Act 4, Scene 1

Tarsus. An open place near the sea-shore.

[Enter Gower.]
Gower
1363 Imagine Pericles arrived at Tyre,
1364 Welcomed and settled to his own desire.
1365 His woeful queen we leave at Ephesus,
1366 Unto Diana there a votaress.
1367 Now to Marina bend your mind,
1368 Whom our fast-growing scene must find
1369 At Tarsus, and by Cleon train'd
1370 In music, letters; who hath gain'd
1371 Of education all the grace,
1372 Which makes her both the heart and place
1373 Of general wonder. But, alack,
1374 That monster envy, oft the wrack
1375 Of earned praise, Marina's life
1376 Seeks to take off by treason's knife.
1377 And in this kind hath our Cleon
1378 One daughter, and a wench full grown,
1379 Even ripe for marriage-rite; this maid
1380 Hight Philoten: and it is said
1381 For certain in our story, she
1382 Would ever with Marina be:
1383 Be't when she weaved the sleided silk
1384 With fingers long, small, white as milk;
1385 Or when she would with sharp needle wound,
1386 The cambric, which she made more sound
1387 By hurting it; or when to the lute
1388 She sung, and made the night-bird mute
1389 That still records with moan; or when
1390 She would with rich and constant pen
1391 Vail to her mistress Dian; still
1392 This Philoten contends in skill
1393 With absolute Marina: so
1394 With the dove of Paphos might the crow
1395 Vie feathers white. Marina gets
1396 All praises, which are paid as debts,
1397 And not as given. This so darks
1398 In Philoten all graceful marks,
1399 That Cleon's wife, with envy rare,
1400 A present murderer does prepare
1401 For good Marina, that her daughter
1402 Might stand peerless by this slaughter.
1403 The sooner her vile thoughts to stead,
1404 Lychorida, our nurse, is dead:
1405 And cursed Dionyza hath
1406 The pregnant instrument of wrath
1407 Prest for this blow. The unborn event
1408 I do commend to your content:
1409 Only I carry winged time
1410 Post on the lame feet of my rhyme;
1411 Which never could I so convey,
1412 Unless your thoughts went on my way.
1413 Dionyza does appear,
1414 With Leonine, a murderer.
[Exit.]
[Enter Dionyza and Leonine.]
Dionyza
1415 Thy oath remember; thou hast sworn to do 't:
1416 'Tis but a blow, which never shall be known.
1417 Thou canst not do a thing in the world so soon,
1418 To yield thee so much profit. Let not conscience,
1419 Which is but cold, inflaming love i' thy bosom,
1420 Inflame too nicely; nor let pity, which
1421 Even women have cast off, melt thee, but be
1422 A soldier to thy purpose.
Leonine
1423 I will do't; but yet she is a goodly creature.
Dionyza
1424 The fitter, then, the gods should have her. Here she comes
1425 weeping for her only mistress' death. Thou art resolved?
Leonine
1426 I am resolved.
[Enter Marina, with a basket of flowers.]
Marina
1427 No, I will rob Tellus of her weed
1428 To strew thy green with flowers: the yellows, blues,
1429 The purple violets, and marigolds,
1430 Shall as a carpet hang upon thy grave,
1431 While summer-days do last. Ay me! poor maid,
1432 Born in a tempest, when my mother died,
1433 This world to me is like a lasting storm,
1434 Whirring me from my friends.
Dionyza
1435 How now, Marina! why do you keep alone?
1436 How chance my daughter is not with you? Do not
1437 Consume your blood with sorrowing: you have
1438 A nurse of me. Lord, how your favour's changed
1439 With this unprofitable woe!
1440 Come, give me your flowers, ere the sea mar it.
1441 Walk with Leonine; the air is quick there,
1442 And it pierces and sharpens the stomach.
1443 Come,
1444 Leonine, take her by the arm, walk with her.
Marina
1445 No, I pray you;
1446 I'll not bereave you of your servant.
Dionyza
1447 Come, come;
1448 I love the king your father, and yourself,
1449 With more than foreign heart. We every day
1450 Expect him here: when he shall come and find
1451 Our paragon to all reports thus blasted,
1452 He will repent the breadth of his great voyage;
1453 Blame both my lord and me, that we have taken
1454 No care to your best courses. Go, I pray you,
1455 Walk, and be cheerful once again; reserve
1456 That excellent complexion, which did steal
1457 The eyes of young and old. Care not for me;
1458 I can go home alone.
Marina
1459 Well, I will go;
1460 But yet I have no desire to it.
Dionyza
1461 Come, come, I know 'tis good for you.
1462 Walk half an hour, Leonine, at the least:
1463 Remember what I have said.
Leonine
1464 I warrant you, madam.
Dionyza
1465 I'll leave you, my sweet lady, for a while:
1466 Pray, walk softly, do not heat your blood:
1467 What! I must have a care of you.
Marina
1468 My thanks, sweet madam.
[Exit Dionyza.]
Marina
1469 Is this wind westerly that blows?
Leonine
1470 South-west.
Marina
1471 When I was born, the wind was north.
Leonine
1472 Was 't so?
Marina
1473 My father, as nurse said, did never fear,
1474 But cried 'Good seamen!' to the sailors, galling
1475 His kingly hands, haling ropes;
1476 And, clasping to the mast, endured a sea
1477 That almost burst the deck.
Leonine
1478 When was this?
Marina
1479 When I was born:
1480 Never was waves nor wind more violent;
1481 And from the ladder-tackle washes off
1482 A canvas-climber. 'Ha!' says one, wilt out?'
1483 And with a dropping industry they skip
1484 From stem to stern: the boatswain whistles, and
1485 The master calls, and trebles their confusion.
Leonine
1486 Come, say your prayers.
Marina
1487 What mean you?
Leonine
1488 If you require a little space for prayer,
1489 I grant it: pray; but be not tedious,
1490 For the gods are quick of ear, and I am sworn
1491 To do my work with haste.
Marina
1492 Why will you kill rne?
Leonine
1493 To satisfy my lady.
Marina
1494 Why would she have me kill'd?
1495 Now, as I can remember, by my troth,
1496 I never did her hurt in all my life:
1497 I never spoke bad word, nor did ill turn
1498 To any living creature: believe me, la,
1499 I never kill'd a mouse, nor hurt a fly:
1500 I trod upon a worm against my will,
1501 But I wept for it. How have I offended,
1502 Wherein my death might yield her any profit,
1503 Or my life imply her any danger?
Leonine
1504 My commission
1505 Is not to reason of the deed, but do it.
Marina
1506 You will not do 't for all the world, I hope.
1507 You are well favour'd, and your looks foreshow
1508 You have a gentle heart. I saw you lately,
1509 When you caught hurt in parting two that fought:
1510 Good sooth, it show'd well in you: do so now:
1511 Your lady seeks my life; come you between,
1512 And save poor me, the weaker.
Leonine
1513 I am sworn,
1514 And will dispatch.
[He seizes her.]
[Enter Pirates.]
First Pirate
1515 Hold, villain!
[Leonine runs away.]
Second Pirate
1516 A prize! a prize!
Third Pirate
1517 Half-part, mates, half-part,
1518 Comes, let's have her aboard suddenly.
[Exeunt Pirates with Marina.]
[Re-enter Leonine.]
Leonine
1519 These roguing thieves serve the great pirate Valdes;
1520 And they hav seized Marina. Let her go:
1521 Thre's no hope she will return. I'll swear she's dead
1522 And thrown into the sea. But I'll see further:
1523 Perhaps they will but please themselves upon her,
1524 Not carry her aboard. If she remain,
1525 Whom they have ravish'd must by me be slain.
[Exit.]

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Notes

TLN 1366cultural context
“Unto Diana there a votaress”
A votaress is a woman who has taken a vow of devotion to a deity, living in her service. Thaisa, believing herself widowed, has entered the temple of Diana at Ephesus and devoted herself to the goddess of chastity. The detail quietly sets up the play's climax: the same temple will be the site of the family reunion in Act 5.
classical Diana, virgin goddess of the moon
TLN 1374rhetorical device
“That monster envy, oft the wrack”
Gower personifies Envy as a monster that destroys ('wrack' = wreck, ruin) deserved reputation. The word 'wrack' means ruin or destruction, often of a ship — carrying the sea-imagery that runs throughout the play. Dionyza's jealousy of Marina's excellence is cast here as a monstrous, unnatural force.
TLN 1380archaic vocab
“Hight Philoten: and it is said”
'Hight' is a deliberately archaic past-tense form meaning 'is called' or 'was named.' It is the third-person singular of the Old English verb 'hatan' (to be called), which survived in medieval poetry but was obsolete in everyday Elizabethan speech. Gower's chorus uses it here to give the verse an antique, Chaucerian ring that signals this is an old tale told by an old poet.
historical John Gower and the Confessio Amantis
TLN 1383archaic vocab
“she weaved the sleided silk”
'Sleided' means raw, untwisted silk thread as it comes off the cocoon before being spun — also called 'sleid' or 'slayed' silk. Gower describes Marina weaving unprocessed silk thread, a delicate accomplishment that marks her refined education. The word is rare outside needlework vocabulary.
TLN 1388archaic vocab
“made the night-bird mute That still records with moan”
The 'night-bird' is the nightingale, and 'records' here does not mean to write something down — it means to sing or rehearse a song, from the Old French 'recorder' (to run through a melody). The nightingale 'that still records with moan' is the one that endlessly rehearses its mournful song; Marina's singing silences even this famously plaintive bird.
TLN 1391archaic vocab
“Vail to her mistress Dian”
'Vail' (also 'vale' or 'veil') means to lower a flag or bow the head in homage — to yield precedence or pay tribute. Marina writes (with her 'rich and constant pen') offering reverence to her mistress Diana. The phrase confirms Marina as a devotee of the goddess of chastity, which prefigures the purity she will defend in the brothel.
classical Diana, virgin goddess of the moon
TLN 1394classical allusion
“the dove of Paphos might the crow Vie feathers white”
Paphos was the city in Cyprus sacred to Venus (Aphrodite), goddess of love, whose emblem was the dove. The dove of Paphos — Venus's bird — is white; to compare a crow vying to match it is to say Philoten is as outmatched by Marina as a black crow is by the goddess of love's own sacred bird. The image underscores how hopeless Philoten's rivalry is.
TLN 1403archaic vocab
“The sooner her vile thoughts to stead”
'Stead' is an archaic verb meaning to serve, assist, or help forward — 'to stead' a purpose is to advance or further it. The phrase means: to help forward Dionyza's vile plans the sooner. It is Gower's deliberately old-fashioned diction; modern readers might expect 'speed' or 'further.'
TLN 1407archaic vocab
“Prest for this blow”
'Prest' means ready, prepared, or at hand — from the Old French 'prest' (prepared). The 'pregnant instrument of wrath' (Leonine, the hired murderer) is ready and primed for his task. The word was archaic by Shakespeare's time and is a characteristic feature of Gower's pseudo-medieval diction.
TLN 1409rhetorical device
“I carry winged time Post on the lame feet of my rhyme”
Gower uses an extended paradox: he 'carries winged time' (time is imagined as swift, with wings) but does so 'on the lame feet of my rhyme.' The chorus covers years in seconds of verse, but his old-fashioned four-beat couplets are the hobbling vehicle. 'Post' means to ride at full speed, like a post-horse carrying urgent mail. The self-deprecating wit is typical of Gower's Presenter role.
historical John Gower and the Confessio Amantis
TLN 1418syntax grammar
“conscience, Which is but cold, inflaming love i' thy bosom, Inflame too nicely”
This sentence is grammatically compressed and hard to parse. Dionyza is telling Leonine not to let conscience — which she dismisses as feeble and 'cold' — fan pity into a blaze that interferes with his purpose. 'Inflaming love i' thy bosom' is an appositive phrase describing what cold conscience might do: inflame, or kindle, a sentiment (pity) in his heart. 'Inflame too nicely' = let it burn too sensitively, too fastidiously.
TLN 1427classical allusion
“I will rob Tellus of her weed”
Tellus is the Roman goddess of the earth (Latin 'terra'). Her 'weed' means her garment or covering — that is, the flowers and plants that clothe the ground. Marina says she will strip the earth of its flowers to strew on Lychorida's grave. The invocation of Tellus lifts a simple act of mourning into a reverential gesture toward nature herself.
TLN 1474archaic vocab
“galling His kingly hands, haling ropes”
'Galling' means chafing or rubbing raw; 'haling' (also 'hauling') means pulling hard. Marina pictures her father in the storm, chafing his royal hands by hauling on the ropes alongside the sailors — an image of a king who works physically in the crisis rather than standing apart. It is the detail that most vividly characterises Pericles as a man of active courage.
TLN 1481cultural context
“from the ladder-tackle washes off A canvas-climber”
A 'canvas-climber' is a sailor who climbs the rigging — the ropes and ladders of canvas and rope that lead up to the sails. The 'ladder-tackle' is the rope-ladder used to climb the masts. Marina's account describes a man swept from the rigging in the storm, a vivid eyewitness detail that shows she has rehearsed the story of her own birth as a sailor's tale, not a courtly one.
TLN 1516cultural context
“A prize! a prize!”
In the language of pirates and privateers, a 'prize' is a captured ship or cargo seized at sea. By calling Marina a 'prize,' the second pirate immediately converts her from a person into property — the same dehumanising logic that will see her sold at market in the next scene. The word was current in Elizabethan naval and piratical practice.