Page 181 - Shakespeare - Vol. 4
P. 181
ACT III IT
Enter Gower.
GOWER
Now sleep y-slackèd hath the rout,
No din but snores about the house,
Made louder by the o’erfed breast
Of this most pompous marriage-feast.
The cat, with eyne of burning coal, [5]
Now couches ’fore the mouse’s hole,
And crickets sing at the oven’s mouth,
All the blither for their drouth.
Hymen hath brought the bride to bed,
Where, by the loss of maidenhead, [10]
A babe is moulded. Be attent,
And time that is so briefly spent
With your fine fancies quaintly eche.
What’s dumb in show, I’ll plain with speech.
DUMB SHOW
Enter Pericles and Simonides at one door with attendants. A messenger
meets them, kneels, and gives Pericles a letter. Pericles shows it Simonides;
the lords kneel to him. Then enter Thaisa with child, with Lychorida, a nurse.
The King shows her the letter; she rejoices. She and Pericles take leave of
her father and depart.
By many a dern and painful perch [15]
Of Pericles the careful search,
By the four opposing coigns
Which the world together joins,
Is made with all due diligence
That horse and sail and high expense [20]
Can stead the quest. At last from Tyre,
Fame answering the most strange inquire,
