Pericles
Act I

ACT I

Shakespeare (?) resurrects “From ashes” (2) John Gower, the medieval English poet considered quaint and old-fashioned by Shakespeare’s time and contemporary of Chaucer, as a “chorus” character, since his Confessio Amantis, Book VIII, is the primary source for the story, “Et bonum quo antiquius, eo melius” (I.10) — and the older a good thing is, the better. “He has come from the grave to tell his tale, and the tale itself will tell of restorations from death to life” (Wells 332). Too bad he sucks:

Enter Gower, who is no Chaucer.

To sing a song that old was sung,
From ashes ancient Gower is … cung?

To sing a song that old was some,
From ashes ancient Gower is come;

Assuming man’s infirmities,
To glad your ear, and please your … ease?

Assuming man’s infirmi-tize,
To glad your ear, and please your eyes.

It hath been sung at festivals,
On ember-eves and holy- … ulls?

It hath been sung at festi-veils,
On ember-eves and holy-ales;

And lords and ladies in their lives
Have read it for restora-tyves?

And lords and ladies in their … lives
Have read it for restoratives:

The purchase is to make men glorious;
Et bonum quo antiquius, eo morius?

The purchase is to make men glelius;
Et bonum quo antiquius, eo melius.

If you, born in these latter times,
When wit’s more ripe, accept my rhymes. (Hey, a real rhyme!)
And that to hear an old man sing
May to your wishes pleasure bring (Hey, another!)
I life would wish, and that I might
Waste it for you, like taper-light. (Whoa, three in a row.)

This Antioch, then, Antiochus the Great
Built up, this city, for his chiefest (okay, here we go again) … sate?

This Antioch, then, Antiochus the greet
Built up, this city, for his chiefest seat:

The fairest in all Syria,
I tell you what mine authors … suh?

The fairest in all Syri-yay,
I tell you what mine authors say:

. . .

With whom the father liking took,
And her to incest did pro-vook?

With whom the father liking toke,
And her to incest did provoke:

Bad child; worse father! to entice his own
To evil should be done by none: (sigh)

. . .

To seek her as a bed-fellow,
In marriage-pleasures play-fellow: (no)

. . .

So for her many a wight did die, (da dum da dumda da dum da dum)
As yon grim looks do testify. (da dum da dum da dum da dum — fine)
What now ensues, to the judgment of your eye (da dum da dum da da dum dum da da dum — NO!)
I give, my cause who best can justify. (You failed, dude.)

It is only in this play and The Two Noble Kinsmen “that Shakespeare so openly announces his source” (Asimov 183). “An archaic style is adopted for Gower’s choruses, a naïve tone in order to induce the proper mood for a tale of wonder” (Wells 331). Gower’s “archaic” style is represented by “‘killen’ for ‘kill,’ ‘spoken’ for ‘speak,’ ‘eyne’ for ‘eyes'” (Garber 758). In his characteristically godawful iambic quadrameter couplets (and it’ll be ten lines before we get an actual rhyme), Gower introduces the first part of the tale to be dramatized: Antiochus’ incest and the riddle established to kill off his daughter’s suitors, amid a typical medieval disclaimer: “I’ll tell you what my authors say” (I.20).

SCENE i

“The first two acts of Pericles can easily be seen as a sentimentalized portrait of the young Edward de Vere” — jouster, husband, traveller, and one who had “at least one encounter with pirates” (Farina 100).

King Antiochus of Antioch welcomes Pericles of Tyre to his standing challenge: “Bring in our daughter, clothed like a bride / For the embracements even of Jove himself” (I.i.7-8). As a would-be suitor, Pericles must answer a riddle to win the hand of the King’s daughter, or fail and have his severed head mounted like those of others who have attempted, as you see here on display. The glorious entrance of Antiochus’ daughter prompts eloquence in Pericles: “Her face the book of praises, where is read / Nothing but curious pleasures” (I.i.16-17). Curious? Hmm.

Like Oxford, “Pericles had travelled; he had acquired a powerful enemy, Antiochus, who sound extremely like Burghley” (Ogburn and Ogburn 128).

Pericles refuses to shrink from the challenge. His being “Thus ready for the way of life or death” (I.i.55) reminds some of Hercules facing his crossroads; and in an otherwise excellent edition of this play, it is noted that one scholar “suggests that this myth was recalled in AC, written shortly before Per.” (182). Astounding crap. No one knows when either Pericles or Anthony and Cleopatra was written! Truly. Crap!

The daughter wishes him well, we cannot tell if sincerely. And we’re never told her name (Ivanka?): “her lack of a name underscoring the need for Marina, later on, to find the meaning of her own name and birth” (Garber 763).

The rhyming riddle is presented:

I am no viper, yet I feed
On mother’s flesh which did me breed.
I sought a husband, in which labor
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.64-71)

Obviously the answer is something like “you are a daughter having an ongoing incestuous relationship with your own father.” Maybe those previously decapitated were just too chicken to say it. Pericles indicates to the Princess that now that he knows how vile she is: “I care not for you” (I.i.86).

Time’s up. What’s the answer? Pericles realizes it would probably be less than tactful, or safe, to come out with the answer, so he prevaricates.

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;
. . .
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.
(I.i.93-103)

Thus Pericles makes it clear he knows the answer but stops short of revealing it. For some, the book reference has evoked the secret and heretical Book of Babies Oxford was accused of owning (Ogburn and Ogburn 962). Antiochus feigns friendship and gives Pericles forty days to answer. Pericles figures he’d best run away: “One sin, I know, another doth provoke: / Murther’s as near to lust as flame to smoke” (I.i.137-138). Indeed, Antiochus hires a noble, Thaliard, as a hit man, but Pericles is already gone. Thaliard leaves Antioch in murderous pursuit.

Is it possible that Oxford is addressing a suspected incest between Burghley and his daughter Anne, Oxford’s wife, as Hamlet hints regarding Polonius and Ophelia? The elder Ogburns think this is why the play was excluded from the first two Folios, as too dangerous (130-133, 611, 962-963). Antiochus putting a hit on Pericles would be Burghley setting those pirates on Oxford before he could return. The plausible deniability built into the play is presenting the gracious father Simonides later with Pericles marrying his daughter Thaisa (Ogburn and Ogburn 133).

SCENE ii

Pericles has run home to Tyre and in he comes with his lords. “Let none disturb us” (I.ii.1), he says, and all the lords immediately exit. Well, that was idiotic.

Pericles frets about Antiochus’ power, even though he intends to keep quiet about the incest. Antiochus might even instigate military aggression against Tyre. Some of this (esp. I.ii.16-23) makes Antiochus sound like Lord Burghley (Ogburn and Ogburn 128), against whom contention is doom. So here is another play in which oppressive authority demands silence. As for the incest, Hamlet obliquely hints to Polonius (Burghley) about his relationship with his daughter Ophelia (Anne Cecil).

Then all the lords come back in. Among these friends of Pericles, Helicanus irrelevantly pontificates on flattery. Pericles then dismisses all the lords again except for Helicanus. (Postulated “major textual dislocations in this scene” notwithstanding, the pointless shuffling back and forth of all these lords could be a riot on stage.)

Pericles knows that Helicanus is no flatterer, “and heaven forbid / That kings should let their ears hear their faults hid!” (I.ii.61-62). Helicanus acknowledges Pericles’ heavy grief. “Thou speak’st like a physician, Helicanus, / That ministers a potion unto me / That thou wouldst tremble to receive thyself” (I.ii.67-69). Pericles tells Helicanus about the incest and about his own fears over the consequences of his knowing. “I knew him tyrannous, and tyrants’ fears / Decrease not, but grow faster than the years” (I.ii.82-83). Helicanus validates the logic of Pericles’ fears and recommends that he travel: Tyre is the first place they’ll look for him. “Your rule direct to any; if to me, / Day serves not light more faithful than I’ll be” (I.ii.109-110). To avoid the “tempest” (I.ii.96), Pericles resolves to sail to Tharsus.

SCENE iii

Thaliard, now in Tyre, overhears the loyal Helicanus tell others that Pericles is gone; and Thaliard is glad that his mission is all over with then. He comes forth, telling Helicanus that he brought a message for Pericles but has already found that the Prince is departed. Helicanus plays nice and invites him to feast.

SCENE iv

In Tharsus, Cleon the Governor and his wife Dionyza grieve about the famine: “by relating tales of others’ griefs / See if ’twill teach us to forget our own” (I.iv.2-3). The land’s former bounty and prosperity are gone and people are now at the point of cannibalism.

Those mothers, who to nuzzle up their babes
Thought naught too curious, are ready now
To eat those little darlings whom they loved.
So sharp are hunger’s teeth that man and wife
Draw lots who first shall die to lengthen life.
(I.iv.42-46)

The sighting of ships makes Cleon expect “some neighboring nation, / Taking advantage of our misery” (I.iv.65-66). Even the white flags don’t alter his despair: “Who makes the fairest show means most deceit” (I.iv.74). But Pericles arrives and announces that the ships are filled with corn for Tharsus’ relief. Cleon heartily thanks him.

It’s difficult to see how this scene could have been written by Will Shakspere of Stratford, who hoarded grain in famine years to drive up the price.