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Pericles: Act II, Scene 3

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Pericles
Act II, Scene 3

Pentapolis. A hall of state and a banquet.

  1. A banquet prepared.
  1. Enter the King Simonides, Thaisa, Marshal, Lords, Ladies,
  2. Attendants, and Knights, from tilting.

Simonides

1 - 8
  1. Knights,
  2. To say you’re welcome were superfluous.
  3. To place upon the volume of your deeds,
  4. As in a title-page, your worth in arms,
  5. Were more than you expect, or more than’s fit,
  6. Since every worth in show commends itself.
  7. Prepare for mirth, for mirth becomes a feast.
  8. You are princes and my guests.

Thaisa

9 - 11
  1. But you, my knight and guest,
  2. To whom this wreath of victory I give,
  3. And crown you king of this day’s happiness.

Pericles

12
  1. ’Tis more by fortune, lady, than my merit.

Simonides

13 - 19
  1. Call it by what you will, the day is your,
  2. And here, I hope, is none that envies it.
  3. In framing an artist, art hath thus decreed,
  4. To make some good, but others to exceed,
  5. And you are her labor’d scholar. Come, queen a’ th’ feast
  6. For, daughter, so you arehere take your place.
  7. To the Marshal.
  8. Marshal, the rest, as they deserve their grace.

All Knights

20
  1. We are honor’d much by good Simonides.

Simonides

21 - 22
  1. Your presence glads our days. Honor we love,
  2. For who hates honor hates the gods above.

Marshal

23
  1. Sir, yonder is your place.

Pericles

24
  1.                            Some other is more fit.

First Knight

25 - 27
  1. Contend not, sir, for we are gentlemen
  2. Have neither in our hearts nor outward eyes
  3. Envied the great, nor shall the low despise.

Pericles

28
  1. You are right courteous knights.

Simonides

29 - 31
  1.                                  Sit, sir, sit.
  2. Aside.
  3. By Jove, I wonder, that is king of thoughts,
  4. These cates resist me, he not thought upon.
    Feb 26, 2019 Miko
    Delicacies
    Feb 26, 2019 Miko
    Some scholars, such as George Steevens, have said that this clause should read “be not thought upon”.

Thaisa

32 - 35
  1. Aside.
  2. By Juno, that is queen of marriage,
  3. All viands that I eat do seem unsavory,
  4. Wishing him my meat.
  5. To Simonides.
  6.                      Sure he’s a gallant gentleman.

Simonides

36 - 38
  1. To Thaisa.
  2. He’s but a country gentleman:
  3. H’as done no more than other knights have done,
  4. H’as broken a staff or so; so let it pass.

Thaisa

39
  1. Aside.
  2. To me he seems like diamond to glass.

Pericles

40 - 50
  1. Aside.
  2. Yon king’s to me like to my father’s picture,
  3. Which tells me in that glory once he was;
  4. Had princes sit like stars about his throne,
  5. And he the sun for them to reverence;
  6. None that beheld him but, like lesser lights,
  7. Did vail their crowns to his supremacy;
  8. Where now his son’s like a glow-worm in the night,
  9. The which hath fire in darkness, none in light:
  10. Whereby I see that Time’s the king of men,
  11. He’s both their parent, and he is their grave,
  12. And gives them what he will, not what they crave.

Simonides

51
  1. What, are you merry, knights?

All Knights

52
  1. Who can be other in this royal presence?

Simonides

53 - 55
  1. Here, with a cup that’s stor’d unto the brim
  2. As do you love, fill to your mistress’ lips
  3. We drink this health to you.

All Knights

56
  1.                              We thank your Grace.

Simonides

57 - 61
  1. Yet pause awhile,
  2. Yon knight doth sit too melancholy,
  3. As if the entertainment in our court
  4. Had not a show might countervail his worth.
  5. Note it not you, Thaisa?

Thaisa

62 - 63
  1.                          What is’t
  2. To me, my father?

Simonides

64 - 71
  1.                   O, attend, my daughter:
  2. Princes in this should live like gods above,
  3. Who freely give to every one that come
  4. To honor them;
  5. And princes not doing so are like to gnats,
  6. Which make a sound, but kill’d are wond’red at.
  7. Therefore to make his entrance more sweet,
  8. Here, say we drink this standing-bowl of wine to him.

Thaisa

72 - 75
  1. Alas, my father, it befits not me
  2. Unto a stranger knight to be so bold.
  3. He may my proffer take for an offense,
  4. Since men take women’s gifts for impudence.

Simonides

76 - 77
  1. How?
  2. Do as I bid you, or you’ll move me else.

Thaisa

78
  1. Aside.
  2. Now by the gods, he could not please me better.

Simonides

79 - 80
  1. And furthermore tell him, we desire to know of him
  2. Of whence he is, his name, and parentage.

Thaisa

81
  1. The King my father, sir, has drunk to you

Pericles

82
  1. I thank him.

Thaisa

83
  1. Wishing it so much blood unto your life.

Pericles

84
  1. I thank both him and you, and pledge him freely.

Thaisa

85 - 86
  1. And further, he desires to know of you
  2. Of whence you are, your name, and parentage.

Pericles

87 - 91
  1. A gentleman of Tyre, my name, Pericles,
  2. My education been in arts and arms;
  3. Who, looking for adventures in the world,
  4. Was by the rough seas reft of ships and men,
  5. And after shipwrack driven upon this shore.

Thaisa

92 - 95
  1. He thanks your Grace; names himself Pericles,
  2. A gentleman of Tyre,
  3. Who only by misfortune of the seas
  4. Bereft of ships and men, cast on this shore.

Simonides

96 - 109
  1. Now by the gods, I pity his misfortune,
  2. And will awake him from his melancholy.
  3. Come, gentlemen, we sit too long on trifles,
  4. And waste the time, which looks for other revels.
  5. Even in your armors, as you are address’d,
  6. Will well become a soldier’s dance.
  7. I will not have excuse with saying this,
  8. Loud music is too harsh for ladies’ heads,
  9. Since they love men in arms as well as beds.
  10. They dance.
  11. So, this was well ask’d, ’twas so well perform’d.
  12. Come, sir, here’s a lady that wants breathing too,
  13. And I have heard you knights of Tyre
  14. Are excellent in making ladies trip,
  15. And that their measures are as excellent.

Pericles

110
  1. In those that practice them they are, my lord.

Simonides

111 - 118
  1. O, that’s as much as you would be denied
  2. Of your fair courtesy.
  3. They Knights and Ladies dance.
  4.                        Unclasp, unclasp:
  5. Thanks, gentlemen, to all, all have done well;
  6. To Pericles.
  7. But you the best.—Pages and lights, to conduct
  8. These knights unto their several lodgings!
  9. To Pericles.
  10.                                            Yours, sir,
  11. We have given order be next our own.

Pericles

119
  1. I am at your Grace’s pleasure.

Simonides

120 - 123
  1. Princes, it is too late to talk of love,
  2. And that’s the mark I know you level at.
  3. Therefore each one betake him to his rest;
  4. Tomorrow all for speeding do their best.
  1. Exeunt.
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