| ACT IV SCENE III | Tarsus. A room in CLEON's house. |
| [Enter CLEON and DIONYZA] |
| DIONYZA | Why, are you foolish? Can it be undone? |
| CLEON | O Dionyza, such a piece of slaughter |
| The sun and moon ne'er look'd upon! |
| DIONYZA | I think |
| You'll turn a child again. | 5 |
| CLEON | Were I chief lord of all this spacious world, |
| I'ld give it to undo the deed. O lady, |
| Much less in blood than virtue, yet a princess |
| To equal any single crown o' the earth |
| I' the justice of compare! O villain Leonine! | 10 |
| Whom thou hast poison'd too: |
| If thou hadst drunk to him, 't had been a kindness |
| Becoming well thy fact: what canst thou say |
| When noble Pericles shall demand his child? |
| DIONYZA | That she is dead. Nurses are not the fates, | 15 |
| To foster it, nor ever to preserve. |
| She died at night; I'll say so. Who can cross it? |
| Unless you play the pious innocent, |
| And for an honest attribute cry out |
| 'She died by foul play.' | 20 |
| CLEON | O, go to. Well, well, |
| Of all the faults beneath the heavens, the gods |
| Do like this worst. |
| DIONYZA | Be one of those that think |
| The petty wrens of Tarsus will fly hence, | 25 |
| And open this to Pericles. I do shame |
| To think of what a noble strain you are, |
| And of how coward a spirit. |
| CLEON | To such proceeding |
| Who ever but his approbation added, | 30 |
| Though not his prime consent, he did not flow |
| From honourable sources. |
| DIONYZA | Be it so, then: |
| Yet none does know, but you, how she came dead, |
| Nor none can know, Leonine being gone. | 35 |
| She did disdain my child, and stood between |
| Her and her fortunes: none would look on her, |
| But cast their gazes on Marina's face; |
| Whilst ours was blurted at and held a malkin |
| Not worth the time of day. It pierced me through; | 40 |
| And though you call my course unnatural, |
| You not your child well loving, yet I find |
| It greets me as an enterprise of kindness |
| Perform'd to your sole daughter. |
| CLEON | Heavens forgive it! | 45 |
| DIONYZA | And as for Pericles, |
| What should he say? We wept after her hearse, |
| And yet we mourn: her monument |
| Is almost finish'd, and her epitaphs |
| In glittering golden characters express | 50 |
| A general praise to her, and care in us |
| At whose expense 'tis done. |
| CLEON | Thou art like the harpy, |
| Which, to betray, dost, with thine angel's face, |
| Seize with thine eagle's talons. | 55 |
| DIONYZA | You are like one that superstitiously |
| Doth swear to the gods that winter kills the flies: |
| But yet I know you'll do as I advise. |
| [Exeunt] |
Shakespeare's Sources for Pericles