Act 5, Scene 1

On board Pericles' ship, off Mytilene. A close pavilion

[Enter Gower.]
Gower
1945 Marina thus the brothel 'scapes, and chances
1946 Into an honest house, our story says.
1947 She sings like one immortal, and she dances
1948 As goddess-like to her admired lays;
1949 Deep clerks she dumbs; and with her neeld composes
1950 Nature's own shape, of bud, bird, branch, or berry,
1951 That even her art sistrs the natural roses;
1952 Her inkle, silk, twin with the rubied cherry:
1953 That pupils lacks she none of noble race,
1954 Who pour their bounty on her; and her gain
1955 She gives the cursed bawd. Here we her place;
1956 And to her father turn our thoughts again,
1957 Where we left him, on the sea. We there him lost;
1958 Whence, driven before the winds, he is arrived
1959 Here where his daughter dwells; and on this coast
1960 Suppose him now at anchor. The city strived
1961 God Neptune's annual feast to keep: from whence
1962 Lysimachus our Tyrian ship espies,
1963 His banners sable, trimm'd with rich expense;
1964 And to him in his barge with fervour hies.
1965 In your supposing once more put your sight
1966 Of heavy Pericles; think this his bark:
1967 Where what is done in action, more, if might,
1968 Shall be discover'd; please you, sit and hark.
[Exit.]
[Enter two Sailors, one belonging to the Tyrian vessel, the other to the barge; to them Helicanus.]
[To the Sailor of Mytilene.]
Tyrian Sailor
1969 Where is lord Helicanus? he can resolve you.
1970 O, here he is.
1971 Sir, there's a barge put off from Mytilene,
1972 And in it is Lysimachus the governor,
1973 Who craves to come aboard. What is your will?
Helicanus
1974 That he have his. Call up some gentlemen.
Tyrian Sailor
1975 Ho, gentlemen! my lord calls.
[Enter two or three Gentlemen.]
First Gentleman
1976 Doth your lordship call?
Helicanus
1977 Gentlemen, there s some of worth would come aboard;
1978 I pray ye, greet them fairly.
[The Gentlemen and the two Sailors descend, and go on board the barge.]
Helicanus
1979 Enter, from thence, Lysimachus and Lords; with the Gentlemen and
1980 the two sailors.
Tyrian Sailor
1981 Sir,
1982 This is the man that can, in aught you would,
1983 Resolve you.
Lysimachus
1984 Hail, reverend sir! the gods preserve you!
Helicanus
1985 And you, sir, to outlive the age I am,
1986 And die as I would do.
Lysimachus
1987 You wish me well.
1988 Being on shore, honouring of Neptune's triumphs,
1989 Seeing this goodly vessel ride before us,
1990 I made to it, to know of whence you are.
Helicanus
1991 First, what is your place?
Lysimachus
1992 I am the governor of this place you lie before.
Helicanus
1993 Sir,
1994 Our vessel is of Tyre, in it the king;
1995 A man who for this three months hath not spoken
1996 To any one, nor taken sustenance
1997 But to prorogue his grief.
Lysimachus
1998 Upon what ground is his distemperature?
Helicanus
1999 'Twould be too tedious to repeat;
2000 But the main grief springs from the loss
2001 Of a beloved daughter and a wife.
Lysimachus
2002 May we not see him?
Helicanus
2003 You may;
2004 But bootless is your sight: he will not speak
2005 To any.
Lysimachus
2006 Yet let me obtain my wish.
Helicanus
2007 Behold him.
[Pericles discovered.]
Helicanus
2008 This was a goodly person.
2009 Till the disaster that, one mortal night,
2010 Drove him to this.
Lysimachus
2011 Sir king, all hail! the gods preserve you!
2012 Hail, royal sir!
Helicanus
2013 It is in vain; he will not speak to you.
First Lord
2014 Sir,
2015 We have a maid in Mytilene, I durst wager,
2016 Would win some words of him.
Lysimachus
2017 'Tis well bethought.
2018 She questionless with her sweet harmony
2019 And other chosen attractions, would allure,
2020 And make a battery through his deafen'd parts,
2021 Which now are midway stopp'd:
2022 She is all happy as the fairest of all,
2023 And, with her fellow maids, is now upon
2024 The leafy shelter that abuts against
2025 The island's side.
[Whispers a Lord, who goes off in the barge of Lysimachus.]
Helicanus
2026 Sure, all's effectless; yet nothing we'll omit
2027 That bears recovery's name. But, since your kindness
2028 We have stretch'd thus far, let us beseech you
2029 That for our gold we may provision have,
2030 Wherein we are not destitute for want,
2031 But weary for the staleness.
Lysimachus
2032 O, sir, a courtesy
2033 Which if we should deny, the most just gods
2034 For every graff would send a catepillar,
2035 And so afflict our province. Yet once more
2036 Let me entreat to know at large the cause
2037 Of your king's sorrow.
Helicanus
2038 Sit, sir, I will recount it to you:
2039 But, see, I am prevented.
[Re-enter, from the barge, Lord, with Marina, and a young Lady.]
Lysimachus
2040 O, here is
2041 The lady that I sent for. Welcome, fair one!
2042 Is't not a goodly presence?
Helicanus
2043 She's a gallant lady.
Lysimachus
2044 She's such a one, that, were I well assured
2045 Came of a gentle kind and noble stock,
2046 I'ld wish no better choice, and think me rarely wed.
2047 Fair one, all goodness that consists in bounty
2048 Expect even here, where is a kingly patient:
2049 If that thy prosperous and artificial feat
2050 Can draw him but to answer thee in aught,
2051 Thy sacred physic shall receive such pay
2052 As thy desires can wish.
Marina
2053 Sir, I will use
2054 My utmost skill in his recovery,
2055 Provided
2056 That none but I and my companion maid
2057 Be suffer'd to come near him.
Lysimachus
2058 Come, let us leave her,
2059 And the gods make her prosperous!
[Marina sings.]
Lysimachus
2060 Mark'd he your music?
Marina
2061 No, nor look'd on us,
Lysimachus
2062 See, she will speak to him.
Marina
2063 Hail, sir! my lord, lend ear.
Pericles
2064 Hum, ha!
Marina
2065 I am a maid,
2066 My lord, that ne'er before invited eyes,
2067 But have been gazed on like a cornet: she speaks,
2068 My lord, that, may be, hath endured a grief
2069 Might equal yours, if both were justly weigh'd.
2070 Though wayward fortune did malign my state,
2071 My derivation was from ancestors
2072 Who stood equivalent with mighty kings:
2073 But time hath rooted out my parentage,
2074 And to the world and awkward casualties
2075 Bound me in servitude.
[Aside.]
Marina
2076 I will desist;
2077 But there is something glows upon my cheek,
2078 And whispers in mine ear 'Go not till he speak.'
Pericles
2079 My fortunes — parentage — good parentage —
2080 To equal mine! — was it not thus? what say you?
Marina
2081 I said, my lord, if you did know my parentage.
2082 You would not do me violence.
Pericles
2083 I do think so. Pray you, turn your eyes upon me.
2084 You are like something that — What country-woman?
2085 Here of these shores?
Marina
2086 No, nor of any shores:
2087 Yet I was mortally brought forth, and am
2088 No other than I appear.
Pericles
2089 I am great with woe, and shall deliver weeping.
2090 My dearest wife was like this maid, and such a one
2091 My daughter might have been: my queen's square brows;
2092 Her stature to an inch; as wand-like straight;
2093 As silver-voiced; her eyes as jewel-like
2094 And cased as richly; in pace another Juno;
2095 Who starves the ears she feeds, and makes them hungry,
2096 The more she gives them speech. Where do you live?
Marina
2097 Where I am but a stranger: from the deck
2098 You may discern the place.
Pericles
2099 Where were you bred?
2100 And how achieved you these endowments, which
2101 You make more rich to owe?
Marina
2102 If I should tell my history, it would seem
2103 Like lies disdain'd in the reporting.
Pericles
2104 Prithee, speak:
2105 Falseness cannot come from thee; for thou look'st
2106 Modest as Justice, and thou seem'st a palace
2107 For the crown'd Truth to dwell in: I will believe thee,
2108 And make my senses credit thy relation
2109 To points that seem impossible; for thou look'st
2110 Like one I loved indeed. What were thy friends?
2111 Didst thou not say, when I did push thee back —
2112 Which was when I perceived thee — that thou earnest
2113 From good descending?
Marina
2114 So indeed I did.
Pericles
2115 Report thy parentage. I think thou said'st
2116 Thou hadst been toss'd from wrong to injury,
2117 And that thou thought'st thy griefs might equal mine,
2118 If both were open'd.
Marina
2119 Some such thing,
2120 I said, and said no more but what my thoughts
2121 Did warrant me was likely.
Pericles
2122 Tell thy story;
2123 If thine consider'd prove the thousandth part
2124 Of my endurance, thou art a man, and I
2125 Have suffer'd like a girl: yet thou dost look
2126 Like Patience gazing on kings' graves, and smiling
2127 Extremity out of act. What were thy friends?
2128 How lost thou them? Thy name, my most kind virgin?
2129 Recount, I do beseech thee: come, sit by me.
Marina
2130 My name is Marina.
Pericles
2131 O, I am mock'd,
2132 And thou by some incensed god sent hither
2133 To make the world to laugh at me.
Marina
2134 Patience, good sir,
2135 Or here I'll cease.
Pericles
2136 Nay, I'll be patient.
2137 Thou little know'st how thou dost startle me,
2138 To call thyself Marina.
Marina
2139 The name
2140 Was given me by one that had some power,
2141 My father, and a king.
Pericles
2142 How! a king's daughter?
2143 And call'd Marina?
Marina
2144 You said you would believe me;
2145 But, not to be a troubler of your peace,
2146 I will end here.
Pericles
2147 But are you flesh and blood?
2148 Have you a working pulse? and are no fairy?
2149 Motion! Well; speak on. Where were you born?
2150 And wherefore call'd Marina?
Marina
2151 Call'd Marina
2152 For I was born at sea.
Pericles
2153 At sea! what mother?
Marina
2154 My mother was the daughter of a king;
2155 Who died the minute I was born,
2156 As my good nurse Lychorida hath oft
2157 Deliver'd weeping.
Pericles
2158 O, stop there a little!
[Aside.]
Pericles
2159 This is the rarest dream that e'er dull sleep
2160 Did mock sad fools withal: this cannot be:
2161 My daughter's buried. Well: where were: you bred?
2162 I'll hear you more, to the bottom of your story,
2163 And never interrupt you.
Marina
2164 You scorn: believe me, 'twere best I did give o'er.
2165 -
Pericles
2166 I will believe you by the syllable
2167 Of what you shall deliver. Yet, give me leave:
2168 How came you in these parts? where were you bred?
Marina
2169 The king my father did in Tarsus leave me;
2170 Till cruel Cleon, with his wicked wife,
2171 Did seek to murder me: and having woo'd
2172 A villain to attempt it, who having drawn to do 't,
2173 A crew of pirates came and rescued me;
2174 Brought me to Mytilene. But, good sir.
2175 Whither will you have me? Why do you weep? It may be,
2176 You think me an impostor: no, good faith;
2177 I am the daughter to King Pericles,
2178 If good King Pericles be.
Pericles
2179 Ho, Helicanus!
Helicanus
2180 Calls my lord?
Pericles
2181 Thou art a grave and noble counsellor,
2182 Most wise in general: tell me, if thou canst,
2183 What this maid is, or what is like to be,
2184 That thus hath made me weep?
Helicanus
2185 I know not; but
2186 Here is the regent, sir, of Mytilene
2187 Speaks nobly of her.
Lysimachus
2188 She would never tell
2189 Her parentage; being demanded that,
2190 She would sit still and weep.
Pericles
2191 O Helicanus, strike me, honour'd sir;
2192 Give me a gash, put me to present pain;
2193 Lest this great sea of joys rushing upon me
2194 O'erbear the shores of my mortality,
2195 And drown me with their sweetness. O, come hither,
2196 Thou that beget'st him that did thee beget;
2197 Thou that wast born at sea, buried at Tarsus,
2198 And found at sea again! O Helicanus,
2199 Down on thy knees, thank the holy gods as loud
2200 As thunder threatens us: this is Marina.
2201 What was thy mother's name? tell me but that,
2202 For truth can never be confirm'd enough,
2203 Though doubts did ever sleep
Marina
2204 First, sir, I pray,
2205 What is your title?
Pericles
2206 I am Pericles of Tyre: but tell me now
2207 My drown'd queen's name, as in the rest you said
2208 Thou hast been godlike perfect,
2209 The heir of kingdoms and another like
2210 To Pericles thy father.
Marina
2211 Is it no more to be your daughter than
2212 To say my mother's name was Thaisa?
2213 Thaisa was my mother, who did end
2214 The minute I began.
Pericles
2215 Now, blessing on thee! rise; thou art my child.
2216 Give me fresh garments. Mine own, Helicanus;
2217 She is not dead at Tarsus, as she should have been,
2218 By savage Cleon: she shall tell thee all;
2219 When thou shalt kneel, and justify in knowledge
2220 She is thy very princess. Who is this?
Helicanus
2221 Sir, 'tis the governor of Mytilene,
2222 Who, hearing of your melancholy state,
2223 Did come to see you.
Pericles
2224 I embrace you.
2225 Give me my robes. I am wild in my beholding.
2226 O heavens bless my girl! But, hark, what music?
2227 Tell Helicanus, my Marina, tell him
2228 O'er, point by point, for yet he seems to doubt,
2229 How sure you are my daughter. But, what music?
Helicanus
2230 My lord, I hear none.
Pericles
2231 None!
2232 The music of the spheres! List, my Marina.
Lysimachus
2233 It is not good to cross him; give him way
Pericles
2234 Rarest sounds! Do ye not hear?
Lysimachus
2235 My lord, I hear.
[Music.]
Pericles
2236 Most heavenly music!
2237 It nips me unto listening, and thick slumber
2238 Hangs upon mine eyes: let me rest.
[Sleeps.]
Lysimachus
2239 A pillow for his head:
2240 So, leave him all. Well, my companion friends,
2241 If this but answer to my just belief,
2242 I'll well remember you.
[Exeunt all but Pericles.]
[Diana appears to Pericles as in a vision.]
Diana
2243 My temple stands in Ephesus: hie thee thither,
2244 And do upon mine altar sacrifice.
2245 There, when my maiden priests are met together,
2246 Before the people all,
2247 Reveal how thou at sea didst lose thy wife:
2248 To mourn thy crosses, with thy daughter's, call
2249 And give them repetition to the life.
2250 Or perform my bidding, or thou livest in woe:
2251 Do it, and happy; by my silver bow!
2252 Awake, and tell thy dream.
[Disappears.]
Pericles
2253 Celestial Dian, goddess argentine,
2254 I will obey thee. Helicanus!
[Re-enter Helicanus, Lysimachus, and Marina.]
Helicanus
2255 Sir?
Pericles
2256 My purpose was for Tarsus, there to strike
2257 The inhospitable Cleon; but I am
2258 For other service first: toward Ephesus
2259 Turn our blown sails; eftsoons I'll tell thee why
[To Lysimachus.]
Pericles
2260 Shall we refresh us, sir, upon your shore,
2261 And give you gold for such provision
2262 As our intents will need?
Lysimachus
2263 Sir,
2264 With all my heart; and when you come ashore,
2265 I have another suit.
Pericles
2266 You shall prevail,
2267 Were you to woo my daughter; for it seems
2268 You have been noble towards her.
Lysimachus
2269 Sir, lend me your arm.
Pericles
2270 Come, my Marina.
[Exeunt.]

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Notes

TLN 1945historical topical
“Marina thus the brothel 'scapes, and chances”
Gower opens this act-chorus by summarizing what happened in Act 4: Marina has escaped the brothel at Mytilene. The word ''scapes' is an elision of 'escapes,' a normal Elizabethan contraction. The bare statement contrasts sharply with the degradation of the preceding scenes; Gower signals that Marina's virtue has triumphed and the story is turning toward restoration.
historical John Gower and the Confessio Amantis
TLN 1949archaic vocab
“with her neeld composes”
'Neeld' (also spelled 'needle') is an archaic form of 'needle,' used here for Marina's needlework. The four lines describe her accomplishments: she silences even 'deep clerks' (learned scholars) with her conversation, and with her needle she embroiders natural shapes so perfectly that her art rivals nature itself — 'her art sistrs the natural roses' (literally, is a sister to, equals).
TLN 1961classical allusion
“God Neptune's annual feast to keep”
The city of Mytilene is celebrating a yearly festival in honor of Neptune, the Roman god of the sea. This is why Lysimachus is on the water and notices Pericles' ship — the feast brings him out into the harbor at the moment of providential encounter. Neptune is the presiding deity of this sea-voyage romance: his storms separate the family, and his festival reunites them.
classical Neptune, god of the sea
TLN 1963archaic vocab
“His banners sable, trimm'd with rich expense”
'Sable' is the heraldic term for black — one of the standard tinctures (colors) used to describe coats of arms and banners. Pericles' ship flies black banners trimmed with expensive decoration, a visual sign of mourning. Black signals the king's grief over his lost wife and daughter; the costly trimming shows that he is a monarch even in despair.
TLN 1988classical allusion
“honouring of Neptune's triumphs”
'Triumphs' here means festivals, public celebrations — not military processions. Lysimachus explains that he was ashore participating in the Neptune festival (mentioned in Gower's chorus) when he spotted Pericles' ship. 'Triumph' in Elizabethan usage could mean any grand public spectacle or civic holiday, not only a Roman military procession.
classical Neptune, god of the sea
TLN 1997archaic vocab
“But to prorogue his grief”
'Prorogue' means to postpone or delay. Pericles takes food only to put off (not end) his grief — he is staying barely alive, not recovering. The word is best known from its political sense (proroguing Parliament, i.e., suspending it), but the root meaning is simply deferral. Helicanus explains that Pericles has been catatonic for three months, eating only enough to delay death.
TLN 1998archaic vocab
“Upon what ground is his distemperature”
'Distemperature' means mental or physical disorder, literally an imbalance of the humors. Elizabethan medicine held that illness resulted from the four humors (blood, phlegm, yellow bile, black bile) falling out of their proper 'temper' or balance; 'distemper' was the state of imbalance. Lysimachus is asking what has unhinged Pericles' mind.
TLN 2004archaic vocab
“bootless is your sight: he will not speak”
'Bootless' means profitless, useless, without result — your seeing him will accomplish nothing. The word comes from 'boot' in the archaic sense of profit or advantage (as in 'to boot' = in addition, as a profit). Helicanus warns Lysimachus that visiting Pericles will be a wasted effort since the king refuses all communication.
TLN 2020rhetorical device
“make a battery through his deafen'd parts”
Lysimachus uses a military metaphor: Marina's music and 'chosen attractions' will 'make a battery' — breach a defensive wall by repeated blows — through Pericles' senses, which are 'midway stopp'd' (blocked, numb from grief). The image treats the grieving king as a fortress that has shut itself off; Marina's charm is the siege weapon that will break through. 'Battery' in Elizabethan usage meant both legal assault and military bombardment.
TLN 2034archaic vocab
“for every graff would send a catepillar”
Lysimachus says that if Mytilene refused hospitality, the just gods would send a caterpillar for every 'graff' (graft) — every fruit-bearing cutting or cultivated plant — to destroy the province's crops. 'Graff' (a variant of 'graft') is an archaic horticultural term for a shoot or scion implanted into another plant; the image of a caterpillar devouring orchards was proverbial for destructive parasites devouring a commonwealth.
TLN 2049archaic vocab
“thy prosperous and artificial feat”
'Artificial' here means artful or skillful — produced by art or training rather than crude nature. Lysimachus is praising Marina's accomplished performance (music, speech, the arts she has cultivated); 'feat' means an exercise of skill or ability, not simply a single act. The phrasing 'sacred physic' in the next line frames her musical and conversational gifts as a form of medicine or healing power.
TLN 2066archaic vocab
“ne'er before invited eyes, But have been gazed on like a cornet”
Marina says she has never drawn attention to herself ('invited eyes') but has been stared at like a comet — the word 'cornet' here is an alternative early-modern spelling of 'comet.' A comet was a spectacular, alarming celestial phenomenon that people could not help but stare at; Marina compares herself to one, something observed with wonder against her will. She is presenting her unusual circumstances as extraordinary rather than self-sought.
TLN 2070classical allusion
“wayward fortune did malign my state”
Marina invokes Fortune as a willful, hostile force that 'maligns' (acts with malice toward) her condition. Fortune was personified in classical and medieval tradition as a goddess turning a blind wheel — raising and casting down at random. Throughout Pericles, Fortune governs the plot: shipwrecks, separations, and restorations are all her wheel turning. Marina echoes this when she claims a noble ancestry now 'rooted out' by time and Fortune's 'awkward casualties' (unfavorable accidents).
classical Fortune and her wheel
TLN 2089rhetorical device
“I am great with woe, and shall deliver weeping”
Pericles uses the metaphor of pregnancy: he is 'great with woe' (pregnant, swollen with grief) and will 'deliver' (give birth, but also express or release) his sorrow in tears. The physical metaphor for emotional suffering is compressed and striking — grief is a burden carried inside that must be brought forth. The word 'deliver' carries both senses simultaneously: to give birth and to give voice to something.
TLN 2094classical allusion
“in pace another Juno”
Pericles compares his dead wife Thaisa (and by extension Marina, who reminds him of her) to Juno in her walk or bearing: 'pace' means gait, the way she carried herself. Juno — queen of the gods and goddess of marriage — was the classical byword for majestic, stately dignity in a woman. The comparison elevates Thaisa to the highest feminine dignity imaginable.
classical Juno, queen of the gods
TLN 2106rhetorical device
“Modest as Justice, and thou seem'st a palace”
Pericles uses personification and metaphor together: Marina looks 'Modest as Justice' — Justice was traditionally depicted as a blindfolded woman, serene and impartial — and she seems a 'palace / For the crown'd Truth to dwell in.' Both figures (Justice and Truth) were classical personifications of virtues; Pericles is saying that Marina's face and bearing are incapable of deception, that honesty inhabits her like royalty in its rightful seat.
TLN 2126rhetorical device
“Like Patience gazing on kings' graves, and smiling”
One of the play's most celebrated images: Pericles compares Marina to the personification of Patience — a figure who sits meditating beside royal tombs and smiles at the worst that extremity ('Extremity out of act' = making extremity powerless, rendered harmless by calm endurance). The image captures Marina's quality: she has suffered profoundly yet maintained a serene, uncomplaining composure that shames even kings in their graves.
TLN 2147cultural context
“But are you flesh and blood? Have you a working pulse? and are no fairy”
Pericles, overwhelmed, asks whether Marina is a real human being or a supernatural creature — a fairy. In Elizabethan belief, fairies could assume the shapes of dead loved ones, or changelings could be substituted for real children; the fear that this is a shape-changing spirit or delusion is a genuine dramatic tension. The physical test of a 'working pulse' was a conventional way to check whether a being was real or spectral.
TLN 2156historical topical
“my good nurse Lychorida hath oft”
Lychorida was Marina's nurse, who attended Thaisa during the fatal sea-birth of Act 3 and afterward raised Marina at Tarsus. In the Apollonius of Tyre source tradition (Gower's Confessio Amantis and Twine's Patterne of Painefull Adventures) the nurse is a key figure who transmits the dead mother's story to the daughter. Marina's naming of her nurse here is the first of the identifying details that will help convince Pericles the girl is truly his daughter.
historical The romance of Apollonius of Tyre
TLN 2193rhetorical device
“Lest this great sea of joys rushing upon me”
Pericles begs Helicanus to strike him physically to anchor him in the present with pain — otherwise 'this great sea of joys' threatening to 'o'erbear the shores of my mortality' will overwhelm him. The image reverses the play's governing metaphor: throughout Pericles the sea has been a source of loss and suffering; here it becomes a flood of joy that is equally dangerous in its excess. Joy so extreme it threatens death was a recognized medical phenomenon in the period.
TLN 2196rhetorical device
“Thou that beget'st him that did thee beget”
This paradox is one of the play's most celebrated lines: 'you who give birth to (or re-create) the man who fathered you.' By restoring Pericles to life and feeling through the reunion, Marina has in effect regenerated her father — she has become the parent of the man who was her parent. The reversal captures the restorative logic of the late romances, where children literally resurrect their parents.
TLN 2211syntax grammar
“Is it no more to be your daughter than To say my mother's name was Thaisa”
Marina's question is compressed and might look confusing: she is asking, 'Is the only thing required to prove I am your daughter just to say my mother's name was Thaisa?' The word order is inverted (the subject 'to say' comes after 'than'), a common Elizabethan grammatical construction. She then names her mother — and names the minute of her own birth as the minute her mother died ('Thaisa was my mother, who did end / The minute I began') — which is the clinching proof.
TLN 2232classical allusion
“The music of the spheres”
In classical and medieval cosmology the planets and stars were embedded in transparent crystalline spheres that rotated around the earth; as they turned, they produced an inaudible but perfect celestial music — 'the music of the spheres,' or musica universalis. Plato described it in the Myth of Er; Pythagoras was credited with the discovery. Only Pericles hears it; the others hear nothing. The moment signals that his spiritual restoration is now complete: he is in harmony with the cosmic order.
TLN 2237cultural context
“thick slumber Hangs upon mine eyes”
Immediately after hearing the music of the spheres, Pericles falls into a deep, sudden sleep. This supernatural sleep prepares the audience for Diana's vision: in classical and biblical tradition, divine visions came to mortals during sleep (the dream-vision was the standard narrative form for heavenly messages). The 'thick slumber' is not ordinary tiredness but the divinely induced unconsciousness that precedes revelation.
TLN 2243classical allusion
“My temple stands in Ephesus: hie thee thither”
Diana appears to Pericles in a vision and directs him to her temple at Ephesus, where Thaisa has been living as a priestess since Cerimon revived her. The great temple of Artemis (Diana) at Ephesus was one of the Seven Wonders of the ancient world, the most famous sanctuary of the goddess in the Greek world. The vision is the play's final divine intervention, directing Pericles toward the reunion that will complete the family's restoration.
classical Diana, virgin goddess of the moon
TLN 2251classical allusion
“Do it, and happy; by my silver bow”
Diana swears her command 'by my silver bow' — the bow being her standard attribute as the goddess of the hunt and the moon. Silver is her metal, tied to the pale lunar light, and the silver bow marks the speaker of the vision as the virgin moon-goddess. (In the older Greek epithets the 'silver bow' is actually Apollo's and Artemis bears shafts of gold, but in Renaissance English usage the silver bow is regularly Diana's own, as the play has it.) The oath grounds the divine apparition in recognizable classical imagery.
classical Diana, virgin goddess of the moon
TLN 2253archaic vocab
“Celestial Dian, goddess argentine”
'Argentine' means silvery — from Latin argentum, silver. The epithet identifies Diana as the silver goddess of the moon: her domain is moonlight, her bow is silver, and silver was her metal. 'Goddess argentine' is an elevated poetic phrase, more formal than simply 'silver goddess,' and suits the solemnity of Pericles' response to the divine vision.
classical Diana, virgin goddess of the moon
TLN 2259archaic vocab
“eftsoons I'll tell thee why”
'Eftsoons' means soon, presently, shortly — an archaic adverb common in medieval and Elizabethan poetry but already old-fashioned in the early 17th century. Its root is 'eft' (again, afterward) plus 'soon'; by Shakespeare's time it was a deliberately literary or elevated word. Pericles uses it as he turns the ship toward Ephesus, promising to explain to Helicanus once they are underway.
historical John Gower and the Confessio Amantis