SCENE III. Tarsus. A room in CLEON's house. Pericles, Prince of Tyre  Shakespeare homepage  |  Pericles  | Act 4, Scene 3 

 Previous scene  |  Next scene  SCENE III. Tarsus. A room in CLEON's house. 

 Enter CLEON and DIONYZA  DIONYZA  Why, are you foolish? Can it be undone? 

 CLEON  O Dionyza, such a piece of slaughter 

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

 DIONYZA  I think 

 You'll turn a child again. 

 CLEON  Were I chief lord of all this spacious world, 

 I'ld 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, 't had been a kindness 

 Becoming well thy fact: what canst thou say 

 When noble Pericles shall demand his child? 

 DIONYZA  That she is dead. Nurses are not the fates, 

 To foster it, nor ever to preserve. 

 She died at night; I'll say so. Who can cross it? 

 Unless you play the pious innocent, 

 And for an honest attribute cry out 

 'She died by foul play.' 

 CLEON  O, go to. Well, well, 

 Of all the faults beneath the heavens, the gods 

 Do like this worst. 

 DIONYZA  Be one of those that think 

 The petty wrens of Tarsus will fly hence, 

 And open this to Pericles. I do shame 

 To think of what a noble strain you are, 

 And of how coward a spirit. 

 CLEON  To such proceeding 

 Who ever but his approbation added, 

 Though not his prime consent, he did not flow 

 From honourable sources. 

 DIONYZA  Be it so, then: 

 Yet none does know, but you, how she came dead, 

 Nor none can know, Leonine being gone. 

 She did disdain 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 through; 

 And though you call my course unnatural, 

 You not your child well loving, yet I find 

 It greets me as an enterprise of kindness 

 Perform'd to your sole daughter. 

 CLEON  Heavens forgive it! 

 DIONYZA  And as for Pericles, 

 What should he say? We wept after her hearse, 

 And 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 expense 'tis done. 

 CLEON  Thou art like the harpy, 

 Which, to betray, dost, with thine angel's face, 

 Seize with thine eagle's talons. 

 DIONYZA  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  SCENE IV: 



 Enter GOWER, before the monument of MARINA at Tarsus  GOWER  Thus time we waste, and longest leagues make short; 

 Sail seas in cockles, have an 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 

 Advanced 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 Tarsus,--think his pilot thought; 

 So with his steerage shall your thoughts grow on,-- 

 To fetch his daughter home, who first is gone. 

 Like motes and shadows see them move awhile; 

 Your ears unto your eyes I'll reconcile. 

 DUMB SHOW. 



 Enter PERICLES, at one door, with all his train;  CLEON and DIONYZA, at the other. CLEON shows  PERICLES the tomb; whereat PERICLES makes  lamentation, puts on sackcloth, and in a mighty passion departs. Then exeunt CLEON and DIONYZA  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'ershower'd, 

 Leaves Tarsus 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: 

 Wherefore she does, and swears she'll never stint, 

 Make raging battery upon shores of flint.' 

 No visor does become black villany 

 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 scene must play 

 His daughter's woe and heavy well-a-day 

 In her unholy service. Patience, then, 

 And think you now are all in Mytilene. 



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