Act 3, Scene 2

Ephesus. A room in Cerimon's house.

[Enter Cerimon, with a Servant, and some Persons who have been shipwrecked.]
Cerimon
1168 Philemon, ho!
[Enter Philemon.]
Philemon
1169 Doth my lord call?
Cerimon
1170 Get fire and meat for these poor men:
1171 'T has been a turbulent and stormy night.
Servant
1172 I have been in many; but such a night as this,
1173 Till now, I ne'er endured.
Cerimon
1174 Your master will be dead ere you return;
1175 There's nothing can be minister'd to nature
1176 That can recover him.
[To Philemon.]
Cerimon
1177 Give this to the 'pothecary,
1178 And tell me how it works.
[Exeunt all but Cerimon.]
[Enter two Gentlemen.]
First Gentleman
1179 Good morrow.
Second Gentleman
1180 Good morrow to your lordship.
Cerimon
1181 Gentlemen,
1182 Why do you stir so early?
First Gentleman
1183 Sir,
1184 Our lodgings, standing bleak upon the sea,
1185 Shook as the earth did quake;
1186 The very principals did seem to rend,
1187 And all-to topple: pure surprise and fear
1188 Made me to quit the house.
Second Gentleman
1189 That is the cause we trouble you so early;
1190 'Tis not our husbandry.
Cerimon
1191 O, you say well.
First Gentleman
1192 But I much marvel that your lordship, having
1193 Rich tire about you, should at these early hours
1194 Shake off the golden slumber of repose.
1195 'Tis most strange,
1196 Nature should be so conversant with pain.
1197 Being thereto not compell'd.
Cerimon
1198 I hold it ever,
1199 Virtue and cunning were endowments greater
1200 Than nobleness and riches: careless heirs
1201 May the two latter darken and expend;
1202 But immortality attends the former,
1203 Making a man a god. 'Tis known, I ever
1204 Have studied physic, through which secret art,
1205 By turning o'er authorities, I have,
1206 Together with my practice, made familiar
1207 To me and to my aid the blest infusions
1208 That dwell in vegetives, in metals, stones;
1209 And I can speak of the disturbances
1210 That nature works, and of her cures; which doth give me
1211 A more content in course of true delight
1212 Than to be thirsty after tottering honour,
1213 Or tie my treasure up in silken bags,
1214 To please the fool and death.
Second Gentleman
1215 Your honour has through Ephesus pour'd forth
1216 Your charity, and hundreds call themselves
1217 Your creatures, who by you have been restored:
1218 And not your knowledge, your personal pain, but even
1219 Your purse, still open, hath built Lord Cerimon
1220 Such strong renown as time shall ne'er decay.
[Enter two or three Servants with a chest.]
First Servant
1221 So; lift there.
Cerimon
1222 What is that?
First Servant
1223 Sir, even now
1224 Did the sea toss upon our shore this chest:
1225 'Tis of some wreck.
Cerimon
1226 Set 't down, let's look upon 't.
Second Gentleman
1227 'Tis like a coffin, sir.
Cerimon
1228 Whate'er it be,
1229 'Tis wondrous heavy. Wrench it open straight:
1230 If the sea's stomach be o'ercharged with gold,
1231 'Tis a good constraint of fortune it belches upon us.
Second Gentleman
1232 'Tis so, my lord.
Cerimon
1233 How close 'tis caulk'd and bitumed!
1234 Did the sea cast it up?
First Servant
1235 I never saw so huge a billow, sir,
1236 As toss'd it upon shore.
Cerimon
1237 Wrench it open;
1238 Soft! it smells most sweetly in my sense.
Second Gentleman
1239 A delicate odour.
Cerimon
1240 As ever hit my nostril. So up with it.
1241 O you most potent gods! what's here? a corse!
First Gentleman
1242 Most strange!
Cerimon
1243 Shrouded in cloth of state; balm'd and entreasured
1244 With full bags of spices! A passport too!
1245 Apollo, perfect me in the characters!
[Reads from a scroll.]
Cerimon
1246 'Here I give to understand,
1247 If e'er this coffin drive a-land,
1248 I, King Pericles, have lost
1249 This queen, worth all our mundane cost.
1250 Who her, give her burying;
1251 She was the daughter of a king:
1252 Besides this treasure for a fee,
1253 The gods requite his charity!'
1254 If thou livest, Pericles, thou hast a heart
1255 That even cracks for woe! This chanced tonight.
Second Gentleman
1256 Most likely, sir.
Cerimon
1257 Nay, certainly to-night;
1258 For look how fresh she looks! They were too rough
1259 That threw her in the sea. Make a fire within
1260 Fetch hither all my boxes in my closet.
[Exit a Servant.]
Cerimon
1261 Death may usurp on nature many hours,
1262 And yet the fire of life kindle again
1263 The o'erpress'd spirits. I heard of an Egyptian
1264 That had nine hours lien dead,
1265 Who was by good appliance recovered.
[Re-enter a Servant, with boxes, napkins, and fire.]
Cerimon
1266 Well said, well said; the fire and cloths.
1267 The rough and woeful music that we have,
1268 Cause it to sound, beseech you
1269 The viol once more: how thou stirr'st, thou block!
1270 The music there! — I pray you, give her air.
1271 Gentlemen,
1272 This queen will live: nature awakes; a warmth
1273 Breathes out of her: she hath not been entranced
1274 Above five hours: see how she gins to blow
1275 Into life's flower again!
First Gentleman
1276 The heavens,
1277 Through you, increase our wonder and set up
1278 Your fame for ever.
Cerimon
1279 She is alive; behold,
1280 Her eyelids, cases to those heavenly jewels
1281 Which Pericles hath lost,
1282 Begin to part their fringes of bright gold;
1283 The diamonds of a most praised water
1284 Do appear, to make the world twice rich.
1285 Live,
1286 And make us weep to hear your fate, fair creature,
1287 Rare as you seem to be.
[She moves.]
Thaisa
1288 O dear Diana,
1289 Where am I? Where's my lord? What world is this?
Second Gentleman
1290 Is not this strange?
First Gentleman
1291 Most rare.
Cerimon
1292 Hush, my gentle neighbours!
1293 Lend me your hands; to the next chamber bear her.
1294 Get linen: now this matter must be look'd to,
1295 For her, relapse is mortal. Come, come;
1296 And AEsculapius guide us!
[Exeunt, carrying her away.]

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Word definitions on hover

Notes

TLN 1177archaic vocab
“Give this to the 'pothecary”
'Pothecary is an aphetic (clipped) form of 'apothecary' — the early-modern term for a pharmacist or druggist who prepared and dispensed medicines. Cerimon sends a prescription to be compounded, establishing from the start that his household runs on professional medical practice, not folk magic.
TLN 1199archaic vocab
“Virtue and cunning were endowments greater”
Here 'cunning' means 'skill, learning, practical knowledge,' not deception. Cerimon argues that inner qualities — moral virtue and acquired expertise — are worth more than inherited rank or wealth ('nobleness and riches'), because heirs can fritter away money but no one can take away what a person knows.
TLN 1204historical topical
“studied physic, through which secret art”
'Physic' means medicine — the healing art as a whole. Cerimon says he has spent his life studying it, reading 'authorities' (medical texts), and so gained mastery over 'the blest infusions / That dwell in vegetives, in metals, stones': healing properties resident in plants, minerals, and gemstones. This describes the three kingdoms of nature recognized by Renaissance natural philosophy as the sources of all medicines.
TLN 1233archaic vocab
“How close 'tis caulk'd and bitumed”
To 'caulk' a joint means to pack it with fibrous material (oakum — tarred rope-fibre) and then seal it with pitch or bitumen ('bitumed') so that no water can enter. Cerimon is noting that the chest has been made watertight to exactly the same standard as a ship's hull — which explains how Thaisa's body survived a sea-storm intact.
TLN 1243cultural context
“Shrouded in cloth of state; balm'd and entreasured With full bags of spices”
'Cloth of state' is the richly embroidered fabric reserved for canopies over thrones and for dressing the bodies of royalty. 'Balm'd' means embalmed with aromatic oils and resins; spices (cinnamon, myrrh, cloves) were packed around a body both to preserve it and to signal high rank. Together these details identify Thaisa to Cerimon as a person of the highest status even before he reads the scroll.
TLN 1245classical allusion
“Apollo, perfect me in the characters”
Apollo was the Greek and Roman god of the sun, music, healing, and — above all — prophecy and divination: the god who speaks truth and illuminates what is hidden. Cerimon asks him to help read the writing ('characters' = letters, written signs) on the scroll. Invoking Apollo to help decipher a message fits his role as the god who reveals and interprets.
TLN 1263historical topical
“I heard of an Egyptian That had nine hours lien dead”
Cerimon cites a medical precedent: an Egyptian person who appeared dead for nine hours was revived by 'good appliance' — proper treatment. He uses this case to justify attempting to resuscitate Thaisa, arguing that death can 'usurp on nature' for a time before the vital fire is completely extinguished. 'Lien dead' means 'lain dead' (the archaic past participle of 'lie').
TLN 1267cultural context
“The rough and woeful music that we have, Cause it to sound”
Cerimon orders music played alongside the fire and cloths as part of the revival. Renaissance medical theory held that music could restore vital spirits by sympathetically resonating with the body's own rhythms — 'rough and woeful' suggests the viol music is loud and plaintive rather than gentle, intended to rouse rather than soothe. The viol (a bowed string instrument) was the standard indoor consort instrument of the period.
TLN 1274archaic vocab
“she gins to blow Into life's flower again”
'Gins' is an archaic contraction of 'begins' (from Old English ginnan, 'to begin'). So Cerimon is saying: 'she begins to breathe into life's flower again' — the first signs of breath returning. The image of 'life's flower' compares the renewed breath to a flower opening, a small but vivid emblem of revival.
TLN 1280rhetorical device
“Her eyelids, cases to those heavenly jewels Which Pericles hath lost”
Cerimon describes Thaisa's eyes as 'heavenly jewels' locked inside the case of her eyelids — a conceit (an extended, elaborate comparison) that also identifies them as Pericles' lost treasure: eyes that belong, through marriage, to her husband. 'The diamonds of a most praised water' continues the gem metaphor: diamonds of the finest 'water' (clarity and brilliance) are the highest-quality stones, here meaning irises of extraordinary beauty.
TLN 1288classical allusion
“O dear Diana”
Diana — goddess of the moon, chastity, and the hunt — is the presiding deity of Pericles. Thaisa's first words on reviving are an invocation of Diana, which is the play's first signal that she will become Diana's votaress (priestess) at Ephesus, where Diana had her greatest temple. The revival itself takes place in Ephesus, Diana's sacred city.
classical Diana, virgin goddess of the moon
TLN 1296classical allusion
“AEsculapius guide us”
Aesculapius (Greek Asklepios) was the god of medicine and healing in classical antiquity, son of Apollo. Cerimon's closing prayer asks Aesculapius to guide him as he carries Thaisa to recovery. The invocation is the scene's final touch: Cerimon frames his medical skill as divinely aided, not self-sufficient.