ACT II
Gower checks in with us:
Here have you seen a mighty king
His child, I wis, to incest bring;
A better prince and benign lord,
That will prove aweful both in deed and word.
Be quiet then, as men should be,
Till he hath pass’d necessity.
. . .
But tidings …
Are brought your eyes; what need speak I?
(II.1-16)
Yeah, exactly!
After a dumb show, Gower introduces Pericles’ countryman “Good Helicane” (or Helicanus) who “stayed at home / Not to eat honey like a drone / From others’ labours” (II.17-19). This seems like a forced rhyme, but the theme is Shakespearean in more sophisticated contexts (e.g., Henry V) and a young Oxford’s concern expressed in an early poem.
Helicanus has written to Pericles, warning him that Thaliard had been on his trail and that he should leave Tharsus. Pericles has sailed off but is tossed about on the sea. “Till Fortune, tired of doing bad, / Threw him ashore to give him glad. / And here he comes. What shall be next, / Pardon old Gower — this ‘longs the text” (II.37-40).
[You are pardoned. Don’t come back, / You superfluous tedious hack.]
SCENE i
Pericles, washed ashore near Pentapolis and never acknowledging the sailors who must have died, apostrophizes to the heavens and expects to die. But three good-natured fishermen enter. “Master, I marvel how the fishes live in the sea.” “Why, as men do a-land; the great ones eat up the little ones” (II.i.26-29). Further rudimentary political assertions include “We would purge the land of these drones that rob the bee of her honey” (II.i.45), echoing Gower above (II.17-19).
Pericles presents himself: “A man whom both the waters and the wind, / In that vast tennis-court, hath made the ball / For them to play upon, entreats you pity him” (II.i.59-61). He can’t beg, and has never fished, so he’s in trouble, but the fishermen befriend him. Their good king, Simonides, has arranged a tournament tomorrow in honor of his daughter Thaisa’s birthday. An international assembly of suitors will joust for her love. (Oxford and Anne Cecil married on a date near her birthday.) Anticipating Corporal Nym’s verbal tic (in Henry V, one fisherman says, “things must be as they may” (II.i.109).
Fortunately, the fishermen immediately net Pericles’ father’s magical but rusty armor. He indulges in a moment of nostalgia and father-worship, and rejoices that, with some additional help from the fishermen, he can now present himself at the tournament.
SCENE ii
Simonides and his daughter await the start of the tournament. He pontificates: “princes are / A model which heaven makes like to itself; / As jewels lose their glory if neglected, / So princes their renowns if not respected” (II.ii.12-13). Various knights and princes — of Sparta, Macedon, Antioch, and so forth — present their coats-of-arms and mottoes. For example, the Spartan’s motto is Lux tua vita mihi = “Your life is light to me.” The Macedonian has a motto in Spanish, a language that doesn’t exist yet — nor does the Italian of the Signet’s translation (Asimov 191). But there has been an attempt to suggest the Shield Gallery in Whitehall Palace in the late 16th century as a source for the coats-of-arms here, unfortunately strained to place Shakspere there (Gossett 243).
“The sixt and last” (II.ii.40) is Pericles, with a withered branch and the motto “In hac spe vivo” (II.ii.44) = “In this hope I live.” Pericles is an embarrassment to look at with his rusty armor, but the King distinguishes appearance from inner worth in a textually garbled couplet: “Opinion’s but a fool, that makes us scan / The outward habit by the inward man” (II.ii.56-57). Indeed, off-stage, Pericles wins the tournament.
In this scene has been recognized the type of Elizabethan tournament “where the knights, instead of coming from foreign lands, were merely dressed as if they had” (Ogburn and Ogburn 128-129; cf. Clark 69). And one may be reminded of Chaucer’s Knight’s Tale.
SCENE iii
At the victory banquet, Simonides welcomes the guests and presents the wreath of victory to Pericles: “In framing an artist, art hath thus decreed, / To make some good, but others to exceed, / And you are her labor’d scholar” (II.iii.15-17). And to all present: “Your presence glads our days; honour we love, / For who hates honour hates the gods above” (II.iii.20-21). Simonides assumes Pericles is “but a country gentleman” (II.iii.33) while Pericles notes, “Yon king’s to me like to my father’s picture” (II.iii.35). Simonides’ daughter Thaisa is particularly taken with Pericles. But indeed we have left incest behind: don’t worry. Early Oxfordians suggest that the name Thaisa is derived from melding the name of the muse Thalia with the ending of Elisa/Elizabeth (Clark 60-61; Ogburn and Ogburn 134).
Simonides sends Thaisa to ask this impressive knight about his origins and parentage.
A gentleman of Tyre, my name, Pericles,
My education been in arts and arms;
Who, looking for adventures in the world,
Was by the rough seas reft of ships and men,
And after shipwrack driven upon this shore.
(II.iii.81-85)
The priority given to “arts” has been noted by Oxfordians Clark (70) and the elder Ogburns (129). Pericles will also declared “music’s master” (II.v.29) and, soon here, talented at dance — all reflecting Oxford as “Castiglione’s model courtier” (Farina 100).
To rouse Pericles out of his melancholy, Simonides calls for dancing: “I will not have excuse with saying this, / “Loud music is too harsh for ladies’ heads,” / Since they love men in arms as well as beds” (II.iii.97-98). After the dance, Simonides sends everyone off to bed.
SCENE iv
Back in Tyre, Helicanus tells Escanes, another noble, that Antiochus and his daughter, for their sins, have been killed in a chariot fire — probably caused by lightning.
Even in the height and pride of all his glory,
When he was seated in a chariot
Of inestimable value, and his daughter with him,
A fire from heaven came and shrivell’d up
Those bodies, even to loathing; for they so stunk,
That all those eyes ador’d them ere their fall
Scorn now their hand should give them burial.
(II.iv.6-12)
Shakespeare was likely influenced here by the “intolerable stink” of Antiochus in 2 Maccabees 9:9-10 (Asimov 192).
Other lords enter reporting rumors of Pericles’ death. They ask Helicanus to be Tyre’s ruler, but he’s a good friend and refuses: they should at least search for Pericles for a year.
SCENE v
Thaisa has declared she will not marry for one year — Simonides doesn’t know why — perhaps to discourage all the suitors. The language hints at Queen Elizabeth or one of her ladies: “One twelvemoons more she’ll wear Diana’s livery. / This by the eye of Cynthia she hath vowed / And on her virgin honour will not break it” (II.v.10-12).
Thaisa’s letter goes on to explain that her heart is set on marrying Pericles. When he comes along, Simonides decides “I must dissemble it” (II.v.22), that is, pretend to disapprove of Pericles. At first he praises Pericles’ music skills (II.v.30) — something Oxfordians note in connection with the 17th Earl (Ogburn and Ogburn 129) — and then asks how Pericles feels about Thaisa. When Pericles declares his unworthiness and shows some skepticism (presumably based on his past experience with the whole father-daughter thing), Simonides shows him the letter from Thaisa as proof. Pericles claims not to have had such thoughts about Thaisa, at which Simonides pretends outrage, declaring, “Thou hast bewitch’d my daughter, / And thou art a villain” (II.v.48-49). Pericles defends himself nobly, and Simonides secretly admires this too. “As Antiochus had pretended friendship, and in fact planned to kill him, Simonides does the opposite: he pretends to be stern and to oppose the marriage, while actually welcoming it” (Garber 765).
Thaisa herself enters and Pericles asks her to tell her father that he never solicited her affections. She says it would have made her glad if he had. Simonides is glad too to hear this, as he reveals to us in absolutely unnecessary asides. He finally drops the act. “It pleaseth me so well that I will see you wed; / Then, with what haste you can, get you to bed” (II.v.88-89). God! Daddeee!