Act 2, Scene 3

The same. A hall of state: a banquet prepared.

[Enter Simonides, Thaisa, Lords, Attendants, and Knights, from tilting.]
Simonides
745 Knights,
746 To say you're welcome were superfluous.
747 To place upon the volume of your deeds,
748 As in a title-page, your worth in arms,
749 Were more than you expect, or more than's fit,
750 Since every worth in show commends itself.
751 Prepare for mirth, for mirth becomes a feast:
752 You are princes and my guests.
Thaisa
753 But you, my knight and guest;
754 To whom this wreath of victory I give,
755 And crown you king of this day's happiness.
Pericles
756 'Tis more by fortune, lady, than by merit.
Simonides
757 Call it by what you will, the day is yours;
758 And here, I hope, is none that envies it.
759 In framing an artist, art hath thus decreed,
760 To make some good, but others to exceed;
761 And you are her labour'd scholar. Come queen of the feast, —
762 For, daughter, so you are, — here take your place:
763 Marshal the rest, as they deserve their grace.
Knights
764 We are honour'd much by good Simonides.
Simonides
765 Your presence glads our days; honour we love;
766 For who hates honour hates the gods above.
Marshal
767 Sir, yonder is your place.
Pericles
768 Some other is more fit.
First Knight
769 Contend not, sir; for we are gentlemen
770 That neither in our hearts nor outward eyes
771 Envy the great nor do the low despise.
Pericles
772 You are right courteous knights.
Simonides
773 Sit, sir, sit.
Pericles
774 By Jove, I wonder, that is king of thoughts,
775 These cates resist me, she but thought upon.
Thaisa
776 By Juno, that is queen of marriage,
777 All viands that I eat do seem unsavoury,
778 Wishing him my meat. Sure, he's a gallant gentleman.
Simonides
779 He's but a country gentleman;
780 Has done no more than other knights have done;
781 Has broken a staff or so; so let it pass.
Thaisa
782 To me he seems like diamond to glass.
Pericles
783 Yon king's to me like to my father's picture,
784 Which tells me in that glory once he was;
785 Had princes sit, like stars, about his throne,
786 And he the sun, for them to reverence;
787 None that beheld him, but, like lesser lights,
788 Did vail their crowns to his supremacy:
789 Where now his son's like a glow-worm in the night,
790 The which hath fire in darkness, none in light:
791 Whereby I see that Time's the king of men,
792 He's both their parent, and he is their grave,
793 And gives them what he will, not what they crave.
Simonides
794 What, are you merry, knights?
Knights
795 Who can be other in this royal presence?
Simonides
796 Here, with a cup that's stored unto the brim, —
797 As you do love, fill to your mistress' lips, —
798 We drink this health to you.
Knights
799 We thank your grace.
Simonides
800 Yet pause awhile:
801 Yon knight doth sit too melancholy,
802 As if the entertainment in our court
803 Had not a show might countervail his worth.
804 Note it not you, Thaisa?
Thaisa
805 What is it
806 To me, my father?
Simonides
807 O attend, my daughter:
808 Princes in this should live like god's above,
809 Who freely give to every one that comes
810 To honour them:
811 And princes not doing so are like to gnats,
812 Which make a sound, but kill'd are wonder'd at.
813 Therefore to make his entrance more sweet,
814 Here, say we drink this standing-bowl of wine to him.
Thaisa
815 Alas, my father, it befits not me
816 Unto a stranger knight to be so bold:
817 He may my proffer take for an offence,
818 Since men take women's gifts for impudence.
Simonides
819 How!
820 Do as I bid you, or you'll move me else.
[Aside]
Thaisa
821 Now, by the gods, he could not please me better.
Simonides
822 And furthermore tell him, we desire to know of him,
823 Of whence he is, his name and parentage.
Thaisa
824 The king my father, sir, has drunk to you.
Pericles
825 I thank him.
Thaisa
826 Wishing it so much blood unto your life.
Pericles
827 I thank both him and you, and pledge him freely.
Thaisa
828 And further he desires to know of you,
829 Of whence you are, your name and parentage.
Pericles
830 A gentleman of Tyre; my name, Pericles;
831 My education been in arts and arms;
832 Who, looking for adventures in the world,
833 Was by the rough seas reft of ships and men,
834 And after shipwreck driven upon this shore.
Thaisa
835 He thanks your grace; names himself Pericles,
836 A gentleman of Tyre,
837 Who only by misfortune of the seas
838 Bereft of ships and men, cast on this shore.
Simonides
839 Now, by the gods, I pity his misfortune,
840 And will awake him from his melancholy.
841 Come, gentlemen, we sit too long on trifles,
842 And waste the time, which looks for other revels.
843 Even in your armours, as you are address'd,
844 Will very well become a soldier's dance.
845 I will not have excuse, with saying this,
846 Loud music is too harsh for ladies' heads
847 Since they love men in arms as well as beds.
[The Knights dance.]
Simonides
848 So, this was well ask'd, 'twas so well perform'd.
849 Come, sir;
850 Here is a lady which wants breathing too:
851 And I have heard you nights of Tyre
852 Are excellent in making ladies trip;
853 And that their measures are as exceltent.
Pericles
854 In those that practise them they are, my lord.
Simonides
855 O, that's as much as you would be denied
856 Of your fair courtesy.
[The Knights and Ladies dance.]
Simonides
857 Unclasp, unclasp:
858 Thanks gentlemen, to all; all have done well.
[To Pericles.]
Simonides
859 But you the you the best. Pages and lights to conduct
860 These knights unto their several lodging.
[To Pericles.]
Simonides
861 Yours, sir,
862 We have given order to be next our own.
Pericles
863 I am at your grace's pleasure.
Simonides
864 Princes, it is too late to talk of love;
865 And that's the mark I know you level at:
866 Therefore each one betake him to his rest;
867 To-morrow all for speeding do their best.
[Exeunt.]

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Notes

TLN 747rhetorical device
“To place upon the volume of your deeds, As in a title-page”
Simonides uses the image of a printed book to compliment the knights: praising their deeds would be like adding a title-page to an already-complete volume -- the book (their achievements) speaks for itself without needing an advertisement at the front. The metaphor is a graceful way of saying their actions are better than any words about them.
TLN 759rhetorical device
“In framing an artist, art hath thus decreed, To make some good, but others to exceed”
Simonides distinguishes between merely good craftsmen and those who surpass all others. 'Art' here means the craft or discipline itself (not painting or sculpture specifically), and 'decreed' suggests it is a law of nature that most practitioners are competent while a rare few excel. He immediately names Pericles this outstanding 'labour'd scholar' -- someone who has mastered his craft through hard effort.
TLN 774classical allusion
“By Jove, I wonder, that is king of thoughts, These cates resist me”
Pericles swears 'By Jove' -- using the Roman king of the gods as an exclamation, a common oath in verse drama -- and calls him 'king of thoughts,' meaning Jove rules even the mind. 'Cates' (pronounced to rhyme with 'fates') is an archaic word for choice, delicate foods, especially dishes served at a feast. Pericles cannot eat because he is so absorbed thinking of Thaisa.
TLN 776classical allusion
“By Juno, that is queen of marriage”
Thaisa swears by Juno, the Roman queen of the gods and special protector of marriage. The oath is not casual: Thaisa swears by exactly the goddess who would preside over the marriage she is unconsciously wishing for. Parallel to Pericles' 'By Jove' a line earlier, the two oaths form a matching pair -- Jove the king of thoughts, Juno the queen of marriage.
classical Juno, queen of the gods
TLN 785rhetorical device
“Had princes sit, like stars, about his throne, And he the sun, for them to reverence”
Pericles compares his father to the sun and the lesser princes to stars that revolved around it, dimming out of respect. This was a standard analogy for royal greatness in the Renaissance: a king shines like the sun, and his nobles are lesser planets or stars orbiting him. The comparison amplifies Pericles' current humility -- he is just a 'glow-worm' beside that memory.
TLN 791rhetorical device
“Time's the king of men, He's both their parent, and he is their grave”
Pericles closes his meditation by personifying Time as the ultimate ruler: Time creates people ('parent') and destroys them ('grave'), and gives or withholds at its own will regardless of what they desire. The aphorism shifts the aside from personal grief about his lost kingdom to a larger, detached philosophical observation -- one of the romance's characteristic movements toward acceptance of Fortune's mutability.
classical Fortune and her wheel
TLN 802archaic vocab
“entertainment in our court Had not a show might countervail his worth”
'Countervail' means to equal in value, to compensate for, or to match -- here Simonides worries that the entertainment at his court is not grand enough to be worth what a knight of Pericles' quality deserves. The word is no longer in everyday use; it comes from French contrevaloir, to be equal to.
TLN 811rhetorical device
“princes not doing so are like to gnats, Which make a sound, but kill'd are wonder'd at”
Simonides compares princes who fail to honor their guests to gnats: loud in life, but only remarkable when dead (because then people stare at something so tiny). The simile belittles stingy or negligent rulers -- they make noise but have no real substance, and their only claim to attention is their own insignificance when destroyed. The barb is aimed at persuading Thaisa to honor Pericles.
TLN 814cultural context
“this standing-bowl of wine to him”
A 'standing bowl' was a large, footed drinking vessel -- one with legs or a pedestal so it could stand upright on the table -- used for toasts and ceremonial drinking at banquets. Sending such a bowl across to a guest, filled with wine, was a formal gesture of honor and welcome. Simonides is ordering Thaisa to carry this ceremonial cup to the melancholy stranger knight.
TLN 817cultural context
“He may my proffer take for an offence, Since men take women's gifts for impudence”
Thaisa protests that if she, a woman, initiates the gesture of sending a cup to a stranger man, he may read it as forward or sexually presumptuous behavior rather than hospitality. In Elizabethan social convention, women were expected to be passive in courtship; a woman who offered gifts or made the first move was risking her reputation for modesty. 'Impudence' here means shamelessness or immodesty.
TLN 843archaic vocab
“Even in your armours, as you are address'd, Will very well become a soldier's dance”
'Address'd' here means 'arrayed' or 'dressed' -- prepared, equipped, or made ready. Simonides is saying that the knights' armor as they stand is perfectly fitting attire for a 'soldier's dance': they need not change. The word does not mean directed or spoken to as in modern English; it carries its older sense of being prepared or decked out.
TLN 864archaic vocab
“Princes, it is too late to talk of love; And that's the mark I know you level at”
'Level at' means to aim at, to take aim toward a target -- the metaphor is from archery or gunnery, where to 'level' a bow or cannon was to sight it at the mark. Simonides says he knows perfectly well what all the knights are after (marrying his daughter), even as he cheerfully sends them to bed. The phrase shows Simonides fully aware that each knight has come for Thaisa's hand.
TLN 867archaic vocab
“To-morrow all for speeding do their best”
'Speeding' here means succeeding or prospering in their suit -- winning what they are pursuing. The word comes from 'speed' in its older sense of success or good fortune (still surviving in 'Godspeed'). Simonides is wishing each knight luck tomorrow in his courtship of Thaisa -- or, more broadly, in whatever they seek. The line closes the scene on deliberate double meaning: he knows their aim is love (TLN 864-865) but names it only as 'speeding.'