Pericles | Act 2.1

 Pentapolis. An open
place  by the sea-side

[Enter PERICLES, wet]

PERICLES
Yet cease your ire, you angry stars of heaven!
Wind, rain, and thunder, remember, earthly man
Is but a substance that must yield to you;
And I, as fits my nature, do obey you:
Alas, the sea hath cast me on the rocks,
Wash’d me from shore to shore, and left me breath
Nothing to think on but ensuing death:
Let it suffice the greatness of your powers
To have bereft a prince of all his fortunes;
And having thrown him from your watery grave,
Here to have death in peace is all he’ll crave.

[Enter three FISHERMEN]

First Fisherman       What, ho, Pilch!

Second Fisherman       Ha, come and bring away the nets!

First Fisherman      What, Patch-breech, I say!

Third Fisherman       What say you, master?

First Fisherman
Look how thou stirrest now! come away,
or I’ll fetch thee with a wanion.

Third Fisherman       Faith, master,
I am thinking of the poor men that
were cast away before us even now.

First Fisherman        Alas, poor souls, it grieved my heart to
hear what pitiful cries they made to us to help them,
when, well-a-day, we could scarce help ourselves.

Third Fisherman
Nay, master, said not I as much when I saw the
porpus how he bounced and tumbled? they say
they’re half fish, half flesh: a plague on them,
they ne’er come but I look to be washed. Master, I
marvel how the fishes live in the sea.

First Fisherman       Why,
as men do a-land; the great ones eat up the little ones:
I can compare our rich misers to nothing so fitly as to
a whale; a’ plays and tumbles, driving the poor fry before
him, and at last devours them all at a mouthful: such whales
have I heard on o’ the land, who never leave gaping
till they’ve swallowed the whole parish, church,
steeple, bells, and all.

PERICLES       [Aside] A pretty moral.

Third Fisherman       But, master, if I had been the sexton,
I would have been that day in the belfry.

Second Fisherman       Why, man?

Third Fisherman       Because he should have swallowed me too:
and when I had been in his belly, I would have kept such a
jangling of the bells, that he should never have
left, till he cast bells, steeple, church, and
parish up again. But if the good King Simonides
were of my mind,–

PERICLES        [Aside] Simonides!

Third Fisherman
We would purge the land of these drones, that rob
the bee of her honey.

PERICLES       [Aside] How from the finny subject of the sea
These fishers tell the infirmities of men;
And from their watery empire recollect
All that may men approve or men detect!
Peace be at your labour, honest fishermen.

Second Fisherman       Honest! good fellow, what’s that?
If it be a day fits you, search out of the calendar,
and nobody look after it.

PERICLES       May see the sea hath cast upon your coast.

Second Fisherman      What a drunken knave was the sea
to cast thee in our way!

PERICLES       A man whom both the waters and the wind,
In that vast tennis-court, have made the ball
For them to play upon, entreats you pity him:
He asks of you, that never used to beg.

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

Second Fisherman       Canst thou catch any fishes, then?

PERICLES       I never practised it.

Second Fisherman      Nay,
then thou wilt starve, sure; for here’s nothing to be
got now-a-days, unless thou canst fish for’t.

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

First Fisherman       Die quoth-a? Now gods forbid!
I have a gown here; come, put it on; keep thee warm.
Now, afore me, a handsome fellow! Come, thou shalt
go home, and we’ll have flesh for holidays, fish for
fasting-days, and moreo’er puddings and flap-jacks,
and thou shalt be welcome.

PERICLES       I thank you, sir.

Second Fisherman       Hark you,
my friend; you said you could not beg.

PERICLES       I did but crave.

Second Fisherman      But crave! Then I’ll turn craver too,
and so I shall ‘scape whipping.

PERICLES       Why, are all your beggars whipped, then?

Second Fisherman       O,
not all, my friend, not all; for if all your
beggars were whipped, I would wish no better office
than to be beadle. But, master, I’ll go draw up the
net.

[Exit with Third Fisherman]

PERICLES        [Aside] How well this honest mirth
becomes their labour!

First Fisherman       Hark you, sir,
do you know where ye are?

PERICLES       Not well.

First Fisherman       Why,
I’ll tell you: this is called Pentapolis, and
our king the good Simonides.

PERICLES
The good King Simonides, do you call him.

First Fisherman      Ay, sir; and he deserves so to be called
for his peaceable reign and good government.

PERICLES        He is a happy king, since he gains from his
subjects the name of good by his government. How far
is his court distant from this shore?

First Fisherman        Marry, sir, half a day’s journey: and I’ll
tell you, he hath a fair daughter, and to-morrow is her
birth-day; and there are princes and knights come
from all parts of the world to just and tourney for her love.

PERICLES       Were my fortunes equal to my desires,
I could wish to make one there.

First Fisherman       O, sir, things must be as they may;
and what a man cannot get, he may lawfully deal for
–his wife’s soul.

[Re-enter Second and Third
Fishermen, drawing up a net]

Second Fisherman       Help, master, help! here’s a fish hangs
in the net, like a poor man’s right in the law; ’twill hardly
come out. Ha! bots on’t, ’tis come at last, and ’tis turned
to a rusty armour.

PERICLES       An armour, friends! I pray you, let me see it.
Thanks, fortune, yet, that, after all my crosses,
Thou givest me somewhat to repair myself;
And though it was mine own, part of my heritage,
Which my dead father did bequeath to me.
With this strict charge, even as he left his life,
‘Keep it, my Pericles; it hath been a shield
Twixt me and death;’–and pointed to this brace;–
‘For that it saved me, keep it; in like necessity–
The which the gods protect thee from!–may defend thee.’
It kept where I kept, I so dearly loved it;
Till the rough seas, that spare not any man,
Took it in rage, though calm’d have given’t again:
I thank thee for’t: my shipwreck now’s no ill,
Since I have here my father’s gift in’s will.

First Fisherman       What mean you, sir?

PERICLES       To beg of you, kind friends,  this coat of worth,
For it was sometime target to a king;
I know it by this mark. He loved me dearly,
And for his sake I wish the having of it;
And that you’ld guide me to your sovereign’s court,
Where with it I may appear a gentleman;
And if that ever my low fortune’s better,
I’ll pay your bounties; till then rest your debtor.

First Fisherman      Why, wilt thou tourney for the lady?

PERICLES       I’ll show the virtue I have borne in arms.

First Fisherman      Why, do ‘e take it,
and the gods give thee good on’t!

Second Fisherman      Ay, but hark you, my friend;
’twas we that made up this garment through the rough
seams of the waters: there are certain condolements,
certain vails. I hope, sir, if you thrive, you’ll remember
from whence you had it.

PERICLES       Believe ‘t, I will.
By your furtherance I am clothed in steel;
And, spite of all the rapture of the sea,
This jewel holds his building on my arm:
Unto thy value I will mount myself
Upon a courser, whose delightful steps
Shall make the gazer joy to see him tread.
Only, my friend, I yet am unprovided
Of a pair of bases.

Second Fisherman       We’ll sure provide:
thou shalt have my best gown to make thee a pair;
and I’ll bring thee to the court myself.

PERICLES       Then honour be but a goal to my will,
This day I’ll rise, or else add ill to ill.

[Exeunt] Act 2.0 | Act 2.2

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