Brought hither to Pentapolis,
Y-ravished the regions round,

And every one with claps 'gan sound,
Our heir apparent is a king:

Who dream'd, who thought of such a thing?
Brief, he must hence depart to Tyre:
His queen with child makes her desire
(Which who shall cross ?) along to go;
(Omit we all their dole and woe ;)
Lychorida, her nurse, she takes,
And so to sea. Their vessel shakes
On Neptune's billow; half the flood
Hath their keel cut; but fortune's mood
Varies again; the grizzled north
Disgorges such a tempest forth
That, as a duck for life that dives
So up and down the poor ship drives,
The lady shrieks, and, well-a-near !
Doth fall in travail with her fear:
And what ensues in this fell storm,
Shall, for itself, itself perform.
I nill relate, action may
Conveniently the rest convey:
Which might not what by me is told.
In your imagination hold

This stage, the ship, upon whose deck
The sea-tost prince appears to speak.

SCENE I.

Enter PERICLES, on a Ship at Sea.

[Exit.

Per. Thou God of this great vast, rebuke these surges, Which wash both heaven and hell; and thou, that hast Upon the winds command, bind them in brass,

Having call'd them from the deep! O still thy deaf'ning,
Thy dreadful thunders; gently quench thy nimble
Sulphureous flashes !-O how, Lychorida,

How does my queen ?-Thou storm, thou! venomously
Wilt thou spit all thyself?-The seaman's whistle
Is as a whisper in the ears of death,
Unheard.-Lychorida !-Lucina, O

Divinest patroness, and midwife, gentle

To those that cry by night, convey thy deity
Aboard our dancing boat; make swift the pangs

Of my queen's travails!—Now, Lychorida

Enter LYCHORIDA, with an Infant.

Lyc. Here is a thing

Too young for such a place, who if it had
Conceit, would die as I am like to do.

Take in your arms this piece of your dead queen.
Per. How! how, Lychorida !

Lyc. Patience, good sir; do not assist the storm.
Here's all that is left living of your queen,-
A little daughter; for the sake of it,

Be manly, and take comfort.

Per. O you gods!

Why do you make us love your goodly gifts,
And snatch them straight away? We, here below,
Recall not what we give, and therein may

Vie honour with yourselves.

Lyc. Patience, good sir,

Even for this charge.

Per. Now, mild may be thy life!

For a more blust'rous birth had never babe :

Quiet and gentle thy conditions !

For thou'rt the rudeliest welcom'd to this world,
That e'er was prince's child. Happy, what follows!
Thou hast as chiding a nativity,

As fire, air, water, earth, and heaven can make,
To herald thee from the womb; even at the first,
Thy loss is more than can thy portage quit, 6
With all thou canst find here.-Now the good gods
Throw their best eyes upon it!

Enter Two Sailors.

1 Sail. What courage, sir? God save you.
Per. Courage enough: I do not fear the flaw;
It hath done to me the worst. Yet, for the love
Of this poor infant, this fresh-new sea-farer,
I would, it would be quiet.

1 Sail. Slack the bolins there; thou wilt not, wilt thou? Blow, and split thyself.

[5] Our author uses the same expression, on the same occasion, in The Tempest: You mar our labour;-keep your cabins; you do assist the storm." MALONE.

[5] i. e. thou hast already lost more (by the death of thy mother) than thy safe arrival at the port of life can counterbalance, with all to boot that we can give thee. Portage is used for gate or entrance in one of Shakspeare's historical plays. STEEVENS.

2 Sail. But sea-room, an the brine and cloudy billow kiss the moon, I care not.

1 Sail. Sir, your queen must overboard; the sea works high, the wind is loud, and will not lie till the ship be cleared of the dead.

Per. That's your superstition.

1 Sail. Pardon us, sir; with us at sea it still hath been observed; and we are strong in earnest. Therefore briefly yield her; for she must overboard straight. Per. Be it as you think meet.-Most wretched queen! Lyc. Here she lies, sir.

Per. A terrible child-bed hast thou had, my dear;
No light, no fire: the unfriendly elements
Forgot thee utterly; nor have I time

To give thee hallow'd to thy grave, but straight
Must cast thee, scarcely coffin'd, in the ooze;
Where, for a monument upon thy bones,
And aye-remaining lamps, the belching whale,
And humming water must o'erwhelm thy corpse,"
Lying with simple shells. Lychorida,

Bid Nestor bring me spices, ink and paper,
My casket and my jewels; and bid Nicander
Bring me the sattin coffer: lay the babe
Upon the pillow; hie thee, whiles I say
A priestly farewell to her: suddenly, woman.

[Exit LYCHORIDA. 2 Sail. Sir, we have a chest beneath the hatches, caulk'd and bitumed ready.

Per. I thank thee. Mariner, say what coast is this? 2 Sail. We are near Tharsus.

Per. Thither, gentle mariner,

Alter thy course for Tyre. When canst thou reach it? 2 Sail. By break of day, if the wind cease.

Per. O make for Tharsus.

There will I visit Cleon, for the babe

Cannot hold out to Tyrus : there I'll leave it

At careful nursing. Go thy ways, good mariner ;
I'll bring the body presently.

[Exeunt.

[7] Instead of a monument erected above thy bones, and perpetual lamps to burn near them. the spouting whale shall oppress thee with his weight, and the mass of waters shall roll with low heavy murmur over thy head.

STEEVENS.
MALONE.

[8] Change thy course, which is now for Tyre, and go to Tharsus.

SCENE II.

Ephesus. A Room in CERIMON's House.

Enter CERIMON, a

Servant, and some Persons who have been shipwrecked.

Cer. Philemon, ho!

Enter PHILEMON.

Phil. Doth my lord call?

Cer. Get fire and meat for these poor men ; It has been a turbulent and stormy night.

Serv. I have been in many; but such a night as this, Till now, I ne'er endur'd.9

Cer. Your master will be dead, ere you return; There's nothing can be minister'd to nature,

That can recover him. Give this to the 'pothecary, And tell me how it works. [TO PHILEMON. [Exeunt PHILEMON, Servant, and those who had been shipwrecked.

Enter Two Gentlemen.

1 Gent. Good morrow, sir.

2 Gent. Good morrow to your lordship. Cer. Gentlemen,

Why do you stir so early?

1 Gent. Sir,

Our lodgings, standing bleak upon the sea,
Shook, as the earth did quake;

The very principals did seem to rend,

And all to topple ; pure surprize and fear
Made me to quit the house.

2 Gent. That is the cause we trouble you so early ;

[9] So, in Macbeth:

"Threescore and ten I can remember well;

"Within the volume of which time I have seen

"Hours dreadful, and things strange, but this sore night
"Hath trifled former knowings.'

Again, in King Lear:

Since I was man,

"Such sheets of fire, such bursts of horrid thunder,
"Such groans of roaring wind and rain, I never
"Remember to have heard."

Again, in Julius Cæsar:

"I have seen tempests, when the scolding winds
"Have riv'd the knotty oaks, and I have seen
"The ambitious ocean swell and rage and foam,
"To be exalted with the threat'ning clouds ;
"But never till to-night, never till now,
"Did I go through a tempest dropping fire."

MALONE

'Tis not our husbandry.*

Cer. O, you say well.

1 Gent. But I much marvel that your lordship, having Rich tire about you, should at these early hours Shake off the golden slumber of repose.

It is most strange,

Nature should be so conversant with pain,
Being thereto not compell'd.

Cer. I held it ever,

Virtue and cunning2 were endowments greater
Than nobleness and riches: careless heirs
May the two latter darken and expend;
But immortality attends the former,
Making a man a god. 'Tis known, I ever
Have studied physic, through which secret art,
By turning o'er authorities, I have

(Together with my practice,) made familiar
To me and to my aid, the blest infusions
That dwell in vegetives, in metals, stones ;3

And I can speak of the disturbances

That nature works, and of her cures; which give me A more content in course of true delight

Than to be thirsty after tottering honour,

Or tie my treasure up in silken bags,

To please the fool and death.

2 Gent. Your honour has through Ephesus pour'd forth Your charity, and hundreds call themselves Your creatures, who by you have been restor❜d: And not your knowledge, personal pain, but even Your purse, still open, hath built lord Cerimon Such strong renown as time shall never-—-———

Enter two Servants with a Chest.

Serv. So; lift there.

Cer. What is that?

Serv. Sir, even now

[1] Husbandry here signifies economical prudence. So, in King Henry V "For our bad neighbours make us early stirrers, "Which is both healthful and good husbandry.”

See also Hamlet, Act I. sc. iii.

[2] Cunning means here, knowledge.

MALONE.

MALONE.

So in Jeremiah, ix. 17: "Send for cunning women that they may come.” Again, in Romeo and Juliet:

"Sirrah, go hire me twenty cunning cooks." STEEVENS.

[3] So, in Romeo and Juliet:

"O, mickle is the powerful grace that lies

"In plants, herbs, stones, and their true qualities." STEEV.