Beautiful Stories from ShakespeareShakespeare, William
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Beautiful Stories from Shakespeare
Shakespeare, William
Children's literature; Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616 -- Stories, plots, etc. -- Juvenile literature
Some of these made their way to Pentapolis, and finding their King
there, told him how discontented his people were at his long absence,
and that, Antiochus being dead, there was nothing now to hinder him from
returning to his kingdom. Then Pericles told his wife and father-in-law
who he really was, and they and all the subjects of Simonides greatly
rejoiced to know that the gallant husband of Thaisa was a King in his
own right. So Pericles set sail with his dear wife for his native land.
But once more the sea was cruel to him, for again a dreadful storm broke
out, and while it was at its height, a servant came to tell him that
a little daughter was born to him. This news would have made his heart
glad indeed, but that the servant went on to add that his wife--his
dear, dear Thaisa--was dead.
While he was praying the gods to be good to his little baby girl,
the sailors came to him, declaring that the dead Queen must be thrown
overboard, for they believed that the storm would never cease so long
as a dead body remained in the vessel. So Thaisa was laid in a big chest
with spices and jewels, and a scroll on which the sorrowful King wrote
these lines:
“Here I give to understand
(If e'er this coffin drive a-land),
I, King Pericles, have lost
This Queen worth all our mundane cost.
Who finds her, give her burying;
She was the daughter of a King;
Besides this treasure for a fee,
The gods requite his charity!”
Then the chest was cast into the sea, and the waves taking it, by and
by washed it ashore at Ephesus, where it was found by the servants of a
lord named Cerimon. He at once ordered it to be opened, and when he
saw how lovely Thaisa looked, he doubted if she were dead, and took
immediate steps to restore her. Then a great wonder happened, for she,
who had been thrown into the sea as dead, came back to life. But feeling
sure that she would never see her husband again, Thaisa retired from the
world, and became a priestess of the Goddess Diana.
While these things were happening, Pericles went on to Tarsus with his
little daughter, whom he called Marina, because she had been born at
sea. Leaving her in the hands of his old friend the Governor of Tarsus,
the King sailed for his own dominions.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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