And will no longer have it be delayed.

Soft, here he comes;-I must dissemble it.

Enter PERICLES.

Per. All fortune to the good Simonides! Sim. To you as much, sir! I am beholden to you, For your sweet music this last night. My ears, I do protest, were never better fed

With such delightful, pleasing harmony.

Per. It is your grace's pleasure to commend; Not my desert.

Sim.

Sir, you are music's master.

Per. The worst of all her scholars, my good lord. Sim. Let me ask one thing. What do you think, sir, of

My daughter?

Per.
As of a most virtuous princess.
Sim. And she is fair, too, is she not?

Per. As a fair day in summer; wondrous fair.
Sim. My daughter, sir, thinks very well of you;
Ay, so well, sir, that you must be her master,
And she'll your scholar be; therefore look to it.
Per. Unworthy I to be her schoolmaster.

Sim. She thinks not so; peruse this writing else.
Per. What's here?

A letter that she loves the knight of Tyre!

'Tis the king's subtlety to have my life. O, seek not to entrap, my gracious lord, A stranger, and distressed gentleman,

[Aside.

That never aimed so high, to love your daughter,
But bent all offices to honor her.

Sim. Thou hast bewitched my daughter, and thou

A villain.

Per.

art

By the gods, I have not, sir.
Never did thought of mine levy offence;
Nor never did my actions yet commence
A deed might gain her love, or your displeasure.
Sim. Traitor, thou liest.

Ay, traitor, sir.

Per. Even in his throat (unless it be the king) That calls me traitor, I return the lie.

Sim. Now, by the gods, I do applaud his courage. [Aside.

Per. My actions are as noble as my thoughts,
That never relished of a base descent.

I came unto your court for honor's cause,
And not to be a rebel to her state;
And he that otherwise accounts of me,

This sword shall prove his honor's enemy.
Sim. No!-

Here comes my daughter; she can witness it.

Enter THAISA.

Per. Then as you are as virtuous as fair,
Resolve your angry father, if my tongue
Did e'er solicit, or my hand subscribe
To any syllable that made love to you?
Thai. Why, sir, say if you had,

Who takes offence at that would make me glad.
Sim. Yea, mistress, are you so peremptory?-

I am glad of it with all my heart.

you;

I'll bring you in subjection.—

[Aside.] I'll tame

Will you, not having my consent, bestow
Your love and your affections on a stranger?
(Who, for aught I know to the contrary,
Or think, may be as great in blood as I.)

[Aside.

Hear, therefore, mistress; frame your will to mine,

And you, sir, hear you.-Either be ruled by me,

Or I will make you-man and wife.—

Nay, come; your hands and lips must seal it too.— And being joined, I'll thus your hopes destroy;— And for a further grief,-God give you joy!

What, are you both pleased?

Thai.

Yes, if you love me, sir.

Per. Even as my life, my blood that fosters it.'1
Sim. What, are you both agreed?

Both.
Sim. It pleaseth me so well, I'll see you wed;
Then, with what haste you can, get you to bed.

Yes, please your majesty.

[Exeunt.

ACT III.

Enter GOWER.

Gower. Now sleep yslaked 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,
Now couches 'fore the mouse's hole;
And crickets sing at th' oven's mouth,
As 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 spent,

2

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 to SIMONIDES; the Lords kneel to the former. Then

1 The quarto of 1619 reads:

2 Eke out.

"Even as my life or blood that fosters it."

3 The lords kneel to Pericles, because they are now, for the first time, informed by this letter, that he is king of Tyre.

enter THAISA with child, and LYCHORIDA. SIMONIDES shows his daughter the letter; she rejoices; she and PERICLES take leave of her father, and depart. Then SIMONIDES, &c. retire.

Gow. By many a dearn and painful perch1
Of Pericles the careful search
By the four opposing coignes,
Which the world together joins,
Is made with all due diligence,

That horse, and sail, and high expense,

Can stead the quest.

At last from Tyre,

(Fame answering the most strong inquire,)

To the court of king Simonides

Are letters brought; the tenor these:
Antiochus and his daughter's dead:
The men of Tyrus, on the head
Of Helicanus would set on

The crown of Tyre; but he will none.
The mutiny there he hastes t' oppress; 3
Says to them, if king Pericles

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,

And every one with claps 'gan sound.
Our heir apparent is a king;

Who dreamed, 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 shakes

1 Dearn signifies lonely, solitary. A perch is a measure of five yards and

a half.

2

i. e. help, befriend, or assist the search.

3 i. e. to suppress: opprimere.

On Neptune's billow; half the flood
Hath their keel cut; but fortune's mood
Varies again; the grizzled north
Disgorges 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-near!1
Doth fall in travail with her fear;
And what ensues in this fell storm
Shall, for itself, itself perform.
I nill relate; action may
Conveniently the rest convey;
Which might not what by me is told."
In your imagination hold

3

This stage, the ship, upon whose deck
The sea-tost Pericles appears to speak.

[Exit.

SCENE I.

Enter PERICLES, on a ship at sea.

Per. Thou god of this great vast, rebuke these

surges,

1 An exclamation equivalent to well-a-day.

2 "The further consequences of this storm I shall not describe; what ensues may be conveniently exhibited in action; but action could not well have displayed all the events that I have now related."

3 It is clear, from these lines, that when the play was originally performed, no attempt was made to exhibit either a sea or a ship.

4 It should be remembered that Pericles is supposed to speak from the deck. Lychorida, on whom he calls, is supposed to be in the cabin beneath. This great vast" is "this wide expanse." This speech is exhibited in so strange a form in the old editions, that it is here given to enable the reader to judge in what a corrupt state it has come down to us, and be induced to treat the attempts to restore it to integrity with indulgence:

"The God of this great vast, rebuke these surges,

Which wash both heaven and hell; and thou that hast
Upon the windes commaund, bind them in brasse ;
Having called them from the deepe, o still
Thy deafning dreadful thunders, gently quench
Thy nimble sulphirous flashes, o How Lychorida!
How does my queene? thou storm venemously,