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Pericles - Act 3, scene 2
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Pericles - Act 3, scene 2Act 3, scene 2
⌜Scene 2⌝
Synopsis:
The body of Thaisa washes ashore in Ephesus, where she is revived by a physician named Lord Cerimon.
Enter Lord Cerimon with ⌜two Suppliants.⌝CERIMON 1203 Philemon, ho!
Enter Philemon.
PHILEMON 1204 Doth my lord call?
CERIMON 1205 Get fire and meat for these poor men.
1206 ’T has been a turbulent and stormy night.
⌜Philemon exits.⌝
⌜FIRST SUPPLIANT⌝
1207 5 I have been in many; but such a night as this,
1208 Till now, I ne’er endured.
CERIMON
1209 Your master will be dead ere you return.
1210 There’s nothing can be ministered to nature
1211 That can recover him. ⌜To Second Suppliant.⌝ Give
1212 10 this to the ’pothecary,
1213 And tell me how it works.⌜Suppliants exit.⌝
Enter two Gentlemen.
FIRST GENTLEMAN 1214 Good morrow.
SECOND GENTLEMAN 1215 Good morrow to your Lordship.
CERIMON
1216 Gentlemen, why do you stir so early?
FIRST GENTLEMAN 1217 15 Sir,
1218 Our lodgings, standing bleak upon the sea,
1219 Shook as the earth did quake.
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1220
The very principals did seem to rend1221 And all to topple. Pure surprise and fear
1222 20 Made me to quit the house.
SECOND GENTLEMAN
1223 That is the cause we trouble you so early.
1224 ’Tis not our husbandry.
CERIMON 1225 O, you say well.
FIRST GENTLEMAN
1226 But I much marvel that your Lordship, having
1227 25 Rich tire about you, should at these early hours
1228 Shake off the golden slumber of repose.
1229 ’Tis most strange
1230 Nature should be so conversant with pain,
1231 Being thereto not compelled.
CERIMON 1232 30 I hold it ever
1233 Virtue and cunning were endowments greater
1234 Than nobleness and riches. Careless heirs
1235 May the two latter darken and expend,
1236 But immortality attends the former,
1237 35 Making a man a god. ’Tis known I ever
1238 Have studied physic, through which secret art,
1239 By turning o’er authorities, I have,
1240 Together with my practice, made familiar
1241 To me and to my aid the blessed infusions
1242 40 That dwells in vegetives, in metals, stones;
1243 And can speak of the disturbances
1244 That Nature works, and of her cures; which doth
1245 give me
1246 A more content in course of true delight
1247 45 Than to be thirsty after tottering honor,
1248 Or tie my pleasure up in silken bags
1249 To please the fool and death.
SECOND GENTLEMAN
1250 Your Honor has through Ephesus poured forth
1251 Your charity, and hundreds call themselves
1252 50 Your creatures, who by you have been restored;
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1253
And not your knowledge, your personal pain, but even1254 Your purse, still open, hath built Lord Cerimon
1255 Such strong renown, as time shall never—
Enter two or three ⌜Servants⌝ with a chest.
SERVANT
1256 So, lift there.
CERIMON 1257 55 What’s that?
SERVANT 1258 Sir, even now
1259 Did the sea toss up upon our shore this chest.
1260 ’Tis of some wrack.
CERIMON 1261 Set ’t down. Let’s look upon ’t.
SECOND GENTLEMAN
1262 60 ’Tis like a coffin, sir.
CERIMON 1263 What e’er it be,
1264 ’Tis wondrous heavy. Wrench it open straight.
1265 If the sea’s stomach be o’ercharged with gold,
1266 ’Tis a good constraint of Fortune it belches upon us.
SECOND GENTLEMAN
1267 65 ’Tis so, my lord.
CERIMON 1268 How close ’tis caulked and ⌜bitumed!⌝
1269 Did the sea cast it up?
SERVANT
1270 I never saw so huge a billow, sir,
1271 As tossed it upon shore.
CERIMON 1272 70 Wrench it open.
1273 Soft! It smells most sweetly in my sense.
SECOND GENTLEMAN 1274 A delicate odor.
CERIMON
1275 As ever hit my nostril. So, up with it.
⌜They open the chest.⌝
1276 O, you most potent gods! What’s here? A corse?
SECOND GENTLEMAN 1277 75Most strange!
CERIMON
1278 Shrouded in cloth of state, balmed and entreasured
1279 With full bags of spices. A passport too!
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1280
Apollo, perfect me in the characters.⌜He reads.⌝
1281 Here I give to understand,
1282 80 If e’er this coffin drives aland,
1283 I, King Pericles, have lost
1284 This queen, worth all our mundane cost.
1285 Who finds her, give her burying.
1286 She was the daughter of a king.
1287 85 Besides this treasure for a fee,
1288 The gods requite his charity.
1289 If thou livest, Pericles, thou hast a heart
1290 That ever cracks for woe. This chanced tonight.
SECOND GENTLEMAN
1291 Most likely, sir.
CERIMON 1292 90 Nay, certainly tonight,
1293 For look how fresh she looks. They were too rough
1294 That threw her in the sea.—Make a fire within;
1295 Fetch hither all my boxes in my closet.
⌜A servant exits.⌝
1296 Death may usurp on nature many hours,
1297 95 And yet the fire of life kindle again
1298 The o’erpressed spirits. I heard of an Egyptian
1299 That had nine hours lain dead,
1300 Who was by good appliance recoverèd.
Enter one with ⌜boxes,⌝ napkins, and fire.
1301 Well said, well said! The fire and cloths.
1302 100 The rough and woeful music that we have,
1303 Cause it to sound, beseech you. ⌜Music sounds.⌝ The
1304 viol once more!
1305 How thou stirr’st, thou block! The music there.
⌜Music sounds.⌝
1306 I pray you, give her air. Gentlemen,
1307 105 This queen will live. Nature awakes a ⌜warm⌝ breath
1308 Out of her. She hath not been entranced
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1309
Above five hours. See how she gins to blow1310 Into life’s flower again.
FIRST GENTLEMAN 1311 The heavens, through you,
1312 110 Increase our wonder, and sets up your fame
1313 Forever.
CERIMON 1314 She is alive. Behold her eyelids—
1315 Cases to those heavenly jewels which Pericles hath
1316 lost—
1317 115 Begin to part their fringes of bright gold.
1318 The diamonds of a most praised water doth
1319 Appear to make the world twice rich.—Live,
1320 And make us weep to hear your fate, fair creature,
1321 Rare as you seem to be.
She moves.
THAISA 1322 120 O dear Diana,
1323 Where am I? Where’s my lord? What world is this?
SECOND GENTLEMAN 1324 Is not this strange?
FIRST GENTLEMAN 1325 Most rare!
CERIMON 1326 Hush, my gentle neighbors!
1327 125 Lend me your hands. To the next chamber bear her.
1328 Get linen. Now this matter must be looked to,
1329 For her relapse is mortal. Come, come;
1330 And Aesculapius guide us.
They carry her away ⌜as⌝ they all exit.