e sea, where for a monument upon thy bones the
humming waters must overwhelm thy corpse, lying with simple shells. O
Lychorida, bid Nestor bring me spices, ink, and paper, my casket and my
jewels, and bid Nicandor bring me the satin coffin. Lay the babe upon
the pillow, and go about this suddenly, Lychorida, while I say a
priestly farewell to my Thaisa.'

They brought Pericles a large chest, in which (wrapped in a satin
shroud) he placed his queen, and sweet-smelling spices he strewed over
her, and beside her he placed rich jewels, and a written paper, telling
who she was, and praying if haply any one should kind the chest which
contained the body of his wife, they would give her burial: and then
with his own hands he cast the chest into the sea. When the storm was
over, Pericles ordered the sailors to make for Tarsus. 'For,' said
Pericles, 'the babe cannot hold out till we come to Tyre. At Tarsus I
will leave it at careful nursing.'

After that tempestuous night when Thaisa was thrown into the sea, and
while it was yet early morning, as Cerimon, a worthy gentleman of
Ephesus, and a most skilful physician, was standing by the sea-side,
his servants brought to him a chest, which they said the sea-waves had
thrown on the land. 'I never saw,' said one of them, 'so huge a billow
as cast it on our shore.' Cerimon ordered the chest to be conveyed to
his own house and when it was opened he beheld with wonder the body of
a young and lovely lady; and the sweet-smelling spices and rich casket
of jewels made him conclude it was some great person who was thus
strangely entombed: searching farther, he discovered a paper, from
which he learned that the corpse which lay as dead before him had been
a queen, and wife to Pericles, prince of Tyre; and much admiring at the
strangeness of that accident, and more pitying the husband who had lost
this sweet lady, he said: 'If you are living, Pericles, you have a
heart that even cracks with woe.' Then observing attentively Thaisa's
face, he saw how fresh and unlike death her looks were, and he said:
'They were too hasty that threw you into the sea': for he did not
believe her to be dead. He ordered a fire to be made, and proper
cordials to be brought, and soft music to be played, which might help
to calm her amazed spirits if she should revive; and he said to those
who crowded round her, wondering at what they saw: 'I pray you,
gentlemen, give her air; this queen will live; she has not been