Ephesus. A room in CERIMON's house.
Enter CERIMON, with a Servant, and some Persons who have been shipwrecked
CERIMON
Philemon, ho!
Enter PHILEMON
PHILEMON
2 Doth my lord call?
CERIMON
3 Get fire and meat for these poor men:
'T has been a turbulent and stormy night.
Servant
5 I have been in many; but such a night as this,
6 Till now, I ne'er endured.
CERIMON
7 Your master will be dead ere you return;
8 There's nothing can be minister'd to nature
9 That can recover him.
To PHILEMON
10 Give this to the 'pothecary,
11 And tell me how it works.
Exeunt all but CERIMON
Enter two Gentlemen
First Gentleman
12 Good morrow.
Second Gentleman
13 Good morrow to your lordship.
CERIMON
Gentlemen,
15 Why do you stir so early?
First Gentleman
Sir,
17 Our lodgings, standing bleak upon the sea,
18 Shook as the earth did quake;
19 The very principals did seem to rend,
20 And all-to topple: pure surprise and fear
21 Made me to quit the house.
Second Gentleman
22 That is the cause we trouble you so early;
'Tis not our husbandry.
CERIMON
O, you say well.
First Gentleman
25 But I much marvel that your lordship, having
26 Rich tire about you, should at these early hours
27 Shake off the golden slumber of repose.
'Tis most strange,
29 Nature should be so conversant with pain,
30 Being thereto not compell'd.
CERIMON
31 I hold it ever,
Virtue 32 and cunning were endowments greater
33 Than nobleness and riches: careless heirs
34 May the two latter darken and expend;
35 But immortality attends the former.
36 Making a man a god. 'Tis known, I ever
37 Have studied physic, through which secret art,
38 By turning o'er authorities, I have,
39 Together with my practise, made familiar
40 To me and to my aid the blest infusions
41 That dwell in vegetives, in metals, stones;
42 And I can speak of the disturbances
43 That nature works, and of her cures; which doth give me
44 A more content in course of true delight
45 Than to be thirsty after tottering honour,
46 Or tie my treasure up in silken bags,
47 To please the fool and death.
Second Gentleman
48 Your honour has through Ephesus pour'd forth
49 Your charity, and hundreds call themselves
50 Your creatures, who by you have been restored:
51 And not your knowledge, your personal pain, but even
52 Your purse, still open, hath built Lord Cerimon
53 Such strong renown as time shall ne'er decay.
Enter two or three Servants with a chest
First Servant
So; lift there.
CERIMON
55 What is that?
First Servant
Sir, even now
57 Did the sea toss upon our shore this chest:
'Tis of some wreck.
CERIMON
59 Set 't down, let's look upon't.
Second Gentleman
'Tis like a coffin, sir.
CERIMON
61 Whate'er it be,
'Tis wondrous heavy. Wrench it open straight:
63 If the sea's stomach be o'ercharged with gold,
'Tis a good constraint of fortune it belches upon us.
Second Gentleman
'Tis so, my lord.
CERIMON
66 How close 'tis caulk'd and bitumed!
67 Did the sea cast it up?
First Servant
68 I never saw so huge a billow, sir,
69 As toss'd it upon shore.
CERIMON
70 Wrench it open;
Soft! it smells most sweetly in my sense.
Second Gentleman
72 A delicate odour.
CERIMON
73 As ever hit my nostril. So, up with it.
74 O you most potent gods! what's here? a corse!
First Gentleman
75 Most strange!
CERIMON
76 Shrouded in cloth of state; balm'd and entreasured
77 With full bags of spices! A passport too!
Apollo, perfect me in the characters!
Reads from a scroll
'Here I give to understand,
80 If e'er this coffin drive a-land,
I, King Pericles, have lost
82 This queen, worth all our mundane cost.
83 Who finds her, give her burying;
84 She was the daughter of a king:
85 Besides this treasure for a fee,
86 The gods requite his charity!'
87 If thou livest, Pericles, thou hast a heart
88 That even cracks for woe! This chanced tonight.
Second Gentleman
89 Most likely, sir.
CERIMON
Nay, certainly to-night;
91 For look how fresh she looks! They were too rough
92 That threw her in the sea. Make a fire within:
93 Fetch hither all my boxes in my closet.
Exit a Servant
94 Death may usurp on nature many hours,
95 And yet the fire of life kindle again
96 The o'erpress'd spirits. I heard of an Egyptian
97 That had nine hours lien dead,
98 Who was by good appliance recovered.
Re-enter a Servant, with boxes, napkins, and fire
99 Well said, well said; the fire and cloths.
100 The rough and woeful music that we have,
101 Cause it to sound, beseech you.
102 The viol once more: how thou stirr'st, thou block!
103 The music there!--I pray you, give her air.
Gentlemen.
105 This queen will live: nature awakes; a warmth
106 Breathes out of her: she hath not been entranced
107 Above five hours: see how she gins to blow
108 Into life's flower again!
First Gentleman
109 The heavens,
110 Through you, increase our wonder and set up
111 Your fame forever.
CERIMON
112 She is alive; behold,
113 Her eyelids, cases to those heavenly jewels
114 Which Pericles hath lost,
115 Begin to part their fringes of bright gold;
116 The diamonds of a most praised water
117 Do appear, to make the world twice rich. Live,
118 And make us weep to hear your fate, fair creature,
119 Rare as you seem to be.
She moves
THAISA
120 O dear Diana,
121 Where am I? Where's my lord? What world is this?
Second Gentleman
122 Is not this strange?
First Gentleman
123 Most rare.
CERIMON
Hush, my gentle neighbours!
125 Lend me your hands; to the next chamber bear her.
126 Get linen: now this matter must be look'd to,
127 For her relapse is mortal. Come, come;
128 And AEsculapius guide us!
Exeunt, carrying her away