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 me,
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. ome, I’ll do for thee what I can; come your ways.
[Exeunt.]
ACT V.
[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 neeld composes
Nature’s own shape, of bud, bird, branch, or berry,
That even her art sistrs 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 fervour 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.]
SCENE I. 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,