And if Jove stray, who dares say, Jove doth ill?
It is enough you know; and it is fit,

What being more known grows worse, to smother

it.

All love the womb that their first being bred,
Then give my tongue like leave to love my head.
Ant. Heaven, that I had thy head! he has found
the meaning;-

But I will gloze with him. [Aside.] Young prince

of Tyre,

Though, by the tenour of our strict edict,
Your exposition misinterpreting,
We might proceed to cancel of your days;
Yet hope, succeeding from so fair a tree
As your fair self, doth tune us otherwise:
Forty days longer we do respite you;
If by which time our secret be undone,
This mercy shows, we'll joy in such a son:
And until then, your entertain shall be,
As doth befit our honour, and your worth.

[Exeunt Antiochus, his daughter, and Attend. Per. How courtesy would seem to cover sin! When what is done is like an hypocrite, The which is good in nothing but in sight. If it be true that I interpret false, Then were it certain, you were not so bad, As with foul incest to abuse your soul; Where now you're both a father and a son, By your untimely claspings with your child, (Which pleasure fits an husband, not a father;) And she an eater of her mother's flesh,` By the defiling of her parent's bed;

And both like serpents are, who though they feed
On sweetest flowers, yet they poison breed.
Antioch, farewel! for wisdom sees, those men
Blush not in actions blacker than the night,
Will shun no course to keep them from the light.
One sin, I know, another doth provoke;
Murder's as near to lust, as flame to smoke.
Poison and treason are the hands of sin,
Ay, and the targets, to put off the shame:
Then, lest my life be cropp'd to keep you clear,
By flight I'll shun the danger which I fear, [Exit.

Re-enter Antiochus.

Ant. He hath found the meaning, for the which

we mean ·

To have his head.

He must not live to trumpet forth my infamy,
Nor tell the world, Antiochus doth sin
In such a loathed manner:

And therefore instantly this prince must die;
For by his fall my honour must keep high.
Who attends on us there?

Enter Thaliard.

Thal.

Doth your highness call? Ant. Thaliard, you're of our chamber, and our mind

Partakes her private actions to your secresy;
And for your faithfulness we will advance you.
Thaliard, behold, here's poison, and here's gold;
We hate the prince of Tyre, and thou must kill

him;

It fits thee not to ask the reason why,
Because we bid it. Say, is it done?

Thal.

"Tis done.

Enter a Messenger.

My lord,.

Ant. Enough;

Lest your breath cool yourself, telling your haste. Mess. My lord, prince Pericles is fled.

[Exit Messenger.

As thou

Ant.
Wilt live, fly after: and, as an arrow, shot
From a well-experienc'd archer, hits the mark
His eye doth level at, so thou ne'er return,
Unless thou say, Prince Pericles is dead.

Thal. My lord, if I

Can get him once within my pistol's length,
I'll make him sure: so farewel to your highness.

[Exit.

SCENE II.

Ant. Thaliard, adieu! till Pericles be dead, My heart can lend no succour to my head. [Exit.

TYRE. A ROOM IN THE PALACE.

Enter Pericles, Helicanus, and other Lords.

Per. Let none disturb us: Why this charge of thoughts?

The sad companion, dull-ey'd melancholy,

By me so us'd a guest is, not an hour,

In the day's glorious walk, or peaceful night,

(The tomb where grief should sleep,) can breed me quiet!

Here pleasures court mine eyes, and mine eyes shun them,

And danger, which I feared, is at Antioch,
Whose arm seems far too short to hit me here:
Yet neither pleasure's art can joy my spirits,
Nor yet the other's distance comfort me.
Then it is thus: the passions of the mind,
That have their first conception by mis-dread,
Have after-nourishment and life by care;
And what was first but fear what might be done,
Grows elder now, and cares it be not done.
And so with me;-the great Antiochus
('Gainst whom I am too little to contend,
Since he's so great, can make his will his act,)
Will think me speaking, though I swear to si-
lence;

4

Nor boots it me to say, I honour him,

If he suspect I may dishonour him:

And what may make him blush in being known,
He'll stop the course by which it might be known;
With hostile forces he'll o'erspread the land,
And with the ostent of war will look so huge,
Amazement shall drive courage from the state;
Our men be vanquish'd, e'er they do resist,
And subjects punish'd, that ne'er thought offence:
Which care of them, not pity of myself,

(Who am no more but as the tops of trees,

Which fence the roots they grow by, and defend

them,)

Makes both my body pine, and soul to languish, And punish that before, that he would punish.

1 Lord. Joy and all comfort in your sacred breast!

2 Lord. And keep your mind, till you return to

us,

Peaceful and comfortable!

Hel. Peace, peace, my lords, and give experience tongue.

They do abuse the king, that flatter him:

For flattery is the bellows blows up sin;

The thing the which is flatter'd, but a spark,

To which that breath gives heat and stronger glowing;

Whereas reproof, obedient, and in order,
Fits kings, as they are men, for they may err.
When signior Sooth here does proclaim a peace,
He flatters you, makes war upon your
life:
Prince, pardon me, or strike me, if you please;
I cannot be much lower than my knees.

Per. All leave us else; but let your cares o'erlook

What shipping, and what lading's in our haven, And then return to us. [Exeunt Lords.] Helicanus,

thou

Hast moved us: what seest thou in our looks?
Hel. An angry brow, dread lord.

Per.. If there be such a dart in princes' frowns, How durst thy tongue move anger to our face? Hel. How dare the plants look up to heaven, from whence

They have their nourishment?