Act 3, Scene 3 — Pericles, Prince of Tyre

The argument Pericles arrives at Tarsus, leaves the newborn Marina in the care of Cleon and Dionyza, and vows not to cut his hair until Marina is married. He sails for Tyre.

Enter Pericles, Cleon, Dionyza and Lychorida with Marina in her arms.

PERICLES ≋ verse [shocked, urgent]

Most honour’d Cleon, I must needs be gone;

My twelve months are expired, and Tyrus stands

In a litigious peace. You and your lady,

Take from my heart all thankfulness! The gods

Make up the rest upon you!

A terrible storm at sea has taken the queen. She is dead. The baby has survived, but the mother is lost to the waves.

The queen died in the storm. The baby made it—the girl is alive. But Thaisa is gone. The sea took her.

thaisa died. maybe the sea will keep her. or maybe she will come back.

CLEON ≋ verse [acknowledging, sympathetic]

Your shafts of fortune, though they hurt you mortally,

Yet glance full wanderingly on us.

Though fortune's arrows strike you mortally, at least they don't fall harshly on us.

Your luck is terrible, but at least we're spared that pain.

your grief does not touch us. we are sorry.

DIONYZA ≋ verse [wistful, mourning the queen]

O, your sweet queen!

That the strict fates had pleased you had brought her hither,

To have bless’d mine eyes with her!

Oh, your dear queen! If only the fate had granted that she reach this place—to bring me joy in her presence.

Oh, your queen! I wish she could be here. Just seeing her would have meant so much to me.

i wish she was here. would have blessed my eyes to see her.

PERICLES ≋ verse [controlled grief, accepting fate]

We cannot but obey

The powers above us. Could I rage and roar

As doth the sea she lies in, yet the end

Must be as ’tis. My gentle babe Marina,

Whom, for she was born at sea, I have named so,

Here I charge your charity withal,

Leaving her the infant of your care;

Beseeching you to give her princely training,

That she may be manner’d as she is born.

We cannot resist the powers above us. I could rage and roar like the very sea that took her, but the end must be the same. She is gone, and we accept it.

We can't fight what the gods decide. I could scream like the ocean, but it wouldn't matter. She's gone. That's the truth.

we cannot fight the gods. the sea took her. i must accept it.

"My gentle babe Marina, / Whom, for she was born at sea, I have named so" Marina means 'of the sea' — she is named for the circumstance of her birth and the death of her mother. Pericles is carrying both the birth and the loss in the name every time he says it.

Why it matters Pericles explains Marina's name for the first time. The explanation is heartbreaking: she was born at sea, so she is named for the sea — and the sea also killed her mother. Every time her name is spoken, it carries that double meaning.

CLEON ≋ verse [swearing an oath, invoking the gods]

Fear not, my lord, but think

Your grace, that fed my country with your corn,

For which the people’s prayers still fall upon you,

Must in your child be thought on. If neglection

Should therein make me vile, the common body,

By you relieved, would force me to my duty:

But if to that my nature need a spur,

The gods revenge it upon me and mine,

To the end of generation!

Fear not, my lord. Remember that you fed our country with your grain—we owe you everything. May the gods curse me and mine if we ever forget this debt. I swear it on all I hold dear.

Don't worry. We haven't forgotten. You saved us from starvation. I swear on my life and my children's lives—we will never forget. We are bound to you forever.

you saved us. we owe you everything. i swear it on my life. we will repay.

Why it matters Cleon's oath invokes the most solemn guarantee available — divine retribution on his entire line if he fails Marina. The irony is that the gods do exactly that, but the failure comes from his wife, not from him. His oath is kept in spirit; Dionyza's is broken by action.

🎭 Dramatic irony Cleon's oath calling down divine retribution if he fails Marina will be fulfilled — the city of Tarsus will burn when the truth comes out. But the audience watching from Act 3 knows only that Cleon is sincere and that something will go wrong.

PERICLES ≋ verse [binding himself, sacred vow]

I believe you;

Your honour and your goodness teach me to’t,

Without your vows. Till she be married, madam,

By bright Diana, whom we honour, all

Unscissored shall this hair of mine remain,

Though I show ill in’t. So I take my leave.

Good madam, make me blessed in your care

In bringing up my child.

I believe you. Your honor and goodness prove it without need of vows. So I vow this: until Marina is married—by bright Diana, whom we honor—I will not cut my hair. Let it grow until that blessed day.

I trust you. You're good people. So I'm making a promise: until Marina gets married, I won't cut my hair. I'll let it grow wild until she's a bride. By Diana, I swear it.

until marina is married i will not cut my hair. it will grow wild and long as my grief grows.

"Till she be married, madam, / By bright Diana, whom we honour, all / Unscissored shall this hair of mine remain" Pericles vows not to cut his hair until Marina's wedding. When we see him in Act 5, the hair and beard have grown wild from years of grief. Gower's chorus in Act 4 tells us he has also vowed never to wash his face after hearing of Marina's 'death.' These visible signs of mourning become the physical markers of the play's grief.

Why it matters The hair vow binds Pericles's grief to Marina's future marriage. It makes his loss legible — a physical promise written on his body. When we see him next, that promise will have become a symbol of how completely sorrow has consumed him.

DIONYZA ≋ verse [assuring, making her own vow]

I have one myself,

Who shall not be more dear to my respect

Than yours, my lord.

I have a daughter myself, who will not be more dear to me than yours, my lord. I promise it.

I have a daughter. Marina will be just as important to me. I'm swearing it.

my daughter philoten will not be more dear than marina. i promise.

Why it matters Dionyza's promise is the play's most loaded irony. She promises her own daughter won't be more dear to her. In Act 4, it is exactly her love for her own daughter — and envy of Marina's superiority — that drives her to attempted murder. The word 'more dear' will reverse itself completely.

PERICLES [grateful, resigned]

Madam, my thanks and prayers.

Madam, my thanks and my prayers for you both.

I thank you both. My prayers go with you.

thank you. my prayers with you.

CLEON ≋ verse [formal, ceremonial farewell]

We’ll bring your grace e’en to the edge o’the shore,

Then give you up to the mask’d Neptune and

The gentlest winds of heaven.

We will bring your grace to the very edge of the shore, then commend you to Neptune and his gentle winds for safe passage home.

We'll walk you to the water, then leave you to Neptune—the god of the sea—and hope he brings you home safe.

we will bring you to the shore. then neptune and the winds will carry you home.

PERICLES ≋ verse [loving, heartbroken farewell to his daughter]

I will embrace your offer. Come, dearest madam.

O, no tears, Lychorida, no tears.

Look to your little mistress, on whose grace

You may depend hereafter. Come, my lord.

I will embrace your offer. Come, dearest madam. No tears now, Lychorida—no tears. Look to your little mistress; she is all I have left now. Protect her as if she were your own.

Thank you. Let's go. Lychorida, no crying. Watch Marina like she's your own child. She's everything I have now.

take care of her. she's everything i have. protect her. no matter what.

[_Exeunt._]

The Reckoning

This is the scene where the play plants the seed of its own Act 4 tragedy. Pericles trusts the people he saved from famine with the most precious thing he has left. The audience watches him make a promise and leave — and everything that follows in Acts 4-5 flows from this departure. Cleon's oath is genuine. Dionyza's promise is genuine too, probably, in this moment. The tragedy isn't that Pericles misjudges character; it's that grief changes people, especially envy.

If this happened today…

A father who just lost his wife in a terrible accident has to fly overseas immediately for urgent work — the family company will collapse without him. He leaves his newborn daughter with close friends who owe him a serious debt. He promises to come back for her wedding. The friends mean every word of their assurances. Fourteen years later, things look very different.

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