Pericles
Act II, Scene 2
Pentapolis. A public way, or platform leading to the lists. A pavilion by the side of it for the reception of the King, Princess, Lords, etc.
Who is the first that doth prefer himself?
Frederick Bacon, Robert Jennings, William Chaplin, Henry Corbould
- Enter Simonides, with attendance, Lords, and Thaisa.
Simonides
1- Are the knights ready to begin the triumph?
First Lord of Pentapolis
2 - 3- They are, my liege,
- And stay your coming to present themselves.
Simonides
4 - 7- Return them, we are ready; and our daughter here,
- In honor of whose birth these triumphs are,
- Sits here like beauty’s child, whom nature gat
- For men to see, and seeing wonder at.
- Exit a Lord. Returns.
Thaisa
8 - 9- It pleaseth you, my royal father, to express
- My commendations great, whose merit’s less.
Simonides
10 - 15- It’s fit it should be so, for princes are
- A model which heaven makes like to itself.
- As jewels lose their glory if neglected,
- So princes their renowns if not respected.
- ’Tis now your honor, daughter, to entertain
- The labor of each knight in his device.
Thaisa
16- Which, to preserve mine honor, I’ll perform.
- The First Knight passes by and his Page presents his shield
- to the Princess.
Simonides
17- Who is the first that doth prefer himself?
Thaisa
18 - 21- A knight of Sparta, my renowned father,
- And the device he bears upon his shield
- Is a black Ethiope reaching at the sun;
- The word: “Lux tua vita mihi.”
Simonides
22 - 23- He loves you well that holds his life of you.
- The Second Knight passes by.
- Who is the second that presents himself?
Thaisa
24 - 27- A prince of Macedon, my royal father,
- And the device he bears upon his shield
- Is an armed knight that’s conquered by a lady;
- The motto thus, in Spanish: “Piu per dolcera que per forsa.”
- Third Knight passes by.
Simonides
28- And with the third?
Thaisa
29 - 31- The third, of Antioch;
- And his device, a wreath of chivalry;
- The word: “Me pompae provexit apex.”
- Fourth Knight passes by.
Simonides
32- What is the fourth?
Thaliard
33 - 34- A burning torch that’s turned upside down;
- The word: “Qui me alit, me extinguit.”
Simonides
35 - 36- Which shows that beauty hath his power and will,
- Which can as well inflame as it can kill.
- Fifth Knight passes by.
And what’s
The sixth and last, the which the knight himself
With such a graceful courtesy delivered?
From: Cassell's Illustrated Shakespeare
Charles Cowden Clarke, Mary Cowden Clarke, 1866
Thaisa
37 - 39- The fift, an hand environed with clouds,
- Holding out gold that’s by the touchstone tried;
- The motto thus: “Sic spectanda fides.”
- Sixth Knight, Pericles, as he passes by, himself presents
- his device to the Princess.
Simonides
40 - 42- And what’s
- The sixth and last, the which the knight himself
- With such a graceful courtesy delivered?
Thaisa
43 - 45- He seems to be a stranger; but his present is
- A withered branch, that’s only green at top;
- The motto: “In hac spe vivo.”
Simonides
46 - 48- A pretty moral:
- From the dejected state wherein he is,
- He hopes by you his fortunes yet may flourish.
First Lord of Pentapolis
49 - 52- He had need mean better than his outward show
- Can any way speak in his just commend;
- For by his rusty outside he appears
- To have practic’d more the whipstock than the lance.
Second Lord of Pentapolis
53 - 54- He well may be a stranger, for he comes
- To an honor’d triumph strangely furnished.
Third Lord of Pentapolis
55 - 56- And on set purpose let his armor rust
- Until this day, to scour it in the dust.
Simonides
57 - 60- Opinion’s but a fool, that makes us scan
- The outward habit by the inward man.
- But stay, the knights are coming, we will withdraw
- Into the gallery.
- Exeunt.
- Great shouts within, and all cry. “The mean knight!”