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Enter Two Gentlemen.

1 Gent. Doth your lordship call?
Hel. Gentlemen,

There is some of worth would come aboard; I pray

you,

To greet them fairly.

[The Gentlemen and the Two Sailors descend, and go on board the Barge.

Enter, from thence LYSIMACHUS and Lords; the Tyrian Gentlemen, and the Two Sailors.

Tyr. Sail. Sir,

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 out-live 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, sir, what is your place?

Lys. I am 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. Sir, it would be too tedious to repeat; But the main grief of all springs from the loss Of a beloved daughter and a wife.

Lys. May we not see him, then?

• But to prorogue his grief.] To lengthen or prolong his grief.

Hel.

You may indeed, sir.

But bootless is your sight; he will not speak

To any.

Lys. Yet, let me obtain my wish.

Hel. Behold him, sir: [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!

Hail, royal sir!

Hel. It is in vain; he will not speak to you.

1 Lord. Sir, we have a maid in Mitylene, I durst

wager,

Would win some words of him.

Lys. 'Tis well bethought. She, questionless, with her sweet harmony And other choice attractions, would allure, And make a battery through his deafen'd parts, Which now are midway stopp'd:

She, all as happy as of all the fairest,

Is, with her fellow maidens, now within
The leafy shelter that abuts against

The island's side.

7

[He whispers one of the attendant Lords.Exit Lord, in the Barge of LYSIMACHUS.9

destructive.

8

one mortal night,] Mortal is here used for pernicious,

through his deafen'd parts,] i. e. his ears.

9 Exit Lord, in the Barge of Lysimachus.] It may seem strange that a fable should have been chosen to form a drama upon, in which the greater part of the business of the last Act should be transacted at sea: and wherein it should even be necessary to produce two vessels on the scene at the same time. But the customs and exhibitions of the modern stage give this objection to the play before us a greater weight than it really has. It appears, that, when Pericles was originally performed, the theatres were furnished with no such apparatus as by any stretch of the imagination could be supposed to present either a sea, or a ship; and that the audi

Hel. Sure, all's effectless; yet nothing we'll omit That bears recovery's name. But, since your kind

ness

We have stretch'd thus far, let us beseech you fur

ther,

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 God
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.

Hel.

But see, I am prevented.

Sit, sir, I will recount it;

Enter, from the Barge, Lord, MARINA, and a

Lys.

young Lady.

O, here is

The lady that I sent for. Welcome, fair one!
Is't not a goodly presence?1

Hel.

A gallant lady. Lys. She's such, that were I well assur'd she came Of gentle kind, and noble stock, I'd 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:

ence were contented to behold vessels sailing in and out of port, in their mind's eye only. This licence being once granted to the poet, the lord, in the instance now before us, walked off the stage, and returned again in a few minutes, leading in Marina, without any sensible impropriety; and the present drama, exhibited before such indulgent spectators, was not more incommodious in the representation than any other would have been. MALONE.

1

1 Is't not a goodly presence?] Is she not beautiful in her form?

THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY

ASTOR, LENOX AND TILDEN FOUNDATIONS

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Marina. Hail Sir! My Lord, Lend ear.

[blocks in formation]

Rhodes i

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