Act 1, Scene 2

Tyre. A room in the palace.

[Enter Pericles.]
[To Lords without.]
Pericles
219 Let none disturb us. — Why should this change of thoughts,
220 The sad companion, dull-eyed melancholy,
221 Be my so used a guest as not an hour,
222 In the day's glorious walk, or peaceful night,
223 The tomb where grief should sleep, can breed me quiet?
224 Here pleasures court mine eyes, and mine eyes shun them,
225 And danger, which I fear'd, is at Antioch,
226 Whose arm seems far too short to hit me here:
227 Yet neither pleasure's art can joy my spirits,
228 Nor yet the other's distance comfort me.
229 Then it is thus: the passions of the mind,
230 That have their first conception by mis-dread
231 Have after-nourishment and life by care;
232 And what was first but fear what might he done,
233 Grows elder now and cares it be not done.
234 And so with me: the great Antiochus,
235 'Gainst whom I am too little to contend,
236 Since he 's so great can make his will his act,
237 Will think me speaking, though I swear to silence;
238 Nor boots it me to say I honour him.
239 If he suspect I may dishonour him:
240 And what may make him blush in being known,
241 He'll stop the course by which it might be known;
242 With hostile forces he'11 o'erspread the land,
243 And with the ostent of war will look so huge,
244 Amazement shall drive courage from the state;
245 Our men be vanquish'd ere they do resist,
246 And subjects punish'd that ne'er thought offence:
247 Which care of them, not pity of myself,
248 Who am no more but as the tops of trees,
249 Which fence the roots they grow by and defend them,
250 Makes both my body pine and soul to languish,
251 And punish that before that he would punish.
[Enter Helicanus, with other Lords.]
First Lord
252 Joy and all comfort in your sacred breast!
Second Lord
253 And keep your mind, till you return to us,
254 Peaceful and comfortable!
Helicanus
255 Peace, peace, and give experience tongue.
256 They do abuse the king that flatter him:
257 For flattery is the bellows blows up sin;
258 The thing the which is flatter'd, but a spark,
259 To which that blast gives heat and stronger glowing:
260 Whereas reproof, obedient and in order,
261 Fits kings, as they are men, for they may err.
262 When Signior Sooth here does proclaim a peace,
263 He flatters you, makes war upon your life.
264 Prince, pardon me, or strike me, if you please;
265 I cannot be much lower than my knees.
Pericles
266 All leave us else; but let your cares o'erlook
267 What shipping and what lading is in our haven,
268 And then return to us.
[Exeunt Lords.]
Pericles
269 Helicanus, thou
270 Hast moved us: what seest thou in our looks?
Helicanus
271 An angry brow, dread lord.
Pericles
272 If there be such a dart in princes' frowns,
273 How durst thy tongue move anger to our face?
Helicanus
274 How dare the plants look up to heaven, from whence
275 They have their nourishment?
Pericles
276 Thou know'st I have power
277 To take thy life from thee.
[Kneeling.]
Helicanus
278 I have ground the axe myself;
279 Do you but strike the blow.
Pericles
280 Rise, prithee, rise.
281 Sit down: thou art no flatterer:
282 I thank thee for it; and heaven forbid
283 That kings should let their ears hear their faults hid!
284 Fit counsellor and servant for a prince,
285 Who by thy wisdom makest a prince thy servant,
286 What wouldst thou have me do?
Helicanus
287 To bear with patience
288 Such griefs as you yourself do lay upon yourself.
Pericles
289 Thou speak'st like a physician, Helicanus,
290 That minister'st a potion unto me
291 That thou wouldst tremble to receive thyself.
292 Attend me, then: I went to Antioch,
293 And there as thou know'st, against the face of death,
294 I sought the purchase of a glorious beauty,
295 From whence an issue I might propagate,
296 Are arms to princes, and bring joys to subjects.
297 Her face was to mine eye beyond all wonder;
298 The rest — hark in thine ear — as black as incest:
299 Which by my knowledge found, the sinful father
300 Seem'd not to strike, but smooth: but thou know'st this,
301 'Tis time to fear when tyrants seem to kiss.
302 Which fear so grew in me, I hither fled,
303 Under the covering of a careful night,
304 Who seem'd my good protector; and, being here,
305 Bethought me what was past, what might succeed.
306 I knew him tyrannous; and tyrants' fears
307 Decrease not, but grow faster than the years:
308 And should he doubt it, as no doubt he doth,
309 That I should open to the listening air
310 How many worthy princes' bloods were shed,
311 To keep his bed of blackness unlaid ope,
312 To lop that doubt, he'll fill this land with arms,
313 And make pretence of wrong that I have done him;
314 When all, for mine, if I may call offence,
315 Must feel war's blow, who spares not innocence:
316 Which love to all, of which thyself art one,
317 Who now reprovest me for it, —
Helicanus
318 Alas, sir!
Pericles
319 Drew sleep out of mine eyes, blood from my cheeks,
320 Musings into my mind, with thousand doubts
321 How I might stop this tempest ere it came;
322 And finding little comfort to relieve them,
323 I thought it princely charity to grieve them.
Helicanus
324 Well, my lord, since you have given me leave to speak,
325 Freely will I speak. Antiochus you fear,
326 And justly too, I think, you fear the tyrant,
327 Who either by public war or private treason
328 Will take away your life.
329 Therefore, my lord, go travel for a while,
330 Till that his rage and anger be forgot,
331 Or till the Destinies do cut his thread of life.
332 Your rule direct to any; if to me,
333 Day serves not light more faithful than I'll be.
Pericles
334 I do not doubt thy faith;
335 But should he wrong my liberties in my absence?
Helicanus
336 We'll mingle our bloods together in the earth,
337 From whence we had our being and our birth.
Pericles
338 Tyre, I now look from thee then, and to Tarsus
339 Intend my travel, where I'll hear from thee;
340 And by whose letters I'll dispose myself.
341 The care I had and have of subjects' good
342 On thee I lay, whose wisdom's strength can bear it.
343 I'll take thy word for faith, not ask thine oath:
344 Who shuns not to break one will sure crack both:
345 But in our orbs we'll live so round and safe,
346 That time of both this truth shall ne'er convince,
347 Thou show'dst a subject's shine, I a true prince.
[Exeunt.]

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Notes

TLN 220cultural context
“sad companion, dull-eyed melancholy”
Melancholy was understood in Renaissance medicine as one of the four bodily humors — the cold, dark, earthy humor produced by black bile — whose excess caused depression, fearfulness, and obsessive thought. Calling it a 'sad companion' and 'dull-eyed' personifies the condition as a brooding attendant that never leaves Pericles. The conceit frames his whole opening soliloquy: he is not merely sad but clinically gripped by a melancholic humor that bars both pleasure and sleep.
TLN 230archaic vocab
“first conception by mis-dread Have after-nourishment”
'Mis-dread' means misplaced or excessive fear — the 'mis-' prefix marks it as a wrong or misdirected version of dread. Pericles argues that once a fear starts with some cause (however miscalibrated), it feeds itself by worry until it grows larger than any original threat. The word is rare and probably coined or adapted here; modern readers who miss it will lose the logical shape of the speech.
TLN 238archaic vocab
“Nor boots it me to say”
'Boots it' means 'avails it,' 'profits it,' or 'does it any good.' The word 'boot' in this sense has nothing to do with footwear; it is an Old English word meaning profit or advantage, still current in Shakespeare's day in phrases like 'to boot' (= in addition, as a bonus). Pericles means: 'It does me no good to say I respect Antiochus.'
TLN 243archaic vocab
“ostent of war will look so huge, Amazement shall drive courage”
'Ostent' means outward show, display, or demonstration — from Latin ostentare, to show off. Pericles predicts that Antiochus will not even need to fight: the sheer spectacle of a massing army ('the ostent of war') will look so terrifying that Tyre's defenders will lose heart before a blow is struck. The word fell out of common use after the seventeenth century.
TLN 248rhetorical device
“no more but as the tops of trees, Which fence the roots they grow by”
Pericles compares himself to the outermost branches of a tree: the branches fence and shelter the roots below, yet the branches are also the parts most exposed to storm and damage. The extended metaphor captures his understanding of kingship as service — the ruler bears the blows so his people (the roots) can be safe — and explains why his suffering is caused by care for subjects, not self-pity.
TLN 257rhetorical device
“flattery is the bellows blows up sin; The thing the which is flatter'd, but a spark”
Helicanus uses an extended metaphor of fire-making: flattery is the bellows that fans a tiny spark of sin into a full blaze. The First and Second Lords who greet Pericles with empty comfort ('Joy and all comfort in your sacred breast!') are the bellows; the sin already latent in anyone who can be flattered is the spark. Helicanus interrupts them before Pericles can be warmed by the false comfort.
TLN 262wordplay
“Signior Sooth here does proclaim a peace”
Helicanus coins a mock-Italian title — 'Signior Sooth' — for the flattering courtier. 'Sooth' in Shakespeare's English means truth; but 'to soothe' had also come to mean to humour, flatter, or cajole, so the name puns on both: a 'Signior Sooth' is a man who passes himself off as a truth-teller while actually telling you only what you want to hear. The fake Italian honorific 'Signior' (= Sir, Mr.) gives the flatterer a pompous title that exposes him.
TLN 298cultural context
“hark in thine ear — as black as incest: Which by my knowledge found”
Pericles names the secret he discovered at Antioch: Antiochus is having an incestuous sexual relationship with his own daughter, the very woman whose hand he set up as a prize for riddle-solvers. The phrase 'hark in thine ear' signals a stage whisper — Pericles leans in and drops his voice to tell Helicanus what was behind the riddle. 'Black as incest' compresses two registers: moral blackness (the worst of sins) and literal obscurity (the riddle deliberately obscured its own meaning).
TLN 301rhetorical device
“'Tis time to fear when tyrants seem to kiss”
This is a sententia — a pithy, stand-alone maxim or proverb — that Pericles frames as a rule of political life: the moment a tyrant pretends friendliness is exactly the moment to be most afraid, because the gentler the manner the deadlier the underlying intent. In performance such lines were often delivered facing the audience directly, as universal truths detached from the immediate scene.
TLN 311archaic vocab
“bed of blackness unlaid ope”
'Unlaid ope' means 'not laid open' or 'not exposed to view' — a double negative meaning kept concealed. Pericles is explaining that Antiochus has shed the blood of many princes specifically to prevent his 'bed of blackness' (his secret incestuous relationship) from being uncovered. 'Lay ope' = to open up, to expose or reveal; 'unlaid ope' = the state of being kept covered up.
TLN 331classical allusion
“till the Destinies do cut his thread of life”
The Destinies are the three Fates of Greek and Roman myth (Greek Moirai; Latin Parcae) who spun, measured, and cut the thread of every mortal life. Clotho spun the thread at birth, Lachesis measured its length, and Atropos cut it at death. Helicanus borrows the image to advise Pericles to wait in exile until Antiochus dies of natural causes — or until the Fates decide his time is up — rather than risking a war.
TLN 345archaic vocab
“in our orbs we'll live so round and safe, That time of both this truth shall ne'er convince”
'Orbs' here means spheres of action or appointed stations — the place each person occupies by rank and duty, an image drawn from the Ptolemaic astronomy in which each planet moved in its own orb or sphere. 'Convince' means 'overcome' or 'refute' — to convince someone of falsehood, not to persuade them of truth. The couplet means: as long as each of us stays faithfully within his proper sphere (Helicanus governing Tyre, Pericles travelling), time will never be able to prove either of us false.