SIMONIDES.
Which shows that beauty hath his power and will,
Which can as well inflame as it can kill.
The fifth Knight passes by, and his Squire presents his shield to Thaisa.
THAISA.
The fifth, an hand environed with clouds,
Holding out gold that’s by the touchstone tried;
The motto thus, Sic spectanda fides.
The sixth Knight, Pericles, passes in rusty armour with bases, and unaccompanied. He presents his device directly to Thaisa.
SIMONIDES.
And what’s the sixth and last, the which the knight himself
With such a graceful courtesy deliver’d?
THAISA.
He seems to be a stranger; but his present is
A wither’d branch, that’s only green at top;
The motto, In hac spe vivo.
SIMONIDES.
A pretty moral;
From the dejected state wherein he is,
He hopes by you his fortunes yet may flourish.
FIRST LORD.
He had need mean better than his outward show
Can any way speak in his just commend;
For by his rusty outside he appears
To have practised more the whipstock than the lance.
SECOND LORD.
He well may be a stranger, for he comes
To an honour’d triumph strangely furnished.
THIRD LORD.
And on set purpose let his armour rust
Until this day, to scour it in the dust.