Tales From Shakespeare [133]
courtly terms, as if the lowly seeming maid had been the high-born lady he wished to find her, calling her FAIR AND BEAUTIFUL MARINA, telling her a great prince on board that ship had fallen into a sad and mournful silence; and, as if Marina had the power of conferring health and felicity, he begged she would undertake to cure the royal stranger of his melancholy.
"Sir," said Marina, "I will use my utmost skill in his recovery, provided none but I and my maid be suffered to come near him."
She, who at Mitylene had so carefully concealed her birth, ashamed to tell that one of royal ancestry was now a slave, first began to speak to Pericles of the wayward changes in her own fate, telling him from what a high estate herself had fallen. As if she had known it was her royal father she stood before, all the words she spoke were of her own sorrows; but her reason for so doing was that she knew nothing more wins the attention of the unfortunate than the recital of some sad calamity to match their own. The sound of her sweet voice aroused the drooping prince; he lifted up his eyes, which had been so long fixed and motionless; and Marina, who was the perfect image of her mother, presented to his amazed sight the features of his dead queen. The long silent prince was once more heard to speak.
"My dearest wife," said the awakened Pericles, "was like this maid, and such a one might my daughter have been. My queen's square brows, her stature to an inch, as wand-like straight, as silver-voiced, her eyes as jewel-like. Where do you live, young maid? Report your parentage. I think you said you had been tossed from wrong to injury, and that you thought your griefs would equal mine, if both were opened."
"Some such thing I said," replied Marina, "and said no more than what my thoughts did warrant me as likely."
"Tell me your story," answered Pericles. "If I find you have known the thousandth part of my endurance you have borne your sorrows like a man and I have suffered like a girl; yet you do look like Patience gazing on kings' graves and smiling extremely out of act. How lost you your name, my most kind virgin? Recount your story, I beseech you. Come, sit by me."
How was Pericles surprised when she said her name was MARINA, for he knew it was no usual name, but had been invented by himself for his own child to signify SEA-BORN.
"Oh, I am mocked," said he, "and you are sent hither by some incensed god to make the world laugh at me."
"Patience, good sir," said Marina, "or I must cease here."
"Na@," said Pericles, "I will be patient. You little know how you do startle me, to call yourself Marina."
"The name," she replied, "was given me by one that had some power, my father and a king."
"How, a king's daughter!" said Pericles, "and called Marina! But are you flesh and blood? Are you no fairy? Speak on. Where were you born, and wherefore called Marina?"
She replied: "I was called Marina because I was born at sea. My mother was the daughter of a king; she died the minute I was born, as my good nurse Lychorida has often told me, weeping. The king, my father, left me at Tarsus till the cruel wife of Cleon sought to murder me. A crew of pirates came and rescued me and brought me here to Mitylene. But, good sir, why do you weep? It may be you think me an impostor. But indeed, sir, I am the daughter to King Pericles, if good King Pericles be living."
Then Pericles, terrified as he seemed at his own sudden joy, and doubtful if this could be real, loudly called for his attendants, who rejoiced at the sound of their beloved king's voice; and he said to Helicanus:
"O Helicanus, strike me, give me a gash, put me to present pain, lest this great sea of joys rushing upon me overbear the shores of my mortality. Oh, come hither, thou that wast born at sea, buried at Tarsus, and found at sea again. O Helicanus, down on your knees, thank the holy gods! This is Marina. Now blessings on thee, my child! Give me fresh garments, mine own Helicanus! She is not dead at Tarsus as she should have been by the savage Dionysia. She
"Sir," said Marina, "I will use my utmost skill in his recovery, provided none but I and my maid be suffered to come near him."
She, who at Mitylene had so carefully concealed her birth, ashamed to tell that one of royal ancestry was now a slave, first began to speak to Pericles of the wayward changes in her own fate, telling him from what a high estate herself had fallen. As if she had known it was her royal father she stood before, all the words she spoke were of her own sorrows; but her reason for so doing was that she knew nothing more wins the attention of the unfortunate than the recital of some sad calamity to match their own. The sound of her sweet voice aroused the drooping prince; he lifted up his eyes, which had been so long fixed and motionless; and Marina, who was the perfect image of her mother, presented to his amazed sight the features of his dead queen. The long silent prince was once more heard to speak.
"My dearest wife," said the awakened Pericles, "was like this maid, and such a one might my daughter have been. My queen's square brows, her stature to an inch, as wand-like straight, as silver-voiced, her eyes as jewel-like. Where do you live, young maid? Report your parentage. I think you said you had been tossed from wrong to injury, and that you thought your griefs would equal mine, if both were opened."
"Some such thing I said," replied Marina, "and said no more than what my thoughts did warrant me as likely."
"Tell me your story," answered Pericles. "If I find you have known the thousandth part of my endurance you have borne your sorrows like a man and I have suffered like a girl; yet you do look like Patience gazing on kings' graves and smiling extremely out of act. How lost you your name, my most kind virgin? Recount your story, I beseech you. Come, sit by me."
How was Pericles surprised when she said her name was MARINA, for he knew it was no usual name, but had been invented by himself for his own child to signify SEA-BORN.
"Oh, I am mocked," said he, "and you are sent hither by some incensed god to make the world laugh at me."
"Patience, good sir," said Marina, "or I must cease here."
"Na@," said Pericles, "I will be patient. You little know how you do startle me, to call yourself Marina."
"The name," she replied, "was given me by one that had some power, my father and a king."
"How, a king's daughter!" said Pericles, "and called Marina! But are you flesh and blood? Are you no fairy? Speak on. Where were you born, and wherefore called Marina?"
She replied: "I was called Marina because I was born at sea. My mother was the daughter of a king; she died the minute I was born, as my good nurse Lychorida has often told me, weeping. The king, my father, left me at Tarsus till the cruel wife of Cleon sought to murder me. A crew of pirates came and rescued me and brought me here to Mitylene. But, good sir, why do you weep? It may be you think me an impostor. But indeed, sir, I am the daughter to King Pericles, if good King Pericles be living."
Then Pericles, terrified as he seemed at his own sudden joy, and doubtful if this could be real, loudly called for his attendants, who rejoiced at the sound of their beloved king's voice; and he said to Helicanus:
"O Helicanus, strike me, give me a gash, put me to present pain, lest this great sea of joys rushing upon me overbear the shores of my mortality. Oh, come hither, thou that wast born at sea, buried at Tarsus, and found at sea again. O Helicanus, down on your knees, thank the holy gods! This is Marina. Now blessings on thee, my child! Give me fresh garments, mine own Helicanus! She is not dead at Tarsus as she should have been by the savage Dionysia. She