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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

Use honour with you.

Lyc.

Even for this charge.

Per.

Patience, good sir,

Now, mild may be thy life!

For a more blustrous birth had never babe :

Quiet and gentle thy conditions! for

Thou art the rudeliest welcome to this world

That ever was prince's child.

follows!

Thou hast as chiding a nativity

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Happy what

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,

With all thou canst find here. Now, the good
gods

Throw their best eyes upon 't!

25. may use honour with you, are entitled to enjoy honour on equal terms with you.

29. thy conditions, the circumstances of thy life.

30. In Wilkins' novel; Pericles here addresses his child in the Shakespearean phrase: 'Poor inch of nature' ('thou art

as rudely welcome,' etc.).

35. Thy loss is more than can thy portage quit, with all thou canst find here; the child's loss even at the outset is such that all that it inherits by birth falls short of what its birth has cost. This seems to be the clear meaning, irregularly expressed.

Enter two Sailors.

First 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.

First Sail. Slack the bolins there! Thou wilt not, wilt thou? Blow, and split thyself.

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

First 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.

First Sail. Pardon us, sir; with us at sea it hath been still observed; and we are strong in custom. Therefore briefly yield her; for she must overboard straight.

Per. As you think meet. Most wretched queen!

Lyc. Here she lies, sir.

Per. A terrible childbed 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.

39. flaw, blast.

53. custom; Boswell's certain correction of Qq Ff 'eastern." The old texts also interpolate the last sentence of the First

O Lychorida,

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Sailor in Pericles' following speech.

63. aye-remaining lamps, i.e. the ever-burning lamps of a vault. Qq Ff air-remaining.

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

Sec. Sail. Sir, we have a chest beneath the hatches, caulked and bitumed ready.

Per. I thank thee. Mariner, say what coast is this?

Sec. Sail. We are near Tarsus.

Per. Thither, gentle mariner,

Alter thy course for Tyre. When canst thou
reach it?

Sec. Sail. By break of day, if the wind cease.
Per. O, make for Tarsus!

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.

SCENE II. Ephesus. A room in Cerimon's
house.

Enter CERIMON, with 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 :

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76. thy course for Tyre, i.e. exact expression, which the thy course which is at present novelist is likely in any case to for Tyre. Wilkins' novel has have preferred. 'from Tyre'; a simpler but less

'T has been a turbulent and stormy night.

Serv. I have been in many; but such a night as this,

Till now, I ne'er endured.

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

That can recover him. [To Philemon] Give this to the 'pothecary,

And tell me how it works.

[Exeunt all but Cerimon.

Enter two Gentlemen.

First Gent.

Good morrow.

ΤΟ

Sec. Gent. Good morrow to your lordship.

Cer.

Why do you stir so early?

First Gent. Sir,

Gentlemen,

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 surprise and fear

Made me to quit the house.

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

'Tis not our husbandry.

Cer.

O, you say well.

First 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.

'Tis most strange,

Nature should be so conversant with pain,

16. principals, main beams. 17. all-to, in pieces. 20. husbandry, zeal for business, of which to be early

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stirring' was held particularly characteristic. Cf. Hen. V. iv. I. 7; Troil. and Cress. i. 2. 7. 22. tire, (?) furniture.

Being thereto not compell'd.

Cer.

I hold it ever,

Virtue and cunning 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;
And I can speak of the disturbances

That nature works, and of her cures; which doth
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.

Sec. Gent. Your honour has through Ephesus
pour'd forth

Your charity, and hundreds call themselves
Your creatures, who by you have been restored:
And not your knowledge, your personal pain,
but even

Your purse, still open, hath built Lord Cerimon
Such strong renown as time shall never-

Enter two or three Servants with a chest.

First Serv. So; lift there.

Cer.

First Serv.

27. cunning, knowledge. 46. pain, labour.

48. never-———. This reading is found only in Q1, the other

What is that?

Sir, even now

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old editions substituting ne'er decay. Probably the speech is broken off to emphasise the strangeness of the interruption.

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