Enter GOWER
GOWER
99 Now sleep y-slaked hath the rout;
100 No din but snores the house about,
101 Made louder by the o'er-fed breast
102 Of this most pompous marriage-feast.
103 The cat, with eyne of burning coal,
104 Now crouches fore the mouse's hole;
105 And crickets sing at the oven's mouth,
106 E'er the blither for their drouth.
107 Hymen hath brought the bride to bed.
Where, by the loss of maidenhead,
109 A babe is moulded. Be attent,
110 And time that is so briefly spent
111 With your fine fancies quaintly eche:
112 What's dumb in show I'll plain with speech.
113 DUMB SHOW.
Enter, PERICLES and SIMONIDES at one door, with Attendants; a Messenger meets them, kneels, and gives PERICLES a letter: PERICLES shows it SIMONIDES; the Lords kneel to him. Then enter THAISA with child, with LYCHORIDA a nurse. The KING shows her the letter; she rejoices: she and PERICLES takes leave of her father, and depart with LYCHORIDA and their Attendants. Then exeunt SIMONIDES and the rest
114 By many a dern and painful perch
115 Of Pericles the careful search,
116 By the four opposing coigns
117 Which the world together joins,
118 Is made with all due diligence
119 That horse and sail and high expense
120 Can stead the quest. At last from Tyre,
121 Fame answering the most strange inquire,
122 To the court of King Simonides
123 Are letters brought, the tenor these:
124 Antiochus and his daughter dead;
125 The men of Tyrus on the head
126 Of Helicanus would set on
127 The crown of Tyre, but he will none:
128 The mutiny he there hastes t' oppress;
129 Says to 'em, if King Pericles
130 Come not home in twice six moons,
He, obedient to their dooms,
132 Will take the crown. The sum of this,
133 Brought hither to Pentapolis,
134 Y-ravished the regions round,
135 And every one with claps can sound,
'Our heir-apparent is a king!
137 Who dream'd, who thought of such a thing?'
Brief, he must hence depart to Tyre:
139 His queen with child makes her desire--
140 Which who shall cross?--along to go:
141 Omit we all their dole and woe:
Lychorida, her nurse, she takes,
143 And so to sea. Their vessel shakes
144 On Neptune's billow; half the flood
145 Hath their keel cut: but fortune's mood
146 Varies again; the grisly north
147 Disgorges such a tempest forth,
That, as a duck for life that dives,
149 So up and down the poor ship drives:
150 The lady shrieks, and well-a-near
151 Does fall in travail with her fear:
152 And what ensues in this fell storm
153 Shall for itself itself perform.
154 I nill relate, action may
155 Conveniently the rest convey;
156 Which might not what by me is told.
157 In your imagination hold
158 This stage the ship, upon whose deck
159 The sea-tost Pericles appears to speak.
Exit
Enter PERICLES, on shipboard
PERICLES
160 Thou god of this great vast, rebuke these surges,
161 Which wash both heaven and hell; and thou, that hast
162 Upon the winds command, bind them in brass,
Having 163 call'd them from the deep! O, still
164 Thy deafening, dreadful thunders; gently quench
165 Thy nimble, sulphurous flashes! O, how, Lychorida,
166 How does my queen? Thou stormest venomously;
167 Wilt thou spit all thyself? The seaman's whistle
168 Is as a whisper in the ears of death,
Unheard. Lychorida!--Lucina, O
170 Divinest patroness, and midwife gentle
171 To those that cry by night, convey thy deity
172 Aboard our dancing boat; make swift the pangs
173 Of my queen's travails!
Enter LYCHORIDA, with an Infant
Now, Lychorida!
LYCHORIDA
175 Here is a thing too young for such a place,
Who, if it had conceit, would die, as I
177 Am like to do: take in your arms this piece
178 Of your dead queen.
PERICLES
How, how, Lychorida!
LYCHORIDA
Patience, good sir; do not assist the storm.
181 Here's all that is left living of your queen,
182 A little daughter: for the sake of it,
183 Be manly, and take comfort.
PERICLES
184 O you gods!
185 Why do you make us love your goodly gifts,
186 And snatch them straight away? We here below
187 Recall not what we give, and therein may
Use 188 honour with you.
LYCHORIDA
Patience, good sir,
190 Even for this charge.
PERICLES
Now, mild may be thy life!
192 For a more blustrous birth had never babe:
193 Quiet and gentle thy conditions! for
194 Thou art the rudeliest welcome to this world
195 That ever was prince's child. Happy what follows!
196 Thou hast as chiding a nativity
197 As fire, air, water, earth, and heaven can make,
198 To herald thee from the womb: even at the first
199 Thy loss is more than can thy portage quit,
200 With all thou canst find here. Now, the good gods
201 Throw their best eyes upon't!
Enter two Sailors
First Sailor
202 What courage, sir? God save you!
PERICLES
203 Courage enough: I do not fear the flaw;
204 It hath done to me the worst. Yet, for the love
205 Of this poor infant, this fresh-new sea-farer,
206 I would it would be quiet.
First Sailor
Slack 207 the bolins there! Thou wilt not, wilt thou?
Blow, and split thyself.
Second Sailor
209 But sea-room, an the brine and cloudy billow kiss
210 the moon, I care not.
First Sailor
Sir, your queen must overboard: the sea works high,
212 the wind is loud, and will not lie till the ship be
213 cleared of the dead.
PERICLES
214 That's your superstition.
First Sailor
215 Pardon us, sir; with us at sea it hath been still
observed: and we are strong in custom. Therefore
217 briefly yield her; for she must overboard straight.
PERICLES
218 As you think meet. Most wretched queen!
LYCHORIDA
219 Here she lies, sir.
PERICLES
220 A terrible childbed hast thou had, my dear;
221 No light, no fire: the unfriendly elements
222 Forgot thee utterly: nor have I time
223 To give thee hallow'd to thy grave, but straight
224 Must cast thee, scarcely coffin'd, in the ooze;
Where, for a monument upon thy bones,
226 And e'er-remaining lamps, the belching whale
227 And humming water must o'erwhelm thy corpse,
228 Lying with simple shells. O Lychorida,
229 Bid Nestor bring me spices, ink and paper,
230 My casket and my jewels; and bid Nicander
Bring 231 me the satin coffer: lay the babe
232 Upon the pillow: hie thee, whiles I say
233 A priestly farewell to her: suddenly, woman.
Exit LYCHORIDA
Second Sailor
Sir, we have a chest beneath the hatches, caulked
235 and bitumed ready.
PERICLES
236 I thank thee. Mariner, say what coast is this?
Second Sailor
237 We are near Tarsus.
PERICLES
Thither, gentle mariner.
239 Alter thy course for Tyre. When canst thou reach it?
Second Sailor
240 By break of day, if the wind cease.
PERICLES
O, make for Tarsus!
242 There will I visit Cleon, for the babe
243 Cannot hold out to Tyrus: there I'll leave it
244 At careful nursing. Go thy ways, good mariner:
245 I'll bring the body presently.
Exeunt