Pericles, Prince of Tyre

ACT IV

[Enter Gower.]

GOWER

 
Imagine Pericles arrived at Tyre,
Welcomed and settled to his own desire.
His woeful queen we leave at Ephesus,
Unto Diana there a votaress.
Now to Marina bend your mind,
Whom our fast-growing scene must find
At Tarsus, and by Cleon train'd
In music, letters; who hath gain'd
Of education all the grace,
Which makes her both the heart and place
Of general wonder. But, alack,
That monster envy, oft the wrack
Of earned praise, Marina's life
Seeks to take off by treason's knife.
And in this kind hath our Cleon
One daughter, and a wench full grown,
Even ripe for marriage-rite; this maid
Hight Philoten: and it is said
For certain in our story, she
Would ever with Marina be:
Be't when she weaved the sleided silk
With fingers long, small, white as milk;
Or when she would with sharp needle wound,
The cambric, which she made more sound
By hurting it; or when to the lute
She sung, and made the night-bird mute
That still records with moan; or when
She would with rich and constant pen
Vail to her mistress Dian; still
This Philoten contends in skill
With absolute Marina: so
With the dove of Paphos might the crow
Vie feathers white. Marina gets
All praises, which are paid as debts,
And not as given. This so darks
In Philoten all graceful marks,
That Cleon's wife, with envy rare,
A present murderer does prepare
For good Marina, that her daughter
Might stand peerless by this slaughter.
The sooner her vile thoughts to stead,
Lychorida, our nurse, is dead:
And cursed Dionyza hath
The pregnant instrument of wrath
Prest for this blow. The unborn event
I do commend to your content:
Only I carry winged time
Post on the lame feet of my rhyme;
Which never could I so convey,
Unless your thoughts went on my way.
Dionyza does appear,
With Leonine, a murderer.
 

[Exit.]

Scene I. Tarsus. An open place near the sea-shore

[Enter Dionyza and Leonine.]

DIONYZA

 
Thy oath remember; thou hast sworn to do 't:
'Tis but a blow, which never shall be known.
Thou canst not do a thing in the world so soon,
To yield thee so much profit. Let not conscience,
Which is but cold, inflaming love i' thy bosom,
Inflame too nicely; nor let pity, which
Even women have cast off, melt thee, but be
A soldier to thy purpose.
 

LEONINE

 
I will do't; but yet she is a goodly creature.
DIONYZA. The fitter, then, the gods should have her. Here she comes weeping for her only mistress' death. Thou art resolved?
 

LEONINE

 
I am resolved.
 

[Enter Marina, with a basket of flowers.]

MARINA

 
No, I will rob Tellus of her weed
To strew thy green with flowers: the yellows, blues,
The purple violets, and marigolds,
Shall as a carpet hang upon thy grave,
While summer-days do last. Ay me! poor maid,
Born in a tempest, when my mother died,
This world to me is like a lasting storm,
Whirring me from my friends.
 

DIONYZA

 
How now, Marina! why do you keep alone?
How chance my daughter is not with you? Do not
Consume your blood with sorrowing: you have
A nurse of me. Lord, how your favour's changed
With this unprofitable woe!
Come, give me your flowers, ere the sea mar it.
Walk with Leonine; the air is quick there,
And it pierces and sharpens the stomach.
Come,
Leonine, take her by the arm, walk with her.
 

MARINA

 
No, I pray you;
I'll not bereave you of your servant.
 

DIONYZA

 
Come, come;
I love the king your father, and yourself,
With more than foreign heart. We every day
Expect him here: when he shall come and find
Our paragon to all reports thus blasted,
He will repent the breadth of his great voyage;
Blame both my lord and me, that we have taken
No care to your best courses. Go, I pray you,
Walk, and be cheerful once again; reserve
That excellent complexion, which did steal
The eyes of young and old. Care not for me;
I can go home alone.
 

MARINA

 
Well, I will go;
But yet I have no desire to it.
 

DIONYZA

 
Come, come, I know 'tis good for you.
Walk half an hour, Leonine, at the least:
Remember what I have said.
 

LEONINE

 
I warrant you, madam.
 

DIONYZA

 
I'll leave you, my sweet lady, for a while:
Pray, walk softly, do not heat your blood:
What! I must have a care of you.
 

MARINA

 
My thanks, sweet madam.
 

[Exit Dionyza.]

 
Is this wind westerly that blows?
 

LEONINE

 
South-west.
 

MARINA

 
When I was born, the wind was north.
 

LEONINE

 
Was 't so?
 

MARINA

 
My father, as nurse said, did never fear,
But cried 'Good seamen!' to the sailors, galling
His kingly hands, haling ropes;
And, clasping to the mast, endured a sea
That almost burst the deck.
 

LEONINE

 
When was this?
 

MARINA

 
When I was born:
Never was waves nor wind more violent;
And from the ladder-tackle washes off
A canvas-climber. 'Ha!' says one, wilt out?'
And with a dropping industry they skip
From stem to stern: the boatswain whistles, and
The master calls, and trebles their confusion.
 

LEONINE

 
Come, say your prayers.
 

MARINA

 
What mean you?
 

LEONINE

 
If you require a little space for prayer,
I grant it: pray; but be not tedious,
For the gods are quick of ear, and I am sworn
To do my work with haste.
 

MARINA

 
Why will you kill rne?
 

LEONINE

 
To satisfy my lady.
 

MARINA

 
Why would she have me kill'd?
Now, as I can remember, by my troth,
I never did her hurt in all my life:
I never spoke bad word, nor did ill turn
To any living creature: believe me, la,
I never kill'd a mouse, nor hurt a fly:
I trod upon a worm against my will,
But I wept for it. How have I offended,
Wherein my death might yield her any profit,
Or my life imply her any danger?
 

LEONINE

 
My commission
Is not to reason of the deed, but do it.
 

MARINA

 
You will not do 't for all the world, I hope.
You are well favour'd, and your looks foreshow
You have a gentle heart. I saw you lately,
When you caught hurt in parting two that fought:
Good sooth, it show'd well in you: do so now:
Your lady seeks my life; come you between,
And save poor me, the weaker.
 

LEONINE

 
I am sworn,
And will dispatch.
 

[He seizes her.]

[Enter Pirates.]

FIRST PIRATE

 
Hold, villain!
 

[Leonine runs away.]

SECOND PIRATE

 
A prize! a prize!
 

THIRD PIRATE

 
Half-part, mates, half-part,
Comes, let's have her aboard suddenly.
 

[Exeunt Pirates with Marina.]

[Re-enter Leonine.]

LEONINE

 
These roguing thieves serve the great pirate Valdes;
And they hav seized Marina. Let her go:
Thre's no hope she will return. I'll swear she's dead
And thrown into the sea. But I'll see further:
Perhaps they will but please themselves upon her,
Not carry her aboard. If she remain,
Whom they have ravish'd must by me be slain.
 

[Exit.]

 

Scene II. Mytilene. A room in a brothel

[Enter Pandar, Bawd, and Boult.]

PANDAR

 
Boult!
 

BOULT

 
Sir?
 
 
PANDAR. Search the market narrowly; Mytilene is full of gallants. We lost too much money this mart by being too wenchless.
 
 
BAWD. We were never so much out of creatures. We have but poor three, and they can do no more than they can do; and they with continual action are even as good as rotten.
 
 
PANDAR. Therefore let's have fresh ones, whate'r we pay for them. If there be not a conscience to be used in every trade, we shall never prosper.
 
 
BAWD. Thou sayest true: 'tis not our bringing up of poor bastards, – as, I think, I have bought up some eleven —
 
 
BOULT. Ay, to eleven; and brought them down again. But shall I search the market?
 
 
BAWD. What else, man? The stuff we have, a strong wind will blo it to pieces, they are so pitifully sodden.
 
 
PANDAR. Thou sayest true; they're too unwholesome, o' conscience. The poor Transylvanian is dead, that lay with the little baggage.
 

BOULT

 
Ay, she quickly pooped him; she made him roast-meat for worms.
But I'll go search the market.
 

[Exit.]

 
PANDAR. Three or four thousand chequins were as pretty a proportion to live quietly, and so give over.
 
 
BAWD. Wgy to give over, I pray you? is it a shame to get when we are old?
 
 
PANDAR. O, our credit comes not in like the commodity , nor the commodity wages not with the danger: therfore, if in our youths we could pick up some pretty estate, 'twere not amiss to keep our door hatched. Besides, the sore terms we stand upon with the gods will be strong with us for giving over.
 

BAWD

 
Come, others sorts offend as well as we.
 
 
PANDAR. As well as we! ay, and better too; we offend worse. Neither is our profession any trade; it's no calling. But here comes Boult.
 

[Re-enter Boult, with the Pirates and Marina.]

BOULT

[To Marina.]

 
Come your ways. My masters, you say she's a virgin?
 

FIRST PIRATE

 
O, sir, we doubt it not.
 
 
BOULT. Master, I have gone through for this piece, you see: if you like her, so; if not, I have lost my earnest.
 

BAWD

 
Boult, has she any qualities?
 
 
BOULT. She has a good face, speaks well, and has excellent clothes: ther's no further necessity of qualities can make her be refused.
 

BAWD

 
What is her price, Boult?
 

BOULT

 
I cannot be baited one doit of a thousand pieces.
 

PANDAR

 
Well, follow me, my masters, you shall have your money presently.
Wife, take her in; instruct her what she has to do, that she may
not be raw in her entertainment.
 

[Exeunt Pandar and Pirates.]

 
BAWD. Boult, take you the marks of her, the colour of her hair, complexion, height, age, with warrant of her virginity; and cry 'He that will give most shall have her first.' Such a maidenhead were no cheap thing, if men were as they have been. Get this done as I command you.
 

BOULT

 
Performance shall follow.
 

[Exit.

MARINA

 
Alack that Leonine was so slack, so slow!
He should have struck, not spoke; or that these pirates,
Not enough barbarous, had not o'erboard thrown me
For to seek my mother!
 

BARD

 
Why lament you, pretty one?
 

MARINA

 
That I am pretty.
 

BAWD

 
Come, the gods have done their part in you.
 

MARINA

 
I accuse them not.
 

BAWD

 
You are light into my hands, where you are like to live.
 

MARINA

 
The more my fault
To scape his hands where I was like to die.
 

BAWD

 
Ay, and you shall live in pleasure.
 

MARINA

 
No.
 

BAWD

 
Yes, indeed shall you, and taste gentlemen of all fashions: you
shall fare well; you shall have the difference of all complexions.
What! do you stop your ears?
 

MARINA

 
Are you a woman?
 

BAWD

 
What would you have me be, an I be not a woman?
 

MARINA

 
An honest woman, or not a woman.
 
 
BAWD. Marry, whip the, gosling: I think I shall have something to do with you. Come, you're a young foolish sapling, and must be bowed as I would have you.
 

MARINA

 
The gods defend me!
 
 
BAWD. If it please the gods to defend you by men, then men must comfort you, men must feed you, men must stir you up. Boult's returned.
 

[Re-enter Boult.]

 
Now, sir, hast thou cried her through the market?
 
 
BOULT. I have cried her almost to the number of her hairs; I have drawn her picture with my voice.
 
 
BAWD. And I prithee tell me, how dost thou find the inclination of the people, especially of the younger sort?
 
 
BOULT. 'Faith, they listened to me as they would have hearkened to their father's testament. There was a Spaniard's mouth so watered, that he went to bed to her very description.
 

BAWD

 
We shall have him here to-morrow: with his best ruff on.
 
 
BOULT. To-night, to-night. But, mistress, do you know the French knight that cowers i' the hams?
 

BAWD

 
Who, Monsieur Veroles?
 
 
BOULT. Ay, he: he offered to cut a caper at the proclamation; but he made a groan at it, and swore he would see her to-morrow.
 
 
BAWD. Well. well; as for him, he brought his disease hither: here he does but repair it. I know he will come in our shadow, to scatter his crowns in the sun.
 
 
BOULT. Well, if we had of every nation a traveller, we should lodge them with this sign.
 

[To Marina.] Pray you, come hither awhile. You have fortunes coming upon you. Mark me: you must seem to do that fearfully which you commit willingly, despise profit where you have most gain. To weep that you live as ye do makes pity in your lovers: seldom but that pity begets you a good opinion, and that opinion a mere profit.

MARINA

 
I understand you not.
 
 
BOULT. O, take her home, mistress, take her home: these blushes of hers must be quenched with some present practice.
 
 
BAWD. Thou sayest true, i' faith so they must; for your bride goes to that with shame which is her way to go with warrant.
 
 
BOULT. 'Faith, some do and some do not. But, mistress, if I have bargained for the joint, —
 

BAWD

 
Thou mayst cut a morsel off the spit.
 

BOULT

 
I may so.
 
 
BAWD. Who should deny it? Come young one, I like the manner of your garments well.
 

BOULT

 
Ay, by my faith, they shall not be changed yet.
 
 
BAWD. Boult, spend thou that in the town: report what a sojourner we have; you'll lose nothing by custom. When nature framed this piece, she meant thee a good turn; therefore say what a paragon she is, and thou hast the harvest out of thine own report.
 

BOULT

 
I warrant you, mistress, thunder shall not so awake the beds of
eels as my giving out her Beauty stir up the lewdly-inclined.
I'll bring home some to-night.
 

BAWD

 
Come your ways; follow me.
 

MARINA

 
If fires be hot, knives sharp, or waters deep,
Untied I still my virgin knot will keep.
Diana, aid my purpose!
 

BAWD

 
What have we to do with Diana? Pray you, will you go with us?
 

[Exeunt.]

SCENE III. Tarsus. A room in Cleon's house

[Enter Cleon and Dionyza.]

DIONYZA

 
Why, are you foolish? Can it be undone?
 

CLEON

 
O, Dionyza, such a piece of slaughter
The sun and moon ne'er look'd upon!
 

DIONYZA

 
I think
You'll turn a child agan.
 

CLEON

 
Were I chief lord of all this spacious world,
I'ld give it to undo the deed. 0 lady,
Much less in blood than virtue, yet a princess
To equal any single crown o' the earth
I' the justice of compare! O villain Leonine!
Whom thou hast poison'd too:
If thou hadst drunk to him, 't had been a kindness
Becoming well thy fact: what canst thou say
When noble Pericles shall demand his child?
 

DIONYZA

 
That she is dead. Nurses are not the fates,
To foster it, nor ever to preserve.
She died at night; I'11 say so. Who can cross it?
Unless you play the pious innocent,
And for an honest attribute cry out
'She died by foul play.'
 

CLEON

 
O, go to. Well, well,
Of all the faults beneath the heavens, the gods
Do like this worst.
 

DIONYZA

 
Be one of those that think.
The petty wrens of Tarsus will fly hence,
And open this to Pericles. I do shame
To think of what a noble strain you are,
And of how coward a spirit.
 

CLEON

 
To such proceeding
Whoever but his approbation added,
Though not his prime consent, he did not flow
From honourable sources,
 

DIONYZA

 
Be it so, then:
Yet none does know, but you, how she came dead,
Nor none can know, Leonine being gone.
She did distain my child, and stood between
Her and her fortunes: none would look on her,
But cast their gazes on Marina's face;
Whilst ours was blurted at and held a malkin
Not worth the time of day. It pierced me through;
And though you call my course unnatural,
You not your child well loving, yet I find
It greets me as an enterprise of kindness
Perform'd to your sole daughter.
 

CLEON

 
Heavens forgive it!
 

DIONYZA

 
And as for Pericles,
What should he say? We wept after her hearse,
And yet we mourn: her monument
Is almost finish'd, and her epitaphs
In glittering golden characters express
A general praise to her, and care in us
At whose expense 'tis done.
 

CLEON

 
Thou art like the harpy,
Which, to betray, dost, with thine angel's face,
Seize with thine eagle's talons.
 

DIONYZA

 
You are like one that superstitiously
Doth swear to the gods that winter kills the flies:
But yet I know you'll do as I advise.
 

[Exeunt.]