Page 147 - Shakespeare - Vol. 4

I have ground the axe myself. Do but you strike the blow.

PERICLES
Rise, prithee rise. Sit down. Thou art no flatterer;
I thank thee for’t, and heaven forbid [60]
That kings should let their ears hear their faults hid.
Fit counsellor and servant for a prince,

Who by thy wisdom makes a prince thy servant,
What wouldst thou have me do?

HELICANUS
To bear with patience such griefs [65]
As you yourself do lay upon yourself.

PERICLES

Thou speakest like a physician, Helicanus,
That ministers a potion unto me
That thou wouldst tremble to receive thyself.
Attend me then. I went to Antioch, [70]
Where, as thou knowest, against the face of death

I sought the purchase of a glorious beauty,
From whence an issue I might propagate,
Are arms to princes and bring joys to subjects.

Her face was to mine eye beyond all wonder, [75]
The rest − hark in thine ear − as black as incest;
Which by my knowledge found, the sinful father
Seemed not to strike, but smooth. But thou knowest this,
’Tis time to fear when tyrants seems to kiss.

Which fear so grew in me I hither fled [80]
Under the covering of a careful night
Who seemed my good protector; and, being here,

Bethought me what was past, what might succeed.
I knew him tyrannous, and tyrants’ fears
Decrease not, but grow faster than the years. [85]
And should he doubt, as no doubt he doth,
That I should open to the listening air

How many worthy princes’ bloods were shed
To keep his bed of blackness unlaid ope,