Pericles Act Three – “I hold it that virtue and skill were endowments greater than nobleness and riches.”

Pericles Act Three – “I hold it that virtue and skill were endowments greater than nobleness and riches.” 

In a Prologue/Commentary to ‘Pericles’ Act Three, Gower enters again and reveals that Thaisa has become pregnant. He then introduces and narrates a dumb show where we hear how Pericles eventually found out that Antiochus and his daughter died. It is also related to us t that there is a plan to make Helicanus king in Tyre if Pericles does not return in “twice six moons” and Pericles decides that he must go back to Tyre. It is revealed that the people of Pentapolis are happy that the husband of their king’s daughter is a king in his own right. Pericles, his men, his wife Thaisa and Thaisa’s Nurse Lychordia board the ship bound for Tyre. Gower then relates how while at sea, a storm hits their ship:

“… Their vessel shakes

On Neptune's billow; half the flood

Hath their keel cut: but fortune's mood

Varies again; the grisly north

Disgorges such a tempest forth,

That, as a duck for life that dives,

So up and down the poor ship drives:

The lady shrieks, and well-a-near

Does fall in travail with her fear:

And what ensues in this fell storm

Shall for itself itself perform.

I nill relate, action may

Conveniently the rest convey;

Which might not what by me is told.

In your imagination hold

This stage the ship, upon whose deck

The sea-tost Pericles appears to speak.”

We then move into the scene on the deck of Pericles’ ship where he , Pericles curses the fact that his fate seems to have brought him to another tempest at sea:

“Thou god of this great vast, rebuke these surges,

Which wash both heaven and hell; and thou, that hast

Upon the winds command, bind them in brass,

Having call'd them from the deep! O, still

Thy deafening, dreadful thunders; gently quench

Thy nimble, sulphurous flashes! O, how, Lychorida,

How does my queen? Thou stormest venomously;

Wilt thou spit all thyself? The seaman's whistle

Is as a whisper in the ears of death,

Unheard. Lychorida!--Lucina, O

Divinest patroness, and midwife gentle

To those that cry by night, convey thy deity

Aboard our dancing boat; make swift the pangs

Of my queen's travails!”

The Nurse Lychordia brings onto deck Pericles newborn baby infant and brings the tragic news that Thaisa has died in childbirth. Pericles blames the gods for giving him the love of Thaisa and then taking her away. Pericles is given the child by Lychordia. A Sailor says that they must cast the body of Thaisa overboard because, “… with us at sea it hath been still observed: and we are strong in custom. Therefore briefly yield her; for she must overboard straight.”

In Thaisa’s quarters, Pericles talks over Thaisa’s body and regrets that he cannot give her a proper burial. A sailor says that a chest is available for her body and she is embalmed with herbs and spices. They obviously cast the chest to sea. It is revealed that they are already near Tarsus, and Pericles wants the ship to land there so that he can leave the child with Cleon:

“O, make for Tarsus!

There will I visit Cleon, for the babe

Cannot hold out to Tyrus: there I'll leave it

At careful nursing. Go thy ways, good mariner:

I'll bring the body presently.

We cross to Ephesus where a skilled and kind doctor called Cerimon and his assistant Philomon are caring for some survivors fro the recent storm provide fire and meat to some people seeking refuge from the recent storm. Then two servants enter with a chest that the sea has tossed up in the storm. Embalmed inside they find a corpse, with a letter written by Pericles which says:

“'Here I give to understand,

If e'er this coffin drive a-land,

I, King Pericles, have lost

This queen, worth all our mundane cost.

Who finds her, give her burying;

She was the daughter of a king:

Besides this treasure for a fee,

The gods requite his charity!'”

But when Cerimon looks at the body, he comments on how fresh the body looks and thinks that she is not dead and with warmth and medicines he brings her back to life.

“She is alive; behold,

Her eyelids, cases to those heavenly jewels

Which Pericles hath lost,

Begin to part their fringes of bright gold;

The diamonds of a most praised water

Do appear, to make the world twice rich. Live,

And make us weep to hear your fate, fair creature,

Rare as you seem to be.”

Thaisa is borne to another chamber to recuperate.

Back in Tarsus, Pericles reveals all that has happened to Cleon and Dionyza and asks them to take care of his newborn child:

“We cannot but obey

The powers above us. Could I rage and roar

As doth the sea she lies in, yet the end

Must be as 'tis. My gentle babe Marina, whom,

For she was born at sea, I have named so, here

I charge your charity withal, leaving her

The infant of your care; beseeching you

To give her princely training, that she may be

Manner'd as she is born.”

Cleon and Dionyza promise to look after the child and thank Pericles for the kindness he did them during their famine. As Pericles exits he thanks them and makes an oath that he will not cut his own hair until his own baby daughter Marina eventually marries.

“Your honour and your goodness teach me to't,

Without your vows. Till she be married, madam,

By bright Diana, whom we honour, all

Unscissor'd shall this hair of mine remain,

Though I show ill in't. So I take my leave.

Good madam, make me blessed in your care

In bringing up my child.”

Back in Ephesus, Thaisa is getting better and Cerimon shows her the jewels that were in the chest with her and shows her Pericles's letter. Thaisa recognizes the character (handwriting) of the letter as Pericles’ and expresses her distress that she will never see her “wedded lord” again and expresses the desire to put on vestal livery. Cerimon suggests that she serve at the temple of the goddess Diana since the temple is close.