Pericles presents unique problems for even the most avid Bardophile. To start with, it doesn’t fall neatly into any of the usual categories: not a history; too tragic to be a comedy, yet with a happy ending so it can’t be a tragedy. The usual classification is “romance”, like Winter’s Tale and Cymbeline, written about the same time, but the plot is so over-the-top, the twists so extreme, that it seems more appropriate to call it a melodrama, or even a soap opera.

On a more academic level, it appears that a good portion of the text was not from the quill of Shakespeare; it has been speculated that Shakespeare had rewritten the last three acts of an existing play by another (much inferior) writer. Unfortunately, our Bard was more concerned with the stage performance of his plays than with seeing them published and preserved. As with so many of his works, the official publication (the Folio version) of this play only appeared many years after his death, while numerous unauthorized versions were already in circulation, attempting to make a quick profit by rushing out a print version of the latest play. These “bootleg” copies, the so-called “bad quartos”, were often provided to the publisher by bit-players, sometimes reconstructed from memory. It’s sad, but not surprising, that we would have an incomplete picture of the play as written.

Whoever wrote the play, the source is much better documented. The tale of Appolonius of Tyre had been the subject of Confessio Amantis by the poet John Gower in the 1300s, with a prose version by Laurence Twine (or Laurence Turine; I’ve seen it spelled both ways) appearing just before the production of this play. Alert readers will detect the similarities to Comedy of Errors, in the family separated by shipwreck and reunited years later; Gower’s Confessio Amantis was the source for that plot twist as well. In tribute to the esteemed poet, Shakespeare designated him as the Chorus (narrator) of Pericles. George Wilkins’ subsequent novel The Painful Adventures of Pericles, Prince of Tyre was little more than another attempt to cash in on the Bard’s success, but nonetheless allows us to conclude that the first performance of the play must have been just prior to the book’s publication in 1608. The name of the title character was taken from Philip Sidney’s Arcadia.

Each time the poet John Gower appears in his role as Chorus, he leaves nothing to the imagination of the audience; he summarizes exactly what they are about to see in the following scenes. While this appears to spoil the suspense by our standards today, it was perfectly normal for storytelling in the classical style of ancient Greece and Rome, which is being imitated in this play. In any case, it was assumed that the audience already knew the story, so it was impossible to ruin the surprise.

I was struck by the many references in Act IV to customers of the brothel with venereal disease. Of course, venereal disease has been a source of off-color humor throughout history, but I think there’s more to it than that. In every case, the customer with venereal disease requests a virgin from the brothel; it’s a common superstition, and has been for centuries, that having sex with a virgin is the only cure for venereal disease. It certainly seems to me that Shakespeare was referring to this myth (and it is only a myth, although a very dangerous one), but I can’t find any confirmation of this in my research.

A few minor discrepancies:

The city of Tharsus, where Thaisa was placed overboard in her casket, and the city of Ephesus, where she washed up, are about a thousand kilometers apart. There is no chance that the casket could have floated there in the five hours Cerimon predicts she had been in her coma.

Why did Pericles resolve to leave Marina with Cleon and Dionyza until she was married? Why not come back for her sooner, or send for her when she got older?

Certainly, Pericles and the nurse are too hasty when they put Thaisa overboard in her casket without checking for vital signs, but Shakespeare goes to great lengths to show that the sailors are superstitious about having a dead body on the ship, so it’s plausible that they would have done so. I can’t say the same for Thaisa, after she recovers, going into a convent without even sending word to her father that she’s still alive, or bothering to find out if Pericles survived.

New vocabulary:

• bitum’d – coated with tar
• cavalleria – knights or cavaliers
• coigns – corners
• corse – corpse
• dumb show – pantomime. The word “dumb” is used in the old sense, of not speaking.
• eftsoons – soon
• hight – is called
• inkle – thread or ribbon
• just – joust
• keth ‘a – he said
• mawkin – slut
• neele – sewing needle
• nill – will not
• prest – ready
• subtility – trick
• weed – garments. In this case, in a play on words, the “garments” of the earth (flowers), in a sense, actually are weeds!
• well-a-day, well-a-near – alas, woe is me
• yravished – enraptured
• yslacked – reduced to inactivity

Classical allusions:

• Aesculapius – the god of healing
• Antioch – once a powerful city-state in Syria
• Cynthia – another name for Diana
• Diana – goddess of the moon and the hunt. Because she was a virgin, those in her service took a vow of chastity.
• dove of Paphos – a symbol of beauty, since doves pulled the chariot of Venus
• Ephesus – former Athenian colony on the coast of Turkey
• Et bonum quo antiquius, eo melius – (Latin) “The older a good thing is, the better”
• Hesperides – garden with a tree that bears golden apples
• Hymen – god of marriage. (The similarity of the name to a part of the female body is a coincidence.)
• In hac spe vivo- (Latin) “In this hope I live”
• Lux tua vita mihi – (Latin) “Your light is life to me”
• Marina – named after the sea she was born on (from the Latin mare)
• Me pompae provexit apex – (Latin) “The crown of victory has led me on”
• Mytilene – capitol city of the island of Lesbos, best known as the home of the poet Sappho
• Piu per docera que per forca – (Very bad Spanish) “More by gentleness than by strength”
• Qui me alit, me extinguit – (Latin) “Who feeds me, extinguishes me”
• sic spectanda fides – (Latin) “So should faith be tested”
• Tellus – the Earth
• Tharsus – probably Tarsus, in present-day Turkey. Most famous as the birthplace of St. Paul.
• Thetis – the mother of Achilles. Shakespeare got her confused with Tethys, a symbol of the ocean as the wife of Oceanus.
• Tyre – wealthy Phoenician port, near present-day Beirut
• vestal – in ancient Rome, women who dedicated their lives to Vesta took a vow of chastity in honor of the goddess of the hearth, who was a virgin.

ACT I

Chorus

The poet John Gower rises from the grave to tell his famous tale. The king Antiochus has devised a test to eliminate suitors for his beautiful daughter’s hand: to win her, they must guess the answer to a riddle, but if they fail to guess, they are beheaded. The answer to the riddle is also the king’s darkest secret — he and his daughter are engaged in incest.

scene 1

Despite the threat of beheading, Pericles goes to Antioch to try to answer the riddle and win the hand of the unnamed princess. As soon as he hears it, though, he understands that she is commiting incest with her father, and realizes that, despite her beauty, he can’t love someone capable of that sin. When the king demands his answer, Pericles drops enough hints to make Antiochus realize that Pericles knows the answer, and must be killed before he tells anyone. He sends one of his nobles, Thaliard, to assassinate him, but Pericles has already escaped.

scene 2

Back in his home city of Tyre, Pericles relates what happened to his chief advisor Helicanus. Helicanus advises him to avoid the wrath of Antiochus by travelling.

scene 3

Thaliard unwillingly arrives in Tyre to kill Pericles, but is relieved to hear that Pericles has once again escaped.

scene 4

The governor of Tharsus, Cleon, bemoans the famine that has overtaken his city when Pericles arrives on a mission of mercy, his ships loaded with grain.

ACT II

Chorus

Gower relates how Helicanus sends word that Thaliard had come to Tyre seeking to kill Pericles. Pericles must leave the grateful city of Tharsus and once again risk the dangers of the open sea.

scene 1

Pericles washes ashore in Pentapolis after a shipwreck. By extraordinary chance, it’s a kingdom where another king is offering his daughter’s hand in marriage to the winner of a challenge. In this case, it’s a tournament for knights. In another stroke of luck, some local fishermen drag Pericles’ rusty armor out of the water.

scene 2

King Simonides and his daughter Thaisa review the knights who will be competing for her hand. No one believes Pericles, in his rusted armor, has a chance of winning. Of course, he does.

scene 3

When Pericles attends the subsequent banquet, he is very humble in his victory. Both Simonides and Thaisa are taken with his noble bearing.

scene 4

Helicanus learns that Antiochus and his daughter are dead, meaning it’s safe for Pericles to come home to Tyre. The other nobles want Helicanus to be their king, but he insists that they try to find Pericles first.

scene 5

Thaisa tells Simonides that if she can’t marry Pericles, she will never marry anyone. Simonides devises a series of test for Pericles: accuses him of seducing his daughter, of being a villain and a traitor, but Pericles again and again proves himself a worthy suitor. Simonides then has them married.

ACT III

Chorus

Gower explains that Thaisa is pregnant, just as word arrives from Tyre that Antiochus is dead. Pericles and Thaisa are returning to Tyre when he lands in the middle of another bad storm.

scene 1

Thaisa appears to her nurse to die during childbirth. Distraught, Pericles puts the “corpse” overboard in a sealed casket with jewels and a note. He names the child Marina, and decides she’s not strong enough to make the trip to Tyre.

scene 2

Lord Cerimon of Ephesus discovers the casket, note and all, but unlike Pericles notices that Thaisa is still alive!

scene 3

Pericles leaves Marina in the care of his old friend Cleon of Tharsus, and vows never to cut his hair until she is married. Cleon’s queen Dionyza, who has a daughter of her own, promises to look after Marina.

scene 4

Jumping to the conclusion that Pericles is dead, Thaisa joins a convent.

 ACT IV

Chorus

Gower reveals that many years go by. Marina is now a teenager, of such complete beauty and virtue that Dionyza is consumed with jealousy. In order that her own daughter not seem ugly by comparison, Dionyza orders Leonine to assassinate Marina.

scene 1

Before Leonine can carry out his order to kill Marina, she is abducted by pirates.

scene 2

The owners of a brothel in Mytilene discuss the poor quality of the prostitutes they have on hand, and decide to buy some fresh stock. They choose Marina, paying a handsome price to the pirates, and put the word about town that they have a beautiful virgin for the highest bidder.

scene 3

Dionyza reveals to Cleon that she had Marina killed. In a scene very reminiscent of Macbeth, Cleon is horrified, but by nagging and accusing him of being unmanly, she persuades him to go along with her plan.

scene 4 (Chorus)

Gower makes an unscheduled appearance to narrate as Pericles visits Tharsus. Cleon goes along with Dionyza’s story about Marina’s death. He’s so sad he puts on sackcloth and in addition to not shaving gives up washing.

scene 5

Back in Mytilene, two customers at the brothel decide to give up on prosititutes after listening to a lecture from Marina.

scene 6  

Continuation of the previous scene. The owners of the brothel complain that Marina is so virtuous that she scares off all the customers by talking to them about piety. In fact, her next “customer” is Lord Lysimachus, but after talking to her for a few minutes, he changes his mind about having sex with her. She even talks Boult, one of the owners, out of raping her, and instead he promises to help her.

ACT V

Chorus

True to his word, Boult has Marina sent to a rich man’s house, where she gains fame as a singer. Meanwhile, Pericles is still distraught after hearing that Marina was dead, and just sails aimlessly across the sea.

scene 1

Pericles’ ship pulls into Mytilene, and Lord Lysimachus, the governor, inquires about Pericles. Someone suggests that Marina’s singing might cure him, so they send for her. Sure enough, after speaking to Pericles, he pulls out of his stupor and speaks to her. After talking for a while, they realize that they are father and daughter, and have a tearful reunion.

In a dream, Pericles is told to go to the temple of Diana in Ephesus.

scene 2 (Chorus)

Gower tells us that Pericles does go to Ephesus, and that Lysimachus is to be married to Marina.

scene 3

When Pericles announces himself in Diana’s temple, Thaisa of course recognizes him, and the whole family is reunited.

Gower appears one last time to explain that Cleon and Dionyza were burned alive in their palace, but everyone else had a happy ending.