Act 2, Scene I - Page 2

your labour, honest fishermen.

Second Fisherman
Honest! good fellow, what's that? If it be a day
fits you, search out of the calendar, and nobody
look after it.

PERICLES
May see the sea hath cast upon your coast.

Second Fisherman
What a drunken knave was the sea to cast thee in our
way!

PERICLES
A man whom both the waters and the wind,
In that vast tennis-court, have made the ball
For them to play upon, entreats you pity him:
He asks of you, that never used to beg.

First Fisherman
No, friend, cannot you beg? Here's them in our
country Greece gets more with begging than we can do
with working.

Second Fisherman
Canst thou catch any fishes, then?

PERICLES
I never practised it.

Second Fisherman
Nay, then thou wilt starve, sure; for here's nothing
to be got now-a-days, unless thou canst fish for't.

PERICLES
What I have been I have forgot to know;
But what I am, want teaches me to think on:
A man throng'd up with cold: my veins are chill,
And have no more of life than may suffice
To give my tongue that heat to ask your help;
Which if you shall refuse, when I am dead,
For that I am a man, pray see me buried.

First Fisherman
Die quoth-a? Now gods forbid! I have a gown here;
come, put it on; keep thee warm. Now, afore me, a
handsome fellow! Come, thou shalt go home, and
we'll have flesh for holidays, fish for
fasting-days, and moreo'er puddings and flap-jacks,
and thou shalt be welcome.

PERICLES
I thank you, sir.

Second Fisherman
Hark you, my friend; you said you could not beg.

PERICLES
I did but crave.

Second Fisherman
But crave! Then I'll turn craver too, and so I
shall 'scape whipping.

PERICLES
Why, are all your beggars whipped, then?

Second Fisherman
O, not all, my friend, not all; for if all your
beggars were whipped, I would wish no better office
than to be beadle. But, master, I'll go draw up the
net.

Exit with Third Fisherman

PERICLES
[Aside] How well this honest mirth becomes their labour!

First Fisherman
Hark you, sir, do you know where ye are?

PERICLES
Not well.

First Fisherman
Why, I'll tell you: this is called Pentapolis, and
our king the good Simonides.

PERICLES
The good King Simonides, do you call him.

First Fisherman
Ay, sir; and he deserves so to be called for his
peaceable reign and good government.

PERICLES
He is a happy king, since he gains from his subjects
the name of good by his government. How far is his
court distant from this shore?

First Fisherman
Marry,