Pericles Original Text: Act 5, Epilogue

In Antiochus and his daughter you have heard

Of monstrous lust the due and just reward.

In Pericles, his queen and daughter, seen,

Although assail’d with fortune fierce and keen,

Virtue preserv’d from fell destruction’s blast,

Led on by heaven, and crown’d with joy at last.

In Helicanus may you well descry

A figure of truth, of faith, of loyalty.

In reverend Cerimon there well appears

The worth that learned charity aye wears.

For wicked Cleon and his wife, when fame

Had spread his cursed deed, the honor’d name

Of Pericles to rage the city turn,

That him and his they in his palace burn;

The gods for murder seemed so content

To punish, although not done, but meant.

So, on your patience evermore attending,

New joy wait on you! Here our play has ending.