That flies i’ the purer air!
LYSIMACHUS I did not think
Thou couldst have spoke so well; ne’er dream’d thou couldst.
Had I brought hither a corrupted mind,
Thy speech had alter’d it. Hold, here’s gold for thee:
Persever in that clear way thou goest,
And the gods strengthen thee!
MARINA The good gods preserve you!
LYSIMACHUS For me, be you thoughten
That I came with no ill intent; for to me
The very doors and windows savour vilely.
Fare thee well. Thou art a piece of virtue, and
I doubt not but thy training hath been noble.
Hold, here’s more gold for thee.
A curse upon him, die he like a thief,
That robs thee of thy goodness! If thou dost
Hear from me, it shall be for thy good.
Re-enter BOULT
BOULT I beseech your honour, one piece for me.
LYSIMACHUS Avaunt, thou damned door-keeper!
Your house, but for this virgin that doth prop it,
Would sink and overwhelm you. Away!
Exit
BOULT How’s this? We must take another course with you.
If your peevish chastity, which is not worth a
breakfast in the cheapest country under the cope,
shall undo a whole household, let me be gelded like
a spaniel. Come your ways.
MARINA Whither would you have me?
BOULT I must have your maidenhead taken off, or the common
hangman shall execute it. Come your ways. We’ll
have no more gentlemen driven away. Come your ways, I say.
Re-enter Bawd
Bawd How now! what’s the matter?
BOULT Worse and worse, mistress; she has here spoken holy
words to the Lord Lysimachus.
Bawd O abominable!
BOULT She makes our profession as it were to stink afore
the face of the gods.
Bawd Marry, hang her up for ever!
BOULT The nobleman would have dealt with her like a
nobleman, and she sent him away as cold as a
snowball; saying his prayers too.
Bawd Boult, take her away; use her at thy pleasure:
crack the glass of her virginity, and make the rest malleable.
BOULT An if she were a thornier piece of ground than she
is, she shall be ploughed.
MARINA Hark, hark, you gods!
Bawd She conjures: away with her! Would she had never
come within my doors! Marry, hang you! She’s born
to undo us. Will you not go the way of women-kind?
Marry, come up, my dish of chastity with rosemary and bays!
Exit
BOULT Come, mistress; come your ways with me.
MARINA Whither wilt thou have me?
BOULT To take from you the jewel you hold so dear.
MARINA Prithee, tell me one thing first.
BOULT Come now, your one thing.
MARINA What canst thou wish thine enemy to be?
BOULT Why, I could wish him to be my master, or rather, my mistress.
MARINA Neither of these are so bad as thou art,
Since they do better thee in their command.
Thou hold’st a place, for which the pained’st fiend
Of hell would not in reputation change:
Thou art the damned doorkeeper to every
Coistrel that comes inquiring for his Tib;
To the choleric fisting of every rogue
Thy ear is liable; thy food is such
As hath been belch’d on by infected lungs.
BOULT What would you have me do? go to the wars, would
you? where a man may serve seven years for the loss
of a leg, and have not money enough in the end to
buy him a wooden one?
MARINA Do any thing but this thou doest. Empty
OLD receptacles, or common shores, of filth;
Serve by indenture to the common hangman:
Any of these ways are yet better than this;
For what thou professest, a baboon, could he speak,
Would own a name too dear. O, that the gods
Would safely deliver me from this place!
Here, here’s gold for thee.
If that thy master would gain by thee,
Proclaim that I can sing, weave, sew, and dance,
With other virtues, which I’ll keep from boast:
And I will undertake all these to teach.
I doubt not but this populous city will
Yield many scholars.
BOULT But can you teach all this you speak of?
MARINA Prove that I cannot, take me home again,
And prostitute me to the basest groom
That doth frequent your house.
BOULT Well, I will see what I can do for thee: if I can
place thee, I will.
MARINA But amongst honest women.
BOULT ‘Faith, my acquaintance lies little amongst them.
But since my master and mistress have bought you,
there’s no going but by their consent: therefore I
will make them acquainted with your purpose, and I
doubt not but I shall find them tractable enough.
Come, I’ll do for thee what I can; come your ways.
Exeunt
Enter GOWER
GOWER Marina thus the brothel ‘scapes, and chances
Into an honest house, our story says.
She sings like one immortal, and she dances
As goddess-like to her admired lays;
Deep clerks she dumbs; and with her needle composes
Nature’s own shape, of bud, bird, branch, or berry,
That even her art sisters the natural roses;
Her inkle, silk, twin with the rubied cherry:
That pupils lacks she none of noble race,
Who pour their bounty on her; and her gain
She gives the cursed bawd. Here we her place;
And to her father turn our thoughts again,
Where we left him, on the sea. We there him lost;
Whence, driven before the winds, he is arrived
Here where his daughter dwells; and on this coast
Suppose him now at anchor. The city strived
God Neptune’s annual feast to keep: from whence
Lysimachus our Tyrian ship espies,
His banners sable, trimm’d with rich expense;
And to him in his barge with fervor hies.
In your supposing once more put your sight
Of heavy Pericles; think this his bark:
Where what is done in action, more, if might,
Shall be discover’d; please you, sit and hark.
Exit
Act 5
Scene 1
On board PERICLES’ ship, off Mytilene. A close pavilion on deck, with a curtain before it; PERICLES within it, reclined on a couch. A barge lying beside the Tyrian vessel.
Enter two Sailors, one belonging to the Tyrian vessel, the other to the barge; to them HELICANUS
Tyrian Sailor [To the Sailor of Mytilene]
Where is lord Helicanus?
he can resolve you.
O, here he is.
Sir, there’s a barge put off from Mytilene,
And in it is Lysimachus the governor,
Who craves to come aboard. What is your will?
HELICANUS That he have his. Call up some gentlemen.
Tyrian Sailor Ho, gentlemen! my lord calls.
Enter two or three Gentlemen
First Gentleman Doth your lordship call?
HELICANUS Gentlemen, there’s some of worth would come aboard;
I pray ye, greet them fairly.
The Gentlemen and the two Sailors descend, and go on board the barge
Enter, from thence, LYSIMACHUS and Lords; with the Gentlemen and the two Sailors
Tyrian Sailor Sir,
This is the man that can, in aught you would,
Resolve you.
LYSIMACHUS Hail, reverend sir! the gods preserve you!
HELICANUS And you, sir, to outlive the age I am,
And die as I would do.
LYSIMACHUS 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.
HELICANUS First, what is your place?
LYSIMACHUS I am the governor of this place you lie before.
HELICANUS 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.
LYSIMACHUS Upon what ground is his distemperature?
HELICANUS ‘Twould be too tedious to repeat;
But the main grief springs from the loss
Of a beloved daughter and a wife.
LYSIMACHUS May we not see him?
HELICANUS You may;
But bootless is your sight: he will not speak To any.
LYSIMACHUS Yet let me obtain my wish.
HELICANUS Behold him.
PERICLES discovered
This was a goodly person,
Till the disaster that, one mortal night,
Drove him to this.
LYSIMACHUS Sir king, all hail! the gods preserve you!
Hail, royal sir!
HELICANUS 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.
LYSIMACHUS ‘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
HELICANUS Sure, all’s effectless; yet nothing we’ll omit
That bears recovery’s name. But, since your kindness
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.
LYSIMACHUS O, sir, a courtesy
Which if we should deny, the most just gods