HELICANUS.
Sit, sir, I will recount it to you:
But, see, I am prevented.
[Re-enter, from the barge, Lord, with Marina, and a young Lady.]
LYSIMACHUS.
O, here is
The lady that I sent for. Welcome, fair one!
Is't not a goodly presence?
HELICANUS.
She's a gallant lady.
LYSIMACHUS.
She's such a one, that, were I well assured
Came of a gentle kind and noble stock,
I'ld wish no better choice, and think me rarely wed.
Fair one, all goodness that consists in bounty
Expect even here, where is a kingly patient:
If that thy prosperous and artificial feat
Can draw him but to answer thee in aught,
Thy sacred physic shall receive such pay
As thy desires can wish.
MARINA.
Sir, I will use
My utmost skill in his recovery,
Provided
That none but I and my companion maid
Be suffer'd to come near him.
LYSIMACHUS.
Come, let us leave her,
And the gods make her prosperous!
[Marina sings.]
LYSIMACHUS.
Mark'd he your music?
MARINA.
No, nor look'd on us,
LYSIMACHUS.
See, she will speak to him.
MARINA.
Hail, sir! my lord, lend ear.
PERICLES.
Hum, ha!
MARINA.
I am a maid,
My lord, that ne'er before invited eyes,
But have been gazed on like a cornet: she speaks,
My lord, that, may be, hath endured a grief
Might equal yours, if both were justly weigh'd.
Though wayward fortune did malign my state,
My derivation was from ancestors
Who stood equivalent with mighty kings:
But time hath rooted out my parentage,
And to the world and awkward casualties
Bound me in servitude.
[Aside.]
I will desist;
But there is something glows upon my cheek,
And whispers in mine ear 'Go not till he speak.'
PERICLES.
My fortunes -- parentage -- good parentage --
To equal mine! -- was it not thus? what say you?
MARINA.
I said, my lord, if you did know my parentage.
You would not do me violence.
PERICLES.
I do think so. Pray you, turn your eyes upon me.
You are like something that -- What country-woman?
Here of these shores?
MARINA.
No, nor of any shores:
Yet I was mortally brought forth, and am
No other than I appear.
PERICLES.
I am great with woe, and shall deliver weeping.
My dearest wife was like this maid, and such a one
My daughter might have been: my queen's square brows;
Her stature to an inch; as wand-like straight;
As silver-voiced; her eyes as jewel-like
And cased as richly; in pace another Juno;
Who starves the ears she feeds, and makes them hungry,
The more she gives them speech. Where do you live?
MARINA.
Where I am but a stranger: from the deck
You may discern the place.
PERICLES.
Where were you bred?
And how achieved you these endowments, which
You make more rich to owe?
MARINA.
If I should tell my history, it would seem
Like lies disdain'd in the reporting.
PERICLES.
Prithee, speak:
Falseness cannot come from thee; for thou look'st
Modest as Justice, and thou seem'st a palace
For the crown'd Truth to dwell in: I will believe thee,
And make my senses credit thy relation
To points that seem impossible; for thou look'st
Like one I loved indeed. What were thy friends?
Didst thou not say, when I did push thee back --
Which was when I perceived thee -- that thou earnest
From good descending?