Page 173 - Shakespeare - Vol. 4

Yours, sir, we have given order be next our own. [110]

PERICLES
I am at your grace’s pleasure.

SIMONIDES
Princes, it is too late to talk of love,
And that’s the mark I know you level at.
Therefore each one betake him to his rest;

Tomorrow all for speeding do their best. [115]
Exeunt.

Scene IV IT

Enter Helicanus and Escanes.

HELICANUS

No, Escanes, know this of me,
Antiochus from incest lived not free.
For which the most high gods not minding longer
To withhold the vengeance that they had in store,

Due to this heinous capital offence, [5]
Even in the height and pride of all his glory,
When he was seated in a chariot
Of an inestimable value, and his daughter with him,

A fire from heaven came and shrivelled up
Their bodies even to loathing; for they so stunk [10]
That all those eyes adored them ere their fall
Scorn now their hand should give them burial.

ESCANES

’Twas very strange.

HELICANUS

And yet but justice, for though
This king were great, his greatness was no guard
To bar heaven’s shaft, but sin had his reward. [15]