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THE SHIPWRECKED PRINCF

PERICLES -THREE FISHERMEN.

(Enter Pericles, wet.)

Per. Yet cease your ire, ye angry stars of heaven!
Wind, rain, and thunder, remember, earthly man
Is but a substance that must yield to you;
And I, as fits my nature, do obey you;

Alas! the sea hath cast me on the rocks,
Washed me from shore to shore, and left me breath,
Nothing to think on, but ensuing death:
Let it suffice the greatness of your powers,
To have bereft a prince of all his fortunes:
And having thrown him from your wat'ry grave,
Here to have death in peace, is all he 'll crave.
(Enter three Fishermen.)

1 Fish. What, ho, Pilche!

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

3 Fish. What say you, master?

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

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

1 Fish. Alas, poor souls! 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, master, said not I as much, when I saw the porpoise, how he bounced and tumbled ? they say, they are half fish, half flesh a plague on them, they ne'er come, but I look to be washed. Master, I marvel how the fishes live in the sea.

1 Fish. Why, as men do a-land; the great ones eat up the little ones I can compare our rich misers to nothing so fitly as to a whale; 'a plays and tumbles, driving the poor fry before him, and at last devours them all at a mouthful. Such whales have I heard on a' the land, who never leave gaping, till they 've swallowed the whole parish, church, steeple, bells, and all. Per. A pretty moral.

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

2 Fish. Why, man?

3 Fish. Because he should have swallowed me too: and when I had been in his stomach, I would have kept such a jangling of

the bells, that he should never have left, till he cast 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 subject of the sea
These fishers tell the infirmities of men ;
And from their watʼry empire recollect
All that may men approve, or men detect!
Peace be at your labor, honest fishermen.

2 Fish. Honest! good fellow, what 's that? if it be a day fits you, scratch it out of the calendar, and nobody will look after it. Per. Nay, see, the sea hath cast upon your coast

2 Fish. What a drunken knave was the sea, to cast thee in our way!

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

In that vast tennis-court, hath made the ball

For them to play upon, entreats you pity him;

He asks of you, that never used 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. Canst thou catch any fishes, then?

Per. I never practiced it.

2 Fish. Nay, then thou wilt starve sure; for here's nothing to be got now-a-days, unless thou canst fish for 't. Per. What I have been, I have forgot to know; But what I am, want teaches me to think on ; — A man shrunk up with cold; my veins are chill, And have no more of life, than may suffice To give my tongue that heat, to ask you help; Which, if you shall refuse, when I am dead, For I am a man, pray see me buried.

1 Fish. Die, quoth-a? Now, gods forbid! I have a gown here; come, put it on; keep thee warm.

Now, afore me, a handsome fellow ! Come, thou shalt go home, and we 'll have flesh for holidays, fish for fasting-days, and, moreo'er, puddings and flap-jacks, and thou shalt be welcome.

Per. I thank you, sir.

2 Fish. Hark you, my friend; you said you could not beg. Per. I did but crave.

2 Fish. But crave?

scape whipping.

Then I'll turn craver too, and so I shall

Per. Why, are all your beggars whipped, then?

2 Fish. Oh, not all, my friend, not all; for if all your beggars were whipped. I would wish no better office, than to be bead.e. But, master, I'll go draw up the net.

(Exeunt two of the Fishermen.}

Per. How well this honest mirth becomes their labor?

1 Fish. Hark you, sir! do you know where you are? Per. Not well.

1 Fish. Why, I'll tell you: this is called Pentapolis, and ou king, the good Simonides.

Per. The good king Simonides, do you call him?

1 Fish. Ay, sir; and he deserves to be so called, for his peaceable reign and good government.

Per. He is a happy king, since from his subjects

He gains the name of good, by his government.
How far is his court distant from this shore ?

1 Fish. Marrv, sir, half a day's journey and I'll tell you he hath a fair daughter, and to-morrow is her birthday; and there are princes and knights come from all parts of the world, to just and tourney for her love.

Per. Did but my fortunes equal my desires,

I'd wish to make one there.

1 Fish. Oh, sir, things must be as they may; and what a man cannot get, he may lawfully deal for· his wife's soul.

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(Reënter the two Fishermen, drawing up a net.)

2 Fish. Help, master, help: here's a fish hangs in the net, like a poor man's right in the law; 't will hardly come out. Ha! bots on 't, 't is come at last, and 't is turned to a rusty armor. Per. An armor, friends! I pray you let me see it. Thanks, fortune, yet, that after all my crosses, Thou giv'st me somewhat to repair myself; And, though it was mine own, part of mine heritage, Which my dead father did bequeath to me, With this strict charge, (even as he left his life,) "Keep it, my Pericles; it hath been a shield 'Twixt me and death;" and pointed to this brace: "For that it saved me, keep it; in like necessity, Which gods protect thee from! it may defend thee." It kept where I kept, I so dearly loved it; Till the rough seas, that spare not any man, Took it in rage, though calmed, they give 't again: I thank thee for 't; my shipwreck 's now no ill, Since I have here my father's gift by will.

1 Fish. What mean you, sir?

Per. To beg of you, kind friends, this coat of worth; For it was sometime target to a king;

I know it by this mark. He loved me dearly,
And for his sake I wish the having of it;

And that you'd guide me to your sovereign's court,
Where with 't I may appear a gentleman;
And if that ever my low fortune's better,
I'll pay your bounties; till then, rest your debtor.
1 Fish. Why, wilt thou tourney for the lady?
Per. I'll show the virtue I have borne in arms.

1 Fish. Why, do ye take it, and the gods give thee good on 't!

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Ajax. Thersites,

Ther. Agamemnon

generally?

Ajax. Thersites,

-how if he had boils? full, all over,

Ther. And those boils did run?-Say so, did not the general run then? Were not that a botchy core ?

Ajax. Dog,

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Ther. Then would come some matter from him; I see none

now.

Ajax. Thou she-wolf's son, canst thou not hear? Feel, then. (Strikes him.) Ther. The plague of Greece upon thee, thou mongrel, beef

witted lord!

Ajax. Speak, then, thou unsalted leaven, speak! I will beat thee into handsomeness.

Ther. I shall sooner rail thee into wit and holiness; but, I think, thy horse will sooner con an oration, than thou learn a prayer without book. Thou canst strike, canst thou? a red murrain o' thy jade's tricks!

Ajax. Toads-stool, learn me the proclamation.

(Striking Isim again.) Ther. Dost thou think I have no sense, that thou strikest me thus?

Ajax. The proclamation,

Ther. Thou art proclaimed a fool, I think.

Ajax. Do not, porcupine, do not; my fingers itch.

Ther. I would thou didst itch from head to foot, and I had

the scratching of thee; I would make thee the loathsomest scab

in Greece.

When thou art forth in the incursions, thou strikest

as slow as another.

Ajar. I say, the proclamation,

Ther. Thou grumblest and railest every hour on Achilles; and thou art as full of envy at his greatness, as Cerberus is at Proserpina's beauty, ay, that thou barkest at him.

Ajar. Mistress Thersites !

Ther. Thou shouldst strike him.

Ajax. Cobloaf !

Ther. He would pun thee into shivers with his fist, as a sailor breaks a biscuit.

Ajax. You cur!
Ther. Do, do.

Ajax. Thou stool for a witch!

(Beating him.)

Ther. Ay, do, do; thou sodden witted lord! thou hast no more brain than I have in mine elbows; an assinego may tutor thee: Thou scurvy valiant ass, thou art here put to thrash Trojans; and thou art bought and sold among those of any wit like a barbarian slave. If thou use to beat me, I will begin at thy heel, and tell what thou art, by inches: thou thing of no bowels, thou!

Ajax. You dog!

Ther. You scurvy lord!

Ajax. You cur!

(Beating him.)

Ther. Mars his idiot! do, rudeness; do, camel`; do, do.

(Enter Achilles and Patroclus.)

Achil. Why, how now, Ajax? wherefore do you thus? How now, Thersites? what's the matter, man?

Ther. You see him there, do you?

Achil. Ay; what 's the matter?
Ther. Nay, look upon him.

Achil. So I do; what's the matter?

Ther. Nay, but regard him well.

Achil. Well, why I do so.

Ther. But yet you look not well upon him, for whosoever you take him to be, he is Ajax.

Achil. I know that, fool.

Ther. Ay, but that foo! knows not himself.

Ajax. Therefore I beat thee.

Ther. Lo, lo, lo, lo, what modicums of wit he utters! his evasions have ears thus long. I have bobbed his brain, more than he has beat my bones; I will buy nine sparrows for a penny, and his pia mater is not worth the ninth part of a sparrow. This lord, Achilles, Ajax — who wears his wit in his stomach and his liver in his head I'll tell you what I say of him.

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