Pericles

by · 1609

Genre: Fiction

Rating: 3.8/5

Pericles charts fortune's wild turns in episodic splendor, a collaborative romance where Shakespeare's invention outpaces its fractures. Flawed yet formally alive, it precedes the late masterpieces.

Pericles unfolds as a ragged romance whose episodic wanderings reveal Shakespeare's formal experimentation amid collaborative fractures.

This late Shakespearean romance, likely co-authored with George Wilkins, rewards patient readers with its audacious structure and flashes of poetic invention; it is a play of vast ambition that stumbles under the weight of its seams. Though not the seamless mastery of The Tempest, Pericles earns its place in the canon through sheer formal daring—mapping fortune's wheel across distant shores. I recommend it to those who prize Shakespeare's restless evolution over polish.

Pericles, Prince of Tyre, launches into a world of ceaseless motion; its protagonist solves a king's incestuous riddle—'What I am my father is; what he is mine I am'—only to flee Antiochus's wrath, setting sail for realms unknown. Shipwrecks, reunions, and recognitions propel the narrative across fourteen years and half the Mediterranean, from Tyre to Tarsus, Pentapolis to Ephesus. This is Shakespeare at his most peripatetic, structuring the play as a pageant of tableaux rather than a tight Aristotelian arc; each act pivots on fortune's caprice, with choruses from Gower framing the tale like illuminated medieval manuscripts. The form enacts its theme—life as serial calamity and improbable restoration—demanding we surrender to its tidal rhythms.

Voice shifts kaleidoscopically, a hallmark of the play's collaborative origins; Shakespeare's hand gleams in lyrical set pieces, such as Pericles' reunion with daughter Marina: 'O, come hither, Thou that beget'st him that did thee beget.' Yet Wilkins's coarser touch surfaces in bawdy brothel scenes and blunt exposition, where dialogue flattens into pamphlet prose. The result is a hybrid vigor—elevated verse crashing against doggerel—mirroring Pericles' own displacements. Formally, this is Shakespeare testing romance's limits; the play's dumb shows and prophecies anticipate The Winter's Tale's bold artifice, prioritizing spectacle over psychological depth.

Thematically, Pericles orbits providence and paternity; Pericles sires heirs amid tempests—Thaisa, presumed drowned, revives in Ephesus; Marina thrives from near-rape to redemption—suggesting a divine geometry beneath chaos. Leadership's burdens infuse the ports: Pericles feeds famine-struck Tarsus, yet abdicates his throne for grief's exile. These motifs cohere loosely, bound by the sea's inexorable pull; the play performs resilience, not resolution, in a world where kings are pawns to fate.

Yet for all its sweep, Pericles falters in uneven execution; the first half's choppy verse and expository lumps—particularly Wilkins's Antioch and Mytilene episodes—drag with mechanical plotting and tin-eared rhetoric, undermining Shakespeare's salvific lyricism. Pacing sags under repetitive shipwrecks; characterizations remain archetypal sketches, Pericles a noble cipher adrift in pageantry. These seams expose collaboration's cost: a major work hobbled by a minor partner's clumsiness, diluting the formal unity that elevates Shakespeare's solo late romances.

In reclaiming Pericles from obscurity, we glimpse Shakespeare's workshop—raw, collaborative, alive with possibility; its imperfections humanize the bard, reminding us that even miracles bear scars. Modern editions, like Bate and Rasmussen's, clarify attributions, inviting us to parse the duet. This is no Tempest, but a vital antecedent; its wheel turns fitfully, yet turns true.

Key Takeaways

Summary

Chapter Guide

Chapter 1: The Incestuous King and Pericles' Flight
Prince Pericles of Tyre attempts to win the hand of Antiochus's daughter, only to discover the king's incestuous secret. Fearing for his life, Pericles flees Tyre, embarking on a journey fraught with peril.
Chapter 2: Shipwreck and the Tournament at Pentapolis
Pericles endures a shipwreck near Pentapolis, losing all his possessions. He nevertheless wins a jousting tournament and the love of King Simonides' daughter, Thaisa.
Chapter 3: Birth, Death, and a Tempest at Sea
While sailing back to Tyre, Thaisa gives birth to Marina during a violent storm and appears to die shortly after. Pericles, believing her dead, commits her body to the sea in a chest.
Chapter 4: Marina's Abduction and Virtue in Adversity
Marina, left in Tarsus, is abducted by pirates and sold into a brothel in Mytilene. Despite her terrible circumstances, she maintains her virtue and chastity, converting many to a moral life.
Chapter 5: Reunion and Divine Intervention
Pericles, deeply despondent after years of separation, encounters Marina and slowly recognizes his daughter. Thaisa, having been rescued and revived, is revealed to be alive, culminating in a miraculous family reunion orchestrated by Diana.

Read the full review at https://reviewerinsight.com/book/69ed4f5df2f1713bdeb2c168/pericles

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