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Ant. Prince Pericles,

Per. That would be son to great Antiochus. Ant. Before thee stands this fair Hesperides, With golden fruit, but dangerous to be touch'd; For death-like dragons here affright thee hard: Her face, like heaven, enticeth thee to view

Her countless glory, which desert must gain;
And which, without desert, because thine eye 32
Presumes to reach, all thy whole heap must die.
Yon sometime famous princes, like thyself,
Drawn by report, adventurous by desire,
Tell thee with speechless tongues and semblance

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On mother's flesh which did me breed;
I sought a husband, in which labour
I found that kindness in a father.
He's father, son, and husband mild,
I mother, wife, and yet his child.
How they may be, and yet in two,
As you will live, resolve it you.

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Sharp physic is the last: but, O you powers! 72 That give heaven countless eyes to view men's acts,

Why cloud they not their sights perpetually,
If this be true, which makes me pale to read it?
Fair glass of light, I lov'd you, and could still,
Were not this glorious casket stor'd with ill: 77
But I must tell you now my thoughts revolt;
For he's no man on whom perfections wait
That, knowing sin within, will touch the gate.
You're a fair viol, and your sense the strings,
Who, finger'd to make men his lawful music,
Would draw heaven down and all the gods to
hearken;

But being play'd upon before your time, 84
Hell only danceth at so harsh a chime.
Good sooth, I care not for you.

Ant. Prince Pericles, touch not, upon thy life,

88

For that's an article within our law,
As dangerous as the rest. Your time's expir'd:
Either expound now or receive your sentence.

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109

Enter THALIARD.

Ant. Thaliard,

Doth your highness call?

153

You're of our chamber, and our mind partakes
Her private actions to your secrecy;
And for your faithfulness we will advance you.
Thaliard, behold, here's poison, and here's
gold;

We hate the Prince of Tyre, and thou must kill
him:

It fits thee not to ask the reason why,
112 Because we bid it. Say, is it done?
Thal. My lord, 'tis done.
Ant. Enough.

All love the womb that their first being bred,
Then give my tongue like leave to love my head.
Ant. [Aside.] Heaven! that I had thy head;
he has found the meaning;
But I will gloze with him. Young Prince of
Tyre,
Though by the tenour of our strict edict,
Your exposition misinterpreting,
We might proceed to cancel of your days;
Yet hope, succeeding from so fair a tree
As your fair self, doth tune us otherwise:
Forty days longer we do respite you;
If by which time our secret be undone,
This mercy shows we'll joy in such a son:
And until then your entertain shall be
As doth befit our honour and your worth.
[Exeunt all but PERICLES.

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124 If I can get him within my pistol's length, 168 I'll make him sure enough: so, farewell to your highness.

Per. How courtesy would seem to cover sin,
When what is done is like a hypocrite,
The which is good in nothing but in sight!
If it be true that I interpret false,
Then were it certain you were not so bad
As with foul incest to abuse your soul;
Where now you're both a father and a son,
By your untimely claspings with your child,
Which pleasure fits a husband, not a father;
And she an eater of her mother's flesh,

[Exit THALIARD. Till Pericles be dead,

My heart can lend no succour to my head. [Exit.

By the defiling of her parent's bed;

And both like serpents are, who though they

feed

SCENE I.-Tyre. A Room in the Palace.
Enter PERICLES.

132

Ant. Thaliard, adieu!

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Here pleasures court mine eyes, and mine eyes
shun them,
And danger, which I feared, is at Antioch,
Whose arm seems far too short to hit me here;
Yet neither pleasure's art can joy my spirits, 9
Nor yet the other's distance comfort me.
Then it is thus: the passions of the mind,

Ant. He hath found the meaning, for which | That have their first conception by mis-dread, 12

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And therefore instantly this prince must die, 148 Since he's so great can make his will his act, -

For by his fall my honour must keep high.

Who attends us there?

Will think me speaking, though I swear to silence;

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They do abuse the king that flatter him;
For flattery is the bellows blows up sin;
The thing the which is flatter'd, but a spark, 40
To which that blast gives heat and stronger

glowing;

Whereas reproof, obedient and in order,

Fits kings, as they are men, for they may err: When Signior Sooth here does proclaim a peace, He flatters you, makes war upon your life. 45 Prince, pardon me, or strike me, if you please; I cannot be much lower than my knees.

Per. All leave us else; but let your cares

o'erlook 48 What shipping and what lading's in our haven, And then return to us. [Exeunt Lords. Helicanus, thou Hast mov'd us; what seest thou in our looks? Hel. An angry brow, dread lord. 52

Per. If there be such a dart in prince's frowns, How durst thy tongue move anger to our face? Hel. How dare the plants look up to heaven, from whence

They have their nourishment?
Per.

Thou know'st I have power 56 To take thy life from thee.

Hel. [Kneeling.] I have ground the axe my-
self;

Do you but strike the blow.
Per.

Rise, prithee, rise;

Sit down; thou art no flatterer:

I thank thee for it; and heaven forbid

I knew him tyrannous; and tyrants' fears
Decrease not, but grow faster than the years.
And should he doubt it, as no doubt he doth,
That I should open to the listening air
How many worthy princes' bloods were shed, 88
To keep his bed of blackness unlaid ope,
To lop that doubt he'll fill this land with arms,
And make pretence of wrong that I have done
him;

When all, for mine, if I may call 't, offence, 92
Must feel war's blow, who spares not inno-

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Musings into my mind, with thousand doubts
How I might stop this tempest, ere it came;
And finding little comfort to relieve them,
I thought it princely charity to grieve them. 100
Hel. Well, my lord, since you have given me
leave to speak,

Freely will I speak. Antiochus you fear, 60 And justly too, I think, you fear the tyrant, Who either by public war or private treason 104

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Intend my travel, where I'll hear from thee, 116
And by whose letters I'll dispose myself.
The care I had and have of subjects' good

On thee I'll lay, whose wisdom's strength can
bear it.

I'll take thy word for faith, not ask thine oath; Who shuns not to break one will sure crack both. 121 But in our orbs we'll live so round and safe, That time of both this truth shall ne'er convince, Thou show'dst a subject's shine, I a true prince. [Exeunt.

SCENE III.- The Same. An Antechamber in the Palace.

Enter THALIARD.

Thal. So this is Tyre, and this the court. Here must I kill King Pericles; and if I do not, I am sure to be hanged at home: 'tis dangerous. Well, I perceive he was a wise fellow, and had good discretion, that, being bid to ask what he would of the king, desired he might know none of his secrets: now do I see he had some reason for it; for if a king bid a man be a villain, he is bound by the indenture of his oath to be one. Hush! here come the lords of Tyre.

10

Enter HELICANUS, ESCANES, and other Lords.
Hel. You shall not need, my fellow peers of
Tyre,

Further to question me of your king's depar-
ture:

16

His seal'd commission, left in trust with me, 13
Doth speak sufficiently he's gone to travel.
Thal. [Aside.] How! the king gone!
Hel. If further yet you will be satisfied,
Why, as it were unlicens'd of your loves,
He would depart, I'll give some light unto you.
Being at Antioch-
Thal.

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Thal. From him I come,
With message unto princely Pericles;
But since my landing I have understood
Your lord hath betook himself to unknown

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That if heaven slumber while their creatures want, [Aside.] What from Antioch? They may awake their helps to comfort them. Hel. Royal Antiochus-on what cause I I'll then discourse our woes, felt several years, know not20 And wanting breath to speak help me with tears.

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