William Shakespeare - The Complete Works of William Shakespeare

THAISA.

Blest, and mine own!

HELICANUS.

Hail, madam, and my queen!

THAISA.

I know you not.

PERICLES.

You have heard me say, when did fly from Tyre,

I left behind an ancient substitute:

Can you remember what I call’d the man

I have named him oft.

THAISA.

‘Twas Helicanus then.

PERICLES.

Still confirmation:

Embrace him, dear Thaisa; this is he.

Now do I long to hear how you were found:

How possibly preserved; and who to thank,

Besides the gods, for this great miracle.

THAISA.

Lord Cerimon, my lord; this man,

Through whom the gods have shown their power; that can

From first to last resolve you.

PERICLES.

Reverend sir,

The gods can have no mortal officer

More like a god than you. Will you deliver

How this dead queen re-lives?

CERIMON.

I will, my lord

Beseech you, first go with me to my house,

Where shall be shown you all was found with her;

How she came placed here in the temple;

No needful thing omitted.

PERICLES.

Pure Dian, bless thee for thy vision! I

Will offer night-oblations to thee. Thaisa,

This prince, the fair-betrothed of your daughter,

Shall marry her at Pentapolis. And now,

This ornament

Makes me look dismal will I clip to form;

And what this fourteen years no razor touch’d

To grace thy marriage-day, I’ll beautify.

THAISA.

Lord Cerimon hath letters of good credit, sir,

My father’s dead.

PERICLES.

Heavens make a star of him! Yet there, my queen,

We’ll celebrate their nuptials, and ourselves

Will in that kingdom spend our following days:

Our son and daughter shall in Tyrus reign.

Lord Cerimon, we do our longing stay

To hear the rest untold: sir, lead’s the way.

[Exeunt.]

[Enter Gower.]

GOWER.

In Antiochus and his daughter you have heard

Of monstrous lust the due and just reward:

In Pericles, his queen and daughter, seen,

Although assail’d with fortune fierce and keen,

Virtue preserved from fell destruction’s blast,

Led on by heaven, and crown’d with joy at last:

In Helicanus may you well descry

A figure of truth, of faith, of loyalty:

In reverend Cerimon there well appears

The worth that learned charity aye wears:

For wicked Cleon and his wife, when fame

Had spread their cursed deed, and honour’d name

Of Pericles, to rage the city turn,

That him and his they in his palace burn;

The gods for murder seemed so content

To punish them although not done but meant.

So, on your patence evermore attending,

New joy wait on you! Here our play has ending.

[Exit.]

THE END

Table of Contents

By William Shakespeare

Dramatis Personae

Persons in the Induction

A LORD

CHRISTOPHER SLY, a tinker

HOSTESS

PAGE

PLAYERS

HUNTSMEN

SERVANTS

BAPTISTA MINOLA, a rich eman of Padua

VINCENTIO, an old gentleman of Pisa

LUCENTIO, son to Vincentio; in love with Bianca

PETRUCHIO, a gentleman of Verona; suitor to Katherina

Suitors to Bianca

GREMIO

HORTENSIO

Servants to Lucentio

TRANIO

BIONDELLO

Servants to Petruchio

GRUMIO

CURTIS

PEDANT, set up to personate Vincentio

Daughters to Baptista

KATHERINA, the shrew

BIANCA

WIDOW

Tailor, Haberdasher, and Servants attending on Baptista and

Petruchio

SCENE: Sometimes in Padua, and sometimes in PETRUCHIO’S house in the country.

INDUCTION.

SCENE I. Before an alehouse on a heath.

[Enter HOSTESS and SLY.]

SLY.

I’ll pheeze you, in faith.

HOSTESS.

A pair of stocks, you rogue!

SLY. Y’are a baggage; the Slys are no rogues; look in the chronicles: we came in with Richard Conqueror. Therefore, paucas pallabris; let the world slide. Sessa!

HOSTESS.

You will not pay for the glasses you have burst?

SLY. No, not a denier. Go by, Saint Jeronimy, go to thy cold bed and warm thee.

HOSTESS.

I know my remedy; I must go fetch the third-borough.

[Exit.]

SLY.

Third, or fourth, or fifth borough, I’ll answer him by law.

I’ll not budge an inch, boy: let him come, and kindly.

[Lies down on the ground, and falls asleep.]

[Horns winded. Enter a LORD from hunting, with Huntsmen and

Servants.]

LORD.

Huntsman, I charge thee, tender well my hounds;

Brach Merriman, the poor cur, is emboss’d,

And couple Clowder with the deep-mouth’d brach.

Saw’st thou not, boy, how Silver made it good

At the hedge-corner, in the coldest fault?

I would not lose the dog for twenty pound.

FIRST HUNTSMAN.

Why, Bellman is as good as he, my lord;

He cried upon it at the merest loss,

And twice to-day pick’d out the dullest scent;

Trust me, I take him for the better dog.

LORD.

Thou art a fool: if Echo were as fleet,

I would esteem him worth a dozen such.

But sup them well, and look unto them all;

Tomorrow I intend to hunt again.

FIRST HUNTSMAN.

I will, my lord.

LORD.

[ Sees Sly.] What’s here? One dead, or drunk?

See, doth he breathe?

SECOND HUNTSMAN.

He breathes, my lord. Were he not warm’d with ale,

This were a bed but cold to sleep so soundly.

LORD.

O monstrous beast! how like a swine he lies!

Grim death, how foul and loathsome is thine image!

Sirs, I will practise on this drunken man.

What think you, if he were convey’d to bed,

Wrapp’d in sweet clothes, rings put upon his fingers,

A most delicious banquet by his bed,

And brave attendants near him when he wakes,

Would not the beggar then forget himself?

FIRST HUNTSMAN.

Believe me, lord, I think he cannot choose.

SECOND HUNTSMAN.

It would seem strange unto him when he wak’d.

LORD.

Even as a flattering dream or worthless fancy.

Then take him up, and manage well the jest.

Carry him gently to my fairest chamber,

And hang it round with all my wanton pictures;

Balm his foul head in warm distilled waters,

And burn sweet wood to make the lodging sweet.

Procure me music ready when he wakes,

To make a dulcet and a heavenly sound;

And if he chance to speak, be ready straight,

And with a low submissive reverence

Say ‘What is it your honour will command?’

Let one attend him with a silver basin

Full of rosewater and bestrew’d with flowers;

Another bear the ewer, the third a diaper,

And say ‘Will’t please your lordship cool your hands?’

Some one be ready with a costly suit,

And ask him what apparel he will wear;

Another tell him of his hounds and horse,

And that his lady mourns at his disease.

Persuade him that he hath been lunatic;

And, when he says he is—say that he dreams,

For he is nothing but a mighty lord.

This do, and do it kindly, gentle sirs;

It will be pastime passing excellent,

If it be husbanded with modesty.

FIRST HUNTSMAN.

My lord, I warrant you we will play our part,

As he shall think by our true diligence,

He is no less than what we say he is.

LORD.

Take him up gently, and to bed with him,

And each one to his office when he wakes.

[SLY is bourne out. A trumpet sounds.]

Sirrah, go see what trumpet ‘tis that sounds:

[Exit SERVANT.]

Belike some noble gentleman that means,

Travelling some journey, to repose him here.