Early Modern Drama · Character Archetypes

CERIMON

in Pericles, Prince of Tyre — Shakespeare, William; Wilkins, George

Metadata

PlayPericles, Prince of Tyre
AuthorShakespeare, William; Wilkins, George
Year (catalogued)1609
First performance1608
Decade1600s
GenreRomance
Play typeAdult Professional
CompanyKing's Men
TheaterGlobe;Outdoor Professional
Speech prefix(es)Cery. | C •• y. | Cer. | Cer • . | Ceri. | C • r. | C • .
Words707
Characters3780
Typicality0.24 (cosine to cluster centroid)
TCP idA12024
BritDrama no.1555
ClusterCluster 7 — Pedants, satyrs & Latin wit

Important excerpts

No keyword-matching excerpt could be extracted (the cluster label doesn't share vocabulary with this character's speech).

Full speech

Phylemon, hoe. Your Master will be dead ere you return, There's nothing can be ministered to Nature, That can recover him: give this to the Apothecary, And tell me how it works. Gentlemen, why do you stir so early? Oh you say well. I h ld it ever Virtue and Cunning, Were endowments greater, then Nobleness e & Riches; Careless Heirs, may the two latter darken and expend; But Immortality attends the former, Making a man a God: T'is known, I ever have studied Physic: Through which secret Art, by turning over Authorities, I have together with my practice, made famyliar, To me and to my aid, the blessed infusions that dwells In Vegetives, in Metals, Stones: and can speak of the Disturbances that Nature works, and of her cures; which does give me a more content in course of true delight Then to be thirsty after tottering honour, or Tie my pleasure up in silken Bags, To please the Fool and Death. Get Fire and meat for these poor men, It's been a turbulent and stormy night. What's that? Set't down, let's look vpon't. What ere it be, t'is wondrous heavy; Wrench it open straight: If the Seas stomach be overcharged with Gold, T'is a good constraint of Fortune it belches upon us. How close 'tis caulkt & bottomed, did the sea cast it up? Wrench it open soft; it smells most sweetly in my sense. As ever l to m nostril: so, up with it. O you most potent Gods! what's here, a Corpse? Shrouded in Cloth of state, balmed and entreasured with full bags of Spices, a Passport to Apollo, perfect me in the Characters: Here I give to understand, If er this Coffin drives alaud; I King Pericles have lost This Queen, worth all our mundaine cost: Who finds her, give her burying, She was the Daughter of a King: Besia's, this Treasure for a ee, The Go S requited his charity. If thou livest Pericles, thou hast a heart, That ever cracks for woe, this chanced to night. She is ali e, behold her ey lids Cases to those heau nly jewels which Pericles hath lost, Begin to partly their fringes of bright gold, The Diamonds of a most praised water does appear, TO make the world twice rich, live, and make us weep. To hear your fat , ure creature, rare as you seem to be. Madam, this Letter, and some certain Jewels, Lay with you in your Coffer, which are at your command: Know you the Charecter? Look to the Lady, Oh she's but ouer-joyde, Early in b u tering morn this Lady was thrown upon this shore. I op't the coffin, found there rich Jewels, recoue read her, and plac'ste her here in Diana's temple. Great Sir, they shall be brought you to my house, whither I invite you, look Thaisa is recovered. I will my Lord, beseech you first, go with me to my house, where shall be shown you all was found with her. How she came plac'ste here in the Temple, no needfulll thing omitted. Hush (my gentle neighbours) lend me your hands, To the next Chamber bear her: get linen: Now this matter must be looked to for her relapse Is mortal: come, come; and guide us. Noble Sir, if you have told Diana's Altar true, this is your wife? Nay certainly to night, for look how fresh she looks They were too rough, that threw her in the sea. Make a Fire within; fetch hither all my Boxes in my Closet, Death may usurp on Nature many hours, and yet The fire of life kindle again the overpressed spirits; I herd of and Egyptian that had 9. hours lain dead, Who was by good applyaunce recovered. Well said, well said; the fire and clothes: the rough and Woeful Music that we have, cause it to found beseech you: The Viol once more; how thou stir st thou block? The Music there: I pray you give her air: Gentlemen, this Queen will live, Nature awakes a warmth breath out of her; She hath not been entranc'st above five hours: See how she begins to blow into life's flower again. Upon this coast, I warrant you.

Plot summary

Plot — Pericles, Prince of Tyre
Pericles comes to Antioch to woo the daughter and heir of King Antiochus. Her suitors must solve a riddle about her, or be executed. Pericles realizes that the riddle cryptically reveals that she and her father are an incestuous couple. Seeing that the game is up, Antiochus pretends that Pericles is mistaken, grants him a forty-day reprieve so that he can try again, and makes arrangements to have him poisoned. Pericles flees to Tyre, but the murderer, Thaliard, follows him. On realizing the danger, Pericles leaves his principality in the care of Helicanus; he has already gone by the ===== PAGE 413 ===== 1607 time Thaliard arrives. He goes to Tarsus, which has been stricken by a famine, and supplies corn to Cleon, the Governor. In Tyre, Thaliard’s murderous intentions are discovered, and Pericles is recalled home. In Antioch, the King and his daughter are destroyed by fire from heaven. On his way home, Pericles is shipwrecked on the coast of Pentapolis, where King Simonides is holding a tournament for the hand of his daughter, Thaisa. Some fishermen retrieve Pericles’ armour from the sea, and, though it is rusty, he is able to compete. He is victorious, and Thaisa falls in love with him. Simonides sends away the other knights, telling them that Thaisa has taken a vow to the goddess Diana not to marry for another year. She insists that she will marry Pericles, with or without her father’s consent. Simonides makes a show of disapproval, but in fact her choice accords with his wishes. The lords of Tyre believe that Pericles is dead, and attempt to elect Helicanus as his successor; Helicanus demurs, and asks them to wait another year and institute a search. A message reaches Pericles, and he sets sail for Tyre; Thaisa insists on going with him, even though she is pregnant. The ship is caught in a storm as she is giving birth to a baby girl, and she apparently dies. The superstitious sailors insist that her body cannot remain on board, and Pericles is forced to bury her at sea. He takes his daughter, Marina, to be brought up in Cleon’s court at Tarsus. Thaisa is washed up at Ephesus, and Cerimon brings her back to life. Believing herself lost to Pericles forever, she becomes a votaress of the goddess Diana. Fourteen years later, Cleon’s wife Dionyza becomes jealous that Marina outshines her own daughter, and hires Leonine to murder her. Before he can do it, she is carried away by pirates; even so, he reports that Marina is dead as ordered, and Dionyza poisons…