Original Text |
Translated Text |
| Source: Folger Shakespeare Library |
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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 looked upon! DIONYZA I think you’ll turn a child again. CLEON
Were I chief lord of all this spacious world, 5
I’d give it to undo the deed. A lady
Much less in blood than virtue, yet a princess
To equal any single crown o’ th’ Earth
I’ the justice of compare. O villain Leonine,
Whom thou hast poisoned too! 10
If thou hadst drunk to him, ’t had been a kindness
Becoming well thy face. What canst thou say
When noble Pericles shall demand his child? | Back in Tharsus, Dionyza thinks Marina is dead and has told Cleon what she did. We find out that Dionyza also poisoned Leonine so he couldn't rat her out to anyone. Cleon totally freaks out about his wife being a murderer and is all, "OMG. What the heck are we going to tell Pericles when he comes back to get his daughter?" |
DIONYZA
That she is dead. Nurses are not the Fates.
To foster is not ever to preserve. 15
She died at night; I’ll say so. Who can cross it
Unless you play the impious innocent
And, for an honest attribute, cry out
“She died by foul play!” CLEON O, go to. Well, well, 20
Of all the faults beneath the heavens, the gods
Do like this worst. | Dionyza is all, "We'll tell him she's dead, and there was nothing we could do to save her. End of story." |
DIONYZA Be one of those that thinks
The petty wrens of Tarsus will fly hence
And open this to Pericles. I do shame 25
To think of what a noble strain you are,
And of how coward a spirit. CLEON To such proceeding
Whoever but his approbation added,
Though not his prime consent, he did not flow 30
From honorable courses. DIONYZA Be it so, then.
Yet none does know but you how she came dead,
Nor none can know, Leonine being gone.
She did distain my child and stood between 35
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, 40
You not your child well loving, yet I find
It greets me as an enterprise of kindness
Performed to your sole daughter. CLEON Heavens forgive it. | Now Dionyza claims she had to kill Marina because she was taking so much attention away from her biological daughter. She accuses Cleon of being a lousy dad who doesn't care about his own kid. |
DIONYZA And as for Pericles, 45
What should he say? We wept after her hearse,
And yet we mourn. Her monument is
Almost finished, and her epitaphs
In glitt’ring golden characters express
A general praise to her, and care in us 50
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’re like one that superstitiously 55
Do swear to the gods that winter kills the flies.
But yet I know you’ll do as I advise. They exit. | Then Dionyza informs Cleon that she's having a monument built in Marina's honor so everyone will think they're sad about her death. Cleon tells Dionyza she's a monster, but he goes along with her plan anyway. |