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 ambitions 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.

Did the sea toss upon our shore this chest ; 'Tis of some wreck.

Cer. Set 't down, let's look on it.

2 Gent. 'Tis like a coffin, sir.

Cer. Whate'er it be,

'Tis wondrous heavy. Wrench it open straight;
If the sea's stomach be o'ercharg'd with gold,
It is a good constraint of fortune, that

It belches upon us.

2 Gent. 'Tis so, my lord.

Cer. How close 'tis caulk'd and bitum'd!—

Did the sea cast it up?

Serv. I never saw so huge a billow, sir,

As toss'd it upon shore.

Cer. Come, wrench it open ;

Soft, soft!-it smells most sweetly in my sense. 2 Gent. A delicate odour.

Cer. As ever hit my nostril; so,-up with it. O you most potent god! what's here? a corse! i Gent. Most strange!

Cer. Shrouded in cloth of state; balm'd and entreasur'd

With bags of spices full! A passport too!

Apollo, perfect me i'the characters! [Unfolds a scroll.

Here I give to understand,

(If e'er this coffin drive a-land,)

I, king Pericles, have lost

This queen, worth all our mundane cost.

Who finds her, give her burying,
She was the daughter of a king:
Besides this treasure for a fee,

The gods requite his charity!

If thou liv'st, Pericles, thou hast a heart

[Reads.

That even cracks for woe !-This chanc'd to-night. 2 Gent. Most likely, sir.

Cer. Nay, certainly to-night;

For look, how fresh she looks!-They were too rough,

That threw her in the sea.

Make fire within ;

Fetch hither all the boxes in my closet.

[4] This singular expression is again applied by our author to the sea, in

The Tempest:

"You are three men of sin, whom destiny
"(That hath to instrument this lower world,
"And what is in't,) the never-surfeited sea
"Hath caused to belch up !"

MALONE.

Death may usurp on nature many hours,
And yet the fire of life kindle again
The overpressed spirits. I have heard
Of an Egyptian, had nine hours lien dead,
By good appliance was recovered.

Enter a Servant, with Boxes, Napkins, and Fire. Well said, well said; the fire and the cloths.-

The rough and woful music that we have,

Cause it to sound, 'beseech you.5

The vial once more ;-How thou stirr'st, thou block !-
The music there.—I pray you, give her air :—
Gentlemen,

This queen will live nature awakes; a warmth
Breathes out of her; she hath not been entranc'd
Above five hours. See, how she 'gins to blow
Into life's flower again!

1 Gent. The heavens, sir,

Through you, increase our wonder, and set up
Your fame for ever.

Cer. She is alive; behold,

Her eyelids, cases to those heavenly jewels
Which Pericles hath lost,

Begin to part their fringes of bright gold ;6
The diamonds of a most praised water

Appear, to make the world twice rich. O live,

And make us weep to hear your fate, fair creature,

Rare as you seem to be !

Thai. O dear Diana,

[She moves.

Where am I? Where's my lord? What world is this?

2 Gent. Is not this strange?

1 Gent. Most rare.

Cer. Hush, gentle neighbours;

Lend me your hands: to the next chamber bear her.

Get linen; now this matter must be look'd to,

For her relapse is mortal. Come, come, come;

And Esculapius guide us!

[Exeunt, carrying THAISA away.

[5] Paulina in like manner in The Winter's Tale, when she pretends to bring Hermione to life, orders music to be played, to awake her from her trance. So also, the Physician in King Lear, when the King is about to wake from the sleep he had fallen into, after his frenzy:

"Please you draw near ;-Louder the music there !"

[6] So, in The Tempest:

"The fringed curtains of thine eye advance,

"And say what thou seest yond?"

MALONE.

IMALONE.

Tharsus.

SCENE III.

A Room in CLEON's House. Enter PERICLES,
CLEON, DIONYZA, LYCHORIDA, and MARINA.

Per. Most honour'd Cleon, I must needs be gone ;
My twelve months are expir'd, and Tyrus stands
In a litigious peace. You, and your lady,

Take from my heart all thankfulness! The gods
Make up the rest upon you!

Cle. Your shafts of fortune, though they hurt you mortally,

Yet glance full wand'ringly on us."

Dion. O your sweet queen!

That the strict fates had pleas'd you had brought her

hither,

To have bless'd mine eyes!

Per. We cannot but obey

The powers above us.

Could I rage and roar
As doth the sea she lies in, yet the end

Must be as 'tis. My babe Marina (whom
For she was born at sea, I have nam'd so,) here
I charge your charity withal, and leave her
The infant of your care; beseeching you

To give her princely training, that she may be
Manner'd as she is born.

Cle. Fear not, my lord:

Your grace, that fed my country with your corn,
(For which the people's prayers still fall upon you,)
Must in your child be thought on. If neglection
Should therein make me vile, the common body,
By you reliev'd, would force me to my duty:
But if to that my nature need a spur,

The gods revenge it upon me and mine,
To the end of generation!

Per. I believe you;

Your honour and your goodness teach me credit,
Without your vows. Till she be married, madam,
By bright Diana, whom we honour all,

Unscissar'd shall this hair of mine remain,

[7] The sense of the passage should seem to be as follows.-All the mal ice of fortune is not confined to yourself. Though her arrows strike deeply at you, yet wandering from their mark, they sometimes glance on us; as at present, when the uncertain state of Tyre deprives us of your company at Tharsus. STEEVENS.