions! forThou art the rudeliest welcome to this worldThat ever was prince’s child. Happy what follows!Thou hast as chiding a nativityAs fire, air, water, earth, and heaven can make,To herald thee from the womb.Even at the first thy loss is more than canThy portage quit, with all thou canst find here,Now, the good gods throw their best eyes upon’t!
Enter twoSailors
FIRST SAILOR.What courage, sir? God save you!
PERICLES.Courage enough: I do not fear the flaw;It hath done to me the worst. Yet, for the loveOf this poor infant, this fresh new sea-farer,I would it would be quiet.
FIRST SAILOR.Slack the bolins there! Thou wilt not, wilt thou? Blow, and split thyself.
SECOND SAILOR.But sea-room, and the brine and cloudy billow kiss the moon, I care not.
FIRST SAILOR.Sir, your queen must overboard: the sea works high, the wind is loud and will not lie till the ship be cleared of the dead.
PERICLES.That’s your superstition.
FIRST SAILOR.Pardon us, sir; with us at sea it has been still observed; and we are strong in custom. Therefore briefly yield her; for she must overboard straight.
PERICLES.As you think meet. Most wretched queen!
LYCHORIDA.Here she lies, sir.
PERICLES.A terrible childbed hast thou had, my dear;No light, no fire: th’unfriendly elementsForgot thee utterly; nor have I timeTo give thee hallow’d to thy grave, but straightMust cast thee, scarcely coffin’d, in the ooze;Where, for a monument upon thy bones,And e’er-remaining lamps, the belching whaleAnd humming water must o’erwhelm thy corpse,Lying with simple shells. O Lychorida.Bid Nestor bring me spices, ink and paper,My casket and my jewels; and bid NicanderBring me the satin coffer: lay the babeUpon the pillow: hie thee, whiles I sayA priestly farewell to her: suddenly, woman.
[ExitLychorida.]
SECOND SAILOR.Sir, we have a chest beneath the hatches, caulked and bitumed ready.
PERICLES.I thank thee. Mariner, say what coast is this?
SECOND SAILOR.We are near Tarsus.
PERICLES.Thither, gentle mariner,Alter thy course for Tyre. When canst thou reach it?
SECOND SAILOR.By break of day, if the wind cease.
PERICLES.O, make for Tarsus!There will I visit Cleon, for the babeCannot hold out to Tyrus. There I’ll leave itAt careful nursing. Go thy ways, good mariner:I’ll bring the body presently.
[Exeunt.]
EnterCerimon,with aServant,and some Persons who have been shipwrecked.
CERIMON.Philemon, ho!
EnterPhilemon.
PHILEMON.Doth my lord call?
CERIMON.Get fire and meat for these poor men:’T has been a turbulent and stormy night.
SERVANT.I have been in many; but such a night as this,Till now, I ne’er endured.
CERIMON.Your master will be dead ere you return;There’s nothing can be minister’d to natureThat can recover him. [To Philemon.] Give this to the ’pothecary,And tell me how it works.
[Exeunt all butCerimon.]
Enter twoGentlemen.
FIRST GENTLEMAN.Good morrow.
SECOND GENTLEMAN.Good morrow to your lordship.
CERIMON.Gentlemen, why do you stir so early?
FIRST GENTLEMAN.Sir, our lodgings, standing bleak upon the sea,Shook as the earth did quake;The very principals did seem to rend,And all to topple: pure surprise and fearMade me to quit the house.
SECOND GENTLEMAN.That is the cause we trouble you so early;’Tis not our husbandry.
CERIMON.O, you say well.
FIRST GENTLEMAN.But I much marvel that your lordship, havingRich tire about you, should at these early hoursShake off the golden slumber of repose.’Tis most strange,Nature should be so conversant with pain.Being thereto not compell’d.
CERIMON.I hold it ever,Virtue and cunning were endowments greaterThan nobleness and riches: careless heirsMay the two latter darken and expend;But immortality attends the former,Making a man a god. ’Tis known, I everHave studied physic, through which secret art,By turning o’er authorities, I have,Together with my practice, made familiarTo me and to my aid the blest infusionsThat dwell in vegetives, in metals, stones;And I can speak of the disturbancesThat nature works, and of her cures; which doth give meA more content in course of true delightThan to be thirsty after tottering honour,Or tie my pleasure up in silken bags,To please the fool and death.
SECOND GENTLEMAN.Your honour has through Ephesus pour’d forthYour charity, and hundreds call themselvesYour creatures, who by you have been restored:And not your knowledge, your personal pain, but evenYour purse, still open, hath built Lord CerimonSuch strong renown as time shall never—
Enter two or threeServantswith a chest.
FIRST SERVANT.So, lift there.
CERIMON.What’s that?
FIRST SERVANT.Sir, even nowDid the sea toss upon our shore this chest:’Tis of some wreck.
CERIMON.Set’t down, let’s look upon’t.
SECOND GENTLEMAN.’Tis like a coffin, sir.
CERIMON.Whate’er it be,’Tis wondrous heavy. Wrench it open straight:If the sea’s stomach be o’ercharged with gold,’Tis a good constraint of fortune it belches upon us.
SECOND GENTLEMAN.’Tis so, my lord.
CERIMON.How close ’tis caulk’d and bitumed!Did the sea cast it up?
FIRST SERVANT.I never saw so huge a billow, sir,As toss’d it upon shore.
CERIMON.Wrench it open;Soft! it smells most sweetly in my sense.
SECOND GENTLEMAN.A delicate odour.
CERIMON.As ever hit my nostril. So up with it.O you most potent gods! what’s here? a corpse!
FIRST GENTLEMAN.Most strange!
CERIMON.Shrouded in cloth of state; balm’d and entreasuredWith full bags of spices! A passport too!Apollo, perfect me in the characters!
[Reads from a scroll.]
Here I give to understand,If e’er this coffin drives a-land,I, King Pericles, have lostThis queen, worth all our mundane cost.Who finds her, give her burying;She was the daughter of a king:Besides this treasure for a fee,The gods requite his charity.If thou livest, Pericles, thou hast a heartThat even cracks for woe! This chanced tonight.
SECOND GENTLEMAN.Most likely, sir.
CERIMON.Nay, certainly tonight;For look how fresh she looks! They were too roughThat threw her in the sea. Make a fire withinFetch hither all my boxes in my closet.
[Exit aServant.]
Death may usurp on nature many hours,And yet the fire of life kindle againThe o’erpress’d spirits. I heard of an EgyptianThat had nine hours lain dead,Who was by good appliance recovered.
Re-enter aServantwith napkins and fire.
Well said, well said; the fire and cloths.The rough and woeful music that we have,Cause it to sound, beseech youThe viol once more: how thou stirr’st, thou block!The music there!—I pray you, give her air.Gentlemen, this queen will live.Nature awakes; a warmth breathes out of her.She hath not been entranced above five hours.See how she ’gins to blow into life’s flower again!
FIRST GENTLEMAN.The heavens, through you, increase our wonderAnd sets up your fame for ever.
CERIMON.She is alive; behold, her eyelids,Cases to those heavenly jewels which Pericles hath lost,Begin to part their fringes of bright gold;The diamonds of a most praised water doth appear,To make the world twice rich. Live, and make us weepTo hear your fate, fair creature, rare as you seem to be.
[She moves.]
THAISA.O dear Diana,Where am I? Where’s my lord? What world is this?
SECOND GENTLEMAN.Is not this strange?
FIRST GENTLEMAN.Most rare.
CERIMON.Hush, my gentle neighbours!Lend me your hands; to the next chamber bear her.Get linen: now this matter must be look’d to,For her relapse is mortal. Come, come;And Aesculapius guide us!
[Exeunt, carrying her away.]
EnterPericles, Cleon, DionyzaandLychoridawithMarinain her arms.
PERICLES.Most honour’d Cleon, I must needs be gone;My twelve months are expired, and Tyrus standsIn a litigious peace. You and your lady,Take from my heart all thankfulness! The godsMake up the rest upon you!
CLEON.Your shafts of fortune, though they hurt you mortally,Yet glance full wanderingly on us.
DIONYZA.O, your sweet queen!That the strict fates had pleased you had brought her hither,To have bless’d mine eyes with her!
PERICLES.We cannot but obeyThe powers above us. Could I rage and roarAs doth the sea she lies in, yet the endMust be as ’tis. My gentle babe Marina,Whom, for she was born at sea, I have named so,Here I charge your charity withal,Leaving her the infant of your care;Beseeching you to give her princely training,That she may be manner’d as she is born.
CLEON.Fear not, my lord, but thinkYour grace, that fed my country with your corn,For which the people’s prayers still fall upon you,Must in your child be thought on. If neglectionShould therein make me vile, the common body,By you relieved, would force me to my duty:But if to that my nature need a spur,The gods revenge it upon me and mine,To the end of generation!
PERICLES.I believe you;Your honour and your goodness teach me to’t,Without your vows. Till she be married, madam,By bright Diana, whom we honour, allUnscissored shall this hair of mine remain,Though I show ill in’t. So I take my leave.Good madam, make me blessed in your careIn bringing up my child.
DIONYZA.I have one myself,Who shall not be more dear to my respectThan yours, my lord.
PERICLES.Madam, my thanks and prayers.
CLEON.We’ll bring your grace e’en to the edge o’the shore,Then give you up to the mask’d Neptune andThe gentlest winds of heaven.
PERICLES.I will embrace your offer. Come, dearest madam.O, no tears, Lychorida, no tears.Look to your little mistress, on whose graceYou may depend hereafter. Come, my lord.
[Exeunt.]
EnterCerimonandThaisa.
CERIMON.Madam, this letter, and some certain jewels,Lay with you in your coffer, which areAt your command. Know you the character?
THAISA.It is my lord’s.That I was shipp’d at sea, I well remember,Even on my groaning time; but whether thereDeliver’d, by the holy gods,I cannot rightly say. But since King Pericles,My wedded lord, I ne’er shall see again,A vestal livery will I take me to,And never more have joy.
CERIMON.Madam, if this you purpose as ye speak,Diana’s temple is not distant far,Where you may abide till your date expire.Moreover, if you please, a niece of mineShall there attend you.
THAISA.My recompense is thanks, that’s all;Yet my good will is great, though the gift small.
[Exeunt.]