Act 2, Scene 4

Tyre. A room in the Govenor's house.

[Enter Helicanus and Escanes.]
Helicanus
868 No, Escanes, know this of me,
869 Antiochus from incest lived not free:
870 For which, the most high gods not minding longer
871 To withhold the vengeance that they had in store
872 Due to this heinous capital offence,
873 Even in the height and pride of all his glory,
874 When he was seated in a chariot
875 Of an inestimable value, and his daughter with him,
876 A fire from heavn came and shrivell'd up
877 Their bodies, even to loathing; for they so stunk,
878 That all those eyes adored them ere their fall
879 Scorn now their hand should give them burial.
Escanes
880 'Twas very strange
Helicanus
881 And yet but justice; for though
882 This king were great; his greatness was no guard.
883 To bar heaven's shaft, but sin had his reward.
Escanes
884 'Tis very true.
[Enter two or three Lords.]
First Lord
885 See, not a man in private conference
886 Or council has respect with him but he.
Second Lord
887 It shall no longer grieve with out reproof.
Third Lord
888 And cursed be he that will not second it.
First Lord
889 Follow me, then. Lord Helicane, a word.
Helicanus
890 With me? and welcome: happy day, my lords.
First Lord
891 Know that our griefs are risen to the top,
892 And now at length they overflow their banks.
Helicanus
893 Your griefs! for what? wrong not your prince your love.
First Lord
894 Wrong not yourself, then, noble Helicane;
895 But if the prince do live, let us salute him.
896 Or know what ground's made happy by his breath.
897 If in the world he live, we'll seek him there;
898 And be resolved he lives to govern us,
899 Or dead, give's cause to mourn his funeral,
900 And leave us to our free election.
Second Lord
901 Whose death indeed 's the strongest in our censure:
902 And knowing this kingdom is without a head, —
903 Like goodly buildings left without a roof
904 Soon fall to ruin, — your noble self,
905 That best know how to rulle and how to reign,
906 We thus submit unto, — our sovereign.
All
907 Live, noble Helicane!
Helicanus
908 For honour's cause, forbear your suffrages:
909 If that you love Prince Pericles, forbear.
910 Take I your wish, I leap into the seas,
911 Where's hourly trouble for a minute's ease.
912 A twelve month longer, let me entreat you to
913 Forbear the absence of your king;
914 If in which time expired, he not return,
915 I shall with aged patience bear your yoke.
916 But if I cannot win you to this love,
917 Go search like nobles, like noble subjects,
918 And in your search spend your adventurous worth;
919 Whom if you find, and win unto return,
920 You shall like diamonds sit about his crown.
First Lord
921 To wisdom he's a fool that will not yield;
922 And since Lord Helicane enjoineth us,
923 We with our travels will endeavour us.
Helicanus
924 Then you love us, we you, and we'll clasp hands:
925 When peers thus knit, a kingdom ever stands.
[Exeunt.]

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Notes

TLN 876cultural context
“A fire from heavn came and shrivell'd up”
Antiochus and his daughter are destroyed by lightning from the sky, the standard classical and biblical sign of divine punishment for the worst sins. The Greek word for such a death was 'ceraunobolia' — death by thunderbolt — and it was consistently reserved for those who had offended the gods most gravely. The audience of Acts 1 already knows the nature of Antiochus's crime (incest), so Helicanus's report functions as a morality-play verdict: heaven itself has executed the sentence.
TLN 878cultural context
“all those eyes adored them ere their fall / Scorn now their hand should give them burial”
The people who once worshipped Antiochus and his daughter now refuse to bury them — the ultimate disgrace in both ancient Greek and Roman culture, where proper burial was a sacred duty owed even to enemies. To be left unburied meant the soul could not pass to the underworld and the body was dishonored before all. Sophocles' Antigone and Virgil's Aeneid both show how seriously the ancient world took this obligation.
TLN 882rhetorical device
“his greatness was no guard / To bar heaven's shaft”
'Heaven's shaft' is a metaphor for divine punishment: God's bolt of lightning or arrowed judgment that no earthly rank can deflect. The image draws on classical Jupiter's thunderbolt and the broader biblical idea that the powerful receive harsher judgment, not immunity. Helicanus speaks a compressed moral that is the play's first explicit statement of providential justice.
TLN 900archaic vocab
“leave us to our free election”
'Free election' here means the right to choose a new ruler freely — not a democratic vote but the lords' claim that, if Pericles is confirmed dead, the council of nobles may select his successor without being bound by one man's prior authority. 'Election' in Elizabethan political language meant the choosing of a king or officer by those entitled to do so.
TLN 908archaic vocab
“forbear your suffrages”
'Suffrages' means votes or formal public expressions of support — here, the lords' collective acclamation of Helicanus as their new king ('Live, noble Helicane!', line 907). Helicanus urges them to hold back that vocal endorsement out of loyalty to Pericles. The word comes from Latin 'suffragium' (vote, voting-tablet) and carried its full electoral sense in Shakespeare's English, not merely the religious sense it acquired later.
TLN 919rhetorical device
“Whom if you find, and win unto return, / You shall like diamonds sit about his crown”
Helicanus offers the lords an image of the reward for loyalty: they will be like diamonds set around the king's crown — jewels that both serve and ornament the monarch. The metaphor works two ways: diamonds are the most precious stones, so the lords are flattered; but gems are set into a crown, meaning they are in their proper subordinate place. The figure neatly resolves the scene's political tension by converting the lords' threatened insubordination into willing ornament.