Sail seas in cockles, have an wish but for't;
Making, to take your imagination,
From bourn to bourn, region to region.
By you being pardon'd, we commit no crime
To use one language in each several clime
Where our scenes seem to live. I do beseech
you
[teach you,
To learn of me, who stand i' the gaps to
The stages of our story. Pericles

Is now again thwarting the wayward seas,
Attended on by many a lord and knight,
To see his daughter, all his life's delight.
Old Escanes, whom Helicanus late
Advanced in time to great and high estate,
Is left to govern. Bear you it in mind,
Old Helicanus goes along behind.
Well-sailing ships and bounteous winds have
brought

This king to Tarsus,-think his pilot thought; So with his steerage shall your thoughts grow on,

19

To fetch his daughter home, who first is gone. Like motes and shadows see then move awhile;

Your ears unto your eyes I'll reconcile
DUMB SHOW.

Enter PERICLES, at one door, with all his train ; CLEON and DIONYZA, at the other. CLEON shows PERICLES the tomb; whereat PERICLES makes lamentation, puts on sackcloth, and in a mighty passion departs. Then exeunt CLEON and DIONYZA.

See how belief may suffer by foul show!
This borrow'd passion stands for true old woe;
And Pericles, in sorrow all devour'd,
With sighs shot through, and biggest tears
o'ershower'd,

Leaves Tarsus and again embarks. He swears
Never to wash his face, nor cut his hairs:
He puts on sackcloth, and to sea. He bears
A tempest, which his mortal vessel tears, 30
And yet he rides it out. Now please you wit.
The epitaph is for Marina writ
By wicked Diony za.

[Reads the inscription on Marina's

monument.

'The fairest, sweet'st, and best lies here,
Who wither'd in her spring of year.
She was of Tyrus the king's daughter,

On whom foul death hath made this slaughter;

Marina was she call'd; and at her birth, Thetis, being proud, swallow'd some part o' the earth:

Therefore the earth, fearing to be o'erflow'd, Hath Thetis' birth-child on the heavens bestow'd:

[stint,

Wherefore she does, and swears she'll never
Make raging battery upon shores of flint.'
No visor does become black villany
So well as soft and tender flattery.

Let Pericles believe his daughter's dead,

And bear his courses to be ordered

By Lady Fortune; while our scene must

play

His daughter's woe and heavy well-a-day In her unholy service. Patience, then, 50 And think you now are all in Mytilene.[Erit. SCENE V. Mytilene. A street before the brothel. Enter, from the brothel, two Gentlemen. First Gent. Did you ever hear the like? Sec. Gent. No, nor never shall do in such a place as this, she being once gone.

First Gent. But to have divinity preached there did you ever dream of such a thing? Sec. Gent. No, no. Come, I am for no more bawdy-houses: shall's go hear the vestals sing? First Gent. I'll do any thing now that is virtuous; but I am out of the road of rutting for ever. [Exeunt. 10

SCENE VI. The same. A room in the brothel.

Enter Pandar, Bawd, and BOULT. Pand. Well, I had rather than twice the worth of her she had ne'er come here.

Bawd. Fie, fie upon her! she's able to freeze the god Priapus, and undo a whole generation. We must either get her ravished, or be rid of her. When she should do for clients her fitment, and do me the kindness of our profession, she has me her quirks, her reasons, her master reasons, her prayers, her knees; that she would make a puritan of the devil, if he should cheapen a kiss of her.

Boult. 'Faith, I must ravish her, or she'll disfurnish us of all our cavaliers, and make our swearers priests.

Pand. Now, the pox upon her green-sickness for me!

Bawd. 'Faith, there's no way to be rid on't but by the way to the pox. Here comes the Lord Lysimachus disguised.

Boult. We should have both lord and lown, if the peevish baggage would but give way to customers.

Enter LYSIMACHUS.

21

Lys. How now! How a dozen of virginities?

Bawd. Now, the gods to-bless your honor! Boult. I am glad to see your honor in good health.

Lys. You may so; 'tis the better for you that your resorters stand upon sound legs. How now! wholesome iniquity have you that a man may deal withal, and defy the surgeon?

Bawd. We have here one, sir, if she would -but there never came her like in Mytilene. Lys. If she'ld do the deed of darkness, thou wouldst say.

Bawd. Your honor knows what 'tis to say well enough.

Lys. Well, call forth, call forth.

Boult. For flesh and blood, sir, white and red, you shall see a rose; and she were a rose indeed, if she had but

Lys. What, prithee?

Boult. O, sir, I can be modest.

40

Lys. That dignifies the renown of a bawd, no less than it gives a good report to a number to be chaste. [Exit Boult. Bawd. Here comes that which grows to the stalk; never plucked yet, I can assure you.

Re-enter BOULT with MARINA.

Is she not a fair creature?

Lys. 'Faith, she would serve after a long voyage at sea. Well, there's for you leave

us.

51

Bawd. I beseech your honor, give me leave: a word, and I'll have done presently. Lys. I beseech you, do.

Bawd. [To Marina] First, I would have you note, this is an honorable man.

Mar. I desire to find him so, that I may worthily note him.

Bawd. Next, he's the governor of this country, and a man whom I am bound to.

Mar. If he govern the country, you are bound to him indeed; but how honorable he is in that, I know not.

61

Bawd. Pray you, without any more virginal fencing, will you use him kindly? He will line your apron with gold.

Mar. What he will do graciously, I will thankfully receive.

Lys. Ha' you done?

Bawd. My lord, she's not paced yet you must take some pains to work her to your manage. Come, we will leave his honor and her together. Gothy ways.

[Exeunt Bawd, Pandar, and Boult. Lys. Now, pretty one, how long have you been at this trade?

Mar. What trade, sir?

Lys. Why, I cannot name't but I shall offend.

Mar. I cannot be offended with my trade. Please you to name it.

Lys. How long have you been of this profession?

Mar. Lys. Did you go to 't so young? Were you a gamester at five or at seven ?

E'er since I can remember.

81

Mar. Earlier too, sir, if now I be one. Lys. Why, the house you dwell in proclaims you to be a creature of sale.

Mar. Do you know this house to be a place of such resort, and will come into 't? I hear say you are of honorable parts, and are the governor of this place.

Lys. Why, hath your principal made known unto you who I am?

Mar. Who is my principal ?

90

Lys. Why, your herb-woman; she that sets seeds and roots of shame and iniquity. O, you have heard something of my power, and so stand aloof for more serious wooing. But I protest to thee, pretty one, my authority shall not see thee, or else look friendly upon thee. Come, bring me to some private place: come,

come.

Mar. If you were born to honor, show it now;

Lys. Avaunt, thou damned door-keeper! Your house, but for this virgin that doth prop it,

Would sink and overwhelm you. Away! [Exit. Boult. How's this? We must take another course with you. If your peevish chastity, which is not worth a breakfast in the cheapest country under the cope, shall undo a whole household, let me be gelded like a spaniel. Come your ways.

Mar. Whither would you have me? Boult. I must have your maidenhead taken off, or the common hangman shall execute it. Come your ways. We'll have no more gentle

men driven away. Come your ways, I say.

Re-enter Bawd.

Bawd. How now! what's the matter? 140 Boult. Worse and worse, mistress; she has here spoken holy words to the Lord Lysimachus.

Bawd. O abominable!

Boult. She makes our profession as it were to stink afore the face of the gods.

Bawd. Marry, hang her up for ever! Boult. The nobleman would have dealt with her like a nobleman, and she sent him away as cold as a snowball; saying his pray149 Bawd. Boult, take her away; use her at

ers too.

thy pleasure crack the glass of her virginity, and make the rest malleable.

Boult. An if she were a thornier piece of ground than she is, she shall be ploughed.

Mar. Hark, hark, you gods!

Bawd. She conjures away with her! Would she had never come within my doors! Marry, hang you! She's born to undo us. Will you not go the way of women-kind? Marry, come up, my dish of chastity with rose[Exit. mary and bays!

Boult. Come, mistress; come your ways with me.

Mar. Whither wilt thou have me?

Boult. To take from you the jewel you

hold so dear.

Mar. Prithee, tell me one thing first.
Boult. Come now, your one thing.
Mar. What canst thou wish thine enenly

to be ?

Boult. Why, I could wish him to be my master, or rather, my mistress. 170 Mar. Neither of these are so bad as thou art,

Since they do better thee in their command. Thou hold'st a place, for which the pained'st fiend

Of hell would not in reputation change:
Thou art the damned doorkeeper to every
Coistrel that comes inquiring for his Tib;
To the choleric fisting of every rogue
Thy ear is liable; thy food is such
As hath been belch'd on by infected lungs.

178

Boult. What would you have me do? go to the wars, would you? where a man may serve seven years for the loss of a leg, and have not money enough in the end to buy him a wooden one?

Mar. Do any thing but this thou doest. Empty

Old receptacles, or common shores, of filth; Serve by indenture to the common hangman: Any of these ways are yet better than this; For what thou professest, a baboon, could he speak, [gods

Would own a name too dear. O, that the Would safely deliver me from this place! 191 Here, here's gold for thee.

If that thy master would gain by me, Proclaim that I can sing, weave, sew, and [boast;

dance,

but by their consent: therefore I will make them acquainted with your purpose, and I doubt not but I shall find them tractable enough. Come, I'll do for thee what I can; come your ways. [Exeunt.

ACT V. Enter GOWER.

Gow. Marina thus the brothel 'scapes, and chances

Into an honest house, our story says.
She sings like one immortal, and she dances
As goddess-like to her admired lays;
Deep clerks she dumbs; and with her neeld
composes
[berry,
Nature's own shape, of bud, bird, branch, or
That even her art sisters the natural roses;
Her inkle, silk, twin with the rubied cherry:
That pupils lacks she none of noble race,
Who pour their bounty on her; and her gain
She gives the cursed bawd. Here we her
place;

9

And to her father turn our thoughts again, Where we left him, on the sea. We there him

lost;

Whence, driven before the winds, he is arrived Here where his daughter dwells; and on this coast

Suppose him now at anchor. The city strived God Neptune's annual feast to keep: from whence

Lysimachus our Tyrian ship espies,

His banners sable, trimm'd with rich expense; And to him in his barge with fervor hies. 20 In your supposing once more put your sight Of heavy Pericles; think this his bark: Where what is done in action, more, if might, Shall be discover'd; please you, sit and hark.

[Erit.

SCENE I. On board Pericles' ship, off Mytilene. A close pavilion on deck, with a curtain before it; Pericles within it, reclined on a couch. A barge lying beside the Tyrian vessel.

Enter two Sailors, one belonging to the Tyrian vessel, the other to the barge; to them HELI

CANUS.

Tyr Sail. [To the Sailor of Mytilene] Where is lord Helicanus? he can resolve you. O, here he is.

Sir, there's a barge put off from Mytilene, And in it is Lysimachus the governor, Who craves to come aboard. What is your will? [gentlemen. Hel. That he have his. Call up some Tyr. Sail. Ho, gentlemen! my lord calls. Enter two or three Gentlemen. First Gent. Doth your lordship call? Hel. Gentlemen, there's some of worth would come aboard;

10

I pray ye, greet them fairly. [The Gentlemen and the two Sailors descend, and go on board the burge,

I said, and said no more but what my thoughts Did warrant me was likely.

Per.

Tell thy story; If thine consider'd prove the thousandth part Of my endurance, thou art a man, and I Have suffer'd like a girl: yet thou dost look Like Patience gazing on kings' graves, and smiling

Extremity out of act. What were thy friends? How lost thou them? Thy name, my most kind virgin? 141

Recount, I do beseech thee: come, sit by me.
Mar. My name is Marina.
Per.
O, I am mock'd,
And thou by some incensed god sent hither

To make the world to laugh at me.

Mar.

Or here I'll cease. Per.

Patience, good sir,

Lest this great sea of joys rushing upon me O'erbear the shores of my mortality,

Nay, I'll be patient.

Thou little know'st how thou dost startle me, To call thyself Marina.

Mar. The name

Was given me by one that had some power,

And drown me with their sweetness. O, come hither,

Thou that beget'st him that did thee beget; Thou that wast born at sea, buried at Tarsus, And found at sea again! O Helicanus,