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You are, you are-O royal Pericles!Per. What means the woman'? she gentlemen!

If

Cer. Noble sir,

you have told Diana's altar true,

This is your wife.

Per.

Reverend appearer, no:

I threw her overboard with these very arms.
Cer. Upon this coast, I warrant you.

Per.

[She faints.

dies: help,

"Tis most certain.

Cer. Look to the lady.-O! she's but o'erjoy'd.

Early in blust'ring morn this lady was

Thrown on this shore. I op'd the coffin,

Found there rich jewels; recover'd her, and plac'd her Here, in Diana's temple.

Per.

May we see them?

Cer. Great sir, they shall be brought you to my

house,

Whither I invite you.

Thai. O, let me look!

Look! Thaisa is recover'd.

If he be none of mine, my sanctity
Will to my sense bend no licentious ear,
But curb it, spite of seeing. O, my lord!
Are you not Pericles?
not Pericles? Like him you speak,
Did you not name a tempest,

Like him you are.

A birth, and death?

Per.

The voice of dead Thaisa!

Thai. That Thaisa am I, supposed dead, and drown'd. Per. Immortal Dian!

Thai.

Now I know you better.

When we with tears parted Pentapolis,

The king, my father, gave you such a ring.

[Shows a Ring.

1 What means the WOMAN?] So the quarto, 1619, and subsequent editions: the quarto, 1609, "What means the mum?" which may have been a misprint for nun: it would suit the measure better, and it would not be unprecedented to call a priestess of Diana a nun.

Per. This, this: no more, you gods! your present

kindness

Makes my past miseries sports: you shall do well,
That on the touching of her lips I may

Melt, and no more be seen. O! come, be buried
A second time within these arms.

Mar.

My heart

Leaps to be gone into my mother's bosom.

[Kneels to THAISA.

Per. Look, who kneels here. Flesh of thy flesh,

Thaisa;

Thy burden at the sea, and call'd Marina,

For she was yielded there.

Thai.

Bless'd, and mine own!

I know you not.

Hel. Hail, madam, and my queen!

Thai.

Per. You have heard me say, when I did fly from

Tyre,

I left behind an ancient substitute:

Can you remember what I call'd the man?

I have nam'd him oft.

Thai.

"Twas Helicanus, then.

Per. Still confirmation!

Embrace him, dear Thaisa; this is he.

Now do I long to hear how you were found,
How possibly preserv'd, and whom to thank,
Besides the gods, for this great miracle.

Thai. Lord Cerimon, my lord; this man

Through whom the gods have shown their power; that

can

From first to last resolve you.

Per.

Reverend sir,

The gods can have no mortal officer

More like a god than you. Will you deliver

How this dead queen re-lives?

Cer.

Beseech you, first go

I will, my lord:

with me to my house,

Where shall be shown you all was found with her;
How she came placed here in the temple,
No needful thing omitted.

Per. Pure Dian! bless thee for thy vision,
I will offer night oblations to thee. Thaisa,
This prince, the fair-betrothed of your daughter,
Shall marry her at Pentapolis. And now,
This ornament,

Makes me look dismal, will I clip to form2;
And what this fourteen years no razor touch'd,
To grace thy marriage-day, I'll beautify.

Thai. Lord Cerimon hath letters of good credit;

Sir, my father's dead.

Per. Heavens, make a star of him! Yet there, my

queen,

We'll celebrate their nuptials, and ourselves

Will in that kingdom spend our following days:
Our son and daughter shall in Tyrus reign.
Lord Cerimon, we do our longing stay,

To hear the rest untold.-Sir, lead's the way3.

[Exeunt.

2

Enter GOWER.

Gow. In Antiochus, and his daughter, you have
heard

Of monstrous lust the due and just reward:
In Pericles, his queen, and daughter, seen,

Although assail'd with fortune fierce and keen,

And now,

This ornament,

Makes me look dismal, will I clip to form,] i. e. "My beard, that makes me look dismal, will I clip to form." Modern editors, under pretence of correcting the irregular verse, insert, among other words, "my lov'd Marina,” in this passage, without the slightest authority. How do we know that Shakespeare completed the metre in this way, or that he did purposely leave the line irregular and abrupt?

3 Sir, lead's the way.] i. e. "lead us the way;" a very common contraction, and found in all the old copies. Modern editors have printed, "Sir, lead the way."

Virtue preserv'd' from fell destruction's blast,
Led on by heaven, and crown'd with joy at last.
In Helicanus may you well descry

A figure of truth, of faith, and loyalty:
In reverend Cerimon there well appears,
The worth that learned charity aye wears.
For wicked Cleon and his wife, when fame
Had spread their cursed deed, the honour'd name
Of Pericles, to rage the city turn;

That him and his they in his palace burn.
The gods for murder seemed so content5
To punish them, although not done, but meant.
So on your patience evermore attending,

New joy wait on you! Here our play has ending.

4 Virtue PRESERVED-] Old copies, " Virtue preferr'd."

5 The gods for murder seemed so CONTENT] So all the editions after the first of 1609, which reads to contend for "so content." In the next line, "them," which is wanting in the old copies, quarto and folio, was supplied by Malone.

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