SIM. NO?

Here comes my daughter, she can witness it.

Enter THAISA

PER. 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.
THAI. Why, sir, say if
Who takes offence at that would make me glad?
SIM. Yea, mistress, are you so peremptory?

you had,

[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'll 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?

THAI.

Yes, if you love me, sir.

65] Cf. Othello, I, iii, 170: “Here comes the lady; let her witness it."

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80

PER. Even as my life my blood that fosters it.
SIM. What, are you both agreed?

BOTH. Yes, if 't please your majesty.

SIM. It pleaseth me so well, that I will see you wed; And then, with what haste you can, get you to bed.

[Exeunt.

88 Even as fosters it] Even as my life loves my blood that supports it.

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OW SLEEP Y-SLAKED hath the rout;

No din but snores the house about,

Made louder by the o'er-fed breast

Of this most pompous marriagefeast.

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 the former. 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

13 quaintly eche] Malone's emendation of the original reading, quaintly each. "Eche" in the sense of "eke out," "supply," is so spelt in the original text of Hen. V, Act III, prol. 35: "And eche out our performance with your mind."

15 By many a dern and painful perch] Through many a hidden (or solitary) and laborious measure of land. "Dern" was in common use in early English. "Perch" is here used in a similar way to "mile," for a stretch of country.

17 four opposing coigns] four corners or quarters (of the globe). 21 Can stead the quest] Can befriend or serve the search.

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30

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

29 oppress] repress, suppress. The emendation t' appease is supported by the language of Wilkins's Novel.

36 can] Malone suggested 'gan, which gives the right meaning. But "can" was often used by Elizabethan writers in a very similar sense.

47 the grisled north] the horrid north wind. Thus the First Quarto; all other early editions read grisley, i. e., grisly. Grisled was not infre

quently used in the same sense.

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