Texts:Shakespeare/cw162327: Difference between revisions

<h2>PERICLES, PRINCE OF TYRE</h2>

<h4>Contents</h4>

<p>

Before the palace of Antioch.<br/>

Antioch. A room in the palace.<br/>

Tyre. A room in the palace.<br/>

Tyre. An ante-chamber in the Palace.<br/>

Tarsus. A room in the Governor's house.<br/>

<br/>

Chorus.<br/>

Pentapolis. An open place by the seaside.<br/>

The same. A public way, or platform leading

to the lists.<br/>

The same. A hall of state: a banquet prepared.<br/>

Tyre. A room in the Governor's house.<br/>

Pentapolis. A room in the palace.<br/>

<br/>

Chorus.<br/>

On shipboard.<br/>

Ephesus. A room in Cerimon's house.<br/>

Tarsus. A room in Cleon's house.<br/>

Ephesus. A room in Cerimon's house.<br/>

<br/>

Chorus.<br/>

Tarsus. An open place near the seashore.<br/>

Mytilene. A room in a brothel.<br/>

Tarsus. A room in Cleon's house.<br/>

Before the monument of Marina at Tarsus.<br/>

Mytilene. A street before the brothel.<br/>

The same. A room in the brothel.<br/>

<br/>

Chorus.<br/>

On board Pericles' ship, off Mytilene.<br/>

Before the temple of Diana at Ephesus.<br/>

The temple of Diana at Ephesus.<br/>

<br/>

<br/>

</p>

<p>ANTIOCHUS, king of Antioch.<br/>

PERICLES, prince of Tyre.<br/>

HELICANUS, ESCANES,  two lords of Tyre.<br/>

SIMONIDES, king of Pentapolis.<br/>

CLEON, governor of Tarsus.<br/>

LYSIMACHUS, governor of Mytilene.<br/>

CERIMON, a lord of Ephesus.<br/>

THALIARD, a lord of Antioch.<br/>

PHILEMON, servant to Cerimon.<br/>

LEONINE, servant to Dionyza.<br/>

Marshal.<br/>

A Pandar.<br/>

BOULT, his servant.<br/>

The Daughter of Antiochus.<br/>

DIONYZA, wife to Cleon.<br/>

THAISA, daughter to Simonides.<br/>

MARINA, daughter to Pericles and Thaisa.<br/>

LYCHORIDA, nurse to Marina.<br/>

A Bawd.<br/>

Lords, Knights, Gentlemen, Sailors, Pirates, Fishermen, and Messengers.<br/>

DIANA.<br/>

GOWER, as Chorus.</p>

<h4>SCENE: Dispersedly in various countries.</h4>

It hath been sung at festivals,<br/>

On ember-eves and holy-ales;<br/>

And lords and ladies in their lives<br/>

Have read it for restoratives:<br/>

The purchase is to make men glorious,<br/>

<i>Et bonum quo antiquius eo melius.</i><br/>

If you, born in these latter times,<br/>

When wit's more ripe, accept my rhymes,<br/>

And that to hear an old man sing<br/>

May to your wishes pleasure bring,<br/>

I life would wish, and that I might<br/>

Waste it for you, like taper-light.<br/>

This Antioch, then, Antiochus the Great<br/>

Built up, this city, for his chiefest seat;<br/>

The fairest in all Syria.<br/>

I tell you what mine authors say:<br/>

This king unto him took a fere,<br/>

Who died and left a female heir,<br/>

So buxom, blithe, and full of face,<br/>

As heaven had lent her all his grace;<br/>

With whom the father liking took,<br/>

And her to incest did provoke.<br/>

Bad child; worse father! to entice his own<br/>

To evil should be done by none:<br/>

But custom what they did begin<br/>

Was with long use account'd no sin.<br/>

The beauty of this sinful dame<br/>

Made many princes thither frame,<br/>

To seek her as a bedfellow,<br/>

In marriage pleasures playfellow:<br/>

Which to prevent he made a law,<br/>

To keep her still, and men in awe,<br/>

That whoso ask'd her for his wife,<br/>

His riddle told not, lost his life:<br/>

So for her many a wight did die,<br/>

As yon grim looks do testify.<br/>

What now ensues, to the judgement your eye<br/>

I give, my cause who best can justify.</p>

<p class="scenedesc"> Enter <span class="charname">Antiochus,</span> Prince <span

class="charname">Pericles</span> and followers.</p>

<p>ANTIOCHUS.<br/>

Young prince of Tyre, you have at large received<br/>

The danger of the task you undertake.</p>

<p>PERICLES.<br/>

I have, Antiochus, and, with a soul<br/>

Emboldened with the glory of her praise,<br/>

Think death no hazard in this enterprise.</p>

<p>ANTIOCHUS.<br/>

Music! Bring in our daughter, clothed like a bride,<br/>

For the embracements even of Jove himself;<br/>

At whose conception, till Lucina reigned,<br/>

Nature this dowry gave, to glad her presence,<br/>

The senate house of planets all did sit,<br/>

To knit in her their best perfections.</p>

<p class="scenedesc"> Music. Enter the <span class="charname">Daughter</span> of

Antiochus.</p>

<p>PERICLES.<br/>

See where she comes, apparell'd like the spring,<br/>

Graces her subjects, and her thoughts the king<br/>

Of every virtue gives renown to men!<br/>

Her face the book of praises, where is read<br/>

Nothing but curious pleasures, as from thence<br/>

Sorrow were ever razed, and testy wrath<br/>

Could never be her mild companion.<br/>

You gods that made me man, and sway in love,<br/>

That have inflamed desire in my breast<br/>

To taste the fruit of yon celestial tree,<br/>

Or die in the adventure, be my helps,<br/>

As I am son and servant to your will,<br/>

To compass such a boundless happiness!</p>

<p>ANTIOCHUS.<br/>

<p>PERICLES.<br/>

That would be son to great Antiochus.</p>

<p>ANTIOCHUS.<br/>

Before thee stands this fair Hesperides,<br/>

With golden fruit, but dangerous to be touch'd;<br/>

For death-like dragons here affright thee hard:<br/>

Her face, like heaven, enticeth thee to view<br/>

Her countless glory, which desert must gain;<br/>

And which, without desert, because thine eye<br/>

Presumes to reach, all the whole heap must die.<br/>

Yon sometimes famous princes, like thyself,<br/>

Drawn by report, adventurous by desire,<br/>

Tell thee, with speechless tongues and semblance pale,<br/>

That without covering, save yon field of stars,<br/>

Here they stand Martyrs, slain in Cupid's wars;<br/>

And with dead cheeks advise thee to desist<br/>

For going on death's net, whom none resist.</p>

<p>PERICLES.<br/>

Antiochus, I thank thee, who hath taught<br/>

My frail mortality to know itself,<br/>

And by those fearful objects to prepare<br/>

This body, like to them, to what I must;<br/>

For death remember'd should be like a mirror,<br/>

Who tells us life's but breath, to trust it error.<br/>

I'll make my will then, and, as sick men do<br/>

Who know the world, see heaven, but, feeling woe,<br/>

Gripe not at earthly joys as erst they did;<br/>

So I bequeath a happy peace to you<br/>

And all good men, as every prince should do;<br/>

My riches to the earth from whence they came;<br/>

[<i>To the daughter of Antiochus.</i>] But my unspotted fire of love to you.<br/>

Thus ready for the way of life or death,<br/>

I wait the sharpest blow, Antiochus.</p>

<p>ANTIOCHUS.<br/>

Scorning advice, read the conclusion, then:<br/>

Which read and not expounded, 'tis decreed,<br/>

As these before thee thou thyself shalt bleed.</p>

<p>DAUGHTER.<br/>

Of all 'ssayed yet, mayst thou prove prosperous!<br/>

Of all 'ssayed yet, I wish thee happiness!</p>

<p>PERICLES<br/>

Like a bold champion, I assume the lists,<br/>

Nor ask advice of any other thought<br/>

But faithfulness and courage.</p>

<p>    <i>I am no viper, yet I feed<br/>

     On mother's flesh which did me breed.<br/>

     I sought a husband, in which labour<br/>

     I found that kindness in a father:<br/>

     He's father, son, and husband mild;<br/>

     I mother, wife, and yet his child.<br/>

     How they may be, and yet in two,<br/>

     As you will live resolve it you.</i><br/>

</p>

That give heaven countless eyes to view men's acts,<br/>

Why cloud they not their sights perpetually,<br/>

If this be true, which makes me pale to read it?<br/>

Fair glass of light, I loved you, and could still,</p>

<p>Were not this glorious casket stored with ill:<br/>

But I must tell you, now my thoughts revolt;<br/>

For he's no man on whom perfections wait<br/>

That, knowing sin within, will touch the gate,<br/>

You are a fair viol, and your sense the strings;<br/>

Who, finger'd to make man his lawful music,<br/>

Would draw heaven down, and all the gods to hearken;<br/>

But being play'd upon before your time,<br/>

Hell only danceth at so harsh a chime.<br/>

Good sooth, I care not for you.</p>

<p>ANTIOCHUS.<br/>

Prince Pericles, touch not, upon thy life,<br/>

For that's an article within our law,<br/>

As dangerous as the rest. Your time's expired:<br/>

Either expound now, or receive your sentence.</p>

<p>PERICLES.<br/>

Great king,<br/>

Few love to hear the sins they love to act;<br/>

'Twould braid yourself too near for me to tell it.<br/>

Who has a book of all that monarchs do,<br/>

He's more secure to keep it shut than shown:<br/>

For vice repeated is like the wandering wind,<br/>

Blows dust in others' eyes, to spread itself;<br/>

And yet the end of all is bought thus dear,<br/>

The breath is gone, and the sore eyes see clear.<br/>

To stop the air would hurt them. The blind mole casts<br/>

Copp'd hills towards heaven, to tell the earth is

throng'd<br/>

By man's oppression; and the poor worm doth die for't.<br/>

Kind are earth's gods; in vice their law's their will;<br/>

And if Jove stray, who dares say Jove doth ill?<br/>

It is enough you know; and it is fit,<br/>

What being more known grows worse, to smother it.<br/>

All love the womb that their first bred,<br/>

Then give my tongue like leave to love my head.</p>

<p>ANTIOCHUS.<br/>

[<i>Aside</i>] Heaven, that I had thy head! He has found the meaning:<br/>

Though by the tenour of our strict edict,<br/>

Your exposition misinterpreting,<br/>

We might proceed to cancel of your days;<br/>

Yet hope, succeeding from so fair a tree<br/>

As your fair self, doth tune us otherwise:<br/>

Forty days longer we do respite you;<br/>

If by which time our secret be undone,<br/>

This mercy shows we'll joy in such a son:<br/>

And until then your entertain shall be<br/>

As doth befit our honour and your worth.</p>

<p>PERICLES.<br/>

How courtesy would seem to cover sin,<br/>

When what is done is like an hypocrite,<br/>

The which is good in nothing but in sight!<br/>

If it be true that I interpret false,<br/>

Then were it certain you were not so bad<br/>

As with foul incest to abuse your soul;<br/>

Where now you're both a father and a son,<br/>

By your untimely claspings with your child,<br/>

Which pleasures fits a husband, not a father;<br/>

And she an eater of her mother's flesh,<br/>

By the defiling of her parent's bed;<br/>

And both like serpents are, who though they feed<br/>

On sweetest flowers, yet they poison breed.<br/>

Antioch, farewell! for wisdom sees, those men<br/>

Blush not in actions blacker than the night,<br/>

Will 'schew no course to keep them from the light.<br/>

One sin, I know, another doth provoke;<br/>

Murder's as near to lust as flame to smoke:<br/>

Poison and treason are the hands of sin,<br/>

Ay, and the targets, to put off the shame:<br/>

Then, lest my life be cropp'd to keep you clear,<br/>

By flight I'll shun the danger which I fear.</p>

<p>ANTIOCHUS.<br/>

He hath found the meaning,<br/>

For which we mean to have his head.<br/>

He must not live to trumpet forth my infamy,<br/>

Nor tell the world Antiochus doth sin<br/>

In such a loathed manner;<br/>

And therefore instantly this prince must die;<br/>

For by his fall my honour must keep high.<br/>

Who attends us there?</p>

<p>THALIARD.<br/>

Doth your highness call?</p>

<p>ANTIOCHUS.<br/>

Thaliard, you are of our chamber,<br/>

And our mind partakes her private actions<br/>

To your secrecy; and for your faithfulness<br/>

We will advance you. Thaliard,<br/>

Behold, here's poison, and here's gold;<br/>

We hate the prince of Tyre, and thou must kill him:<br/>

It fits thee not to ask the reason why,<br/>

Because we bid it. Say, is it done?</p>

<p>THALIARD.<br/>

My lord, 'tis done.</p>

<p>ANTIOCHUS.<br/>

Enough.</p>

<p>MESSENGER.<br/>

My lord, Prince Pericles is fled.</p>

<p>ANTIOCHUS.<br/>

As thou wilt live, fly after: and like an arrow shot<br/>

From a well-experienced archer hits the mark<br/>

His eye doth level at, so thou ne'er return<br/>

Unless thou say 'Prince Pericles is dead.'</p>

<p>THALIARD.<br/>

My lord, if I can get him within my pistol's length,

I'll make him sure enough: so, farewell to your highness.<br/>

</p>

<p>ANTIOCHUS.<br/>

Thaliard! adieu!</p>

<p>Till Pericles be dead,<br/>

My heart can lend no succour to my head.</p>

<p class="scenedesc"> Enter <span class="charname">Pericles</span> with his <span

class="charname">Lords.</span></p>

<p>PERICLES.<br/>

thoughts,<br/>

The sad companion, dull-eyed melancholy,<br/>

Be my so used a guest as not an hour<br/>

In the day's glorious walk or peaceful night,<br/>

The tomb where grief should sleep, can breed me quiet?<br/>

Here pleasures court mine eyes, and mine eyes shun them,<br/>

And danger, which I fear'd, is at Antioch,<br/>

Whose arm seems far too short to hit me here:<br/>

Yet neither pleasure's art can joy my spirits,<br/>

Nor yet the other's distance comfort me.<br/>

Then it is thus: the passions of the mind,<br/>

That have their first conception by misdread,<br/>

Have after-nourishment and life by care;<br/>

And what was first but fear what might be done,<br/>

Grows elder now and cares it be not done.<br/>

And so with me: the great Antiochus,<br/>

'Gainst whom I am too little to contend,<br/>

Since he's so great can make his will his act,<br/>

Will think me speaking, though I swear to silence;<br/>

Nor boots it me to say I honour him.<br/>

If he suspect I may dishonour him:<br/>

And what may make him blush in being known,<br/>

He'll stop the course by which it might be known;<br/>

With hostile forces he'll o'erspread the land,<br/>

And with the ostent of war will look so huge,<br/>

Amazement shall drive courage from the state;<br/>

Our men be vanquish'd ere they do resist,<br/>

And subjects punish'd that ne'er thought offence:<br/>

Which care of them, not pity of myself,<br/>

Who am no more but as the tops of trees,<br/>

Which fence the roots they grow by and defend them,<br/>

Makes both my body pine and soul to languish,<br/>

And punish that before that he would punish.</p>

<p class="scenedesc"> Enter <span class="charname">Helicanus</span> with other <span

class="charname">Lords.</span></p>

<p>FIRST LORD.<br/>

Joy and all comfort in your sacred breast!</p>

<p>SECOND LORD.<br/>

And keep your mind, till you return to us,<br/>

Peaceful and comfortable!</p>

<p>HELICANUS.<br/>

Peace, peace, and give experience tongue.<br/>

They do abuse the king that flatter him:<br/>

For flattery is the bellows blows up sin;<br/>

The thing the which is flatter'd, but a spark,<br/>

To which that spark gives heat and stronger glowing:<br/>

Whereas reproof, obedient and in order,<br/>

Fits kings, as they are men, for they may err.<br/>

When Signior Sooth here does proclaim peace,<br/>

He flatters you, makes war upon your life.<br/>

Prince, pardon me, or strike me, if you please;<br/>

I cannot be much lower than my knees.</p>

<p>PERICLES.<br/>

All leave us else, but let your cares o'erlook<br/>

What shipping and what lading's in our haven,<br/>

And then return to us.</p>

<p>Helicanus, thou<br/>

Hast moved us: what seest thou in our looks?</p>

<p>HELICANUS.<br/>

An angry brow, dread lord.</p>

<p>PERICLES.<br/>

If there be such a dart in princes' frowns,<br/>

How durst thy tongue move anger to our face?</p>

<p>HELICANUS.<br/>

How dares the plants look up to heaven, from whence<br/>

They have their nourishment?</p>

<p>PERICLES.<br/>

Thou know'st I have power<br/>

To take thy life from thee.</p>

<p>HELICANUS. [<i>Kneeling.</i>]<br/>

I have ground the axe myself;<br/>

Do but you strike the blow.</p>

<p>PERICLES.<br/>

Rise, prithee, rise.<br/>

Sit down: thou art no flatterer:<br/>

I thank thee for it; and heaven forbid<br/>

That kings should let their ears hear their faults hid!<br/>

Fit counsellor and servant for a prince,<br/>

Who by thy wisdom makest a prince thy servant,<br/>

What wouldst thou have me do?</p>

<p>HELICANUS.<br/>

To bear with patience<br/>

Such griefs as you yourself do lay upon yourself.</p>

<p>PERICLES.<br/>

Thou speak'st like a physician, Helicanus,<br/>

That ministers a potion unto me<br/>

That thou wouldst tremble to receive thyself.<br/>

Attend me, then: I went to Antioch,<br/>

Where, as thou know'st, against the face of death,<br/>

I sought the purchase of a glorious beauty,<br/>

From whence an issue I might propagate,<br/>

Are arms to princes, and bring joys to subjects.<br/>

Her face was to mine eye beyond all wonder;<br/>

Which by my knowledge found, the sinful father<br/>

Seem'd not to strike, but smooth: but thou know'st this,<br/>

'Tis time to fear when tyrants seems to kiss.<br/>

Which fear so grew in me I hither fled,<br/>

Under the covering of a careful night,<br/>

Who seem'd my good protector; and, being here,<br/>

Bethought me what was past, what might succeed.<br/>

I knew him tyrannous; and tyrants' fears<br/>

Decrease not, but grow faster than the years:<br/>

And should he doubt, as no doubt he doth,<br/>

That I should open to the listening air<br/>

How many worthy princes' bloods were shed,<br/>

To keep his bed of blackness unlaid ope,<br/>

To lop that doubt, he'll fill this land with arms,<br/>

And make pretence of wrong that I have done him;<br/>

When all, for mine, if I may call offence,<br/>

Must feel war's blow, who spares not innocence:<br/>

Which love to all, of which thyself art one,<br/>

<p>HELICANUS.<br/>

Alas, sir!</p>

<p>PERICLES.<br/>

Drew sleep out of mine eyes, blood from my cheeks,<br/>

Musings into my mind, with thousand doubts<br/>

How I might stop this tempest ere it came;<br/>

And finding little comfort to relieve them,<br/>

I thought it princely charity to grieve them.</p>

<p>HELICANUS.<br/>

Well, my lord, since you have given me leave to speak,<br/>

Freely will I speak. Antiochus you fear,<br/>

And justly too, I think, you fear the tyrant,<br/>

Who either by public war or private treason<br/>

Will take away your life.<br/>

Therefore, my lord, go travel for a while,<br/>

Till that his rage and anger be forgot,<br/>

Or till the Destinies do cut his thread of life.<br/>

Your rule direct to any; if to me,<br/>

Day serves not light more faithful than I'll be.</p>

<p>PERICLES.<br/>

I do not doubt thy faith;<br/>

But should he wrong my liberties in my absence?</p>

<p>HELCANUS.<br/>

We'll mingle our bloods together in the earth,<br/>

From whence we had our being and our birth.</p>

<p>PERICLES.<br/>

Tyre, I now look from thee then, and to Tarsus<br/>

Intend my travel, where I'll hear from thee;<br/>

And by whose letters I'll dispose myself.<br/>

The care I had and have of subjects' good<br/>

On thee I lay, whose wisdom's strength can bear it.<br/>

I'll take thy word for faith, not ask thine oath:<br/>

Who shuns not to break one will sure crack both:<br/>

But in our orbs we'll live so round and safe,<br/>

That time of both this truth shall ne'er convince,<br/>

Thou show'dst a subject's shine, I a true prince.</p>

<p>THALIARD.<br/>

So, this is Tyre, and this the court. Here

must I kill King Pericles; and if I do it not, I am sure to be hanged at

had good discretion, that, being bid to ask what he would of the king,

desired he might know none of his secrets: now do I see he had some

reason for't; for if a king bid a man be a villain, he's

bound by the indenture of his oath to be one. Husht, here come the lords

of Tyre.</p>

<p class="scenedesc"> Enter <span class="charname">Helicanus</span> and <span

class="charname">Escanes</span> with other Lords of Tyre.</p>

<p>HELICANUS.<br/>

You shall not need, my fellow peers of Tyre,<br/>

Further to question me of your king's departure:<br/>

His seal'd commission, left in trust with me,<br/>

Doth speak sufficiently he's gone to travel.</p>

<p>THALIARD.<br/>

[<i>Aside.</i>] How? the king gone?</p>

<p>HELICANUS.<br/>

If further yet you will be satisfied,<br/>

Why, as it were unlicensed of your loves,<br/>

He would depart, I'll give some light unto you.<br/>

<p>THALIARD.<br/>

[<i>Aside.</i>] What from Antioch?</p>

<p>HELICANUS.<br/>

Took some displeasure at him; at least he judged so:<br/>

And doubting lest that he had err'd or sinn'd,<br/>

To show his sorrow, he'd correct himself;<br/>

So puts himself unto the shipman's toil,<br/>

With whom each minute threatens life or death.</p>

<p>THALIARD.<br/>

[<i>Aside.</i>] Well, I perceive<br/>

I shall not be hang'd now, although I would;<br/>

But since he's gone, the king's seas must please<br/>

He  'scaped the land, to perish at the sea.<br/>

I'll present myself.  Peace to the lords of Tyre!</p>

<p>HELICANUS.<br/>

Lord Thaliard from Antiochus is welcome.</p>

<p>THALIARD.<br/>

From him I come<br/>

With message unto princely Pericles;<br/>

But since my landing I have understood<br/>

Your lord has betook himself to unknown travels,<br/>

My message must return from whence it came.</p>

<p>HELICANUS.<br/>

We have no reason to desire it,<br/>

Commended to our master, not to us:<br/>

Yet, ere you shall depart, this we desire,<br/>

As friends to Antioch, we may feast in Tyre.</p>

<p class="right"> [<i>Exeunt.</i>]</p>

<p class="scenedesc"> Enter <span class="charname">Cleon,</span> the governor of Tarsus,

with <span class="charname">Dionyza</span> and others.</p>

<p>CLEON.<br/>

My Dionyza, shall we rest us here,<br/>

And by relating tales of others' griefs,<br/>

See if 'twill teach us to forget our own?</p>

<p>DIONYZA.<br/>

That were to blow at fire in hope to quench it;<br/>

For who digs hills because they do aspire<br/>

Throws down one mountain to cast up a higher.<br/>

O my distressed lord, even such our griefs are;<br/>

Here they're but felt, and seen with mischief's eyes,<br/>

But like to groves, being topp'd, they higher rise.</p>

<p>CLEON.<br/>

O Dionyza,<br/>

Who wanteth food, and will not say he wants it,<br/>

Or can conceal his hunger till he famish?<br/>

Our tongues and sorrows do sound deep<br/>

Our woes into the air; our eyes do weep,<br/>

Till tongues fetch breath that may proclaim them louder;<br/>

That, if heaven slumber while their creatures want,<br/>

They may awake their helps to comfort them.<br/>

I'll then discourse our woes, felt several years,<br/>

And wanting breath to speak, help me with tears.</p>

<p>DIONYZA.<br/>

I'll do my best, sir.</p>

<p>CLEON.<br/>

This Tarsus, o'er which I have the government,<br/>

A city on whom plenty held full hand,<br/>

For riches strew'd herself even in the streets;<br/>

Whose towers bore heads so high they kiss'd the clouds,<br/>

And strangers ne'er beheld but wonder'd at;<br/>

Whose men and dames so jetted and adorn'd,<br/>

Like one another's glass to trim them by:<br/>

Their tables were stored full to glad the sight,<br/>

And not so much to feed on as delight;<br/>

All poverty was scorn'd, and pride so great,<br/>

The name of help grew odious to repeat.</p>

<p>DIONYZA.<br/>

O, 'tis too true.</p>

<p>CLEON.<br/>

But see what heaven can do!  By this our change,<br/>

These mouths, who but of late, earth, sea, and air,<br/>

Were all too little to content and please,<br/>

Although they gave their creatures in abundance,<br/>