Difference between revisions of "Pericles, Prince of Tyre"

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'''Pericles, Prince of Tyre''' is a [[play]] by [[William Shakespeare]], written in 1607 and directed the following year at the [[Globe Theater]]. It is one of Shakespeare's [[history|histories]], based as it is loosely upon the life of the real-life [[Athens|Athenian]] [[Pericles]]; however, it also includes elements of [[comedy]].
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'''Pericles, Prince of Tyre''' is a [[play]] by [[William Shakespeare]], written in 1607 and directed the following year at the [[Globe Theater]]. It is one of Shakespeare's [[Shakespearean comedy|comedies]].
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==Prologue==
 
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All of Shakespeare's plays begin with a [[prologue]] (the "star-cross'd lovers" speech out of ''[[Romero and Juliet]]'', for example, is a prologue). In ''Pericles'', the prologue takes the form of a Greek [[chorus]], albeit in one person (what the Greeks would have called the ''[[choregus]]''). He recites the following cryptic poem:
 
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:I am no viper, yet I feed
 
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:On mother's flesh which did me breed.
 
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:I sought a husband, in which labour
 
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:I found that kindness in a father:
 
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:He's father, son, and husband mild;
 
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:I mother, wife, and yet his child.
 
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:How they may be, and yet in two,
 
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:As you will live, resolve it you.
 
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Here we see an anachronistic chink in the historical facade. Shakespeare's 16th-century audience, steeped in [[Catholic]] mysticism, would have recognized in the "father, son, and husband" the Catholic [[Trinity]]; and the phrase "mother, wife, and yet His child" would be recognized as a reference to the [[Virgin Mary]]. Yet the audience remains in the dark as to the relevance of Catholic [[theology]] to a Greek historical drama.
 
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==Act I==
 
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Again like all of Shakespeare's plays, ''Pericles'' is written in five [[acts]], with a single [[intermission]] between the third and fourth acts. The first act introduces the characters; the second act sets up the essential conflict; in the third act the [[protagonist]] forms his course of action; the fourth act is taken up by comic relief; and in the final act everybody dies. ''Pericles'' is no exception to this general formula.
 
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The first scene introduces [[Antiochus]], the ruler of [[Antioch]] ([[Persia]]), who issues a challenge to [[Pericles]], the ruler of [[Athens]] (called "[[Tyre]]" in Shakespeare's play, for reasons known only to the playwright). The [[Persian War]] between the Greeks and Persians has been raging for decades at this point, and Antiochus offers Pericles an escape clause: Pericles and Antiochus will meet for a contest of brainpower, the winner taking the spoils of the continent and the loser conceding defeat in the war. Antiochus sends the challenge to Athens in the care of his manservant Gower. Pericles accepts the challenge, sending his reply back to Persia in the care of ''his'' manservant, Gaunt.
 
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==Act II==
 
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Pericles searches his [[castle]] for old riddles that he might use against Antiochus. The wise old [[cook]] (a comic stock character in the Shakespearean ''ouevre'', similar to ''[[Hamlet]]'''s gravediggers or the nurse in ''[[Macbeth]]'') asks him a riddle about "East and West", who never meet save at cockcrow, although they were born of the same mother. But the cook refuses to give Pericles the answer. The next morning, Pericles and Gower set sail for Antioch.
 
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==Act III==
 
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At sea. Pericles is shipwrecked on a lonesome and lonely island, which he discovers is ruled by Simonedes, a conjuror and minor duke of [[Italy]]. Simonedes' servants, the fairies Bindle and Neatsfoot, carry the wounded Pericles up to Simonedes' tower. The conjuror is unable to explain the cook's riddle, but he lets the Athenian gaze into his crystal ball, where Pericles sees that his daughter Electra is gravely ill. This goads Pericles to hurry and finish his journey. Simonedes supplies Pericles and Gower with two pairs of magical wings which enable them to fly to Persia overnight.
 
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==Act IV==
 
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Pericles and Gower arrive at Antiochus' capital city. Antiochus and Gaunt are there, making preparations for the contest. It is now explicitly revealed to the audience (although not to the performers, in an example of [[dramatic irony]]), in case they hadn't figured it out, that the manservants Gower and Gaunt are in fact [[identical twins]]. (This is another common Shakespearean motif.) A long comic sketch ensues, as the single actor playing both Gower and Gaunt runs loops around the stage in a scene reminiscent of [[Neil Simon]]'s comedy ''Doors'', as various minor characters run into one or the other servant at various locations in the city — and naturally begin to confuse the two servants, picking up conversational threads with Gower that they had dropped with Gaunt, and vice versa. Performed correctly, Act IV can be hilariously funny.
 
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==Act V==
 
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The [[Persian]] [[court]] assembles at dawn to hear the contest of minds between Pericles and Antiochus. Gower and Gaunt are both there (a trick usually performed with mirrors, although the first modern production in New York actually used two actors made up with the same false beards just for this scene). Antiochus goes first; he asks Pericles the old chestnut, ''All in mail, never clinking; always wet, never drinking'', to which Pericles answers correctly "a sober postman". Antiochus is surprised by this answer, but allows as how it is certainly not bad; at this point it is Pericles' turn. Pericles, recalling his ill daughter, gambles by reciting the cook's unsolvable riddle: ''East and West, never met / Excepting at cokcrow, and yet / Flesh of East and flesh of West / Met once before at mother's breast.''
 
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Antiochus admits he cannot find the answer to Pericles' riddle. But before he concedes, he craftily asks Pericles to tell the answer so that Antiochus can be assured that Pericles did not cheat by playing a completely insoluble riddle. Pericles is stumped, until all at once the cock crows outside, and Pericles finally realizes that the answer is "Gower and Gaunt" — twins separated at birth and raised one in the East and one in the West, who had never met until this instant in the courtroom. Abashed, Antiochus agrees to relinquish the Greek peninsula to Tyre, and Pericles returns home, where his daughter has [[miracle|miraculously]] recovered her health.
 
  
 
[[Category:Plays of Shakespeare]]
 
[[Category:Plays of Shakespeare]]

Revision as of 04:17, August 20, 2008

Pericles, Prince of Tyre is a play by William Shakespeare, written in 1607 and directed the following year at the Globe Theater. It is one of Shakespeare's comedies.

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