Pericles by William Shakespeare
Act 4 - Scene 0
Near the seashore.
Gower : Imagine Pericles arrived at Tyre,
[p]Welcomed and settled to his own
desire.
[p]His woeful queen we leave at Ephesus,
[p]Unto Diana there a
votaress.
[p]Now to Marina bend your mind,
[p]Whom our fast-growing
scene must find
[p]At Tarsus, and by Cleon train'd
[p]In music,
letters; who hath gain'd
[p]Of education all the grace,
[p]Which makes
her both the heart and place
[p]Of general wonder. But, alack,
[p]That
monster envy, oft the wrack
[p]Of earned praise, Marina's
life
[p]Seeks to take off by treason's knife.
[p]And in this kind hath
our Cleon
[p]One daughter, and a wench full grown,
[p]Even ripe for
marriage-rite; this maid
[p]Hight Philoten: and it is said
[p]For
certain in our story, she
[p]Would ever with Marina be:
[p]Be't when
she weaved the sleided silk
[p]With fingers long, small, white as
milk;
[p]Or when she would with sharp needle wound
[p]The cambric,
which she made more sound
[p]By hurting it; or when to the lute
[p]She
sung, and made the night-bird mute,
[p]That still records with moan;
or when
[p]She would with rich and constant pen
[p]Vail to her
mistress Dian; still
[p]This Philoten contends in skill
[p]With
absolute Marina: so
[p]With the dove of Paphos might the crow
[p]Vie
feathers white. Marina gets
[p]All praises, which are paid as
debts,
[p]And not as given. This so darks
[p]In Philoten all graceful
marks,
[p]That Cleon's wife, with envy rare,
[p]A present murderer
does prepare
[p]For good Marina, that her daughter
[p]Might stand
peerless by this slaughter.
[p]The sooner her vile thoughts to
stead,
[p]Lychorida, our nurse, is dead:
[p]And cursed Dionyza
hath
[p]The pregnant instrument of wrath
[p]Prest for this blow. The
unborn event
[p]I do commend to your content:
[p]Only I carry winged
time
[p]Post on the lame feet of my rhyme;
[p]Which never could I so
convey,
[p]Unless your thoughts went on my way.
[p]Dionyza does
appear,
[p]With Leonine, a murderer.
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