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This is the man that can, in aught you would,
Resolve you.

Lys. Hail, reverend sir! the gods preserve you!
Hel. And you, sir, to outlive the
age I am,
And die as I would do.

Lys.

You wish me well.

Being on shore, honouring of Neptune's triumphs,
Seeing this goodly vessel ride before us,

I made to it, to know of whence you are.

Hel. First, what is your place?

Lys. I am the governor of this place you lie before.

Hel. Sir,

Our vessel is of Tyre, in it the king;

A man who for this three months hath not spoken
To any one, nor taken sustenance

But to prorogue his grief.

Lys. Upon what ground is his distemperature?
Hel. 'Twould be too tedious to repeat;

But the main grief springs from the loss

Of a beloved daughter and a wife.

Lys. May we not see him?

Hel. You may;

But bootless is your sight: he will not speak

To any.

Lys. Yet let me obtain my wish.

Hel. Behold him. [Pericles discovered.] This

was a goodly person,

Till the disaster that, one mortal night,
Drove him to this.

Lys. Sir king, all hail! the gods preserve you!
Hail, royal sir!

26. prorogue, prolong, linger out. He has eaten only enough to keep him in languishing sorrow.

36. [Pericles discovered.] Wilkins describes his condition

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in more detail: 'with a long overgrown beard, diffused hair, undecent nails on his fingers, and himself lying upon his couch, grovelling on his face.'

Hel. It is in vain; he will not speak to you.
First Lord. Sir,

We have a maid in Mytilene, I durst wager,
Would win some words of him.

Lys.

'Tis well bethought.

She questionless with her sweet harmony
And other chosen attractions, would allure,
And make a battery through his deafen'd parts,
Which now are midway stopp'd:

She is all happy as the fairest of all,

And, with her fellow maids, is now upon
The leafy shelter that abuts against
The island's side.

[Whispers a Lord, who goes off in the
barge of Lysimachus.

Hel. Sure, all's effectless; yet nothing we'll

omit

That bears recovery's name.

kindness

But, since your

We have stretch'd thus far, let us beseech you
That for our gold we may provision have,

Wherein we are not destitute for want,

But weary for the staleness.

Lys.

O, sir, a courtesy

Which if we should deny, the most just gods

For every graff would send a caterpillar,

And so inflict our province.

Yet once more

Let me entreat to know at large the cause

Of your king's sorrow.

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Re-enter, from the barge, Lord, with MARINA,
and a young Lady.

Lys.

O, here is

The lady that I sent for. Welcome, fair one!
Is 't not a goodly presence?

Hel.

She's a gallant lady.

Lys. She's such a one, that, were I well assured

Came of a gentle kind and noble stock,

I'ld wish no better choice, and think me rarely
wed.

Fair one, all goodness that consists in bounty
Expect even here, where is a kingly patient:
If that thy prosperous and artificial feat
Can draw him but to answer thee in aught,
Thy sacred physic shall receive such pay
As thy desires can wish.

Mar.

My utmost skill in his

Provided

Sir, I will use

recovery,

That none but I and my companion maid
Be suffer'd to come near him.

Lys.

And the gods make her prosperous !

70

Come, let us leave her;

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[Marina sings.

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No, nor look'd on us.

Mar.

Lys. See, she will speak to him.

Mar. Hail, sir! my lord, lend ear.

Per. Hum, ha!

Mar. I am a maid,

67. that, were I well assured

came.

The construction is idiomatic, the subject of came being supplied from the relative that.

72. artificial feat, dexterous performance; prosperous is proleptic, anticipating the success of the 'feat,' which is still in question. Cf. v. 80.

My lord, that ne'er before invited eyes,

But have been gazed on like a comet: she speaks,
My lord, that, may be, hath endured a grief
Might equal yours, if both were justly weigh'd.
Though wayward fortune did malign my state,
My derivation was from ancestors

Who stood equivalent with mighty kings:
But time hath rooted out my parentage,
And to the world and awkward casualties
Bound me in servitude. [Aside] I will desist;
But there is something glows upon my cheek,
And whispers in mine ear 'Go not till he speak.'
Per. My fortunes-parentage-good parent-
age-

To equal mine!—was it not thus? what say you?
Mar. I said, my lord, if you did know my

parentage,

You would not do me violence.

Per. I do think so. Pray you, turn your eyes upon me.

You are like something that-What country

woman?

Here of these shores ?

Mar.

No, nor of any shores :

Yet I was mortally brought forth, and am

No other than I appear.

Per. I am great with woe, and shall deliver weeping.

My dearest wife was like this maid, and such a one My daughter might have been: my queen's square brows;

94. awkward, adverse.

95. He may be supposed here to hold her from him at arm's length (cf. v. 127); but certainly not, as the novelist thought,

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in resentment at her presumption: 'presumptuous beauty in a child, how darest thou urge so much? and therewithal in this rash distemperature, struck her in the face.'

Her stature to an inch; as wand-like straight;
As silver-voiced; her eyes as jewel-like

And cased as richly; in pace another Juno;

Who starves the ears she feeds, and makes them

hungry,

The more she gives them speech.

live?

Where do you

Mar. Where I am but a stranger: from the deck
You may discern the place.

Per.
Where were you bred?
And how achieved you these endowments, which
You make more rich to owe?

Mar. If I should tell my history, it would seem
Like lies disdain'd in the reporting.

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Per. Prithee, speak: 120 Falseness cannot come from thee; for thou look'st Modest as Justice, and thou seem'st a palace For the crown'd Truth to dwell in: I will believe thee,

And make my senses credit thy relation

To points that seem impossible; for thou look'st
Like one I loved indeed. What were thy friends?
Didst thou not say, when I did push thee back—
Which was when I perceived thee-that thou

camest

From good descending?

Mar.

So indeed I did.

Per. Report thy parentage. I think thou said'st 130 Thou hadst been toss'd from wrong to injury,

And that thou thought'st thy griefs might equal mine,

If both were open'd.

Mar.

Some such thing

I said, and said no more but what my thoughts

Did warrant me was likely.

VOL. IV

118. to owe, by possessing them.

97

H

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