Pericles, Prince of Tyre

"Pericles, Prince of Tyre" is one of Shakespeare's collaborative plays. Its authorship is shared between Shakespeare and George Wilkins. Wilkins wrote the first two acts, and Shakespeare the last three. Despite the two different pairs of hands that stitched the narrative, the play maintains its own unity. Fourteenth century poet John Gower opens each act, lending a medieval presence to the chorus. Gower was most famous for an allegorical repository of old stories titled "Confessio Amantis". Included in the collection was a version of the tale of Apollonius of Tyre. Apollonius roamed the Mediterranean world before what he had lost was restored to him. The quest lends itself to the literary form of romance which Shakespeare took on in his late romance plays.

"I am no viper, yet I feed/On mother's flesh which did me breed./ I sought a husband, in which labour/ I found that kindness in a father./ He's father, son and husband mild,/ I mother, wife and yet his child:/ How they may be, and yet in two,/ As you will live resolve it you (I.i. 65-72)." Upon solving this riddle, the eponymous hero Pericles realizes his newfound knowledge on a king and his daughter's incestuous relationship puts his being in grave danger. Rather than give the answer to the riddle, he strains for more time. Antiochus grants him forty days, but sends an assassin after him. Pericles flees to Tyre, his home but his friend Helicanus counsels him to leave for Antiochus will surely look for him here. Pericles sails to Tarsus. A famine has beset this city, so Pericles offers the king Cleon and queen Dionyza the grain on his ship. Pericles then returns on a route to Tyre. Along the way, he is shipwrecked in Pentapolis. He enters a joustling contest. Whoever wins can marry the king's daughter. Pericles wins the tournament and charms the king and his daughter Thaisa.

News of Antiochus and his daughter being burned to death by fire from heaven reaches Pericles. He decide that he wants to return to Tyre. A tempest comes upon his ship and changes his happy circumstances. His wife Thaisa dies in childbirth while the ship is at sea. The shipmaster insists on the superstition that dead bodies must be thrown overboard in order for a storm to stop. Brokenhearted, Pericles complies. Thaisa's body washes on the shores of Ephesus where the good doctor Cerimon realizes Thaisa is not dead and revives her.

Once Pericles lands in Tarsus, he entrusts his daughter Marina to the care of Cleon and Dionyza. Pericles goes on to reign as king of Tyre and Thaisa is the priestess for Diana. Dionyza is jealous of Marina for being more beautiful than her own daughter. A plot is formed for Marina to be murdered but at the last second, pirates come by and seize Marina. They sell Marina to a brothel run by Pander and Bawd.

Marina's chastity proves bad for business when she manages to convince the clientele of the brothel that her honor is sacred and the men leave seeking virtue in their own lives. Marina finds a more suitable profession in educating the minds of young girls. When Pericles revisits Tarsus, Cleon and Dionyza show him the monument they have erected in honor of the deceased Marina. Pericles is grief-stricken and does not speak for the next three months. He arrives in Myteline. Marina is brought to the ship and tells him her grief can match his. To his surprise, everything Marina says corresponds to the story of his supposedly deceased daughter. Pericles falls asleep contentedly only to dream the goddess Diana telling him to go to her temple in Ephesus.

In Ephesus, the priestess faints upon hearing Pericles's story. Cerimon explains that the priestess is Thaisa, Pericles's long-lost wife. The play ends on this happy reunion.

"Pericles, Prince of Tyre" is the story of one man's quest for self-knowledge. The protagonist is unusually humble and rich with melancholic fervor, even before he loses a wife or daughter, because he believes a protagonist should be imbued with pathos. To that end, throughout the chaos and misfortune fate deals him, he never imagines himself to be a hero of an epic or an inspiring religious figure. Pericles simply endures what he is dealt. This has lead critics to complain that the main characters are flat and unchanging since they seem to emblemize a particular virtue or vice. The play lends itself to performance, however, and the scene of recognition between Marina and Pericles is regarded today as one of Shakespeare's finest reconciliation scenes.

The play has enjoyed numerous productions during the twentieth century. To name a few: in 1947, Walter Nugent Monck revived "Pericles, Prince of Tyre" for audiences at the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre in Stratford with Paul Scofield in the title role. In 1958, Tony Richardson directed it at the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre in Stratford. The stage was dominated by a large ship in which Gower tells the tale to a crew of sailors. The production was a success and became notable for its "coherent" approach, in contrast to the postmodern approached of the seventies and eighties. A 1969 production by Terry Hands, also in Stratford, hung a replica of Leonardo da Vinci's "Vitruvian Man" above an otherwise bare stage. Ian Richardson played Pericles, and the rest of the cast played two roles each. In 1989, David Thacker directed the play at the Swan. The production featured a grid-covered trap suspended in air. The brothel scenes were played below while the shipboard scenes were played on and around the grid. Adrian Noble's 2002 production at London's Roundhouse accentuated multicultural aspects of the play. Belly dancing and drumming were featured during the intermission of his production.