Pericles

Pericles, one of William Shakespeare's plays, tells of a prince who risks his life to win a princess, but discovers that she is in an incestuous relationship with her father and flees to safety. He marries another princess, but she dies giving birth to their daughter. The adventures continue from one disaster to another until the grown-up daughter pulls her father out of despair and the play moves toward a gloriously happy ending.

This play is far from typical of Shakespearean drama. In the opening lines, a speaker, using archaic language, introduces himself as the medieval poet John Gower. Gower then tells the tale, interspersed with dramatized or silent scenes; the effect is a narrative that periodically breaks into dramatic life. The approach is fascinating and fitting, since Pericles tells a romance tale associated more with storytelling than theater.

Because Pericles is so unusual, and was not printed in the 1623 First Folio, some scholars in the past argued that it is not by Shakespeare; others today insist that another playwright wrote much of it. Yet Pericles shares multiple features with many of Shakespeare's plays; it also presents the story in a highly experimental manner, like his other late plays. A good production has the strong emotional effect that one associates with Shakespeare.

Scholars suggest that Shakespeare wrote Pericles in 1607–08. A version of the play was published as a quarto in 1609. Sources include Confessio Amantis by the poet John Gower (who is also the play's fictionalized narrator) and Laurence Twine's The Pattern of Painful Adventures.

Early editions

First Quarto

LUNA: First Quarto

Hamnet: STC 22334

Second Quarto

LUNA: Second Quarto

Hamnet: STC 22335 Copy 1

Third Quarto

LUNA: Third Quarto

Hamnet: STC 22336

Fourth Quarto

LUNA: Fourth Quarto

Hamnet: STC 26101 copy 3

Fifth Quarto

LUNA: Fifth Quarto

Hamnet: STC 22337

LUNA: Fifth Quarto (second issue)

Hamnet: STC 22338

Sixth Quarto

LUNA: Sixth Quarto

Hamnet: STC 22339 Copy 1

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  The title page of Pericles printed in the 1609 First Quarto. STC 22334.

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  The 1609 Second Quarto title page of Pericles. STC 22335 copy 1.

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  The title page of Pericles printed in the 1611 Third Quarto. STC 22336 copy 1.

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  The title page of Pericles printed in the 1619 Fourth Quarto. STC 26101 copy 3.

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  The 1630 Fifth Quarto title page of Pericles. STC 22337.

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  The title page of Pericles printed in the 1630 second issue of the Fifth Quarto. STC 22338.

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  The 1635 Sixth Quarto title page of Pericles. STC 22339 copy 1.

Modern editions

Pericles can be read online with Folger Digital Texts and purchased from Simon and Schuster.

Hamnet link to Folger Edition: PR2753 .M6 2003 copy 2 v.28

Notes

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