Pericles
Act II, Scene 3
Pentapolis. A hall of state and a banquet.
Byam Shaw, 1901
- A banquet prepared.
- Enter the King Simonides, Thaisa, Marshal, Lords, Ladies,
- Attendants, and Knights, from tilting.
Simonides
1 - 8- Knights,
- To say you’re welcome were superfluous.
- To place upon the volume of your deeds,
- As in a title-page, your worth in arms,
- Were more than you expect, or more than’s fit,
- Since every worth in show commends itself.
- Prepare for mirth, for mirth becomes a feast.
- You are princes and my guests.
Thaisa
9 - 11- But you, my knight and guest,
- To whom this wreath of victory I give,
- And crown you king of this day’s happiness.
Pericles
12- ’Tis more by fortune, lady, than my merit.
Simonides
13 - 19- Call it by what you will, the day is your,
- And here, I hope, is none that envies it.
- In framing an artist, art hath thus decreed,
- To make some good, but others to exceed,
- And you are her labor’d scholar. Come, queen a’ th’ feast—
- For, daughter, so you are—here take your place.
- To the Marshal.
- Marshal, the rest, as they deserve their grace.
All Knights
20- We are honor’d much by good Simonides.
Simonides
21 - 22- Your presence glads our days. Honor we love,
- For who hates honor hates the gods above.
Marshal
23- Sir, yonder is your place.
Pericles
24- Some other is more fit.
First Knight
25 - 27- Contend not, sir, for we are gentlemen
- Have neither in our hearts nor outward eyes
- Envied the great, nor shall the low despise.
Pericles
28- You are right courteous knights.
Simonides
29 - 31Thaisa
32 - 35- Aside.
- By Juno, that is queen of marriage,
- All viands that I eat do seem unsavory,
- Wishing him my meat.
- To Simonides.
- Sure he’s a gallant gentleman.
Simonides
36 - 38- To Thaisa.
- He’s but a country gentleman:
- H’as done no more than other knights have done,
- H’as broken a staff or so; so let it pass.
Thaisa
39- Aside.
- To me he seems like diamond to glass.
Pericles
40 - 50- Aside.
- Yon king’s to me like to my father’s picture,
- Which tells me in that glory once he was;
- Had princes sit like stars about his throne,
- And he the sun for them to reverence;
- None that beheld him but, like lesser lights,
- Did vail their crowns to his supremacy;
- Where now his son’s like a glow-worm in the night,
- The which hath fire in darkness, none in light:
- Whereby I see that Time’s the king of men,
- He’s both their parent, and he is their grave,
- And gives them what he will, not what they crave.
Simonides
51- What, are you merry, knights?
All Knights
52- Who can be other in this royal presence?
Simonides
53 - 55- Here, with a cup that’s stor’d unto the brim—
- As do you love, fill to your mistress’ lips—
- We drink this health to you.
All Knights
56- We thank your Grace.
Simonides
57 - 61- Yet pause awhile,
- Yon knight doth sit too melancholy,
- As if the entertainment in our court
- Had not a show might countervail his worth.
- Note it not you, Thaisa?
Thaisa
62 - 63- What is’t
- To me, my father?
Simonides
64 - 71- O, attend, my daughter:
- Princes in this should live like gods above,
- Who freely give to every one that come
- To honor them;
- And princes not doing so are like to gnats,
- Which make a sound, but kill’d are wond’red at.
- Therefore to make his entrance more sweet,
- Here, say we drink this standing-bowl of wine to him.
Thaisa
72 - 75- Alas, my father, it befits not me
- Unto a stranger knight to be so bold.
- He may my proffer take for an offense,
- Since men take women’s gifts for impudence.
Simonides
76 - 77- How?
- Do as I bid you, or you’ll move me else.
Thaisa
78- Aside.
- Now by the gods, he could not please me better.
Simonides
79 - 80- And furthermore tell him, we desire to know of him
- Of whence he is, his name, and parentage.
Thaisa
81- The King my father, sir, has drunk to you—
Pericles
82- I thank him.
Thaisa
83- Wishing it so much blood unto your life.
Pericles
84- I thank both him and you, and pledge him freely.
Thaisa
85 - 86- And further, he desires to know of you
- Of whence you are, your name, and parentage.
Pericles
87 - 91- A gentleman of Tyre, my name, Pericles,
- My education been in arts and arms;
- Who, looking for adventures in the world,
- Was by the rough seas reft of ships and men,
- And after shipwrack driven upon this shore.
Thaisa
92 - 95- He thanks your Grace; names himself Pericles,
- A gentleman of Tyre,
- Who only by misfortune of the seas
- Bereft of ships and men, cast on this shore.
Simonides
96 - 109- Now by the gods, I pity his misfortune,
- And will awake him from his melancholy.
- Come, gentlemen, we sit too long on trifles,
- And waste the time, which looks for other revels.
- Even in your armors, as you are address’d,
- Will well become a soldier’s dance.
- I will not have excuse with saying this,
- Loud music is too harsh for ladies’ heads,
- Since they love men in arms as well as beds.
- They dance.
- So, this was well ask’d, ’twas so well perform’d.
- Come, sir, here’s a lady that wants breathing too,
- And I have heard you knights of Tyre
- Are excellent in making ladies trip,
- And that their measures are as excellent.
Pericles
110- In those that practice them they are, my lord.
Simonides
111 - 118- O, that’s as much as you would be denied
- Of your fair courtesy.
- They Knights and Ladies dance.
- Unclasp, unclasp:
- Thanks, gentlemen, to all, all have done well;
- To Pericles.
- But you the best.—Pages and lights, to conduct
- These knights unto their several lodgings!
- To Pericles.
- Yours, sir,
- We have given order be next our own.
Pericles
119- I am at your Grace’s pleasure.
Simonides
120 - 123- Princes, it is too late to talk of love,
- And that’s the mark I know you level at.
- Therefore each one betake him to his rest;
- Tomorrow all for speeding do their best.
- Exeunt.