Tarsus. A Room in Cleon's House.
 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,
	I'd give it to undo the deed. O lady,
	Much less in blood than virtue, yet a princess
	To equal any single crown o'th' earth
	I'th' justice of compare! O villain Leonine!
	Whom thou hast poisoned too.
	If thou hadst drunk to him, 't had been a kindness
	Becoming well thy fact. What canst thou say
	When noble Pericles shall demand his child?

Dionyza	That she is dead. Nurses are not the fates;
	To foster is not ever to preserve.
	She died at night; I'll say so. Who can cross it?
	Unless you play the pious innocent,
	And for an honest attribute cry out
	'She died by foul play'.

Cleon	O, go to! Well, well;
	Of all the faults beneath the heavens, the gods
	Do like this worst.

Dionyza	Be one of those that thinks
	The petty wrens of Tarsus will fly hence,
	And open this to Pericles. I do shame
	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
	From honourable 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
	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,
	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!

Dionyza	And as for Pericles,
	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,
	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	Ye're like one that superstitiously
	Do swear to th' gods that winter kills the flies;
	But yet I know you'll do as I advise.
										[Exeunt.
