| ACT III SCENE I | PROLOGUE. |
| [Enter GOWER] |
| GOWER | Now sleep y-slaked hath the rout; |
| No din but snores the house about, |
| Made louder by the o'er-fed breast |
| Of this most pompous marriage-feast. |
| The cat, with eyne of burning coal, | 5 |
| Now crouches fore the mouse's hole; |
| And crickets sing at the oven's mouth, |
| E'er the blither for their drouth. |
| Hymen hath brought the bride to bed. |
| Where, by the loss of maidenhead, | 10 |
| A babe is moulded. Be attent, |
| And time that is so briefly spent |
| With your fine fancies quaintly eche: |
| What's dumb in show I'll plain with speech. |
DUMB SHOW. |
[
Enter, PERICLES and SIMONIDES at one door, with
Attendants; a Messenger meets them, kneels, and
gives PERICLES a letter: PERICLES shows it
SIMONIDES; the Lords kneel to him. Then enter
THAISA with child, with LYCHORIDA a nurse. The
KING shows her the letter; she rejoices: she and
PERICLES takes leave of her father, and depart with
LYCHORIDA and their Attendants. Then exeunt
SIMONIDES and the rest
] |
| By many a dern and painful perch | 15 |
| Of Pericles the careful search, |
| By the four opposing coigns |
| Which the world together joins, |
| Is made with all due diligence |
| That horse and sail and high expense | 20 |
| Can stead the quest. At last from Tyre, |
| Fame answering the most strange inquire, |
| To the court of King Simonides |
| Are letters brought, the tenor these: |
| Antiochus and his daughter dead; | 25 |
| The men of Tyrus on the head |
| Of Helicanus would set on |
| The crown of Tyre, but he will none: |
| The mutiny he there hastes t' oppress; |
| Says to 'em, if King Pericles | 30 |
| Come not home in twice six moons, |
| He, obedient to their dooms, |
| Will take the crown. The sum of this, |
| Brought hither to Pentapolis, |
| Y-ravished the regions round, | 35 |
| And every one with claps can sound, |
| 'Our heir-apparent is a king! |
| Who dream'd, who thought of such a thing?' |
| Brief, he must hence depart to Tyre: |
| His queen with child makes her desire-- | 40 |
| 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 shakes |
| On Neptune's billow; half the flood | 45 |
| Hath their keel cut: but fortune's mood |
| Varies again; the grisly north |
| Disgorges such a tempest forth, |
| That, as a duck for life that dives, |
| So up and down the poor ship drives: | 50 |
| The lady shrieks, and well-a-near |
| Does fall in travail with her fear: |
| And what ensues in this fell storm |
| Shall for itself itself perform. |
| I nill relate, action may | 55 |
| Conveniently the rest convey; |
| Which might not what by me is told. |
| In your imagination hold |
| This stage the ship, upon whose deck |
| The sea-tost Pericles appears to speak. | 60 |
| [Exit] |
| ACT III SCENE I | Enter PERICLES, on shipboard. |
| [Enter PERICLES, on shipboard] |
| PERICLES | Thou god of this great vast, rebuke these surges, |
| Which wash both heaven and hell; and thou, that hast |
| Upon the winds command, bind them in brass, |
| Having call'd them from the deep! O, still |
| Thy deafening, dreadful thunders; gently quench | 5 |
| Thy nimble, sulphurous flashes! O, how, Lychorida, |
| How does my queen? Thou stormest venomously; |
| Wilt thou spit all thyself? The seaman's whistle |
| Is as a whisper in the ears of death, |
| Unheard. Lychorida!--Lucina, O | 10 |
| Divinest patroness, and midwife gentle |
| To those that cry by night, convey thy deity |
| Aboard our dancing boat; make swift the pangs |
| Of my queen's travails! |
[Enter LYCHORIDA, with an Infant] |
| Now, Lychorida! | 15 |
| LYCHORIDA | Here is a thing too young for such a place, |
| Who, if it had conceit, would die, as I |
| Am like to do: take in your arms this piece |
| Of your dead queen. |
| PERICLES | How, how, Lychorida! | 20 |
| 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! | 25 |
| Why do you make us love your goodly gifts, |
| And snatch them straight away? We here below |
| Recall not what we give, and therein may
|
| Use honour with you. |
| LYCHORIDA | Patience, good sir, | 30 |
| Even for this charge. |
| PERICLES | Now, mild may be thy life! |
| For a more blustrous birth had never babe: |
| Quiet and gentle thy conditions! for |
| Thou art the rudeliest welcome to this world | 35 |
| That ever was prince's child. Happy what follows! |
| Thou hast as chiding a nativity |
| As fire, air, water, earth, and heaven can make, |
| To herald thee from the womb: even at the first |
| Thy loss is more than can thy portage quit, | 40 |
| With all thou canst find here. Now, the good gods |
| Throw their best eyes upon't! |
| [Enter two Sailors] |
| 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 love | 45 |
| Of 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, an the brine and cloudy billow kiss | 50 |
| 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. | 55 |
| First Sailor | Pardon us, sir; with us at sea it hath 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. | 60 |
| PERICLES | A terrible childbed hast thou had, my dear; |
| No light, no fire: the unfriendly elements |
| Forgot thee utterly: nor have I time |
| To give thee hallow'd to thy grave, but straight |
| Must cast thee, scarcely coffin'd, in the ooze; | 65 |
| Where, for a monument upon thy bones, |
| And e'er-remaining lamps, the belching whale |
| And humming water must o'erwhelm thy corpse, |
| Lying with simple shells. O Lychorida, |
| Bid Nestor bring me spices, ink and paper, | 70 |
| My casket and my jewels; and bid Nicander |
| Bring me the satin coffer: lay the babe |
| Upon the pillow: hie thee, whiles I say |
| A priestly farewell to her: suddenly, woman. |
| [Exit LYCHORIDA] |
| Second Sailor | Sir, we have a chest beneath the hatches, caulked | 75 |
| 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? | 80 |
| Second Sailor | By break of day, if the wind cease. |
| PERICLES | O, make for Tarsus! |
| There will I visit Cleon, for the babe |
| Cannot hold out to Tyrus: there I'll leave it |
| At careful nursing. Go thy ways, good mariner: | 85 |
| I'll bring the body presently. |
| [Exeunt] |
Shakespeare's Sources for Pericles