| ACT IV SCENE IV |
| [Enter GOWER, before the monument of MARINA at Tarsus] |
| GOWER | Thus time we waste, and longest leagues make short; |
| Sail seas in cockles, have an wish but for't; |
| Making, to take your imagination, |
| From bourn to bourn, region to region. |
| By you being pardon'd, we commit no crime | 5 |
| To use one language in each several clime |
| Where our scenes seem to live. I do beseech you |
| To learn of me, who stand i' the gaps to teach you, |
| The stages of our story. Pericles |
| Is now again thwarting the wayward seas, | 10 |
| Attended on by many a lord and knight. |
| To see his daughter, all his life's delight. |
| Old Escanes, whom Helicanus late |
| Advanced in time to great and high estate, |
| Is left to govern. Bear you it in mind, | 15 |
| Old Helicanus goes along behind. |
| Well-sailing ships and bounteous winds have brought |
| This king to Tarsus,--think his pilot thought; |
| So with his steerage shall your thoughts grow on,-- |
| To fetch his daughter home, who first is gone. | 20 |
| Like motes and shadows see them move awhile; |
| Your ears unto your eyes I'll reconcile. |
DUMB SHOW. |
[
Enter PERICLES, at one door, with all his train;
CLEON and DIONYZA, at the other. CLEON shows
PERICLES the tomb; whereat PERICLES makes
lamentation, puts on sackcloth, and in a mighty
passion departs. Then exeunt CLEON and DIONYZA
] |
| See how belief may suffer by foul show! |
| This borrow'd passion stands for true old woe; |
| And Pericles, in sorrow all devour'd, | 25 |
| With sighs shot through, and biggest tears |
| o'ershower'd, |
| Leaves Tarsus and again embarks. He swears |
| Never to wash his face, nor cut his hairs: |
| He puts on sackcloth, and to sea. He bears | 30 |
| A tempest, which his mortal vessel tears, |
| And yet he rides it out. Now please you wit. |
| The epitaph is for Marina writ |
| By wicked Dionyza. |
[Reads the inscription on MARINA's monument] |
| 'The fairest, sweet'st, and best lies here, | 35 |
| Who wither'd in her spring of year. |
| She was of Tyrus the king's daughter, |
| On whom foul death hath made this slaughter; |
| Marina was she call'd; and at her birth, |
| Thetis, being proud, swallow'd some part o' the earth: | 40 |
| Therefore the earth, fearing to be o'erflow'd, |
| Hath Thetis' birth-child on the heavens bestow'd: |
| Wherefore she does, and swears she'll never stint, |
| Make raging battery upon shores of flint.' |
| No visor does become black villany | 45 |
| So well as soft and tender flattery. |
| Let Pericles believe his daughter's dead, |
| And bear his courses to be ordered |
| By Lady Fortune; while our scene must play |
| His daughter's woe and heavy well-a-day | 50 |
| In her unholy service. Patience, then, |
| And think you now are all in Mytilene. |
| [Exit] |
Shakespeare's Sources for Pericles