Act 4, Scene III

424 Words
Enter CLEON and DIONYZA DIONYZA Why, are you foolish? Can it be undone? CLEON O Dionyza, such a piece of slaughter The sun and moon ne'er look'd upon! DIONYZA I think You'll turn a child again. CLEON Were I chief lord of all this spacious world, I'ld give it to undo the deed. O lady, Much less in blood than virtue, yet a princess To equal any single crown o' the earth I' the justice of compare! O villain Leonine! Whom thou hast poison'd too: If thou hadst drunk to him, 't had been a kindness Becoming well thy fact: what canst thou say When noble Pericles shall demand his child? DIONYZA That she is dead. Nurses are not the fates, To foster it, nor ever to preserve. She died at night; I'll say so. Who can cross it? Unless you play the pious innocent, And for an honest attribute cry out 'She died by foul play.' CLEON O, go to. Well, well, Of all the faults beneath the heavens, the gods Do like this worst. DIONYZA Be one of those that think The petty wrens of Tarsus will fly hence, And open this to Pericles. I do shame To think of what a noble strain you are, And of how coward a spirit. CLEON To such proceeding Who ever but his approbation added, Though not his prime consent, he did not flow From honourable sources. DIONYZA Be it so, then: Yet none does know, but you, how she came dead, Nor none can know, Leonine being gone. She did disdain my child, and stood between Her and her fortunes: none would look on her, But cast their gazes on Marina's face; Whilst ours was blurted at and held a malkin Not worth the time of day. It pierced me through; And though you call my course unnatural, You not your child well loving, yet I find It greets me as an enterprise of kindness Perform'd to your sole daughter. CLEON Heavens forgive it! DIONYZA And as for Pericles, What should he say? We wept after her hearse, And yet we mourn: her monument Is almost finish'd, and her epitaphs In glittering golden characters express A general praise to her, and care in us At whose expense 'tis done. CLEON Thou art like the harpy, Which, to betray, dost, with thine angel's face, Seize with thine eagle's talons. DIONYZA You are like one that superstitiously Doth swear to the gods that winter kills the flies: But yet I know you'll do as I advise.
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