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Pericles - Act 4, scene 3
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Pericles - Act 4, scene 3Act 4, scene 3
⌜Scene 3⌝
Synopsis:
Dionyza, after Leonine has (falsely) reported Marina’s death, now justifies her actions to a horrified Cleon.
Enter Cleon and Dionyza.DIONYZA
1717 Why, ⌜are⌝ you foolish? Can it be undone?
CLEON
1718 O Dionyza, such a piece of slaughter
1719 The sun and moon ne’er looked upon!
DIONYZA 1720 I think you’ll turn a child again.
CLEON
1721 5 Were I chief lord of all this spacious world,
1722 I’d give it to undo the deed. ⌜A⌝ lady
1723 Much less in blood than virtue, yet a princess
1724 To equal any single crown o’ th’ Earth
1725 I’ the justice of compare. O villain Leonine,
1726 10 Whom thou hast poisoned too!
1727 If thou hadst drunk to him, ’t had been a kindness
1728 Becoming well thy face. What canst thou say
1729 When noble Pericles shall demand his child?
DIONYZA
1730 That she is dead. Nurses are not the Fates.
1731 15 To foster ⌜is⌝ not ever to preserve.
1732 She died at night; I’ll say so. Who can cross it
1733 Unless you play the impious innocent
1734 And, for an honest attribute, cry out
1735 “She died by foul play!”
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137
CLEON
1736
20 O, go to. Well, well,1737 Of all the faults beneath the heavens, the gods
1738 Do like this worst.
DIONYZA 1739 Be one of those that thinks
1740 The petty wrens of Tarsus will fly hence
1741 25 And open this to Pericles. I do shame
1742 To think of what a noble strain you are,
1743 And of how coward a spirit.
CLEON 1744 To such proceeding
1745 Whoever but his approbation added,
1746 30 Though not his ⌜prime⌝ consent, he did not flow
1747 From honorable courses.
DIONYZA 1748 Be it so, then.
1749 Yet none does know but you how she came dead,
1750 Nor none can know, Leonine being gone.
1751 35 She did ⌜distain⌝ my child and stood between
1752 Her and her fortunes. None would look on her,
1753 But cast their gazes on Marina’s face,
1754 Whilst ours was blurted at and held a malkin
1755 Not worth the time of day. It pierced me through,
1756 40 And though you call my course unnatural,
1757 You not your child well loving, yet I find
1758 It greets me as an enterprise of kindness
1759 Performed to your sole daughter.
CLEON 1760 Heavens forgive it.
DIONYZA 1761 45And as for Pericles,
1762 What should he say? We wept after her hearse,
1763 And yet we mourn. Her monument is
1764 Almost finished, and her epitaphs
1765 In glitt’ring golden characters express
1766 50 A general praise to her, and care in us
1767 At whose expense ’tis done.
CLEON 1768 Thou art like the Harpy,
1769 Which, to betray, dost with thine angel’s face
1770 Seize with thine eagle’s talons.
p.
139
DIONYZA 1771 55 You’re like one that superstitiously
1772 Do swear to the gods that winter kills the flies.
1773 But yet I know you’ll do as I advise.
⌜They exit.⌝