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Pericles: Act III, Scene 2

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Pericles
Act III, Scene 2

Ephesus. A room in Cerimon’s house.

Cerimon, gentleman, servants and Thaisa

O you most potent gods! What’s here? A corse?

Cerimon, gentleman, servants and Thaisa

Henry Howard, circa 1800

  1. Enter Lord Cerimon with an Ephesan Servant and another Man,
  2. both storm-beaten.

Cerimon

1
  1. Philemon, ho!
  1. Enter Philemon.

Philemon

2
  1. Doth my lord call?

Cerimon

3 - 4
  1. Get fire and meat for these poor men.
  2. Exit Philemon.
  3. ’T ’as been a turbulent and stormy night.

Ephesan Servant

5 - 6
  1. I have been in many; but such a night as this
  2. Till now I ne’er endured.

Cerimon

7 - 11
  1. Your master will be dead ere you return,
  2. There’s nothing can be minist’red to nature
  3. That can recover him.
  4. To the other Man.
  5. Give this to the pothecary,
  6. And tell me how it works.
  1. Exeunt Ephesan Servant and other Man.
  1. Enter two Gentlemen.

First Gentleman of Ephesus

12
  1.                           Good morrow.

Second Gentleman of Ephesus

13
  1. Good morrow to your lordship.

Cerimon

14 - 15
  1.                               Gentlemen,
  2. Why do you stir so early?

First Gentleman of Ephesus

16 - 21
  1. Sir,
  2. Our lodgings, standing bleak upon the sea,
  3. Shook as the earth did quake;
  4. The very principals did seem to rend,
  5. And all to topple. Pure surprise and fear
  6. Made me to quit the house.

Second Gentleman of Ephesus

22 - 23
  1. That is the cause we trouble you so early,
  2. ’Tis not our husbandry.

Cerimon

24
  1.                         O, you say well.

First Gentleman of Ephesus

25 - 30
  1. But I much marvel that your lordship, having
  2. Rich tire about you, should at these early hours
  3. Shake off the golden slumber of repose.
  4. ’Tis most strange
  5. Nature should be so conversant with pain,
  6. Being thereto not compelled.

Cerimon

31 - 47
  1.                              I hold it ever
  2. Virtue and cunning were endowments greater
  3. Than nobleness and riches. Careless heirs
  4. May the two latter darken and expend;
  5. But immortality attends the former,
  6. Making a man a god. ’Tis known, I ever
  7. Have studied physic; through which secret art,
  8. By turning o’er authorities, I have,
  9. Together with my practice, made familiar
  10. To me and to my aid the blest infusions
  11. That dwells in vegetives, in metals, stones;
  12. And can speak of the disturbances
  13. That nature works, and of her cures; which doth give me
  14. A more content in course of true delight
  15. Than to be thirsty after tottering honor,
  16. Or tie my pleasure up in silken bags,
  17. To please the fool and death.

Second Gentleman of Ephesus

48 - 53
  1. Your honor has through Ephesus pour’d forth
  2. Your charity, and hundreds call themselves
  3. Your creatures, who by you have been restored;
  4. And not your knowledge, your personal pain, but even
  5. Your purse, still open, hath built Lord Cerimon
  6. Such strong renown as time shall never—
  1. Enter two or three of Cerimon’s Servants with a chest.

Cerimon’s First Servant

54
  1. So, lift there.

Cerimon

55
  1.                 What’s that?

Cerimon’s First Servant

56 - 58
  1.              Sir, even now
  2. Did the sea toss up upon our shore this chest.
  3. ’Tis of some wrack.

Cerimon

59
  1.                     Set’t down, let’s look upon’t.

Second Gentleman of Ephesus

60
  1. ’Tis like a coffin, sir.

Cerimon

61 - 64
  1.                          What e’er it be,
  2. ’Tis wondrous heavy. Wrench it open straight.
  3. If the sea’s stomach be o’ercharg’d with gold,
  4. ’Tis a good constraint of fortune it belches upon us.

Second Gentleman of Ephesus

65
  1. ’Tis so, my lord.

Cerimon

66 - 67
  1.                   How close ’tis caulk’d and bitum’d!
  2. Did the sea cast it up?

Cerimon’s First Servant

68 - 69
  1. I never saw so huge a billow, sir,
  2. As toss’d it upon shore.

Here I give to understand, if e’er this coffin drives a-land, I, King Pericles, have lost this queen, worth all our mundane cost

circa 1890

Cerimon

70 - 71
  1.                          Wrench it open.
  2. Soft! It smells most sweetly in my sense.

Second Gentleman of Ephesus

72
  1. A delicate odor.

Cerimon

73 - 74
  1. As ever hit my nostril. So, up with it.
  2. O you most potent gods! What’s here? A corse?

Second Gentleman of Ephesus

75
  1. Most strange.

Cerimon

76 - 88
  1. Shrouded in cloth of state, balm’d and entreasur’d
  2. With full bags of spices! A passport too!
  3. Apollo, perfect me in the characters!
  4. Reads from a scroll.
  5. “Here I give to understand,
  6. If e’er this coffin drives a-land,
  7. I, King Pericles, have lost
  8. This queen, worth all our mundane cost.
  9. Who finds her, give her burying,
  10. She was the daughter of a king.
  11. Besides this treasure for a fee,
  12. The gods requite his charity!”
  13. If thou livest, Pericles, thou hast a heart
  14. That ever cracks for woe! This chanc’d tonight.

Second Gentleman of Ephesus

89
  1. Most likely, sir.

Cerimon

90 - 107
  1.                   Nay, certainly tonight,
  2. For look how fresh she looks! They were too rough
  3. That threw her in the sea. Make a fire within.
  4. Fetch hither all my boxes in my closet.
  5. Exit a Servant.
  6. Death may usurp on nature many hours,
  7. And yet the fire of life kindle again
  8. The o’erpress’d spirits. I heard of an Egyptian
  9. That had nine hours lien dead,
  10. Who was by good appliance recovered.
  11. Enter one with boxes, napkins, and fire.
  12. Well said, well said. The fire and cloths.
  13. The rough and woeful music that we have,
  14. Cause it to sound, beseech you.
  15. The vial once more. How thou stir’st, thou block!
  16. The music there! I pray you give her air.
  17. Gentlemen, this queen will live. Nature awakes,
  18. A warmth breathes out of her. She hath not been
  19. Entranc’d above five hours. See how she gins
  20. To blow into life’s flower again!

First Gentleman of Ephesus

108 - 110
  1.                                   The heavens,
  2. Through you, increase our wonder, and sets up
  3. Your fame forever.

Cerimon

111 - 118
  1.                    She is alive; behold
  2. Her eyelids, cases to those heavenly jewels
  3. Which Pericles hath lost, begin to part
  4. Their fringes of bright gold. The diamonds
  5. Of a most praised water doth appear,
  6. To make the world twice rich. Live, and make
  7. Us weep to hear your fate, fair creature,
  8. Rare as you seem to be.
  1. She moves.

Thaisa

119 - 120
  1.                         O dear Diana,
  2. Where am I? Where’s my lord? What world is this?

Second Gentleman of Ephesus

121
  1. Is not this strange?

First Gentleman of Ephesus

122
  1.                      Most rare.

Cerimon

123 - 127
  1.            Hush, my gentle neighbors!
  2. Lend me your hands. To the next chamber bear her.
  3. Get linen. Now this matter must be look’d to,
  4. For her relapse is mortal. Come, come;
  5. And Aesculapius guide us!
  1. They carry her away. Exeunt omnes.

Apollo, perfect me in the characters!

1709

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