Porter del

J.J. Van den Berghe fulp. c.

Pericles Prince of Tyre

Pub. Apr 20 by Vernor & Hood Poultry

Act 2. Scene].

From others' labours; forth he strive
To killen bad, keep good alive;
And, to fulfil his prince' defire,
Sends word of all that haps in Tyre:
How Thaliard came full bent with fin,
And hid intent, to murder him;
And that in Tharfus was not best
Longer for him to make his reft:

He knowing fo, put forth to seas,
Where when men been, there's feldom eafe;
For now the wind begins to blow;
Thunder above, and deeps below,
Make fuch unquiet, that the ship
Should house him fafe, is wreck'd and split
And he, good prince, having all loft,
By waves from coast to coaft is toft:
All perishen of man, of pelf,

Ne aught escapen but himself;
Till fortune, tir'd with doing bad,
Threw him ashore, to give him glad :
And here he comes: what shall be next,
Pardon old Gower; this long's the text.

[Exit.

SCENE 1.

Pentapolis. An open place, by the fea fide.

Enter PERICLES, wet.

Per. Yet cease your ire, ye angry stars of heaven!
Wind, rain, and thunder, remember, earthly man
Is but a fubftance that muft yield to you;
And I, as fits my nature, do obey you.
Alas, the fea hath cast me on the rocks,

Wash'd me from fhore to fhore, and left me breath
Nothing to think on, but enfuing death:
Let it fuffice the greatness of your powers,
To have bereft a prince of all his fortunes;
And having thrown him from your watry grave,
Here to have death in peace, is all he'll crave.

Enter three Fishermen.

1 Fish. What, ho, Pilch!

2 Fish. Ho! come, and bring away the nets. 1 Fish. What, Patch-breech, I fay!

3 Fish. What say you, master ?

1 Fish. Look how thou stirreft now! come away, or I'll fetch thee with a wannion.

3 Fish. 'Faith, master, I am thinking of the poor men that were caft away before us, even now.

1 Fish. Alas, poor fouls, it grieved my heart to hear what pitiful cries they made to us, to help them, when, well-a-day, we could scarce help ourselves.

3 Fish. Nay, mafter, faid not I as much, when I saw the porpus, how he bounced and tumbled? they say, they are half fish, half fleh: a plague on them, they ne'er come, but I look to be wash'd. Master, I marvel how the fishes live in the fea.

1 Fish. Why, as men do a-land; the great ones eat up the little ones I can compare our rich mifers to nothing fo fitly as to a whale; 'a plays and tumbles, driving the poor fry before him, and at laft devours them all at a mouthful. Such whales have I heard on a'the land, who never leave gaping, till they've swallow'd the whole pa- rifh, church, fteeple, bells and all."

3 Fish. But, master, if I had been the fexton, I would have been that day in the belfry.

2 Fish. Why, man?

3 Fish. Because he fhould have fwallow'd me too: and when I had been in his belly, I would have kept fuch a jangling of the bells, that he should never have left, till he caft bells, steeple, church, and parish, up again. But if the good king Simonides were of my mind—— Per. Simonides?

3 Fish. We would purge the land of these drones that rob the bee of her honey.

Per. How from the finny fubject of the fea
Thefe fishers tell the infirmities of men;
And from their watry empire recollect

All that may men approve, or men detect!
Peace be at your labour, honeft fishermen.

2 Fish. Honeft! good fellow, what's that? if it be a day fits you, scratch it out of the calendar, and no body will look after it.

Per. Nay, fee, the fea hath caft upon your coaft-— 2 Fish. What a drunken knave was the fea, to caft thee in our way!

Per. A man whom both the waters and the wind,

In that vaft tennis-court, hath made the ball

For them to play upon, entreats you pity him ;

He asks of you, that never us'd to beg.

1 Fish. No, friend, cannot you beg? here's them in our country of Greece, gets more with begging than we can do with working.

2 Fish. Can't thou catch any fishes then?

Per. I never practis'd it.

2 Fish. Nay, then thou wilt ftarve fure; for here's nothing to be got now a-days, unless thou can'st fish for't. Per. What I have been, I have forgot to know;