Yon king's to me like to my father's picture, Which tells me in that glory once he was; Had princes sit, like stars, about his throne, And he the sun, for them to reverence; None that beheld him, but, like lesser lights, Did vail their crowns to his supremacy: Where now his son's like a glow-worm in the night, The which hath fire in darkness, none in light: Whereby I see that Time's the king of men, He's both their parent, and he is their grave, And gives them what he will, not what they crave.
That king reminds me of my father's portrait, Which shows me that once he was glorious; Princes would sit around him, like stars around the sun, And he was the sun, to be respected by them; Anyone who saw him, like smaller lights, Would lower their crowns in awe of his power: But now his son is like a glow-worm in the dark, Which has light in the darkness, but none in the light: And so I see that Time is the king of men, Time is both their parent and their grave, And gives them what he wants, not what they desire.
Pericles · Act 2, Scene 3
Pericles, watching King Simonides and seeing an echo of his dead father, meditates on time's power over all human glory. The line matters because it is the play's philosophy made manifest — time is not a friend to human ambition but its master and executioner. Pericles' insight that we are creatures of time, not its owners, becomes the foundation for his later acceptance of loss.
