SCENE IV.

Tharsus. A Room in Cleon's House.

Enter CLEON and DIONYZA.

Dion. Why, are you foolish? Can it be undone ?
Cle. O Dionyza, such a piece of slaughter

The sun and moon ne'er look'd upon !

Dion.

You'll turn a child again.

I think

Cle. Were I chief lord of all the spacious world,

I'd give it to undo the deed. O lady,
Much less in blood than virtue, yet a princess

To equal any single crown o'the earth,

I'the justice of compare! O villain Leonine,
Whom thou hast poison'd too!

If thou hadst drunk to him, it had been a kindness
Becoming well thy feat: what canst thou say,
When noble Pericles shall demand his child?

Dion. That she is dead. Nurses are not the fates, To foster it, nor ever to preserve.

She died by night +; I'll say so.

Who can cross it?

Unless you play the impious innocent,
And for an honest attribute, cry out,

She died by foul play.

Cle.

O, go to. Well, well,

Of all the faults beneath the heavens, the gods

Do like this worst.

Dion.

Be one of those, that think

4 Becoming well thy feat :] Feat, i. e. of a piece with the rest of thy exploit.

Unless you play the impious innocent,] She calls him, an impious simpleton, because such a discovery would touch the life of one of his own family, his wife. An innocent was formerly a common appellation for an idiot.

The pretty wrens of Tharsus will fly hence,
And open this to Pericles. I do shame
To think of what a noble strain you are,
And of how cow'd a spirit +.

Cle.

To such proceeding

Who ever but his approbation added,

Though not his pre-consent, he did not flow

From honourable courses.

Dion.

Be it so then :

Yet none does know, but you, how she came dead,
Nor none can know, Leonine being gone.

She did distain my child, and stood between

Her and her fortunes: None would look on her,
But cast their gazes on Marina's face ;

Whilst ours was blurted at, and held a malkin,

Not worth the time of day. It pierced me thorough ; And though you call my course unnatural,

You not your child well loving, yet I find,

It greets me', as an enterprize of kindness,
Perform'd to your sole daughter.

Cle.

Dion. And as for Pericles,

Heavens forgive it !

What should he say? We wept after her hearse,

And even yet we mourn: her monument

Is almost finish'd, and her epitaphs
In glittering golden characters express
A general praise to her, and care in us,
At whose expence 'tis done.
Cle.

Thou art like the harpy,

Not worth the time of day.] A malkin is a coarse wench. Not worth the time of day, is not worth a good day, or good morrow ; undeserving the most common and usual salutation.

7 It greets me,] Perhaps it greets me, may mean, it pleases me, c'est à mon gré. If greet be used in its ordinary sense of saluting or meeting with congratulation, it is surely a very harsh phrase.

Which, to betray, doth wear an angel's face,
Seize with an eagle's talons†.

Dion. You are like one, that superstitiously

Doth swear to the gods, that winter kills the flies;
But yet I know you'll do as I advise.

[Exeunt.

Enter GoWER, before the Monument of MARINA, at

Tharsus.

Gow. Thus time we waste, and longest leagues

make short;

Sail seas in cockles, have, and 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,
To learn of me, who stand i'the gaps to teach you
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
Advanc'd 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 Tharsus, (think his pilot thought;
So with his steerage shall your thoughts grow on,)
To fetch his daughter home, who first is gone.

"doth with thine angel's face

Seize with thine eagle's talons.”—Malone.

8 Making, (to take your imagination,)

From bourn to bourn,] Making, &c. is travelling (with the hope of engaging your attention) from one division or boundary of the world to another; i. e. we hope to interest you by the variety of our scene, and the different countries through which we pursue our story.

Like motes and shadows see them move awhile;
Your ears unto your eyes I'll reconcile.

Dumb show.

Enter, at one door, PERICLES with his Train; CLEON and
DIONYZA at the other. CLEON shows PERICLES the
Tomb of MARINA; whereat PERICLES makes lamenta-
tion, puts on Sackcloth, and in a mighty passion departs.
Then CLEON and DIONYZA retire.

Gow. 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'er-
show'r'd,

Leaves Tharsus, 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',
And yet he rides it out. Now please you wit
The epitaph is for Marina writ

By wicked Dionyza.

[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:

9 - for true old woe ;] i. e. for such tears as were shed when, the world being in its infancy, dissimulation was unknown. All poetical writers are willing to persuade themselves that sincerity expired with the first ages.

1 A tempest, which his mortal vessel tears,] What is here called his mortal vessel, (i. e. his body,) is styled by Cleopatra her mortal

house.

2

Now please you wit -] Now be pleased to know.

Wherefore she does, (and swears she'll never stint3)
Make raging battery upon shores of flint.
No visor does become black villainy,
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 scenes display +
His daughter's woe and heavy well-a-day,
In her unholy service. Patience then,
And think you now are all in Mitylen.

[Exit.

SCENE V.

Mitylene. A Street before the Brothel.

Enter, from the Brothel, Two Gentlemen.

1 Gent. Did you ever hear the like?

2 Gent. No, nor never shall do in such a place as this, she being once gone.

1 Gent. But to have divinity preached there! did you ever dream of such a thing?

2 Gent. No, no. Come, I am for no more bawdyhouses: Shall we go hear the vestals sing?

1 Gent. I'll do any thing now that is virtuous; but I am out of the road of rutting, for ever.

[Exeunt.

Pand. Well, I had rather than twice the worth of

her, she had ne'er come here.

(and swear she'll never stint)] She'll never cease.

"while our scene must play"-MALONE.

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VOL. VII.

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