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Pericles: Act II, Scene 1

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Pericles
Act II, Scene 1

Pentapolis. An open place by the seaside.

Byam Shaw, 1901

  1. Enter Pericles wet.

Pericles

1 - 11
  1. Yet cease your ire, you angry stars of heaven!
  2. Wind, rain, and thunder, remember earthly man
  3. Is but a substance that must yield to you;
  4. And I (as fits my nature) do obey you.
  5. Alas, the seas hath cast me on the rocks,
  6. Wash’d me from shore to shore, and left me breath
  7. Nothing to think on but ensuing death.
  8. Let it suffice the greatness of your powers
  9. To have bereft a prince of all his fortunes;
  10. And having thrown him from your wat’ry grave,
  11. Here to have death in peace is all he’ll crave.
  1. Enter three Fishermen.

First Fisherman

12
  1. What ho, Pilch!

Second Fisherman

13
  1. Ha, come and bring away the nets!

First Fisherman

14
  1. What, Patch-breech, I say!

Third Fisherman

15
  1. What say you, master?

First Fisherman

16 - 17
  1. Look how thou stir’st now! Come away, or I’ll fetch th’ with
  2. a wanion.

Third Fisherman

18 - 19
  1. Faith, master, I am thinking of the poor men that were cast
  2. away before us even now.

First Fisherman

20 - 22
  1. Alas, poor souls, it griev’d my heart to hear what pitiful
  2. cries they made to us to help them, when, well-a-day, we
  3. could scarce help ourselves.

Third Fisherman

23 - 26
  1. Nay, master, said not I as much when I saw the porpoise how
  2. he bounc’d and tumbled? They say they’re half fish, half
  3. flesh. A plague on them, they ne’er come but I look to be
  4. wash’d. Master, I marvel how the fishes live in the sea.

First Fisherman

27 - 33
  1. Why, as men do a-land; the great ones eat up the little
  2. ones. I can compare our rich misers to nothing so fitly as
  3. to a whale: ’a plays and tumbles, driving the poor fry
  4. before him, and at last devour them all at a mouthful. Such
  5. whales have I heard on a’ th’ land, who never leave gaping
  6. till they swallow’d the whole parish, church, steeple,
  7. bells, and all.

Pericles

34
  1. Aside.
  2. A pretty moral.

Third Fisherman

35 - 36
  1. But, master, if I had been the sexton, I would have been
  2. that day in the belfry.

Second Fisherman

37
  1. Why, man?

Third Fisherman

38 - 42
  1. Because he should have swallow’d me too, and when I had been
  2. in his belly, I would have kept such a jangling of the
  3. bells, that he should never have left till he cast bells,
  4. steeple, church, and parish up again. But if the good King
  5. Simonides were of my mind—

Pericles

43
  1. Aside.
  2. Simonides?

Third Fisherman

44 - 45
  1. We would purge the land of these drones, that rob the bee of
  2. her honey.

Pericles

46 - 50
  1. Aside.
  2. How from the finny subject of the sea
  3. These fishers tell the infirmities of men,
  4. And from their wat’ry empire recollect
  5. All that may men approve or men detect!—
  6. Peace be at your labor, honest fishermen.

Second Fisherman

51 - 52
  1. Honest, good fellow, what’s that? If it be a day fits you,
  2. search out of the calendar, and nobody look after it.

Pericles

53
  1. May see the sea hath cast upon your coast—

Second Fisherman

54
  1. What a drunken knave was the sea to cast thee in our way!

Pericles

55 - 58
  1. A man whom both the waters and the wind,
  2. In that vast tennis-court, hath made the ball
  3. For them to play upon, entreats you pity him.
  4. He asks of you that never us’d to beg.

First Fisherman

59
  1. No, friend, cannot you beg? Here’s them in our country of Greece gets more with begging than we can do with working.

Second Fisherman

60
  1. Canst thou catch any fishes then?

Pericles

61
  1. I never practic’d it.

Second Fisherman

62 - 63
  1. Nay then thou wilt starve sure; for here’s nothing to be got
  2. now-a-days unless thou canst fish for’t.

Pericles

64 - 70
  1. What I have been I have forgot to know,
  2. But what I am, want teaches me to think on:
  3. A man throng’d up with cold, my veins are chill
  4. And have no more of life than may suffice
  5. To give my tongue that heat to ask your help;
  6. Which if you shall refuse, when I am dead,
  7. For that I am a man, pray you see me buried.

First Fisherman

71 - 75
  1. Die, keth ’a? Now gods forbid’t, and I have a gown here!
  2. Come put it on, keep thee warm. Now, afore me, a handsome
  3. fellow! Come, thou shalt go home, and we’ll have flesh for
  4. holidays, fish for fasting-days, and, moreo’er, puddings and
  5. flapjacks, and thou shalt be welcome.

Pericles

76
  1. I thank you, sir.

Second Fisherman

77
  1. Hark you, my friend. You said you could not beg?

Pericles

78
  1. I did but crave.

Second Fisherman

79 - 80
  1. But crave? Then I’ll turn craver too, and so I shall scape
  2. whipping.

This day I’ll rise, or else add ill to ill.

Thomas Abthorpe Cooper as Pericles

William Skelton, G. Cawthorn, John Graham, 1796

Pericles

81
  1. Why, are your beggars whipt then?

Second Fisherman

82 - 84
  1. O, not all, my friend, not all; for if all your beggars were
  2. whipt, I would wish no better office than to be beadle. But,
  3. master, I’ll go draw up the net.
  1. Exit with Third Fisherman.

Pericles

85
  1. Aside.
  2. How well this honest mirth becomes their labor!

First Fisherman

86
  1. Hark you, sir; do you know where ye are?

Pericles

87
  1. Not well.

First Fisherman

88 - 89
  1. Why, I’ll tell you. This is call’d Pentapolis, and our king
  2. the good Simonides.

Pericles

90
  1. The good Simonides, do you call him?

First Fisherman

91 - 92
  1. Ay, sir, and he deserves so to be call’d for his peaceable
  2. reign and good government.

Pericles

93 - 95
  1. He is a happy king, since he gains from his subjects the
  2. name of good by his government. How far is his court distant
  3. from this shore?

First Fisherman

96 - 99
  1. Marry, sir, half a day’s journey. And I’ll tell you, he hath
  2. a fair daughter, and tomorrow is her birthday, and there are
  3. princes and knights come from all parts of the world to just
  4. and tourney for her love.

Pericles

100 - 101
  1. Were my fortunes equal to my desires, I could wish to make
  2. one there.

First Fisherman

102 - 103
  1. O, sir, things must be as they may; and what a man cannot
  2. get, he may lawfully deal for his wive’s soul.
  1. Enter the two other Fishermen drawing up a net.

Second Fisherman

104 - 107
  1. Help, master, help! Here’s a fish hangs in the net, like a
  2. poor man’s right in the law; ’twill hardly come out. Ha,
  3. bots on’t, ’tis come at last, and ’tis turn’d to a rusty
  4. armor.

Pericles

108 - 122
  1. An armor, friends? I pray you let me see it.
  2. Thanks, Fortune, yet, that after all thy crosses,
  3. Thou givest me somewhat to repair myself;
  4. And though it was mine own, part of my heritage,
  5. Which my dead father did bequeath to me,
  6. With this strict charge, even as he left his life,
  7. “Keep it, my Pericles, it hath been a shield
  8. ’Twixt me and death”—and pointed to this brace—
  9. “For that it sav’d me, keep it. In like necessity—
  10. The which the gods protect thee from!—may defend thee.”
  11. It kept where I kept, I so dearly lov’d it,
  12. Till the rough seas, that spares not any man,
  13. Took it in rage, though calm’d have given’t again.
  14. I thank thee for’t. My shipwrack now’s no ill,
  15. Since I have here my father gave in his will.

First Fisherman

123
  1. What mean you, sir?

Pericles

124 - 131
  1. To beg of you, kind friends, this coat of worth,
  2. For it was sometime target to a king;
  3. I know it by this mark. He loved me dearly,
  4. And for his sake I wish the having of it;
  5. And that you’d guide me to your sovereign’s court,
  6. Where with it I may appear a gentleman;
  7. And if that ever my low fortunes better,
  8. I’ll pay your bounties; till then, rest your debtor.

First Fisherman

132
  1. Why, wilt thou tourney for the lady?

Pericles

133
  1. I’ll show the virtue I have borne in arms.

First Fisherman

134
  1. Why, d’ ye take it, and the gods give thee good an’t!

Second Fisherman

135 - 138
  1. Ay, but hark you, my friend, ’twas we that made up this
  2. garment through the rough seams of the waters. There are
  3. certain condolements, certain vails. I hope, sir, if you
  4. thrive, you’ll remember from whence you had them.

Pericles

139 - 147
  1. Believe’t, I will.
  2. By your furtherance I am cloth’d in steel,
  3. And, spite of all the rapture of the sea,
  4. This jewel holds his building on my arm.
  5. Unto thy value I will mount myself
  6. Upon a courser, whose delightful steps
  7. Shall make the gazer joy to see him tread.
  8. Only, my friend, I yet am unprovided
  9. Of a pair of bases.

Second Fisherman

148 - 149
  1. We’ll sure provide. Thou shalt have my best gown to make
  2. thee a pair; and I’ll bring thee to the court myself.

Pericles

150 - 151
  1. Then honor be but a goal to my will,
  2. This day I’ll rise, or else add ill to ill.
  1. Exeunt.

An armor, friends? I pray you let me see it.

Allen Robert Branston, John Thurston, circa 1800

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