time her nurse
Lychorida came to Pericles with a little child in her arms, to tell the
prince the sad tidings that his wife died the moment her little babe
was born. She held the babe towards its father, saying: 'Here is a
thing too young for such a place. This is the child of your dead
queen.' No tongue can tell the dreadful sufferings of Pericles when he
heard his wife was dead. As soon as he could speak, he said: 'O you
gods, why do you make us love your goodly gifts, and then snatch those
gifts away?' 'Patience, good sir,' said Lychorida, 'here is all that is
left alive of our dead queen, a little daughter, and for your child's
sake be more manly. Patience, good sir, even for the sake of this
precious charge.' Pericles took the new-born infant in his arms, and he
said to the little babe: 'Now may your life be mild, for a more
blusterous birth had never babe! May your condition be mild and gentle,
for you have had the rudest welcome that ever prince's child did meet
with! May that which follows be happy, for you have had as chiding a
nativity as fire, air, water, earth, and heaven could make to herald
you from the womb! Even at the first, your loss,' meaning in the death
of her mother, 'is more than all the joys, which you shall find upon
this earth to which you are come a new visitor, shall be able to
recompense.'

The storm still continuing to rage furiously, and the sailors having a
superstition that while a dead body remained in the ship the storm
would never cease, they came to Pericles to demand that his queen
should be thrown overboard; and they said: 'What courage, sir? God save
you!' 'Courage enough,' said the sorrowing prince: 'I do not fear the
storm; it has done to me its worst; yet for the love of this poor
infant, this fresh new seafarer, I wish the storm was over.' 'Sir,'
said the sailors, 'your queen must overboard. The sea works high, the
wind is loud, and the storm will not abate till the ship be cleared of
the dead.' Though Pericles knew how weak and unfounded this
superstition was, yet he patiently submitted, saying: 'As you think
meet. Then she must overboard, most wretched queen!' And now this
unhappy prince went to take a last view of his dear wife, and as he
looked on his Thaisa, he said: 'A terrible childbed hast thou had, my
dear; no light, no fire; the unfriendly elements forget thee utterly,
nor have I time to bring thee hallowed to thy grave, but must cast thee
scarcely coffined into th