Textual Notes take the following form: the reading of our text is given in bold and its source given after an equals sign. “Q” signifies a reading from the First Quarto of 1609, “Q2” a correction introduced in the Second Quarto text of 1609, “Q3” one from the Third Quarto text of 1611, “Q4” one from the Fourth Quarto text of 1619, “Q5” one from the Fifth Quarto text of 1630, “F3” a correction from the Third Folio text, second issue, of 1664, “F4” a correction from the Fourth Folio text of 1685, “PA” a reading in George Wilkins’ novel The Painfull Adventures of Pericles, Prince of Tyre (1608), and “Ed” one introduced by a later editor. Thus, for example: “1.1.25 boundless = Ed. Q = bondlesse” indicates that at Act 1 Scene 1 line 25 we have accepted the editorial correction “boundless,” which makes better contextual sense within the line, “To compass such a boundless happiness.”
KEY FACTS
MAJOR PARTS: (with percentage of lines/number of speeches/scenes onstage) Pericles (25%/121/10), Gower (13%/8/8), Marina (8%/63/5), Simonides (6%/42/3), Helicanus (5%/37/5), Cleon (5%/19/3), Cerimon (4%/23/3), Lysimachus (4%/40/2), Bawd (4%/43/2), Dionyza (4%/19/4), Thaisa (3%/32/6), Bolt (3%/38/2), Antiochus (3%/12/1).
LINGUISTIC MEDIUM: 80% verse, 20% prose.
DATE: 1608. Registered for publication May 1608; Wilkins’ novel The Painfull Adventures of Pericles, cashing in on the success of the play, published 1608; performance seen by Venetian and French ambassadors, probably between April and July 1608. Frequency of editions and subsequent allusions suggest that the play was a considerable popular success.
SOURCES: Based primarily on the story of Apollonius of Tyre (an ancient romance) in book 8 of John Gower’s fourteenth-century poem Confessio Amantis; some use of Lawrence Twine’s version of the same story in the 1607 novella The Patterne of Painefull Aduentures, which was also borrowed from extensively by Wilkins in his novelization of the play.
TEXT: Not in the First Folio, perhaps because the editors knew that Shakespeare contributed only the second half. Added to the second issue of the Third Folio (1664), together with a number of “apocryphal” plays. Though originally registered in 1608 by Edward Blount, who would eventually publish the Folio, Pericles appeared in Quarto in 1609 under the imprint of a different publisher, with the title THE LATE, and much admired Play, called Pericles, Prince of Tyre. With the true Relation of the whole Historie, aduentures, and fortunes of the said Prince: As also, The no lesse strange, and worthy accidents, in the Birth and Life, of his Daughter MARIANA. As it hath been diuers and sundry times acted by his Maiesties Seruants, at the Globe on the Banckside. By William Shakespeare. The printing is of poor quality, with many corruptions and incomprehensible sequences, thus requiring more editorial intervention than is necessary in any Folio play. Wilkins’ novelization assists in the interpretation of some passages, but since we do not know the exact status of his treatment in relation to Shakespeare’s, it is unsafe to incorporate its readings into the text, as some editors have done. The Quarto went through six editions (two in 1609 alone), attesting to the play’s popularity. The Sixth Quarto of 1635, together with the 1634 Quarto of The Two Noble Kinsmen, may have been intended to supplement the 1632 Second Folio.
PERICLES
LIST OF PARTS
GOWER, the Chorus
PERICLES, Prince of Tyre
MARINA, his daughter
Antioch
ANTIOCHUS, King of Antioch
Antiochus’ DAUGHTER
THALIARD, a lord
MESSENGER
Tyre
FIRST LORD
SECOND LORD
HELICANUS, a grave and wise counselor
ESCANES, an old counselor
THIRD LORD
Tarsus
CLEON, governor of Tarsus
DIONYZA, Cleon’s wife
LORD
OTHER TARSIANS
LEONINE
FIRST PIRATE
SECOND PIRATE
THIRD PIRATE
Pentapolis
FIRST FISHERMAN, the master
SECOND FISHERMAN
THIRD FISHERMAN
SIMONIDES, King of Pentapolis
THAISA, Simonides’ daughter
FIRST KNIGHT, of Sparta
SECOND KNIGHT, of Macedon
THIRD KNIGHT, of Antioch
FOURTH KNIGHT
FIFTH KNIGHT
FIRST LORD
SECOND LORD
THIRD LORD
MARSHAL
On the ship
FIRST SAILOR, the ship’s master
SECOND SAILOR
LYCHORIDA, Marina’s nurse
Ephesus
Lord CERIMON
PHILEMON, his attendant
FIRST SERVANT
A survivor of the storm
FIRST GENTLEMAN
SECOND GENTLEMAN
CERIMON’S SERVANT
DIANA, goddess of chastity
Mytilene
PANDER
BAWD, pander’s wife
BOLT, pander and bawd’s servant
FIRST GENTLEMAN
SECOND GENTLEMAN
LYSIMACHUS, governor of Mytilene
SAILOR OF TYRE
SAILOR OF MYTILENE
FIRST GENTLEMAN, of Tyre
LORD, of Mytilene
Marina’s companion
Followers, Attendants, Gentlemen, Messengers, Lords, Servants, Priests of Diana
[Prologue]
running scene 1
Enter Gower
GOWER To sing a song that old1 was sung
From ashes ancient2 Gower is come,
Assuming man’s infirmities3
To glad your ear and please your eyes.
It hath been sung at festivals,
On ember eves and holidays6,
And lords and ladies in their lives
Have read it for restoratives8.
The purchase is to make men glorious9,
Et bonum quo antiquius eo melius10.
If you — born in these latter times,
When wit’s more ripe12 — accept my rhymes,
And that to hear an old man sing
May to your wishes pleasure bring,
I life would wish15, and that I might
Waste it for you like taper light16.
This Antioch17, then: Antiochus the great
Built up this city for his chiefest seat18 —
The fairest in all Syria.
I tell you what mine authors20 say:
This king unto him took a peer21,
Who died and left a female heir,
So buxom, blithe and full of face
As23 heaven had lent her all his grace,
With whom the father liking25 took
And her to incest did provoke:
Bad child, worse father, to entice his own
To evil should be done by none.
But custom29 what they did begin
Was with long use account’30 no sin.
The beauty of this sinful dame
Made many princes thither frame32
To seek her as a bedfellow,
In marriage pleasures, playfellow,
Which to prevent he made a law
To keep her still, and men in awe36:
That whoso asked her for37 his wife,
His riddle told not38, lost his life.
Points to the heads on display above, or reveals them
So for her many a wight39 did die,
As yon grim looks40 do testify.
What now ensues, to the judgement of your eye
I give my cause, who best can justify.42
Exit
[Act 1 Scene 1]
running scene 1 continues
Enter Antiochus, Prince Pericles and Followers
ANTIOCHUS Young Prince of Tyre, you have at large received1
The danger of the task you undertake?
PERICLES I have, Antiochus, and with a soul
Emboldened w
ith the glory of her praise
Think death no hazard in this enterprise.
Music plays
ANTIOCHUS Music!
Bring in our daughter, clothèd like a bride
For embracements even of Jove8 himself,
At whose conception, till Lucina9 reigned,
Nature this dowry gave: to glad her presence10
The senate house11 of planets all did sit,
To knit in her their best perfections12.
Enter Antiochus’ Daughter
PERICLES See where she comes, apparelled like the spring13,
Graces her subjects14, and her thoughts the king
Of every virtue gives renown15 to men:
Her face the book of praises16, where is read
Nothing but curious pleasures, as17 from thence
Sorrow were ever razed, and testy18 wrath
Could never be her mild companion19.
You gods that made me man and sway20 in love,
That have inflamed desire in my breast
To taste the fruit of yon22 celestial tree
Or die in the adventure, be my helps,
As I am son and servant to your will,
To compass25 such a boundless happiness.
ANTIOCHUS Prince Pericles—
PERICLES That would be son27 to great Antiochus.
ANTIOCHUS Before thee stands this fair Hesperides,
With golden fruit, but dangerous to be touched,29
For deathlike dragons30 here affright thee hard.
Her face, like heaven, enticeth thee to view
Her countless glory, which desert32 must gain,
And which without desert, because thine eye
Presumes to reach, all the whole heap34 must die.
Points to the heads
Yon sometimes35 famous princes, like thyself
Drawn by report, adventurous36 by desire,
Tell thee with speechless tongues and semblance37 pale
That without covering save yon38 field of stars
Here they stand, martyrs slain in Cupid’s wars,
And with dead cheeks advise thee to desist
From going on death’s net41, whom none resist.
PERICLES Antiochus, I thank thee, who hath taught
My frail mortality43 to know itself,
And by those fearful objects44 to prepare
This body, like to them, to what I must:
For death remembered46 should be like a mirror
Who tells us life’s but breath47, to trust it error.
I’ll make my will, then, and as sick men do
Who know the world, see heaven, but feeling woe
Grip not at earthly joys as erst they did.50
So I bequeath a happy peace to you
And all good men, as every prince should do,
My riches to the earth from whence they came,—
To Daughter
But my unspotted54 fire of love to you.—
To Antiochus
Thus ready for the way of life or death,
I wait the sharpest blow.
Gives Pericles the riddle
ANTIOCHUS Scorning advice, read the conclusion57 then,
Which read and not expounded, ’tis decreed,
As these59 before thee, thou thyself shalt bleed.
To Pericles
DAUGHTER Of all ’ssayed60 yet, mayst thou prove prosperous,
Of all ’ssayed yet, I wish thee happiness.
PERICLES Like a bold champion I assume the lists62,
Nor63 ask advice of any other thought
But faithfulness and courage.
Reads
The riddle
‘I am no viper, yet I feed65
On mother’s flesh which did me breed.
I sought a husband, in which labour67
I found that kindness68 in a father.
He’s father, son and husband mild,
I mother, wife and yet his child:
How they may be, and yet in two71,
As you will live resolve it you.’
Aside
Sharp physic is the last73!— But O, you powers
That gives heaven countless eyes74 to view men’s acts,
Why cloud they not their sights75 perpetually
If this be true, which makes me pale to read it?—
To Daughter
Fair glass of light77, I loved you, and could still
Were not this glorious casket78 stored with ill.
But I must tell you, now my thoughts revolt,
For he’s no man on whom perfections wait80,
That knowing sin within will touch the gate81.
You are a fair viol, and your sense82 the strings,
Who, fingered to make man his lawful music83,
Would draw heaven down, and all the gods to hearken.
But being played upon85 before your time,
Hell only danceth at so harsh a chime86.
Good sooth87, I care not for you.
Pericles gestures towards the Daughter
ANTIOCHUS Prince Pericles, touch not, upon thy life,
For that’s an article89 within our law
As dangerous as the rest. Your time’s expired:
Either expound now or receive your sentence.
PERICLES Great king,
Few love to hear the sins they love to act,
’Twould braid94 yourself too near for me to tell it.
Who95 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 others’ eyes to spread itself.98
And yet the end of all is bought thus dear,
The breath is gone and the sore eyes see clear
Copped hills towards heaven, to tell the earth is thronged102
By man’s oppression, and the poor worm103 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 it107.
All love the womb that their first being bred,
Then give my tongue like leave109 to love my head.
Aside
ANTIOCHUS Heaven, that I had thy head! He has found the meaning,
To Pericles
But I will gloze with111 him.— Young prince of Tyre,
Though by the tenor of your strict edict112,
Your exposition113 misinterpreting,
We might proceed to cancel of114 your days,
Yet hope, succeeding from so fair a tree
As your fair self, doth tune us otherwise116.
Forty days longer we do respite you,
If by which time our secret be undone118,
This mercy shows we’ll joy119 in such a son.
And until then your entertain120 shall be
As doth befit our honour and your worth.
[Exeunt.] Pericles remains alone
PERICLES How courtesy would seem to122 cover sin,
When what is done is like an hypocrite,
The which is good in nothing but in sight124.
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 untimely129 claspings with your child —
Which pleasures fits a husband, not a father —
And she an eater of her mother’s flesh
By the defiling of her parents’ bed.
And both like serpents are, who though they feed
On sweetest flowers, yet they poison breed
.134
Antioch farewell, for wisdom sees those men135
Blush not in actions blacker than the night
Will ’schew no course to keep them from the light137.
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 off141 the shame.
Then lest my life be cropped, to keep you clear142,
By flight, I’ll shun the danger which I fear.
Exit
Enter Antiochus
ANTIOCHUS He hath found the meaning,
For which we mean to have his head:
He must not live to trumpet forth146 my infamy,
Nor tell the world Antiochus doth sin
In such a loathèd manner.
And therefore instantly this prince must die,
For by his fall my honour must keep high.
Who attends us there?
Enter Thaliard151
THALIARD Doth your highness call?
ANTIOCHUS Thaliard, you are of our chamber153, Thaliard,
And our mind partakes154 her private actions
To your secrecy, and for your faithfulness
We will advance you, Thaliard.
Behold, here’s poison and here’s gold:
We hate the Prince of Tyre, and thou must kill him.
It fits thee not to ask the reason why:
Because we bid it. Say, is it done?
THALIARD My lord, ’tis done.
Enter a Messenger
running
ANTIOCHUS Enough.—
To Messenger
Let your breath cool yourself, telling your haste163.
MESSENGER My lord, Prince Pericles is fled. [Exit]
To Thaliard
ANTIOCHUS As thou wilt live, fly after, and like an arrow
Shot from a well experienced archer hits