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Tarsus. A Room in CLEON’S House. | |
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Enter PERICLES, CLEON, DIONYZA, and LYCHORIDA, with MARINA in her arms. | |
| Per. Most honour’d Cleon, I must needs be gone; | |
| My twelve months are expir’d, and Tyrus stands | |
| In a litigious peace. You and your lady | 5 |
| Take from my heart all thankfulness; the gods | |
| Make up the rest upon you! | |
| Cle. Your shafts of fortune, though they hurt you mortally, | |
| Yet glance full wanderingly on us. | |
| Dion. O your sweet queen! | 10 |
| That the strict fates had pleas’d you had brought her hither, | |
| To have bless’d mine eyes with her! | |
| Per. We cannot but obey | |
| The powers above us. Could I rage and roar | |
| As doth the sea she lies in, yet the end | 15 |
| Must be as ’tis. My gentle babe Marina—whom, | |
| For she was born at sea, I have nam’d so—here | |
| I charge your charity withal, and leave her | |
| The infant of your care, beseeching you | |
| To give her princely training, that she may be | 20 |
| Manner’d as she is born. | |
| Cle. Fear not, my lord, but think | |
| Your Grace, that fed my country with your corn— | |
| For which the people’s prayers still fall upon you— | |
| Must in your child be thought on. If neglection | 25 |
| Should therein make me vile, the common body, | |
| By you reliev’d, would force me to my duty; | |
| But if to that my nature need a spur, | |
| The gods revenge it upon me and mine, | |
| To the end of generation! | 30 |
| Per. I believe you; | |
| Your honour and your goodness teach me to ’t, | |
| Without your vows. Till she be married, madam, | |
| By bright Diana, whom we honour, all | |
| Unscissar’d shall this hair of mine remain, | 35 |
| Though I show ill in ’t. So I take my leave. | |
| Good madam, make me blessed in your care | |
| In bringing up my child. | |
| Dion. I have one myself, | |
| Who shall not be more dear to my respect | 40 |
| Than yours, my lord. | |
| Per. Madam, my thanks and prayers. | |
| Cle. We’ll bring your Grace e’en to the edge o’ the shore; | |
| Then give you up to the mask’d Neptune and | |
| The gentlest winds of heaven. | 45 |
| Per. I will embrace | |
| Your offer. Come, dearest madam. O! no tears, | |
| Lychorida, no tears: | |
| Look to your little mistress, on whose grace | |
| You may depend hereafter. Come, my lord. [Exeunt. | 50 |
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