Pericles, Prince of Tyre - “’Tis time to fear when tyrants seem to kiss.”

Pericles, Prince of Tyre - “’Tis time to fear when tyrants seem to kiss.”

By 1607, the honeymoon was well and truly over for James I's reign. England faced growing financial pressures and creeping inflation. Around 1607, Shakespeare started an association, which turned into a loose friendship which turned into a collaboration with George Wilkins. Wilkins was an inn-keeper (his inn was the notorious Cow-Cross Inn in London), pamphleteer and eventually a dramatist but we know most of what we know about Wilkins from his regular appearances in court. Wilkins certainly involved in a range of criminal activities. Shakespeare was probably asked by Wilkins to collaborate on producing ‘Pericles’ and he would have probably read John Gower’s Confessio Amantis and Lawrence Twine’s version of the same story contained in Twine’s The Pattern of Painful Adventures. Perhaps Wilkin’s had shown Shakespeare a draft of his The Painful Adventures of Pericles or maybe he started this after starting work with Shakespeare on ‘Pericles’. 

In April of 1607, riots against the enclosure of common land took over much of the Midlands of England. Starting in Haselbech and Pytchley it eventually spread to Shakespeare’s home county of Warwickshire. At the height of the riots, Captain Pouchh (John Reynolds) said to his protesters that he had the authority of the King of England and of God to destroy the enclosures and he said that he would protect them with the contents of his pouch. In Shakespeare’s own county of Warwickshire, almost 5,000 protesters destroyed enclosures. The law came in with an iron hand. Curfews were imposed and eventually the protesters were subdued.

Shakespeare seemed to like order and rule and seemed genuinely frightened of mob rule and the loss of order. He had fought hard to get a coat of arms for his family name. He had bought up considerable property around Stratford upon Avon. For all his adventurous, innovativeness and creativeness as a writer, Shakespeare was in many ways a conservative in his private life. The riots pf 1607 would have scared Shakespeare and his writing of ‘Coriolanus’ can be seen as an exploration of Shakespeare exploring notions of power, mob rule, public discontent and opposition to government and peasant revolt.

We know Shakespeare was familiar with and perhaps even had a copy of the 1579 Thomas North English translation of Plutarch’s ‘The Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans’. There are significant references to and even parts of speeches in the text from Camden’s ‘Remains of a Greater Worke Concerning Britaine’ so we know that Shakespeare also used this for perhaps his most complex verse drama ‘Coriolanus’.  This play shows that while straight-talinking politicians and people may have some appeal, an official who clings too tightly to the truth or to their own vision opens themselves up to inflexibility and change. 

Shakespeare would have most certainly traveled back to Stratford upon Avon in June of 1607 for the marriage of his daughter Susanna (who was 24 at the time) to Dr John Hall (who was 32). He had been involved in dowry negotiations for much of early 1607 and probably the most substantial part of this dowry was 104 acres in Old Stratford. This would leave no dowry for Shakespeare's younger daughter Judith. Susanna and John Hall had one daughter called Elizabeth who was born in 1608 and she became the last surviving direct relative of William Shakespeare when she died in 1670.

In December of 1607, William Shakespeare helped to bury his brother Edmund Shakespeare in Southwark in London. Edmund had followed William to London and he had become a small time actor. Edmund died in poverty and William Shakespeare probably paid for the burial with a "forenoone knell of the great bell".

'Pericles' starts with a Prologue/Chorus spoken by Gower. He tells the audience that he has come back to life to tell this story. He sets the scene in Antiochus, in Ancient Syria, where King Antiochus is ruler. We are told that the king’s wife has died and that her daughter is so attractive that even King Antiochus desired her and “…to incest did provoke…” Gower then reveals that whenever young princes came to ask for his daughter’s hand in marriage the king would ask them to answer a riddle and if they could not answer the riddle, they would be put to death.

“The beauty of this sinful dame

Made many princes thither frame,

To seek her as a bed-fellow,

In marriage-pleasures play-fellow:

Which to prevent he made a law,

To keep her still, and men in awe,

That whoso ask'd her for his wife,

His riddle told not, lost his life:

So for her many a wight did die,

As yon grim looks do testify.

What now ensues, to the judgment of your eye

I give, my cause who best can justify.”

King Antiochus enters with Pericles, the Prince of Tyre who has come to answer the riddle and win Antiochus’ daughter. It is pointed out to Pericles that he will die if he does not answer the riddle. Enter Antiochus's daughter and Pericles extols her beauty:

“See where she comes, apparell'd like the spring,

Graces her subjects, and her thoughts the king

Of every virtue gives renown to men!

Her face the book of praises, where is read

Nothing but curious pleasures, as from thence

Sorrow were ever razed and testy wrath

Could never be her mild companion.

You gods that made me man, and sway in love,

That have inflamed desire in my breast

To taste the fruit of yon celestial tree,

Or die in the adventure, be my helps,

As I am son and servant to your will,

To compass such a boundless happiness!”

Pericles says that he is ready solve the riddle or die and Antiochus throws the riddle on the floor before Pericles.

When Pericles reads the riddle, the horror of the riddle dawns on him that the riddle reveals that Antiochus has committed incest with his own daughter. Pericles decides to subdue his feeling for Antiochus's daughter and when asked what the riddle means, Pericles diplomatically reveals that some truths are better kept hidden.

“Great king,

Few love to hear the sins they love to act;

'Twould braid yourself too near for me to tell it.

Who has a book of all that monarchs do,

He's more secure to keep it shut than shown:

For vice repeated is like the wandering wind.

Blows dust in other's eyes, to spread itself;

And yet the end of all is bought thus dear,

The breath is gone, and the sore eyes see clear:

To stop the air would hurt them. The blind mole casts

Copp'd hills towards heaven, to tell the earth is throng'd

By man's oppression; and the poor worm doth die for't.

Kings are earth's gods; in vice their law's their will;

And if Jove stray, who dares say Jove doth ill?

It is enough you know; and it is fit,

What being more known grows worse, to smother it.

All love the womb that their first being bred,

Then give my tongue like leave to love my head.”

When he hears this, Antiochus knows that Pericles has worked out the riddle but refuses to reveal his answer. Under Antiochus’ rules. Pericles must die because he will not reveal his answer but Antiochus says that he will allow Pericle forty days before his death sentence is carried out. All exit except for Pericles who sees the danger he has put himself in and decides that he will escape the city.

“How courtesy would seem to cover sin,

When what is done is like an hypocrite,

The which is good in nothing but in sight!

If it be true that I interpret false,

Then were it certain you were not so bad

As with foul incest to abuse your soul;

Where now you're both a father and a son,

By your untimely claspings with your child,

Which pleasure fits an husband, not a father;

And she an eater of her mother's flesh,

By the defiling of her parent's bed;

And both like serpents are, who though they feed

On sweetest flowers, yet they poison breed.

Antioch, farewell! for wisdom sees, those men

Blush not in actions blacker than the night,

Will shun no course to keep them from the light.

One sin, I know, another doth provoke;

Murder's as near to lust as flame to smoke:

Poison and treason are the hands of sin,

Ay, and the targets, to put off the shame:

Then, lest my lie be cropp'd to keep you clear,

By flight I'll shun the danger which I fear.”

Enter Antiochus who reveals that he wants to kill Pericles before he can reveal Antiochus’ secret. When Thaliart enters, he is paid gold to kill Pricles and he agrees to this. Then a messenger enters and tells that Pericles has escaped the city. Thaliart is told to pursue Pericles and capture and kill him. Thaliart exits and Antiochus says he will not rest until Pericles is killed:

“Till Pericles be dead,

My heart can lend no succor to my head.”

Pericles has arrived back in Tyre, but his mind is not at rest for he knows that Antiochus will pursue him and invade Tyre, and his people will become the true victims.

“Why should this change of thoughts,

The sad companion, dull-eyed melancholy,

Be my so used a guest as not an hour,

In the day's glorious walk, or peaceful night,

The tomb where grief should sleep, can breed me quiet?

Here pleasures court mine eyes, and mine eyes shun them,

And danger, which I fear'd, is at Antioch,

Whose aim seems far too short to hit me here:

Yet neither pleasure's art can joy my spirits,

Nor yet the other's distance comfort me.

Then it is thus: the passions of the mind,

That have their first conception by mis-dread,

Have after-nourishment and life by care;

And what was first but fear what might be done,

Grows elder now and cares it be not done.

And so with me: the great Antiochus,

'Gainst whom I am too little to contend,

Since he's so great can make his will his act,

Will think me speaking, though I swear to silence;

Nor boots it me to say I honour him.

If he suspect I may dishonour him:

And what may make him blush in being known,

He'll stop the course by which it might be known;

With hostile forces he'll o'erspread the land,

And with the ostent of war will look so huge,

Amazement shall drive courage from the state;

Our men be vanquish'd ere they do resist,

And subjects punish'd that ne'er thought offence:

Which care of them, not pity of myself,

Who am no more but as the tops of trees,

Which fence the roots they grow by and defend them,

Makes both my body pine and soul to languish,

And punish that before that he would punish.”

Helicanus, Pericles’ chief counselor and other lords enter and Helicanus  chastises for his melancholy. Pericles sends all the lords except Helicanus away and tells Helicanus the horrific discovery he made about Antiochus committing incest with his daughter. Pericles also reveals that he thinks his knowledge will bring war to his own people. Helicanus advises Pericles that he should leave Tyre until the vengefulness of Antiochus passes and suggests that Pericles for expedience give the throne over to Helicanus himself. Pericles consents to leaving the kingdom to Helicanus whom he trusts and decides to leave:

“Tyre, I now look from thee then, and to Tarsus

Intend my travel, where I'll hear from thee;

And by whose letters I'll dispose myself.

The care I had and have of subjects' good

On thee I lay whose wisdom's strength can bear it.

I'll take thy word for faith, not ask thine oath:

Who shuns not to break one will sure crack both:

But in our orbs we'll live so round and safe,

That time of both this truth shall ne'er convince,

Thou show'dst a subject's shine, I a true prince.”

We catch up with Thaliart who has just arrived in Tyre. He knows he has to kill Pericles or else face death himself. Then Helicanus and Aeschines enter and Thaliart hears that Pericles has left Tyre. Thaliart reveals himself and says that he had come to deliver a message from Antiochus for Pericles, but that since Pericles is gone that he will return back to Antioch In fact, Thaliart decides that the message he will take back to Antiochus is that Pericles left Tyre and has perished at sea and is dead.

The scene switches to Tarsus, where Cleon, the governor of Tarsus, and his wife Dionyza. Try to tell sad tales to distract themselves but eventually return to their own sad predicament whereby continuous years of famine have left them and all of Tarsus poor and almost destitute. They hear the news that a ship has been seen off the coast of Tarsus and they believe that this may be another country sending a force to invade them. Even though the ship has been seen to be flying a white flag, Cleon believes that this is a ploy.

Then Pericles enters and says that he is here to help Tarsus:

“Lord governor, for so we hear you are,

Let not our ships and number of our men

Be like a beacon fired to amaze your eyes.

We have heard your miseries as far as Tyre,

And seen the desolation of your streets:

Nor come we to add sorrow to your tears,

But to relieve them of their heavy load;

And these our ships, you happily may think

Are like the Trojan horse was stuff'd within

With bloody veins, expecting overthrow,

Are stored with corn to make your needy bread,

And give them life whom hunger starved half dead.”

All in Tarsus seem to show reverence to Pericles who rejects this and says he and his men “…do not look for reverence, but for love, and harbourage for ourself, our ships, and our men.” To which Cleon replies:

“The which when any shall not gratify,

Or pay you with unthankfulness in thought,

Be it our wives, our children, or ourselves,

The curse of heaven and men succeed their evils!

Till when,--the which I hope shall ne'er be seen,--

Your grace is welcome to our town and us.”

Pericles Act Two – “As jewels lose their glory if neglected, so princes their renowns if not respected.” 

Act Two of ‘Pericles’ starts with Gower entering again and acting as a Chorus recounting the action already seen and providing moral commentary on Antichus’ evil which he contrasts to Pericles’ virtues. reenters, and recounts the action we have already seen, noting the contrast between the bad king (Antiochus) and the good prince (Pericles). Then a dumb show/pantomime is used to move the story along Gower introduces a dumb show, a brief pantomime used to advance the plot and it is related that Helicanus has sent a message about Thaliart arriving in Tyre, and pleads with Pericles to return to Tyre. Pericles answers the call but his ships encounter a huge storm and Pericles is shipwrecked and flung ashore and that is where the dumbshow and Gower leave the story.

On the shores of Pentapolis, Pericles enters wet from his ordeal in the sea. Three fishermen enter and philosophize about the mankind using the metaphor of the sea. They tell Pericles that he is in {entapolis and that Simonides is the king and that his daughter has her birthday the next day and there is a tournament to decide who will win her love. Pericles expresses his desire to compete at the tournament and then suddenly one of the fishermen retrieves some armour from the sea. Pericles asks for the armour which was his father’s armour.

“An armour, friends! I pray you, let me see it.

Thanks, fortune, yet, that, after all my crosses,

Thou givest me somewhat to repair myself;

And though it was mine own, part of my heritage,

Which my dead father did bequeath to me.

With this strict charge, even as he left his life,

'Keep it, my Pericles; it hath been a shield

Twixt me and death;'--and pointed to this brace;--

'For that it saved me, keep it; in like necessity--

The which the gods protect thee from!--may

defend thee.'

It kept where I kept, I so dearly loved it;

Till the rough seas, that spare not any man,

Took it in rage, though calm'd have given't again:

I thank thee for't: my shipwreck now's no ill,

Since I have here my father's gift in's will…

To beg of you, kind friends, this coat of worth,

For it was sometime target to a king;

I know it by this mark. He loved me dearly,

And for his sake I wish the having of it;

And that you'ld guide me to your sovereign's court,

Where with it I may appear a gentleman;

And if that ever my low fortune's better,

I'll pay your bounties; till then rest your debtor.”                                    The fishermen lead Pericles off to the court to try his luck in the tournament.

King Simonides and Thaisa his daughter, look at the shields and coat of arms of all the six ‘knights’ who will fight in the tournament. They read the mottos on each shield and eventually come to the sixth ‘knight’ who is Pericles who is dressed in rusty armour and has a shield that bears the motto "I live in this hope". The lords put forward their derogatory opinions of Pericles’ state and his motto but King Simonodes tells them not to judge what a man is like on the inside from his outer appearance.

“Opinion's but a fool, that makes us scan

The outward habit by the inward man.”

Later that night at Simonides’ Halls of State, a banquet is prepared for all the knights. King Simonides and Thaisa enter to great the knights. Pericles is congratulated for having won the tournament. Simonides and Thaisa congratulate Pericles on winning the tournament. Pericles seems melancholic even when he is given a victory wreath. Simonides and Thaisa both seem to like Pericles. Pericles sees similarity between Simonides and his own father's own royal self:

“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.

Simonides sends Thaisa to talk to Pericles and she asks him about his family. He reveals that he is Pericles of Tyre, recently shipwrecked. Thaisa tells her father this and he tries to befriend Pericles. The feasting is followed by dancing and singing and then the knights all go to bed.

The action crosses back to Tyre, where Helicanus tells Escanes that Antiochus and his daughter were magically burnt to a crisp in a fire from heaven that seemed to be sent from the Gods to punish them.

“No, Escanes, know this of me,

Antiochus from incest lived not free:

For which, the most high gods not minding longer

To withhold the vengeance that they had in store,

Due to this heinous capital offence,

Even in the height and pride of all his glory,

When he was seated in a chariot

Of an inestimable value, and his daughter with him,

A fire from heaven came and shrivell'd up

Their bodies, even to loathing; for they so stunk,

That all those eyes adored them ere their fall

Scorn now their hand should give them burial…

And yet but justice; for though

This king were great, his greatness was no guard

To bar heaven's shaft, but sin had his reward.”

A number of lords enter and they comment on Pericles’ long absence and want to make Helicanus king but he suggests that they wait a year more before making such decisions.

We cross back to the palace at Pentapolis, where King Simonides reveals that his daughter has written a letter that says that she does not intend to marry for another year. The knights all take their leave and in a monologue, Simonides, reveals reveals that Thaisa's letter in fact says that she wants to marry Pericles. Then, as if on cue, Pericles enters. Simonides comments on how good Pericles’ singing was the night before and tries to find out what Pericles think of his daughter. commends his singing the night before, and asks him what he thinks of Thaisa. Simonides shows him Thaisa's letter, and Pericles thinks that he has offended Simonides and Simonides pretends to be offended and pretends to accuse Pericles of bewitching his daughter. Pericles is shocked and says that he must defend his honour:

“My actions are as noble as my thoughts,

That never relish'd of a base descent.

I came unto your court for honour's cause,

And not to be a rebel to her state;

And he that otherwise accounts of me,

This sword shall prove he's honour's enemy.”

Then Thaisa enters, and Pericles requests that she tell her father that he did not woo or enchant her. Then Simonides talks privately to his daughter and questions whether Pericles is the right man for her to marry but then says that he must ‘tame’ his daughter and then joins her hand to Pericles and declares them married and Thaisa and Pericles agree to the union and kiss:

“I am glad on't with all my heart.--

I'll tame you; I'll bring you in subjection.

Will you, not having my consent,

Bestow your love and your affections

Upon a stranger?

(Aside) Who, for aught I know,

May be, nor can I think the contrary,

As great in blood as I myself.--

Therefore hear you, mistress; either frame

Your will to mine,--and you, sir, hear you,

Either be ruled by me, or I will make you--

Man and wife:

Nay, come, your hands and lips must seal it too:

And being join'd, I'll thus your hopes destroy;

And for a further grief,--God give you joy!--

It pleaseth me so well… that I will see you wed;

And then with what haste you can get you to bed.”

Pericles Act Three – “I hold it that virtue and skill were endowments greater than nobleness and riches.” 

In a Prologue/Commentary to ‘Pericles’ Act Three, Gower enters again and reveals that Thaisa has become pregnant. He then introduces and narrates a dumb show where we hear how Pericles eventually found out that Antiochus and his daughter died. It is also related to us t that there is a plan to make Helicanus king in Tyre if Pericles does not return in “twice six moons” and Pericles decides that he must go back to Tyre. It is revealed that the people of Pentapolis are happy that the husband of their king’s daughter is a king in his own right. Pericles, his men, his wife Thaisa and Thaisa’s Nurse Lychordia board the ship bound for Tyre. Gower then relates how while at sea, a storm hits their ship:

“… Their vessel shakes

On Neptune's billow; half the flood

Hath their keel cut: but fortune's mood

Varies again; the grisly north

Disgorges such a tempest forth,

That, as a duck for life that dives,

So up and down the poor ship drives:

The lady shrieks, and well-a-near

Does fall in travail with her fear:

And what ensues in this fell storm

Shall for itself itself perform.

I nill relate, action may

Conveniently the rest convey;

Which might not what by me is told.

In your imagination hold

This stage the ship, upon whose deck

The sea-tost Pericles appears to speak.”

We then move into the scene on the deck of Pericles’ ship where he , Pericles curses the fact that his fate seems to have brought him to another tempest at sea:

“Thou god of this great vast, rebuke these surges,

Which wash both heaven and hell; and thou, that hast

Upon the winds command, bind them in brass,

Having call'd them from the deep! O, still

Thy deafening, dreadful thunders; gently quench

Thy nimble, sulphurous flashes! O, how, Lychorida,

How does my queen? Thou stormest venomously;

Wilt thou spit all thyself? The seaman's whistle

Is as a whisper in the ears of death,

Unheard. Lychorida!--Lucina, O

Divinest patroness, and midwife gentle

To those that cry by night, convey thy deity

Aboard our dancing boat; make swift the pangs

Of my queen's travails!”

The Nurse Lychordia brings onto deck Pericles newborn baby infant and brings the tragic news that Thaisa has died in childbirth. Pericles blames the gods for giving him the love of Thaisa and then taking her away. Pericles is given the child by Lychordia. A Sailor says that they must cast the body of Thaisa overboard because, “… with us at sea it hath been still observed: and we are strong in custom. Therefore briefly yield her; for she must overboard straight.”

In Thaisa’s quarters, Pericles talks over Thaisa’s body and regrets that he cannot give her a proper burial. A sailor says that a chest is available for her body and she is embalmed with herbs and spices. They obviously cast the chest to sea. It is revealed that they are already near Tarsus, and Pericles wants the ship to land there so that he can leave the child with Cleon:

“O, make for Tarsus!

There will I visit Cleon, for the babe

Cannot hold out to Tyrus: there I'll leave it

At careful nursing. Go thy ways, good mariner:

I'll bring the body presently.

We cross to Ephesus where a skilled and kind doctor called Cerimon and his assistant Philomon are caring for some survivors fro the recent storm provide fire and meat to some people seeking refuge from the recent storm. Then two servants enter with a chest that the sea has tossed up in the storm. Embalmed inside they find a corpse, with a letter written by Pericles which says:

“'Here I give to understand,

If e'er this coffin drive a-land,

I, King Pericles, have lost

This queen, worth all our mundane cost.

Who finds her, give her burying;

She was the daughter of a king:

Besides this treasure for a fee,

The gods requite his charity!'”

But when Cerimon looks at the body, he comments on how fresh the body looks and thinks that she is not dead and with warmth and medicines he brings her back to life.

“She is alive; behold,

Her eyelids, cases to those heavenly jewels

Which Pericles hath lost,

Begin to part their fringes of bright gold;

The diamonds of a most praised water

Do appear, to make the world twice rich. Live,

And make us weep to hear your fate, fair creature,

Rare as you seem to be.”

Thaisa is borne to another chamber to recuperate.

Back in Tarsus, Pericles reveals all that has happened to Cleon and Dionyza and asks them to take care of his newborn child:

“We cannot but obey

The powers above us. Could I rage and roar

As doth the sea she lies in, yet the end

Must be as 'tis. My gentle babe Marina, whom,

For she was born at sea, I have named so, here

I charge your charity withal, leaving her

The infant of your care; beseeching you

To give her princely training, that she may be

Manner'd as she is born.”

Cleon and Dionyza promise to look after the child and thank Pericles for the kindness he did them during their famine. As Pericles exits he thanks them and makes an oath that he will not cut his own hair until his own baby daughter Marina eventually marries.

“Your honour and your goodness teach me to't,

Without your vows. Till she be married, madam,

By bright Diana, whom we honour, all

Unscissor'd shall this hair of mine remain,

Though I show ill in't. So I take my leave.

Good madam, make me blessed in your care

In bringing up my child.”

Back in Ephesus, Thaisa is getting better and Cerimon shows her the jewels that were in the chest with her and shows her Pericles's letter. Thaisa recognizes the character (handwriting) of the letter as Pericles’ and expresses her distress that she will never see her “wedded lord” again and expresses the desire to put on vestal livery. Cerimon suggests that she serve at the temple of the goddess Diana since the temple is close. 

Pericles Act Four - “She would make a puritan of the devil if he should offer to pay for a kiss.” 

The Chorus/Narrator Gower enters again taking over a number of events over a number of years. We hear that Pericles went back to Tyre and became king and that the wife he thinks is dead, Thaisa has indeed become a priestess at Ephesus. But Gower’s narration, this time accompanied with no dumbshow or mime, concentrates on Pericles’s daughter Marina who he left with the king and queen of Tarsus. Marina has now blossomed into a young woman and most of her time is spent with King Cleon’s daughter by birth. Cleon’s wife, Dionyza, grows in jealousy of Marina and she develops a plan to murder Marina so that her daughter “might stand peerless by this slaughter”. Gower finishes by telling us that Lychordia, Marina's nurse, has died and that Dionyza wants her servant Leonine to kill Marina:

“Only I carry winged time

Post on the lame feet of my rhyme;

Which never could I so convey,

Unless your thoughts went on my way.

Dionyza does appear,

With Leonine, a murderer.”

The action of ‘Pericles’ Act Four begins down at a seashore in Tarsus where Dionyza is making sure that her servant Leonine never reveals that it was she who ordered Marina’s murder. swear to never tell who ordered the death of Marina. Marina enters carrying flowers to lay on the grave of her nurse Lychordia who has just died. Dionyza shows false concern for Marina’s health and suggests that Marina take a walk with her servant Leonine.

On their walk Marina tells Leonine of the storm she was born in and then Leonine tells her to say her prayers because his mistress, Dionyza has ordered him to kill her. Marina questions why Dionyza would want this and pleads for her life:

“Why would she have me kill'd?

Now, as I can remember, by my troth,

I never did her hurt in all my life:

I never spake bad word, nor did ill turn

To any living creature: believe me, la,

I never kill'd a mouse, nor hurt a fly:

I trod upon a worm against my will,

But I wept for it. How have I offended,

Wherein my death might yield her any profit,

Or my life imply her any danger?

… You will not do't for all the world, I hope.

You are well favour'd, and your looks foreshow

You have a gentle heart. I saw you lately,

When you caught hurt in parting two that fought:

Good sooth, it show'd well in you: do so now:

Your lady seeks my life; come you between,

And save poor me, the weaker.”

Just as Leonine is about to kill Marina, a bunch of pirates appear and Leonine is scared off and the pirates take Marina. Leonine re-enters and decides that he will tell tell Dionyza that he did in fact go through with the deed killing marina and that he disposed of her body in the water.

We then cross to the town of Myteline on the island of Lesbos, where the lowlife Pander is the owner of a brothel with his wife Bawd. A man called Boult appears who procures and supplies prostitutes. They all discuss how Pander needs new girls for his brothel. Boult says that he will go to the market and procure some new girls and he exits.

Boult then re-enters with the pirates from the last scene and Marina. Pander says that he will buy Marina for the agreed price. Pander, the pirates exit and Boult leaves to drum up trade in the market for the newest asset of the brothel the virgin Marina. Marina talks to herself and expresses the wish that Leonine had killed her. Bawd tells marina not to worry since she will be well looked after. Boult returns from announcing Marina. This whole sequence in the play is made more confronting and abhorrent by the nonchalant and almost comic delivery of Bawd and Boult. Bawd even promises Boult that he also will have Marina. Marina asks the aid of the goddess Diana to look after her and keep her virginity.

“If fires be hot, knives sharp, or waters deep,

Untied I still my virgin knot will keep.

Diana, aid my purpose!”

We cross back to Tarsus, where Cleon and Dionyza talk about the murder of Marina by Leonine who Dionyza poisoned soon after. Cleon does not suspect that Dionyza had a hand in plot and laments Marina’s death and asks what he should tell Pericles when he comes back for his daughter. Dionyza says that their own daughter’s prospects were obstructed by Marina and says that Pericles will think they have honoured Marina well by mourning her and building a monument to her.

“And as for Pericles,

What should he say? We wept after her hearse,

And yet we mourn: her monument

Is almost finish'd, and her epitaphs

In glittering golden characters express

A general praise to her, and care in us

At whose expense 'tis done.”

Unusually, Gower then enters in the middle of the act and reveals that Pericles has decided to come back to Tarsus to see his daughter, Marina. Helicanus is left in charge but he follows Pericles in another ship. Then another mime or dumb show is acted out and Gower narrates the arrival of Pericles, his hearing of the terrible news of his daughter Marina’s apparent death, Cleon and Dionyza showing Pericles Marina's tomb and Pericles grief. Gower then reads out the inscription on Marina’s monument and and says that must leave Pericles to his grief and his belief that his daughter Marina is dead.

“See how belief may suffer by foul show!

This borrow'd passion stands for true old woe;

And Pericles, in sorrow all devour'd,

With sighs shot through, and biggest tears

o'ershower'd,

Leaves Tarsus and again embarks. He swears

Never to wash his face, nor cut his hairs:

He puts on sackcloth, and to sea. He bears

A tempest, which his mortal vessel tears,

And yet he rides it out. Now please you wit.

The epitaph is for Marina writ

By wicked Dionyza.

(reading Marina’s monument’s inscription)

'The fairest, sweet'st, and best lies here,

Who wither'd in her spring of year.

She was of Tyrus the king's daughter,

On whom foul death hath made this slaughter;

Marina was she call'd; and at her birth,

Thetis, being proud, swallow'd some part o' the earth:

Therefore the earth, fearing to be o'erflow'd,

Hath Thetis' birth-child on the heavens bestow'd:

Wherefore she does, and swears she'll never stint,

Make raging battery upon shores of flint.'

No visor does become black villany

So well as soft and tender flattery.

Let Pericles believe his daughter's dead,

And bear his courses to be ordered

By Lady Fortune; while our scene must play

His daughter's woe and heavy well-a-day

In her unholy service. Patience, then,

And think you now are all in Mytilene.”

We then cross to Mytilene, where we had feared the worst for Marina but are pleasantly surprised when two gentlemen come out of the brothel talking about the spiritual advice and divinity they received from a woman there.

When Pander, Bawd and Boult enter they remark on how they wish they had never purchased Marina since she is ruining their business through making everyone who meets her want to live a good life and become virtuous. Boult says that he or someone must ravish her and just then Lysimachus, the disguised governor of Myteline, arrives at the brothel. Bawd talks up Marina to the governor and Boult brings in Marina. Bawd remarks to Marina that Lysimachus is good man and Marina says that she  will note that. Pander, Bawd and Boult leave.

Lysimachus is alone with Marina. He asks her how long she has been in the profession and Marina says as long as she can remember. He reminds her that he is the governor and Marina says that he should govern his own nature and not take her honour.

“If you were born to honour, show it now;

If put upon you, make the judgment good

That thought you worthy of it…

For me,

That am a maid, though most ungentle fortune

Have placed me in this sty, where, since I came,

Diseases have been sold dearer than physic,

O, that the gods

Would set me free from this unhallow'd place,

Though they did change me to the meanest bird

That flies i' the purer air!”

Lysimachus admits his lustful intentions and renounces them and gives Marina gold for her words and then exits:

“I did not think

Thou couldst have spoke so well; ne'er dream'd thou couldst.

Had I brought hither a corrupted mind,

Thy speech had alter'd it. Hold, here's gold for thee:

Persever in that clear way thou goest,

And the gods strengthen thee!”

When Pander, Bawd and Boult come back and realize that Marina has made the corrupt governor Lysimachus saintly as well, it is decided that Boult to rape her, so that she can then service men in the brothel. When left alone with her, Boult is also convinced by her to follow a more noble path, She convinces him that she can become a teacher to them all and help them to do other activities for money. Boult says that he will help Marina:

“Faith, my acquaintance lies little amongst them.

But since my master and mistress have bought you,

there's no going but by their consent: therefore I

will make them acquainted with your purpose, and I

doubt not but I shall find them tractable enough.

Come, I'll do for thee what I can; come your ways.”

Pericles Act Five – “… we are not destitute for want, but weary for the staleness.”

‘Pericles’ Act Five starts with another Gower narration where is is confirmed that Marina escapes the brothel and is sold into an “honest house” and that Pericles went back to sea and arrives at Mytilene.

“Marina thus the brothel 'scapes, and chances

Into an honest house, our story says.

She sings like one immortal, and she dances

As goddess-like to her admired lays;

Deep clerks she dumbs; and with her needle composes

Nature's own shape, of bud, bird, branch, or berry,

That even her art sisters the natural roses;

Her inkle, silk, twin with the rubied cherry:

That pupils lacks she none of noble race,

Who pour their bounty on her; and her gain

She gives the cursed bawd. Here we her place;

And to her father turn our thoughts again,

Where we left him, on the sea. We there him lost;

Whence, driven before the winds, he is arrived

Here where his daughter dwells; and on this coast

Suppose him now at anchor. The city strived

God Neptune's annual feast to keep: from whence

Lysimachus our Tyrian ship espies,

His banners sable, trimm'd with rich expense;

And to him in his barge with fervor hies.

In your supposing once more put your sight

Of heavy Pericles; think this his bark:

Where what is done in action, more, if might,

Shall be discover'd; please you, sit and hark.”

The scene shifts to on board Pericles's ship and the governor of Myteline, Lysimachus boards the ship and when he asks to see the king, is told that he has not spoken for three months. When Lysimachus finally sees the unresponsive Pericles, he declares that there is a woman in Myteline who is virtuous and can get any man to talk. He then sends someone to get Marina so that she can entice Pericles to talk again.

Marina arrives on a barge to board Pericles’s ship and Lysimachus sends Marina in with her maid to try to entice Pericles to speak. Marina speaks to pericles about her own horrible and tragic story and although he initially thinks that she is mocking him knowing something of his story, eventually Pericles realizes that this is his own daughter Marina who was not murdered but in fact lived.

“Now, blessing on thee! rise; thou art my child.

Give me fresh garments. Mine own, Helicanus;

She is not dead at Tarsus, as she should have been,

By savage Cleon: she shall tell thee all;

When thou shalt kneel, and justify in knowledge

She is thy very princess. Who is this?

…I embrace you.

Give me my robes. I am wild in my beholding.

O heavens bless my girl! But, hark, what music?

Tell Helicanus, my Marina, tell him

O'er, point by point, for yet he seems to doubt,

How sure you are my daughter.”

Pericles is left to finally sleep and he is visited by the goddess Diana. She tells Pericles that he must go to her temple and tell his story about the losing his beloved wife and re-finding his daughter Marina.

“My temple stands in Ephesus: hie thee thither,

And do upon mine altar sacrifice.

There, when my maiden priests are met together,

Before the people all,

Reveal how thou at sea didst lose thy wife:

To mourn thy crosses, with thy daughter's, call

And give them repetition to the life.

Or perform my bidding, or thou livest in woe;

Do it, and happy; by my silver bow!

Awake, and tell thy dream.”

Pericles awakens and says that he will indeed go to Diana’s temple in Ephesus before he goes to Ephesus. Lysimachus asks for permission to woo Marina and Pericles grants this request.

Then Gower enters again and relates that Pericles was well received in Mytilene, and promises that Lysimachus can marry Marina when Pericles returns from Ephesus. Gower then announces that the new scene takes place when Pericles finally arrives at Ephesus.

Pericles enters the temple of Diana and gives a speech about his life, loves and family before a statue of Diana and one of the female priestesses at the temple (who we as an audience know to be Thaisa, Pericles’s wife).

“Hail, Dian! to perform thy just command,

I here confess myself the king of Tyre;

Who, frighted from my country, did wed

At Pentapolis the fair Thaisa.

At sea in childbed died she, but brought forth

A maid-child call'd Marina; who, O goddess,

Wears yet thy silver livery. She at Tarsus

Was nursed with Cleon; who at fourteen years

He sought to murder: but her better stars

Brought her to Mytilene; 'gainst whose shore

Riding, her fortunes brought the maid aboard us,

Where, by her own most clear remembrance, she

Made known herself my daughter.”

The female priestess (Thaisa) faints when she hears Pericles’s speech. Cerimon reveals Thaisa’s tale.

“Noble sir,

If you have told Diana's altar true,

This is your wife…

Early in blustering morn this lady was

Thrown upon this shore. I oped the coffin,

Found there rich jewels; recover'd her, and placed her

Here in Diana's temple.”

Thaisa awakens and recognizes pericles also by the ring her father gave to him. Pericles thanks Diana and the others gods for his blessings and even says he will cut his hair now his daughter is to be married:

“Immortal Dian…

This, this: no more, you gods! your present kindness

Makes my past miseries sports: you shall do well,

That on the touching of her lips I may

Melt and no more be seen. O, come, be buried

A second time within these arms…

Look, who kneels here! Flesh of thy flesh, Thaisa;

Thy burden at the sea, and call'd Marina

For she was yielded there…

Now do I long to hear how you were found;

How possibly preserved; and who to thank,

Besides the gods, for this great miracle…

Pure Dian, bless thee for thy vision! I

Will offer night-oblations to thee. Thaisa,

This prince, the fair-betrothed of your daughter,

Shall marry her at Pentapolis. And now,

This ornament

Makes me look dismal will I clip to form;

And what this fourteen years no razor touch'd,

To grace thy marriage-day, I'll beautify…

Yet there, my queen,

We'll celebrate their nuptials, and ourselves

Will in that kingdom spend our following days:

Our son and daughter shall in Tyrus reign.

Lord Cerimon, we do our longing stay

To hear the rest untold: sir, lead's the way.”

As all the characters exit, Gower as the Chorus starts his final Epilogue which in done more in the style of a Medieval Morality play than a Jacobean one. He tells of how immoral people like Antiochus are punished and how virtuous people like Pericles, Thaisa, and Marina have risen above the hardships which the gods placed before them:

“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 preserved 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 their cursed deed, and honour'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 them; although not done, but meant.

So, on your patience evermore attending,

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

Shakespeare returns in 'Coriolanus', a tale of the tragedy of the famous Roman leader.