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Front Page arrow Titles (by Subject) arrow Scene IV.—: Before the Monument ofMarinaat Tarsus. - Pericles Prince of Tyre

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Scene IV.—: Before the Monument ofMarinaat Tarsus. - William Shakespeare, Pericles Prince of Tyre [1609]

Edition used:

The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (The Oxford Shakespeare), ed. with a glossary by W.J. Craig M.A. (Oxford University Press, 1916).

Part of: The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (The Oxford Shakespeare)

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Scene IV.—

Before the Monument ofMarinaat Tarsus.

EnterGower.

Thus time we waste, and longest leagues make short;

Sail seas in cockles, have an wish but for ’t;

Making—to take your imagination

From bourn to bourn, region to region.

By you being pardon’d, we commit no crime

To use one language in each several clime

Where our scenes seem to live. I do beseech you

To learn of me, who stand i’ the gaps to teach you,

The stages of our story. Pericles

Is now again thwarting the wayward seas,

Attended on by many a lord and knight,

To see his daughter, all his life’s delight.

Old Helicanus goes along. Behind

Is left to govern it, you bear in mind,

Old Escanes, whom Helicanus late

Advanc’d in time to great and high estate.

Well-sailing ships and bounteous winds have brought

This king to Tarsus, think his pilot thought,

So with his steerage shall your thoughts grow on,

To fetch his daughter home, who first is gone.

Like motes and shadows see them move awhile;

Your ears unto your eyes I’ll reconcile.