The power that I have on you is to spare you; The malice towards you to forgive you. Live, And deal with others better. Cym. Nobly doom'd: 421 We'll learn our freeness of a son-in-law; Pardon's the word to all. Arv. You holp us, sir, As you did mean indeed to be our brother; 424 Joy'd are we that you are.
Post. Your servant, princes. Good my lord of Rome,
Call forth your soothsayer. As I slept, methought
Great Jupiter, upon his eagle back'd, Appear'd to me, with other spritely shows Of mine own kindred: when I wak'd, I found This label on my bosom; whose containing Is so from sense in hardness that I can Make no collection of it; let him show His skill in the construction. Luc.
Sooth. Here, my good lord.
Read, and declare the meaning.
self unknown, without seeking find, and be emSooth. Whenas a lion's whelp shall, to himbraced by a piece of tender air; and when from a stately cedar shall be lopped branches, which, being dead many years, shall after revive, be jointed to the old stock, and freshly grow: then shall Posthumus end his miseries, Britain be fortunate, and flourish in peace and plenty. Thou, Leonatus, art the lion's whelp; The fit and apt construction of thy name, Being Leo-natus, doth import so much. [To CYMBELINE.] The piece of tender air, thy virtuous daughter,
Which we call mollis aer; and mollis aer We term it mulier; which mulier, I divine, Is this most constant wife; who, even now, Answering the letter of the oracle, Unknown to you, [To POSTHUMUS.] unsought, were clipp'd about
408 With this most tender air. Cym.
The soldier that did company these three In poor beseeming; 'twas a fitment for The purpose I then follow'd. That I was he, Speak, Iachimo; I had you down and might 412 Have made you finish.
Iach. [Kneeling.] I am down again; But now my heavy conscience sinks my knee, As then your force did. Take that life, beseech you,
Which I so often owe, but your ring first, And here the bracelet of the truest princess That ever swore her faith. Post.
This hath some seeming. Sooth. The lofty cedar, royal Cymbeline, Personates thee, and thy lopp'd branches point Thy two sons forth; who, by Belarius stolen, 456 For many years thought dead, are now reviv'd, To the majestic cedar join'd, whose issue Promises Britain peace and plenty. Cym.
My peace we will begin. And, Caius Lucius, 460 Although the victor, we submit to Cæsar, And to the Roman empire; promising
To pay our wonted tribute, from the which We were dissuaded by our wicked queen;
Whom heavens-in justice both on her and Which shines here in the west. hers
Laud we the gods; And let our crooked smokes climb to their nostrils
From our bless'd altars. Publish we this
To sing a song that old was sung, From ashes ancient Gower is come, Assuming man's infirmities,
To glad your ear, and please your eyes. It hath been sung at festivals, On ember-eves, and holy-ales;
And lords and ladies in their lives Have read it for restoratives:
The purchase is to make men glorious; Et bonum quo antiquius, eo melius. If you, born in these latter times,
When wit's more ripe, accept my rimes, 12 And that to hear an old man sing May to your wishes pleasure bring, I life would wish, and that I might Waste it for you like taper-light.
This Antioch, then, Antiochus the Great Built up, this city, for his chiefest seat, The fairest in all Syria,
I tell you what mine authors say:
This king unto him took a fere, Who died and left a female heir, So buxom, blithe, and full of face As heaven had lent her all his grace; With whom the father liking took, And her to incest did provoke.
Bad child, worse father! to entice his own To evil should be done by none.
By custom what they did begin
Was with long use account no sin. The beauty of this sinful dame Made many princes thither frame, To seek her as a bed-fellow,
In marriage-pleasures play-fellow: Which to prevent, he made a law, To keep her still, and men in awe, That whoso ask'd her for his wife, His riddle told not, lost his life: So for her many a wight did die, As yon grim looks do testify.
What now ensues, to the judgment of your eye
I give, my cause who best can justify. [Exit.
You gods, that made me man, and sway in love, That hath inflam'd desire in my breast To taste the fruit of yon celestial tree Or die in the adventure, be my helps, As I am son and servant to your will, To compass such a boundless happiness! Ant. Prince Pericles,-
Per. That would be son to great Antiochus. Ant. Before thee stands this fair Hesperides, With golden fruit, but dangerous to be touch'd; For death-like dragons here affright thee hard: Her face, like heaven, enticeth thee to view Her countless glory, which desert must gain; And which, without desert, because thine eye 32 Presumes to reach, all thy whole heap must die. Yon sometime famous princes, like thyself, Drawn by report, adventurous by desire, Tell thee with speechless tongues and semblance pale, 36
That without covering, save yon field of stars, They here stand martyrs, slain in Cupid's wars; And with dead cheeks advise thee to desist For going on death's net, whom none resist. 40 Per. Antiochus, I thank thee, who hath taught
My frail mortality to know itself, And by those fearful objects to prepare This body, like to them, to what I must; For death remember'd should be like a mirror, Who tells us life's but breath, to trust it error. I'll make my will then; and as sick men do, Who know the world, see heaven, but feeling woe,
On mother's flesh which did me breed; I sought a husband, in which labour I found that kindness in a father. He's father, son, and husband mild, I mother, wife, and yet his child. How they may be, and yet in two, As you will live, resolve it you. Sharp physic is the last: but, O you powers! 72 That give heaven countless eyes to view men's acts,
Why cloud they not their sights perpetually, If this be true, which makes me pale to read it? Fair glass of light, I lov'd you, and could still, Were not this glorious casket stor'd with ill: 77 But I must tell you now my thoughts revolt; For he's no man on whom perfections wait That, knowing sin within, will touch the gate. You're a fair viol, and your sense the strings, Who, finger'd to make men his lawful music, Would draw heaven down and all the gods to hearken;
But being play'd upon before your time, Hell only danceth at so harsh a chime. Good sooth, I care not for you.
Ant. Prince Pericles, touch not, upon thy life,
For that's an article within our law,
As dangerous as the rest. Your time's expir'd: Either expound now or receive your sentence.
Few love to hear the sins they love to act; 'Twould braid yourself too near for me to tell it. Who has a book of all that monarchs do, He's more secure to keep it shut than shown; For vice repeated is like the wandering wind, 96 Blows dust in others' eyes, to spread itself; And yet the end of all is bought thus dear, The breath is gone, and the sore eyes see clear To stop the air would hurt them. The blind mole casts
Copp'd hills towards heaven, to tell the earth is throng'd
By man's oppression; and the poor worm doth die for 't.
Kings are earth's gods; in vice their law's their
Ant. Thaliard, You're of our chamber, and our mind partakes Her private actions to your secrecy; And for your faithfulness we will advance you. Thaliard, behold, here's poison, and here's gold;
We hate the Prince of Tyre, and thou must kill him: 156
It fits thee not to ask the reason why, 112 Because we bid it. Say, is it done? Thal. My lord, 'tis done. Ant. Enough.
We might proceed to cancel of your days; Yet hope, succeeding from so fair a tree As your fair self, doth tune us otherwise: Forty days longer we do respite you; If by which time our secret be undone, This mercy shows we'll joy in such a son: And until then your entertain shall be As doth befit our honour and your worth. [Exeunt all but PERICLES. Per. How courtesy would seem to cover sin, When what is done is like a hypocrite, The which is good in nothing but in sight! If it be true that I interpret false, Then were it certain you were not so bad As with foul incest to abuse your soul; Where now you're both a father and a son, By your untimely claspings with your child, - Which pleasure fits a husband, not a father; And she an eater of her mother's flesh, By the defiling of her parent's bed;
And both like serpents are, who though they feed
On sweetest flowers, yet they poison breed. Antioch, farewell! for wisdom sees, those men Blush not in actions blacker than the night, Will shun no course to keep them from the light.
One sin, I know, another doth provoke; Murder's as near to lust as flame to smoke. Poison and treason are the hands of sin, Ay, and the targets, to put off the shame: Then, lest my life be cropp'd to keep you clear, By flight I'll shun the danger which I fear.
If I can get him within my pistol's length, 168 I'll make him sure enough: so, farewell to your highness.
Ant. Thaliard, adieu! [Exit THALIARD. Till Pericles be dead, My heart can lend no succour to my head. [Exit.
SCENE II.-Tyre. A Room in the Palace. Enter PERICLES.
Per. [To those without.] Let none disturb us.— Why should this change of thoughts, The sad companion, dull-ey'd melancholy, Be my so us'd a guest, as not an hour In the day's glorious walk or peaceful night— 4 The tomb where grief should sleep-can breed me quiet?
Here pleasures court mine eyes, and mine eyes shun them,
And danger, which I feared, is at Antioch, Whose arm seems far too short to hit me here; Yet neither pleasure's art can joy my spirits, 9 Nor yet the other's distance comfort me. Then it is thus: the passions of the mind,
Ant. He hath found the meaning, for which That have their first conception by mis-dread, 12
we mean
To take his head.
He must not live to trumpet forth my infamy, Nor tell the world Antiochus doth sin In such a loathed manner;
And therefore instantly this prince must die, 148 For by his fall my honour must keep high. Who attends us there?
Have after-nourishment and life by care; And what was first but fear what might be done, Grows elder now and cares it be not done. And so with me: the great Antiochus,- 'Gainst whom I am too little to contend, Since he's so great can make his will his act,- Will think me speaking, though I swear to silence;
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