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    Pericles
    Pericles
    Pericles
    Ebook126 pages1 hour

    Pericles

    By William Shakespeare

    3/5

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    This romantic drama portrays the travails of a wandering prince and the redemptive powers of a daughter's love. Driven from one end of the Mediterranean to another by the winds of fate, Pericles endures loss and heartbreak before his odyssey ends in a miraculous reunion. Shipwreck, famine, and other disasters punctuate this wondrous tale, in which a knight in rusty armor fights for his true love and a princess kidnapped by pirates retains her honor by setting a virtuous example for her captors.
    Prologues delivered in the character of medieval English poet John Gower introduce each act of this unusual play, whose authorship has long been disputed. Written late in Shakespeare's career, Pericles was enormously popular in the seventeenth century and was the first of the playwright's dramas to be staged after the Restoration. The play fell into neglect until recent years, and now its charms are being rediscovered by modern audiences.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherDover Publications
    Release dateDec 14, 2015
    ISBN9780486790114
    Author

    William Shakespeare

    William Shakespeare was born in April 1564 in the town of Stratford-upon-Avon, on England’s Avon River. When he was eighteen, he married Anne Hathaway. The couple had three children—an older daughter Susanna and twins, Judith and Hamnet. Hamnet, Shakespeare’s only son, died in childhood. The bulk of Shakespeare’s working life was spent in the theater world of London, where he established himself professionally by the early 1590s. He enjoyed success not only as a playwright and poet, but also as an actor and shareholder in an acting company. Although some think that sometime between 1610 and 1613 Shakespeare retired from the theater and returned home to Stratford, where he died in 1616, others believe that he may have continued to work in London until close to his death.

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    Reviews for Pericles

    3/5

    13 ratings8 reviews

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    • 5/5
      One of the best plays I've read by Shakespeare. Truly notable. A great read!
    • 4/5
      I don't know enough about Shakespeare to know which of his plays are comedies or tragedies and that made the reading of this play very suspenseful for me. I truly enjoyed and was wrapped up in Pericles; the conflict which happened to him pained me. It's possible that my emotions are just extra sensitive right now, but I thought this a fine read.
    • 2/5
      I've read from that this play is another Shakespearian collaboration. I couldn't separate the Bard from the Hack to my satisfaction, as I could for Timon of Athens, because it was all written on the same level of pleasant mediocrity. I was mildly interested in the use of the author of the source material as a character who introduces each act. I was a little repulsed by the sex, which involved incest between father and daughter and a young girl on the verge of being broken in as a prostitute.
    • 4/5
      3 stars for the play, 5 stars for this stunning scholarly edition. If you're an actor or young student looking to read Shakespeare, I recommend the Penguin editions, with their helpful, theatre-based endnotes and their simple layout. But for academics and long-term scholars, you really can't go past the depth of the Arden.
    • 4/5
      In only a few minutes we’re in the midst of incest and attempted murder. There’s soap opera level drama from the start. There’s a storm at sea, shipwreck, a lost infant, lost wife, prostitutes, pirates, and so much more. Pericles escapes a dangerous situation, on the run for his life. He ends up in a new kingdom and falls in love with a princess there. In a plot straight out of The Tempest, Shakespeare has the princess’ father pretends to be against the pairing to encourage the two to fall even faster in love. There is a narrator who helps the reader navigate the many location and time changes in each act. Pericles’ lost wife plot is reminiscent of Winter’s Tale.

      This is one of Shakespeare’s “romance” plays. Though the ending might be happy, the story is full of tragedy. Redemption doesn’t come until the characters are heartbroken by loss. The play is interesting, but it does feel like a pieced together effort that combines some of his better work. It was the very last of his plays that I read and I feel a huge sense of accomplishment that I've finally read ALL of his plays!

      “Few love to hear the sins they love to act.”

      “Tis time to fear when tyrants seem to kiss.”
    • 3/5
      Okay. For starters, thanks to Marjorie Garber and her interesting piece on the play in her “Shakespeare After All,” I enjoyed this more than I otherwise would have. She talks about how the play, a “dramatic romance,” needs to be seen not as a failed effort at the sort of play where the protagonist develops and shows psychological depth through monologues and all, but as a play where the character development and other “deep” aspects are illustrated through mythic and fairy tale motifs. …...
      ”Some modern audiences – like some early modern ones – have found these plays deficient in realism, but, as we will see, what they actually do is shift the “real” to a different plane, one more aligned to dream, fantasy, and psychology, while retaining, at the same time, a topical relationship to historical event in Shakespeare's day.”
      This really did help. When events in the play got particularly... goofy or illogical, I had something to think about other than, “Well, this is pretty dumb.” (Instead, I could think, “Well, this is dumb in a mythically symbolic” sort of way.”).

      Anyway. So, her essay was great, and starting with her appreciation and a nice overview, I was prepared to be pleased by what the play has to offer. And I did find stuff to like. Some lovely lines and scenes, especially towards the end, and the situation with the brothel, where Marina converts all the guys who come in to virtue and the brothel owners are increasingly outraged, was funny. Until Lysimachus. The local governor comes in to the brothel looking for a virgin to deflower. So, ick. But... he sees the error of his ways, and I imagined I'd seen the last of that scumbucket. But NO. Rather than retreating to his palace or wherever he lives, he continues along with Marina, and is welcomed by Pericles as a wonderful future son-in-law. So, the fall out from being identified as a particularly loathsome sort of sexual predator is that he is welcomed into a royal family??? Not that this made me think of today's news or anything, but this Completely made me think of current events, with Roy Moore running in Alabama for the U.S. Senate, with a solidly documented record of having, in his 30's, dated young teenaged girls, and with the defense of supportive Evangelical pastors being that “only by dating young teenagers could he find girls who were really pure” (a paraphrase of the argument of Pastor Flip Benham). It's a truly twisted logic that argues that grown men chasing after young girls is a sign of high moral values. Gah. This illustration of the play's timelessness did Not increase my enjoyment.

      Still, this isn't one I expect to ever return to, but I'm glad to have read it once. I listened to the ensemble recording from Librivox while reading, and, despite some truly jarring mispronunciations and silly accents, their recording features some excellent performances and did help me enjoy the play. Three stars.
    • 2/5
      "Pericles, Prince of Tyre" was easily my least favorite play by William Shakespeare so far. I didn't know until after reading it that many critics speculate the play was mostly written by a collaborator and not Shakespeare himself.

      I'm not surprised.... some of the writing was really cringe-worthy... it really lacks the masterful prose of the bard's more famous works.

      Plot wise, the play is pretty interesting and moves fairly quickly. King Pericles flees his country after finding out an unfortunate secret of a neighboring king, loses his wife, then loses his daughter. If the writing itself had been better, this would have been pretty entertaining.
    • 2/5
      So, I'm no dramaturge or anything, but I kind of suspect this is actually not even a good play.

      In the introduction I find that only a relatively small part of it was written by Shakespeare and the rest was written by some neighborhood pimp who apparently also dabbled in playwriting on the side? The plot is just a bunch of random shit that happens. Totally pointless mini-arcs are introduced and then discarded to be resolved off-stage or not at all. The closest thing we have to an antagonist appears in only two scenes.

      One thing I found interesting (though not actually good) are the scenes in which a company of pimps attempt to coerce Pericles's daughter into taking up the profession. Knowing what I do about the author makes me uncertain about how they were really intended to come off and I suspect they were meant with a sense of sarcasm or irony that would have been obvious in contemporary performance but isn't really captured on the page.

    Book preview

    Pericles - William Shakespeare

    Pericles

    William Shakespeare

    Dover Publications, Inc.

    Mineola, New York

    DOVER THRIFT EDITIONS

    GENERAL EDITOR: MARY CAROLYN WALDREP

    EDITOR OF THIS VOLUME: ALISON DAURIO

    Copyright

    Copyright © 2015 by Dover Publications, Inc.

    All rights reserved.

    Theatrical Rights

    This Dover Thrift Edition may be used in its entirety, in adaptation, or in any other way for theatrical productions, professional and amateur, in the United States, without fee, permission, or acknowledgment. (This may not apply outside of the United States, as copyright conditions may vary.)

    Bibliographical Note

    This Dover edition, first published in 2015, contains the unabridged text of Pericles as published in Volume VII of The Caxton Edition of the Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Caxton Publishing Company, London, n.d. The introductory Note was prepared specially for this edition, and the explanatory footnotes from the Caxton edition have been revised.

    International Standard Book Number

    eISBN-13: 978-0-486-79011-4

    www.doverpublications.com

    Note

    WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE (1564–1616) was born in Stratford-on-Avon, Warwickshire, England. Although much of his early life remains sketchy, it is known that he moved to London around 1589 to earn his way as an actor and playwright. He joined an acting company known as The Lord Chamberlain’s Men in 1594, a decision that finally enabled him to share in the financial success of his plays. Only eighteen of his thirty-seven plays were published during his lifetime, and these were usually sold directly to theater companies and printed in quartos, or single-play editions, without his approval.

    Written around 1607–08, scholars suspect that Pericles is likely a collaboration between Shakespeare and the poet and pamphleteer George Wilkins. It tells the story of the wandering prince, Pericles, who is forced to flee for his life after discovering an incestuous affair between King Antiochus and his daughter. Including storms, a shipwreck, falling in love, pirates, births and burials at sea, and the waking of the dead, Pericles must contend with natural and unnatural elements.

    DRAMATIS PERSONÆ

    ANTIOCHUS, king of Antioch.

    PERICLES, prince of Tyre.

    SIMONIDES, king of Pentapolis.

    CLEON, governor of Tarsus.

    LYSIMACHUS, governor of Mytilene.

    CERIMON, a lord of Ephesus.

    THALIARD, a lord of Antioch.

    PHILEMON, servant to Cerimon.

    LEONINE, servant to Dionyza.

    Marshal.

    A Pandar.

    BOULT, his servant.

    The daughter of Antiochus.

    DIONYZA, wife to Cleon.

    THAISA, daughter to Simonides.

    MARINA, daughter to Pericles and Thaisa.

    LYCHORIDA, nurse to Marina.

    A Bawd.

    Lords, Knights, Gentlemen, Sailors, Pirates, Fishermen, and Messengers.

    DIANA.

    GOWER, as Chorus.

    SCENE: Dispersedly in various countries.

    CONTENTS

    Act I

    Scene I. Antioch. A Room in the Palace

    Scene II. Tyre. A Room in the Palace

    Scene III. Tyre. An Ante-Chamber

    Scene IV. Tarsus. A Room in the

    Act II

    Scene I. Pentapolis. An Open Place by

    Scene II. The Same. A Public Way or Platform Leading to the Lists. A Pavilion by the Side of it for the Reception of the King, Princess, Lords, etc

    Scene III. The Same. A Hall of State: A Banquet Prepared

    Scene IV. Tyre. A Room in the Governor’s House

    Scene V. Pentapolis. A Room in the Palace

    Act III

    Scene I

    Scene II. Ephesus. A Room in Cerimon’s House

    Scene III. Tarsus. A Room in the Governor’s house

    Scene IV. Ephesus. A Room in Cerimon’s House

    Act IV

    Scene I. Tarsus. An Open Place near the Sea–Shore

    Scene II. Mytilene. A Room in a Brothel

    Scene III. Tarsus. A Room in the Governor’s House

    Scene IV

    Scene V. Mytilene. A Street before the Brothel

    Scene VI. The Same. A Room in the Brothel

    Act V

    Scene I. On Board Pericles’ Ship, off Mytilene. A Close Pavilion on Deck, with a Curtain before it; Pericles within it, Reclined on a Couch. A Barge lying beside the Tyrian Vessel

    Scene II

    Scene III. The Temple of Diana at Ephesus; Thaisa Standing near the Altar, as High Priestess; a Number of Virgins on each side; Cerimon and Other Inhabitants of Ephesus Attending

    ACT I.

    Enter GOWER

    Before the palace of Antioch

    To sing a song that old was sung,

    From ashes ancient Gower is come, [2]

    Assuming man’s infirmities,

    To glad your ear and please your eyes.

    It hath been sung at festivals,

    On ember-eves and holy-ales; [6]

    And lords and ladies in their lives

    Have read it for restoratives:

    The purchase is to make men glorious; [9]

    Et bonum quo antiquius, eo melius. [10]

    If you, born in these latter times

    When wit ’s more ripe, accept my rhymes,

    And that to hear an old man sing

    May to your wishes pleasure bring,

    I life would wish, and that I might

    Waste it for you like taper-light.

    This Antioch then Antiochus the Great

    Built up, this city, for his chiefest seat,

    The fairest in all Syria:

    I tell you what mine authors say: [20]

    This king unto him took a fere, [21]

    Who died and left a female heir,

    So buxom, blithe and full of face [23]

    As heaven had lent her all his grace;

    With whom the father liking took,

    And her to incest did provoke:

    Bad child, worse father! to entice his own

    To evil should be done by none:

    But custom what they did begin

    Was with long use account no sin. [30]

    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. [40]

    What now ensues, to the judgement of your eye [41–42]

    I give, my cause who best can justify. [ Exit.

    SCENE I. Antioch. A Room in the Palace.

    Enter ANTIOCHUS, PRINCE PERICLES and Followers

    ANT. Young prince of Tyre, you have at large received

    The danger of the task you undertake.

    PER. I have, Antiochus, and, with a soul

    Embolden’d with the glory of her praise,

    Think death no hazard in this enterprise.

    ANT. Bring in our daughter, clothed like a bride,

    For the embracements even of Jove himself;

    At whose conception, till Lucina reign’d, [8–11]

    Nature this dowry gave, to glad her presence,

    The senate-house of planets all did sit, [10]

    To knit in her their best perfections.

    Music. Enter Antiochus’ Daughter

    PER. 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 [20]

    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!

    ANT. Prince Pericles,—

    PER. That would be son to great Antiochus.

    ANT. Before thee stands this fair Hesperides, [27]

    With

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