| PROLOGUE |
| [Enter GOWER] |
| [Before the palace of Antioch] |
| [GOWER] | To sing a song that old was sung, |
| From ashes ancient Gower is come; |
| Assuming man's infirmities, |
| To glad your ear, and please your eyes. |
| It hath been sung at festivals, | 5 |
| On ember-eves and holy-ales; |
| And lords and ladies in their lives |
| Have read it for restoratives: |
| The purchase is to make men glorious; |
| Et bonum quo antiquius, eo melius. | 10 |
| If you, born in these latter times, |
| When wit's more ripe, accept my rhymes. |
| And that to hear an old man sing |
| May to your wishes pleasure bring |
| I life would wish, and that I might | 15 |
| Waste it for you, like taper-light. |
| This Antioch, then, Antiochus the Great |
| Built up, this city, for his chiefest seat: |
| The fairest in all Syria, |
| I tell you what mine authors say: | 20 |
| This king unto him took a fere, |
| Who died and left a female heir, |
| So buxom, blithe, and full of face, |
| As heaven had lent her all his grace; |
| With whom the father liking took, | 25 |
| And her to incest did provoke: |
| Bad child; worse father! to entice his own |
| To evil should be done by none: |
| But custom what they did begin |
| Was with long use account no sin. | 30 |
| The beauty of this sinful dame |
| Made many princes thither frame, |
| To seek her as a bed-fellow, |
| In marriage-pleasures play-fellow: |
| Which to prevent he made a law, | 35 |
| To keep her still, and men in awe, |
| That whoso ask'd her for his wife, |
| His riddle told not, lost his life: |
| So for her many a wight did die, |
| As yon grim looks do testify. | 40 |
| What now ensues, to the judgment of your eye |
| I give, my cause who best can justify. |
| [Exit] |
| ACT I SCENE I | Antioch. A room in the palace. |
| [Enter ANTIOCHUS, Prince PERICLES, and followers] |
| ANTIOCHUS | Young prince of Tyre, you have at large received |
| The danger of the task you undertake. |
| PERICLES | I have, Antiochus, and, with a soul |
| Embolden'd with the glory of her praise, |
| Think death no hazard in this enterprise. | 5 |
| ANTIOCHUS | Bring in our daughter, clothed like a bride, |
| For the embracements even of Jove himself; |
| At whose conception, till Lucina reign'd, |
| Nature this dowry gave, to glad her presence, |
| The senate-house of planets all did sit, | 10 |
| To knit in her their best perfections. |
| [Music. Enter the Daughter of ANTIOCHUS] |
| PERICLES | See where she comes, apparell'd like the spring, |
| Graces her subjects, and her thoughts the king |
| Of every virtue gives renown to men! |
| Her face the book of praises, where is read | 15 |
| Nothing but curious pleasures, as from thence |
| Sorrow were ever razed and testy wrath |
| Could never be her mild companion. |
| You gods that made me man, and sway in love, |
| That have inflamed desire in my breast | 20 |
| To taste the fruit of yon celestial tree, |
| Or die in the adventure, be my helps, |
| As I am son and servant to your will, |
| To compass such a boundless happiness! |
| ANTIOCHUS | Prince Pericles,-- | 25 |
| PERICLES | That would be son to great Antiochus. |
| ANTIOCHUS | Before thee stands this fair Hesperides, |
| With golden fruit, but dangerous to be touch'd; |
| For death-like dragons here affright thee hard: |
| Her face, like heaven, enticeth thee to view | 30 |
| Her countless glory, which desert must gain; |
| And which, without desert, because thine eye |
| Presumes to reach, all thy whole heap must die. |
| Yon sometimes famous princes, like thyself, |
| Drawn by report, adventurous by desire, | 35 |
| Tell thee, with speechless tongues and semblance pale, |
| That without covering, save yon field of stars, |
| Here they stand martyrs, slain in Cupid's wars; |
| And with dead cheeks advise thee to desist |
| For going on death's net, whom none resist. | 40 |
| PERICLES | Antiochus, I thank thee, who hath taught |
| My frail mortality to know itself, |
| And by those fearful objects to prepare |
| This body, like to them, to what I must; |
| For death remember'd should be like a mirror, | 45 |
| Who tells us life's but breath, to trust it error. |
| I'll make my will then, and, as sick men do |
| Who know the world, see heaven, but, feeling woe, |
| Gripe not at earthly joys as erst they did; |
| So I bequeath a happy peace to you | 50 |
| And all good men, as every prince should do; |
| My riches to the earth from whence they came;
|
| But my unspotted fire of love to you. |
[To the Daughter of ANTIOCHUS] |
| Thus ready for the way of life or death, |
| I wait the sharpest blow, Antiochus. | 55 |
| ANTIOCHUS | Scorning advice, read the conclusion then: |
| Which read and not expounded, 'tis decreed, |
| As these before thee thou thyself shalt bleed. |
| Daughter | Of all say'd yet, mayst thou prove prosperous! |
| Of all say'd yet, I wish thee happiness! | 60 |
| PERICLES | Like a bold champion, I assume the lists, |
| Nor ask advice of any other thought |
| But faithfulness and courage. |
[He reads the riddle] |
| I am no viper, yet I feed |
| On mother's flesh which did me breed. | 65 |
| I sought a husband, in which labour |
| I found that kindness in a father: |
| He's father, son, and husband mild; |
| I mother, wife, and yet his child. |
| How they may be, and yet in two, | 70 |
| As you will live, resolve it you. |
| Sharp physic is the last: but, O you powers |
| That give heaven countless eyes to view men's acts, |
| Why cloud they not their sights perpetually, |
| If this be true, which makes me pale to read it? | 75 |
| Fair glass of light, I loved you, and could still, |
[Takes hold of the hand of the Daughter of ANTIOCHUS] |
| Were not this glorious casket stored with ill: |
| But I must tell you, now my thoughts revolt |
| For he's no man on whom perfections wait |
| That, knowing sin within, will touch the gate. | 80 |
| You are a fair viol, and your sense the strings; |
| Who, finger'd to make man his lawful music, |
| Would draw heaven down, and all the gods, to hearken: |
| But being play'd upon before your time, |
| Hell only danceth at so harsh a chime. | 85 |
| Good sooth, I care not for you. |
| ANTIOCHUS | Prince Pericles, touch not, upon thy life. |
| For that's an article within our law, |
| As dangerous as the rest. Your time's expired: |
| Either expound now, or receive your sentence. | 90 |
| PERICLES | Great king, |
| Few love to hear the sins they love to act; |
| 'Twould braid yourself too near for me to tell it. |
| Who has a book of all that monarchs do, |
| He's more secure to keep it shut than shown: | 95 |
| For vice repeated is like the wandering wind. |
| Blows dust in other's eyes, to spread itself; |
| And yet the end of all is bought thus dear, |
| The breath is gone, and the sore eyes see clear: |
| To stop the air would hurt them. The blind mole casts | 100 |
| Copp'd hills towards heaven, to tell the earth is throng'd |
| By man's oppression; and the poor worm doth die for't. |
| Kings are earth's gods; in vice their law's |
| their will; |
| And if Jove stray, who dares say Jove doth ill? | 105 |
| It is enough you know; and it is fit, |
| What being more known grows worse, to smother it. |
| All love the womb that their first being bred, |
| Then give my tongue like leave to love my head. |
| ANTIOCHUS | [Aside] Heaven, that I had thy head! he has found
| 110 |
| the meaning: |
| But I will gloze with him.--Young prince of Tyre, |
| Though by the tenor of our strict edict, |
| Your exposition misinterpreting, |
| We might proceed to cancel of your days; | 115 |
| Yet hope, succeeding from so fair a tree |
| As your fair self, doth tune us otherwise: |
| Forty days longer we do respite you; |
| If by which time our secret be undone, |
| This mercy shows we'll joy in such a son: | 120 |
| And until then your entertain shall be |
| As doth befit our honour and your worth. |
| [Exeunt all but PERICLES] |
| PERICLES | How courtesy would seem to cover sin, |
| When what is done is like an hypocrite, |
| The which is good in nothing but in sight! | 125 |
| If it be true that I interpret false, |
| Then were it certain you were not so bad |
| As with foul incest to abuse your soul; |
| Where now you're both a father and a son, |
| By your untimely claspings with your child, | 130 |
| Which pleasure fits an husband, not a father; |
| And she an eater of her mother's flesh, |
| By the defiling of her parent's bed; |
| And both like serpents are, who though they feed |
| On sweetest flowers, yet they poison breed. | 135 |
| Antioch, farewell! for wisdom sees, those men |
| Blush not in actions blacker than the night, |
| Will shun no course to keep them from the light. |
| One sin, I know, another doth provoke; |
| Murder's as near to lust as flame to smoke: | 140 |
| Poison and treason are the hands of sin, |
| Ay, and the targets, to put off the shame: |
| Then, lest my lie be cropp'd to keep you clear, |
| By flight I'll shun the danger which I fear. |
| [Exit] |
| [Re-enter ANTIOCHUS] |
| ANTIOCHUS | He hath found the meaning, for which we mean | 145 |
| To have his head. |
| He must not live to trumpet forth my infamy, |
| Nor tell the world Antiochus doth sin |
| In such a loathed manner; |
| And therefore instantly this prince must die: | 150 |
| For by his fall my honour must keep high. |
| Who attends us there? |
| [Enter THALIARD] |
| THALIARD | Doth your highness call? |
| ANTIOCHUS | Thaliard, |
| You are of our chamber, and our mind partakes | 155 |
| Her private actions to your secrecy; |
| And for your faithfulness we will advance you. |
| Thaliard, behold, here's poison, and here's gold; |
| We hate the prince of Tyre, and thou must kill him: |
| It fits thee not to ask the reason why, | 160 |
| Because we bid it. Say, is it done? |
| THALIARD | My lord, |
| 'Tis done. |
| ANTIOCHUS | Enough. |
[Enter a Messenger] |
| Let your breath cool yourself, telling your haste. | 165 |
| Messenger | My lord, prince Pericles is fled. |
| [Exit] |
| ANTIOCHUS | As thou |
| Wilt live, fly after: and like an arrow shot |
| From a well-experienced archer hits the mark |
| His eye doth level at, so thou ne'er return | 170 |
| Unless thou say 'Prince Pericles is dead.' |
| THALIARD | My lord, |
| If I can get him within my pistol's length, |
| I'll make him sure enough: so, farewell to your highness. |
| ANTIOCHUS | Thaliard, adieu! | 175 |
[Exit THALIARD] |
| Till Pericles be dead, |
| My heart can lend no succor to my head. |
| [Exit] |
Shakespeare's Sources for Pericles