Page 190 - Shakespeare - Vol. 4

FIRST SERVANT

I never saw so huge a billow, sir,
As tossed it upon shore.

CERIMON
Wrench it open. Soft!
It smells most sweetly in my sense.

SECOND GENTLEMAN

A delicate odour.

CERIMON

As ever hit my nostril. So, up with it! [60]
O you most potent gods, what’s here? A corse?

SECOND GENTLEMAN
Most strange!

CERIMON
Shrouded in cloth of state, balmed and entreasured
With full bags of spices! A passport too!

Apollo, perfect me in the characters! [65]
He reads the scroll.

Here I give to understand,
If e’er this coffin drives a-land,
I, King Pericles, have lost

This queen, worth all our mundane cost.
Who finds her, give her burying; [70]
She was the daughter of a king.
Besides this treasure for a fee,

The gods requite his charity.

If thou livest, Pericles, thou hast a heart
That ever cracks for woe. This chanced tonight. [75]

SECOND GENTLEMAN