The Arden Shakespeare Complete Works
Page 435
PERICLES That’s your superstition.
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1 SAILOR Pardon us, sir; with us at sea it hath been still
observ’d; and we are strong in custom. Therefore
briefly yield ’er, for she must overboard straight.
PERICLES As you think meet. Most wretched queen!
LYCHORIDA Here she lies, sir.
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PERICLES A terrible childbed hast thou had, my dear;
No light, no fire: th’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;
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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,
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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.
2 SAILOR Sir, we have a chest beneath the hatches,
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caulked and bitumed ready.
PERICLES I thank thee. Mariner, say what coast is this?
2 SAILOR We are near Tharsus.
PERICLES Thither, gentle mariner,
Alter thy course from Tyre. When canst thou reach it?
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2 SAILOR By break of day, if the wind cease.
PERICLES O, make for Tharsus!
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;
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I’ll bring the body presently. Exeunt.
3.2 Enter Lord CERIMON, with a Servant and another poor man, both storm-beaten.
CERIMON Philemon, ho!
Enter PHILEMON.
PHILEMON Doth my lord call?
CERIMON Get fire and meat for these poor men;
’T has been a turbulent and stormy night.
Exit Philemon.
SERVANT I have been in many; but such a night as this,
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Till now, I ne’er endur’d.
CERIMON Your master will be dead ere you return;
There’s nothing can be minister’d to nature
That can recover him.
[to poor man] Give this to the ’pothecary
And tell me how it works.
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Exeunt Servant and poor man.
Enter two Gentlemen.
1 GENTLEMAN Good morrow.
2 GENTLEMAN Good morrow to your lordship.
CERIMON Gentlemen, why do you stir so early?
1 GENTLEMAN Sir,
Our lodgings, standing bleak upon the sea,
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Shook as th’earth did quake. The very principals
Did seem to rend and all to topple. Pure
Surprise and fear made me to quit the house.
2 GENTLEMAN
That is the cause we trouble you so early;
’Tis not our husbandry.
CERIMON O, you say well.
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1 GENTLEMAN
But I much marvel that your lordship, having
Rich tire about you, should at these early hours
Shake off the golden slumber of repose.
’Tis most strange,
Nature should be so conversant with pain,
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Being thereto not compell’d.
CERIMON I hold it ever,
Virtue and cunning were endowments greater
Than nobleness and riches; careless heirs
May the two latter darken and expend,
But immortality attends the former,
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Making a man a god. ’Tis known I ever
Have studied physic, through which secret art,
By turning o’er authorities, I have,
Together with my practice, made familiar
To me and to my aid the blest infusions
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That dwells in vegetives, in metals, stones;
And can speak of the disturbances that
Nature works, and of her cures; which doth give me
A more content in course of true delight
Than to be thirsty after tottering honour,
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Or tie my treasure up in silken bags,
To please the fool and death.
2 GENTLEMAN
Your honour has through Ephesus pour’d forth
Your charity, and hundreds call themselves
Your creatures, who by you have been restor’d;
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And not your knowledge, your personal pain, but even
Your purse, still open, hath built Lord Cerimon
Such strong renown as time shall never raze.
Enter two or three Servants with a chest.
1 SERVANT So; lift there.
CERIMON What’s that?
1 SERVANT Sir, even now
Did the sea toss up upon our shore this chest;
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’Tis of some wreck.
CERIMON Set’t down; let’s look upon’t.
2 GENTLEMAN ’Tis like a coffin, sir.
CERIMON Whate’er it be,
’Tis wondrous heavy. Wrench it open straight.
If the sea’s stomach be o’ercharg’d with gold,
’Tis a good constraint of fortune
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It belches upon us.
2 GENTLEMAN ’Tis so, my lord.
CERIMON How close ’tis caulked and bitumed! Did the
sea cast it up?
1 SERVANT I never saw so huge a billow, sir, as tossed it
upon shore.
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CERIMON Wrench it open: soft! it smells most sweetly in
my sense.
2 GENTLEMAN A delicate odour.
CERIMON As ever hit my nostril. So, up with it.
O you most potent gods! what’s here? a corse!
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1 GENTLEMAN Most strange!
CERIMON Shrouded in cloths of state; balmed and
entreasured with full bags of spices! A passport too!
Apollo, perfect me in the characters!
[Reads from a scroll.]
Here I give to understand,
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If e’er this coffin drives a-land,
I, King Pericles, have lost
This queen, worth all our mundane cost.
Who finds her, give her burying;
She was the daughter of a king.
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Besides this treasure for a fee,
The gods requite his charity!
If thou livest, Pericles, thou hast a heart
That even cracks for woe! This chanc’d to-night.
2 GENTLEMAN Most likely, sir.
CERIMON Nay, certainly to-night;
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For look how fresh she looks! They were too rough
That threw her in the sea. Make a fire within;
Fetch hither all my boxes in my closet.
Exit a Servant.
Death may usurp on nature many hours,
And yet the fire of life kindle again
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The o’erpress’d spirits. I heard of an Egyptian
That had nine hours lien dead,
Who was by good appliance recovered.
Enter Servant, with boxes, napkins, and fire.
Well said, well said; the fire and cloths.
The still and woeful music that we have,
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Cause it to sound, beseech you. [Music.]
The viol once more; how thou stirr’st, thou block!
The music there! [Music.]
; I pray you, give her air.
Gentlemen, this queen will live.
Nature awakes a warm breath out of her.
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She hath not been entranc’d above five hours;
See, how she ’gins to blow into life’s flower again!
1 GENTLEMAN
The heavens, through you, increase our wonder,
And set up your fame forever.
CERIMON She is alive!
Behold, her eyelids, cases to those
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Heavenly jewels which Pericles hath lost,
Begin to part their fringes of bright gold.
The diamonds of a most praised water
Doth appear to make the world twice rich. Live,
And make us weep to hear your fate, fair creature,
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Rare as you seem to be. [She moves.]
THAISA O dear Diana,
Where am I? Where’s my lord? What world is this?
2 GENTLEMAN Is not this strange?
1 GENTLEMAN Most rare.
CERIMON Hush, my gentle neighbours!
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Lend me your hands; to the next chamber bear her;
Get linen: now this matter must be look’d to,
For her relapse is mortal. Come, come;
And Aesculapius guide us!
Exeunt, carrying Thaisa away.
3.3 Enter PERICLES with CLEON and DIONYZA, and LYCHORIDA with MARINA in her arms.
PERICLES Most honour’d Cleon, I must needs be gone;
My twelve months are expir’d, and Tyrus stands
In a litigious peace. You and your lady,
Take from my heart all thankfulness! the gods
Make up the rest upon you!
CLEON Your strokes of fortune,
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Though they hurt you mortally, yet glance
Full woundingly on us.
DIONYZA O your sweet queen!
That the strict fates had pleas’d you had brought her hither,
To have bless’d mine eyes with her!
PERICLES We cannot but obey
The powers above us. Could I rage and roar
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As doth the sea she lies in, yet the end
Must be as ’tis. My gentle babe Marina,
Whom, for she was born at sea, I have nam’d so, here
I charge your charity withal; leaving her
The infant of your care; beseeching you
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To give her princely training, that she may
Be manner’d as she is born.
CLEON Fear not, my lord, but think
Your grace, that fed my country with your corn,
For which the people’s prayers still fall upon you,
Must in your child be thought on. If neglection
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Should therein make me vile, the common body,
By you reliev’d, would force me to my duty.
But if to that my nature need a spur,
The gods revenge it upon me and mine,
To the end of generation!
PERICLES I believe you;
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Your honour and your goodness teach me to’t,
Without your vows. Till she be married, madam,
By bright Diana, whom we honour, all
Unscissor’d shall this hair of mine remain,
Though I show ill in’t. So I take my leave.
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Good madam, make me blessed in your care
In bringing up my child.
DIONYZA I have one myself,
Who shall not be more dear to my respect
Than yours, my lord.
PERICLES Madam, my thanks and prayers.
CLEON
We’ll bring your grace e’en to the edge o’th’ shore,
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Then give you up to the mask’d Neptune and
The gentlest winds of heaven.
PERICLES I will embrace
Your offer. Come, dearest madam. O, no tears,
Lychorida, no tears;
Look to your little mistress, on whose grace
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You may depend hereafter. Come, my lord. Exeunt.
3.4 Enter CERIMON and THAISA.
CERIMON Madam, this letter and some certain jewels
Lay with you in your coffer; which are
At your command. Know you the character?
THAISA It is my lord’s. That I was shipp’d at sea
I well remember, even on my eaning time;
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But whether there deliver’d, by the holy gods,
I cannot rightly say. But since King Pericles,
My wedded lord, I ne’er shall see again,