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seek not to entrap me, gracious lord,

       A stranger and distressed gentleman,

       That never aim’d so high to love your daughter,

       But bent all offices to honour her.

       SIMONIDES.

       Thou hast bewitch’d my daughter, and thou art

       A villain.

       PERICLES.

       By the gods, I have not:

       Never did thought of mine levy offence;

       Nor never did my actions yet commence

       A deed might gain her love or your displeasure.

       SIMONIDES.

       Traitor, thou liest.

       PERICLES.

       Traitor!

       SIMONIDES.

       Ay, traitor;

       PERICLES.

       Even in his throat — unless it be the king —

       That calls me traitor, I return the lie.

       SIMONIDES. [Aside.]

       Now, by the gods, I do applaud his courage.

       PERICLES.

       My actions are as noble as my thoughts,

       That never relish’d of a base descent.

       I came unto your court for honour’s cause,

       And not to be a rebel to her state;

       And he that otherwise accounts of me,

       This sword shall prove he’s honour’s enemy.

       SIMONIDES.

       No?

       Here comes my daughter, she can witness it.

       [Enter Thaisa.]

       PERICLES.

       Then, as you are as virtuous as fair,

       Resolve your angry father, if my tongue

       Did e’er solicit, or my hand subscribe

       To any syllable that made love to you.

       THAISA.

       Why, sir, say if you had,

       Who takes offence at that would make me glad?

       SIMONIDES.

       Yea, mistress, are you so peremptory?

       [Aside.]

       I am glad on’t with all my heart. —

       I’ll tame you; I’ll bring you in subjection.

       Will you, not having my consent,

       Bestow your love and your affections

       Upon a stranger?

       [Aside.]

       who, for aught I know,

       May be, nor can I think the contrary,

       As great in blood as I myself. —

       Therefore hear you, mistress; either frame

       Your will to mine, — and you, sir, hear you,

       Either be ruled by me, or I will make you —

       Man and wife:

       Nay, come, your hands and lips must seal it too:

       And being join’d, I’ll thus your hopes destroy;

       And for a further grief, — God give you joy! —

       What, are you both pleased?

       THAISA.

       Yes, if you love me, sir.

       PERICLES.

       Even as my life my blood that fosters it.

       SIMONIDES.

       What, are you both agreed?

       BOTH.

       Yes, if it please your majesty.

       SIMONIDES.

       It pleaseth me so well, that I will see you wed;

       And then with what haste you can get you to bed.

       [Exeunt.]

      ACT III.

       [Enter Gower.]

       GOWER.

       Now sleep yslaked hath the rout;

       No din but snores the house about,

       Made louder by the o’er-fed breast

       Of this most pompous marriage-feast.

       The cat, with eyne of burning coal,

       Now couches fore the mouse’s hole;

       And crickets sing at the oven’s mouth,

       E’er the blither for their drouth.

       Hymen hath brought the bride to bed,

       Where, by the loss of maidenhead,

       A babe is moulded. Be attent,

       And time that is so briefly spent

       With your fine fancies quaintly eche:

       What’s dumb in show I’ll plain with speech.

       [Dumb Show.]

       [Enter, Pericles and Simonides, at one door, with Attendants; a Messenger meets them, kneels, and gives Pericles a letter: Pericles shows it Simonides; the Lords kneel to him. Then enter Thaisa with child, with Lychorida a nurse. The King shows her the letter; she rejoices: she and Pericles take leave of her father, and depart, with Lychorida and their Attendants. Then exeunt Simonides and the rest.]

       By many a dern and painful perch

       Of Pericles the careful search,

       By the four opposing coigns

       Which the world together joins,

       Is made with all due diligence

       That horse and sail and high expense

       Can stead the quest. At last from Tyre,

       Fame answering the most strange inquire,

       To the court of King Simonides

       Are letters brought, the tenour these:

       Antiochus and his daughter dead;

       The men of Tyrus on the head

       Of Helicanus would set on

       The crown of Tyre, but he will none:

       The mutiny he there hastes t’ oppress;

       Says to ‘em, if King Pericles

       Come not home in twice six moons,

       He, obedient to their dooms,

       Will take the crown. The sum of this,

       Brought hither to Pentapolis

       Y-ravished the regions round,

       And every one with claps can 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 grisled north

       Disgorges such a tempest forth,

       That, as a duck for life that dives,

       So up and down the poor ship drives:

      

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