Enter LYSIMACHUS, HELICANUS, and MARINA.

Hel.

Sir.

Per. My purpose was for Tharsus, there to strike The inhospitable Cleon; but I am

For other service first: toward Ephesus

Turn our blown sails; eftsoons I'll tell thee why.

[TO HELICANUS. Shall we refresh us, sir, upon your shore,

And give you gold for such provision

As our intents will need?

Lys. With all my heart, sir; and when you come ashore,

I have another suit.

Per.

You shall prevail,

Were it to woo my daughter; for it seems

You have been noble towards her.

Gow. Now our sands are almost run;

More a little, and then done5.

This, as my last boon, give me

(For such kindness must relieve me),

That you aptly will suppose

What pageantry, what feats, what shows,
What minstrelsy, and pretty din,

The regent made in Mitylin,

To greet the king. So he has thriv'd,
That he is promis'd to be wiv'd
To fair Marina; but in no wise
Till he had done his sacrifice,

4 That is, our swollen sails.' So in Antony and Cleopatra :A vent upon her arm, and something blown.

5 The old copy reads dum. And in the last line of this chorus doom instead of boon.

6 i. e. Pericles.

As Dian bade: whereto being bound,
The interim, pray you, all confound".
In feather'd briefness sails are fill'd,
And wishes fall out as they're will'd.
At Ephesus, the temple see,
Our king, and all his company.
That he can hither come so soon,
Is by your fancy's thankful boon.

SCENE III.

[Exit.

The Temple of DIANA at Ephesus: THAISA standing near the Altar, as High Priestess; a number of Virgins on each side; CERIMON and other Inhabitants of Ephesus attending.

Enter PERICLES, with his Train; LYSIMACHUs, HeliCANUS, MARINA, and a Lady.

Per. Hail Dian! to perform thy just command,
I here confess myself the king of Tyre;
Who, frighted from my country, did wed
The fair Thaisa, at Pentapolis.

At sea in childbed died she, but brought forth
A maid-child call'd Marina; who, O goddess,
Wears yet thy silver livery1. She at Tharsus
Was nurs'd with Cleon; whom at fourteen years
He sought to murder: but her better stars
Brought her to Mitylene: against whose shore
Riding, her fortunes brought the maid aboard us,
Where, by her own most clear remembrance, she
Made known herself my daughter.

Thai.

Voice and favour!

You are you are-O royal Pericles?!—

[She faints.

Confound here signifies to consume.

He did confound the best part of an hour
Exchanging hardiment with great Glendow'r.'

Kiny Henry V.

1 i. e. her white robe of innocence, as being yet under the pro

tection of the goddess of chastity.

2 The similitude between this scene and the discovery in the last act of The Winter's Tale will strike every reader.

Per. What means the woman? she dies! help,

gentlemen!

Cer. Noble sir,

If you have told Diana's altar true,

This is your wife.

Per.

Reverend appearer, no;

I threw her overboard with these very arms.
Cer. Upon this coast, I warrant you.

Per.

'Tis most certain. Cer. Look to the lady;-0, she's but o'erjoy'd! Early, one blust'ring morn, this lady was

Thrown on this shore. I op'd the coffin, and Found there rich jewels; recover'd her, and plac'd her Here in Diana's temple3.

Per.

May we see them? Cer. Great sir, they shall be brought you to my house1,

Whither I invite you. Look! Thaisa is
Recover❜d.

Thai. O, let me look!

If he be none of mine, my sanctity

In the fragment of the Old Metrical Romance, formerly in Dr. Farmer's possession, mentioned in the Preliminary Remarks, this is told with simplicity and pathos. I lay it before the reader as a philological curiosity :

The whiles he expounede thus hys lyf

Wt sorwe & stedfast thouzt,

He tolde hit to hys owene wyf,
Sche knew him [though] he hire nought,
Heo caught hym in hire armes two,
For joye sche ne myght spek a word,
The kyng was wroth & pitte her fro;
Heo cryede loude-'ye beth my lord,
I am youre wyf, youre leof yore,
Archistrata ye lovede so,
The kynges doughtry was bore,
Archistrates he ne hadde na mo.'
Heo clipte hym & eftr ** kysse
And saide thus byfore hem alle

Ze seeth Appolyn the kyng

*

My maystr that taugt me all my good'-
Cetera desunt.

3 The same situation occnrs again in the Comedy of Errors, where Egeon loses his wife at sea, and finds her at last in a nunnery.

This circumstance bears some resemblance to the meeting of Leontes and Hermione in The Winter's Tale. The office of Cerimon is not unlike that of Paulina.

Will to my sense5 bend no licentious ear,
But curb it, spite of seeing. O, my lord,
Are you not Pericles? Like him you speak,
Like him you are: Did you not name a tempest,
A birth, and death?

Per.

The voice of dead Thaisa!

Thai. That Thaisa am I, supposed dead,

And drown'do.

Per. Immortal Dian!

Now I know you better.

Thai.
When we with tears parted Pentapolis,
The king, my father, gave you such a ring.

[Shows a Ring. Per. This, this; no more, you gods! your pre

sent kindness

Makes my past miseries sport: You shall do well, That on the touching of her lips I may

Melt, and no more be seen8. O come, be buried

A second time within these arms.

Mar.
My heart
Leaps to be gone into my mother's bosom.

[Kneels to THAISA. Per. Look, who kneels here! Flesh of thy flesh,

Thaisa;

Thy burden at the sea, and call'd Marina,

For she was yielded there.

Bless'd and mine own!

Hel. Hail, madam, and my queen!

5 Sense is here used for sensual passion. 6 Drown'd in this instance does not signify suffocated by water, but overwhelmed in it. Thus Knolles, History of the Turks :Galleys might be drowned in the harbour with the great ordnance, before they could be rigged.'

So in King Lear:

It is a chance that does redeem all sorrows
That ever I have felt."

8 This is a sentiment which Shakspeare never fails to introduce on occasions similar to the present. So in the 39th Psalm :-'0 spare me a little, that I may recover my strength, before I go hence and be no more seen. The same thought is expressed by Perdita in The Winter's Tale :

Not like a corse ;-or if-not to be buried
But quick, and in mine arms.'

Thai.

I know you not.

Per. You have heard me say, when I did fly

from Tyre,

I left behind an ancient substitute.

Can you remember what I call'd the man?

I have nam'd him oft.

Thai.

"Twas Helicanus then.

Per. Still confirmation:

Embrace him, dear Thaisa: this is he.

Now do I long to hear how you were found;
How possibly preserv'd; and whom to thank,
Besides the gods, for this great miracle.

Thai. Lord Cerimon, my lord; this man

Through whom the gods have shown their power;

that can

From first to last resolve you.

Per.

Reverend sir,
The gods can have no mortal officer

More like a god than you. Will you deliver
How this dead queen relives?

Cer.

I will, my lord.
Beseech you, first go with me to my house,

Where shall be shown you all was found with her;
How she came placed here within the temple;
No needful thing omitted.

Per.

Pure Diana!

I bless thee for thy vision, and will offer
My night oblations to thee. Thaisa,

This prince, the fair-betrothed9 of your daughter,

Shall marry her at Pentapolis. And now,

This ornament that makes me look so dismal,

Will I, my lov'd Marina, clip to form;

And what this fourteen years no razor touch'd,
To grace thy marriage-day, I'll beautify 10,

9 i. e. fairly contracted, honourably affianced.

10 The author has here followed Gower or the Gesta Romanorum:

this a vowe to God I make

That I shall never for hir sake,
My berde for no likynge shave,
Till it befalle that I have
In convenable time of age
Besette her unto marriage.'