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Character
Directory
ANTIOCHUS |
Antiochus king of
Syria (c. 238-187 B.C.) is the incestuous father of the Daughtercourted by
Pericles. In 1.1, Antiochus announces he who solves it wins the hand of
his daughter in marriage, but any who fail will be executed. A row of
severed heads attests to many failures. Pericles solves the riddle, but it
reveals 'he kings incest, and, horrified, he withdraws his suit Antiochus
realises that his secret has been uncovered and he decides to kill
Pericles, though he attempts to delude his victim by giving him an extra
40 days to answer-the riddle. When Pericles flees, Antiochus sends
Thaliard in pursuit with orders to murder him. Antiochus appears only in
the opening scene and is a conventionally false and vicious villain. In
Act 2 the good King Simonides is contrasted with him, and Antiochus death
by •a fire from heaven' is reported in 2 4 9.
As the play's only
historical figure, Antiochus provides us with a date for its action.
However, this was unimportant to Shakespeare, who took the name from his
sources, which included him because he was one of the most famous rulers
of the Greek lands of the eastern Mediterranean. Known as Antiochus the
Great, he was a king of the Seleucid dynasty, heirs to a portion of the
empire founded by Alexander the Great. Antiochus waged a number of largely
unsuccessful wars and is known as 'the Great' because he carried a
campaign to 'India' (actually Afghanistan) rather than for any lasting
accomplishments. However, he did develop his capital city, and made it one
of the great metropolises of its day, after which, as Antioch, it bore his
name. No evidence exists that Antiochus was incestuous, though he did
have daughters, one of whom, Cleopatra, was married to a ruler of
Ptolemaic Egypt and was thus the ancestor of Shakespeare's Egyptian queen.
However, the playwright probably did not know of this connection. |
PERICLES |
Pericles is the ruler
of Tyre. Through no fault of his own, Pericles undergoes tremendous
misfortunes. He is driven into exile and becomes separated from both his
wife and daughter, only to be finally reunited with them at the play's
close. He accepts his fate passively, and thus he embodies a major theme
of the play: that we cannot control our destiny, and the acceptance of
suffering is humanity's only choice.
Pericles encounters
love three times, but each time he loses it. In 1.1 he loves the Daughter
of Antiochus, but when he learns of her incestuous relationship with her
father, he withdraws his suit in horror. He is sullied by her sin
although he is innocent, for the 'gods .. . inflame'd desire in [his]
breast / To taste the fruit' (1.1.20-22). Disillusioned, he loses his
youthful assurance and flees into exile, a tribulation that ends when he
is shipwrecked on the coast of Pentapolis, in 2.1. He finds love again
when he meets and marries Thaisa, but suffers a great loss when he wrongly
believes that she has died in childbirth during a storm at sea. This is
eased by the compensation of Marina’s birth, but he leaves Marina with
Cleon and Dionyza because he fears for her survival at sea. When he
returns for her in 4.4, he learns—again wrongly—other death.
Significantly, he endures another storm at this point, but it happens
off-stage and is merely mentioned, in 5.Chorus. 14, for his fortunes have
now begun to turn. Distraught and without hope, he succumbs to despair. He
only recovers when he accidentally encounters Marina. The goddess Diana
then guides him to a reunion with Thaisa. Thus, in the course of his life
Pericles manifests youthful illusions, the misery of incomprehensible
suffering, and the ultimate happiness that follows from his patient
acceptance of the will of the gods.
His passiveness makes
Pericles a strange hero to modern tastes. However, this trait should not
be seen as an aspect of his personality, but rather as an emblematic
feature that offers an allegory of a possible human relationship to the
universe. Like most of the play's characters, Pericles is more emblematic
than real and does not have a complex, fully developed personality. He is
wholly good and without flaws. Unlike Antiochus, he is 'a man on whom
perfections wait' (1.1.80). He does not cause his misfortunes, nor does he
resist them. He expresses his resignation clearly after the shipwreck. He
addresses the tempest and says, 'earthly man / Is but a substance that
must yield to you; / And I, as fits my nature, do obey you' . His marriage
is not his own doing, either. Thaisa courts him more than he does her, and
though he loves her, he declares that he has 'never aim'd so high to love'
her (2.5.47). He is not without spunk—he responds with fiery indignation
when Simonides pretends to believe him a 'traitor' (2.5.54)—but in the
world of the play he must suffer or prosper as fate decrees. Finally, his
passiveness leads to his complete withdrawal when he believes Marina is
dead. He retreats into speechlessness, a deathlike trance of despair from
which only Marina can revive him. The play's theme of regeneration is
embodied in part by this, Pericles' resurrection.
The play's strongest
treatment of evil is its presentation of incest. Here, Pericles is
pointedly contrasted with Antiochus and proves himself a vessel of
goodness. The episode is confined to 1.1, but it is mentioned at several
points throughout the play, and it makes the point that humanity is
capable of gross unnaturalness. It is countered by the example of
Simonides and Thaisa, but more dramatically, we see the father-daughter
relationship reformulated in the reunion of Pericles and Marina. Pericles
recognizes her impact on his despair and calls Marina 'Thou that beget'st
him that did thee beget' (5.1.195); thus, incest's horror is reversed. At
the play's close, Pericles, unlike Antiochus, willingly surrenders Marina
to a husband. He demonstrates the healthy paternal love that promotes the
natural cycles of regeneration that are an important theme of the play.
In his summary of
Pericles, Gower speaks of the hero and his family in words that could
refer to Pericles alone. He calls them 'Led on by heaven, and crown'd with
joy at last' (Epilogue.6). Pericles is an extremely simple character, and
Shakespeare, like many readers, may have found him a little too simple,
for the subsequent Romances were to contain a pattern of sin and remorse
from which Pericles' story is exempt. Nevertheless, in this first of the
late comedies the title character is a fine example of an allegorical
protagonist, and is a dramatic success when viewed in the terms set by the
play.
The play stems from
the ancient Greek tale 'Apollonius of Tyre', and the protagonist's name
remained Apollonius in Shakespeare's main sources for the play. The new
name was probably suggested by Pyrocles, a hero of Sir Philip Sydney’s
Arcadia, one of the play's minor sources. Shakespeare's hero bears no
resemblance at all to the Athenian statesman named Pericles (c. 495-429
B.C.), though the playwright undoubtedly read the Athenian's biography in-
Plutarch’s Lives. The great stature of the historical Pericles may
have made his name seem appropriately grand for a fictional ruler of Tyre. |
HELICANUS |
Helicanus is and
adviser to and surrogate ruler for Prince Pericles of Tyre. In 1.2
Helicanus stands out among a group of flattering courtiers when he makes a
speech that stresses the value of honest criticism to a ruler. Impressed,
Pericles leaves Helicanus in charge of Tyre when he must flee from the
powerful King Antiochus of Syria. In 2.4 the Tyrian nobles desire a ruler
who is in residence, and suggest that Helicanus declare himself Pericles'
successor, but the faithful adviser summons Pericles home instead. In Act
5 Helicanus serves Pericles again. He acts as Pericles' spokesman when the
grief-stricken prince—he has been separated from his wife and
daughter—refuses to speak. He witnesses Pericles' reunions with Marina, in
5.1, and Thaisa, in 5.3. Helicanus demonstrates that loyalty and goodness
do continue to exist among humans, despite the misfortunes that plague
Pericles. Pericles praises Helicanus' virtues several times, and calls him
'fit counsellor and servant for a prince, / Who by thy wisdom makes a
prince thy servant' (1.2.63-64), and 'a grave and noble counsellor'
(5.1.182). This wise elder's presence seems appropriate to the play's
conclusion in divinely wrought happiness and good fortune. |
ESCANES |
Escanes is a lord of
Tyre. Escanes appears with Pericles' deputy, Helicanus, in 1.3 and
2.4—mute in the former scene and speaking two short lines in the latter.
In 4.4.13-16 he is said to be governing Tyre while Pericles and Helicanus
are abroad. His presence adds dignity to Helicanus, for whom he serves as
a retinue. |
SIMONIDES |
Simonides is the king
of Pentapolis and father of Thaisa. In 2.2 Simonides hosts a tournament,
the winner of which is to have his daughter'} hand in marriage. He
welcomes the anonymous Pericles to the contest despite his poor appearance
id rusty armour. 'Opinion's but a fool, that makes we scan / The outward
habit by the inward man' (2.2.55-56), he says. Pericles wins the
tournament and Simonides is delighted. Pericles admires Simonides and
compares him to his own royal father. In 2.5 Simonides tests the couple's
readiness for marriage and pretends to distrust Pericles' motives. This
elicits a manly denial from Pericles and a declaration of affection from
Thaisa, following which Simonides announces his approval.
Simonides appears
only in Act 2, but his symbolic importance is great. We are reminded of
this when his death is reported in 5.3 after the perils and separation of
Thaisa and Pericles are finally ended. His virtues are made clear before
he appears, in the remarks of the Fishermen in 2.1. Most important,
Simonides' healthy love permits him to be pleased with his daughter's
marriage. This presents a powerful contrast to the relationship of
Antiochus and his Daughter, the incestuous love with which the play opens
and which causes Pericles' exile. The hero's encounter. with Simonides and
Thaisa signals the beginning of the recovery of his fortunes, and this
connection is confirmed at the play's end when Pericles cries, 'Heaven
make a star of him!' (5.3.79). '
In Shakespeare's
sources for the play, the character corresponding to Simonides has another
name. Why Shakespeare adopted the name Simonides is not: known, but he
presumably knew that the name belonged to two ancient poets, Simonides of
Amorgos (active c. 660 B.C.) and Simonides of Ceos (c. 556-468 B.C.). |
CLEON |
Cleon is the governor
of Tharsus and husband of Dionyza. In 1.4 Cleon bemoans the catastrophic
famine that has beset Tharsus, and when Pericles brings relief, he is very
grateful. He curses anyone who may ever harm his benefactor, and includes
'our wives, our children, or ourselves' (1.4. 103). This remark proves
very ironic when Dionyza attempts to murder Pericles' daughter, Marina,
who has been left in their care. Cleon disapproves of his wife's deed, but
he gives in to her harangue against his cowardice, and, as the head of the
family, he eventually receives much of the blame for it. The play's
spokesman, Gower, tells us in the Epilogue that Cleon and his entire
family have been massacred by the citizens of Tharsus, who were incensed
when they learned of the murder. When his bravery is questioned by
Dionyza, Cleon resembles Macbeth (in Macbeth 1.7, 2.2, and 3.4) and
the Duke of Albany (in King Lear 4.2), but he is a very minor
figure whose function is to depict man's weakness in the face of evil. |
LYSIMACHUS |
Lysimachus is the
governor of Mytilene who becomes betrothed to Marina. In 4.6 Lysimachus
visits the brothel to which the kidnapped Marina has been sold. His
familiar banter with the Bawd and Boult suggests that he is a regular
customer. Once alone with Marina, he seems baffled by her refusal to
acknowledge the situation, and he insists 'Come, bring me to some private
place; come, come' (4.6.89-90). She counters, 'If you were born to honour,
show it now' (4.6.91) and goes on to express her revulsion for the
brothel. Lysimachus is impressed and shamed. He claims to have come 'with
no ill intent' (4.6.109), and says that he wished only to observe Marina's
already famous virtue. However, his flight is hasty, and without being
funny he suggests the comic potential of the exposed hypocrite. In any
case, he serves admirably as a foil for Marina's virtue, courage, and wit.
The Lysimachus of Shakespeare's sources is much more plainly a lecher, and
when the playwright provided him with an excuse, he certainly intended us
to take it as an indication of the governor's essential decency.
In 5.1 Lysimachus
witnesses the reunion of Marina and her father Pericles. When he learns
that she is a suitable bride for a ruler, he asks Pericles for her hand.
In the final reconciliations and reunions of 5.3 his engagement to Marina
is formally declared, and the couple is assigned the rule of Tyre, though
Lysimachus does not speak. He is merely a conventional highborn figure, a
suitable husband for the heroine. |
CERIMON |
Cerimon is a nobleman
and physician of Ephesus who revives the seemingly dead Thaisa. Cerimon's
benevolence as well as his expertise as a scientist is conveyed in his
conversation with two neighbors, in 3.2. He assists a servant who has
suffered the great storm of the night before—the storm during which the
unconscious Thaisa was mistakenly buried at sea, in 3.1—and he speaks of
his long study of 'physic, [the] secret art [of] the blest infusions /
That dwells in vegetives, in metals, stones' (3.2.32-36). Today, we might
call him an alchemist. He revives Thaisa by invoking the spirit of
Aesculapius, the Greek god of healing, which suggests ancient medical
wisdom. Cerimon guides Thaisa to the famous Temple of Diana—one of the
most important ancient pagan temples—when the revived queen, certain she
will never see her husband again, desires 'a vestal livery' (3.4.9). In
5.3 when Thaisa, by then a high priestess at the Temple, is reunited with
Pericles, Cerimon is there, and, as the only calm person present, is able
to confirm Thaisa's story. This kind and intelligent scholar foreshadows
Shakespeare's last great protagonist, the magician Prospero of The
Tempest. |
THALIARD |
Thaliard is an
assassin sent by King Antiochus of Syria to kill Pericles. In 1.1 Thaliard
accepts his assignment with cool professionalism, but in 1.3, once he has
followed Pericles to Tyre, he expresses reluctance. He declares that he
only contemplates committing the deed out of fear of punishment if he
refuses and a sense of obligation to his oath of loyalty to Antiochus. He
is relieved to learn that his quarry has fled. Thaliard, as a potential
assassin, represents an unjust fate, but he is also a victim trapped by
his place in the world. He thus is a part of a major theme of the play:
that humanity is helpless in the face of destiny. |
PHILEMON |
Philemon is a servant
of Lord Cerimon. Philemon, summoned by Cerimon, leaves immediately to
carry out his master's orders to 'Get fire and meat' (3.2.3) for the
victims of a storm He speaks only four words and helps illustrate
Cerimon's concerned care for others. |
LEONINE |
Leonine is the
murderer hired by Dionyza to kill Marina. In 4.1 Dionyza urges Leonine to
ignore his conscience, for he is reluctant to murder so fine a young
woman; however, he agrees to uphold his sworn oath to do so. A civil
murderer, he offers Marina time to say her prayers, and while she is doing
so, he is interrupted by the coincidental arrival of marauding Pirates,
who kidnap his intended victim. Relieved to be freed from his obligation,
Leonine nevertheless proposes to tell Dionyza he has in fact done the
deed. As we learn in 4.3, Dionyza believed him but she has also poisoned
him to ensure secrecy. Leonine's brief appearance is thus filled with
surprises as first his conscience, then his viciousness, and finally his
deceit, all prove insufficient. Such ironic changes are found throughout
the play, and demonstrate that humanity is helpless before fate, an
important theme for Pericles and Shakespeare's late plays in general. .In
the Confessio Amantis of John Gower, Shakespeare's chief source for
the play. Leonine, which means lionlike, is the name of the Pandar. The
playwright presumably transferred the name to the murderer to make better
use of its reference to a ferocious beast. |
Marshal |
The Marshall is an official of the court
of King Simonides. In 2.3 the Marshall designates a seat for
Pericles at the royal banquet, he speaks only four lines and serves merely
to indicate the grandeur of the occasion. |
Pandar |
Pandar is the keeper
of a brothel who, with his wife, the Bawd, buys the kidnapped Marina. The
Pandar is somewhat less hard than his wife. He contemplates retirement
from a trade whose practice puts them on 'sore terms ... with the gods'.
However, he does have a business to run, and when Marina's glorious
innocence begins to produce moral reform among the clientele he despairs.
He moans 'I had rather than twice the worth of her she had ne'er come
here' (4.6.1-2). He then curses her with a contradictory pair of sexual
problems: 'the pox upon her green-sickness' (4.6.13). Thus, the Pandar
offers comic relief from the melodramatic romance of the main story. |
BOULT |
Boult is a brothel
employee responsible for training and advertising the kidnapped Marina.
The energetic Boult ('Performance shal follow' [4.2.59], he says proudly)
pretends to be cruel and cynical. When he speaks of Marina's modesty, he
declares that these blushes of hers must be quench d with some present
practice' (4.2 122-124). However, though he threatens to destroy her
innocence through rape, in 4.6, she recognizes that she can appeal to his
inner revulsion at his profession and tells him his job would shame 'the
pained'st fiend / Of hell- (4.6.162-163). He can only plead, -What would
you have me do? go to the wars, would you? Where a man may serve seven
years for the loss of a leg and have not money enough in the end to buy
him a wooden one?' (4.6.169-172). This brief, compelling outburst
demonstrates the breadth of Shakespeare's humanity: he transforms a minor
character's crisis into a striking commentary on a pervasive scandal of
his times; the distressing status of military veterans Boult agrees to
help Marina escape the brothel, which we later learn she does. In addition
to helping Marina Boult also contributes to the comic relief from
melodrama provided by the brothel scenes. |
Daughter |
She is the incestuous lover of King
Antiochus of Syria. Pericles attempts to win the Daughter in
marriage by solving Antiochus' riddle, but when the solution reveals the
incest, he withdraws in horror, repelled by the sin and fearful of
Antiochus' wrath. When she appears in 1.1 the Daughter is presented as a
personification of fertility, 'appareli'd like the spring' (1.1.13).
However, a warning is immediately voiced by her father, who calls her
'this fair Hesperides, / With golden fruit, but dangerous to be touch'd'
(1.1.28-29). She speaks only two lines and approves of her suitor, but
when Pericles learns the truth, he rejects her and says 'Good sooth, I
care not for you' (1.1.87). He later speaks other and her father as 'both
like serpents . . . who though they feed / On sweetest Bowers, yet they
poison breed' (1.1.133-134). In Act 2 Thaisa and her father, Simonides,
are implicitly contrasted with the Daughter and Antiochus, whose deaths by
divine vengeance are reported in 2 4- 'A fire from heaven came and
shriveli'd up / Their bodies . . .' (2.4.9-10). The Daughter has no
personality and is a convenient agent of evil in the play's melodramatic
plot. |
DIONYZA |
Dionyza is the
would-be murderer of Marina. In 3.3 Pericles leaves his daughter Marina in
the care of Dionyza and her husband Cleon. However, Dionyza grows jealous
of the girl as she overshadows their own daughter, and in 4.1 she forces
her servant Leonine to agree to kill Marina. Though he does not do so, he
tells his mistress he has, and in 4.3 Dionyza faces Cleon's horror at her
deeds—she has also poisoned Leonine to ensure secrecy. In response to his
dread, she says T think you'll turn child again' (4.3.4) and compares his
qualms to complaining that 'winter kills the flies' (4.3.50). She clearly
resembles her forerunner Lady Macbeth but is a much less developed
character. In 1.4 we see her as she echoes her husband's distress over a
famine, and her transition to evil seems unmotivated. She is merely a
stereotype of the wicked stepmother, evil because the plot requires it. |
THAISA |
Thaisa is the wife of
Pericles and mother of Marina. The daughter of King Simonides of
Pentapolis, Thaisa is the prize of a knightly tournament won by Pericles
in 2.2. She marries him and sails with him to Tyre. En route, Marina is
born, and Thaisa is mistakenly declared dead in childbirth and is buried
at sea, in 3.1. She is revived by Cerimon in 3.2, but in 3.4, convinced
she will never find Pericles again, she enters a convent dedicated to the
goddess Diana. She does not appear again until 5.3, when Diana sends
Pericles to the temple where Thaisa serves and the two are reunited.
Thaisa's resurrection
in 3.2 is one of the play's semi-supernatural marvels. What seems to be an
illmotivated retreat into a nunnery is merely a convention of romantic
literature, as is her final reunion with her husband. However, she is not
simply a cardboard figure. In Act 2 we see that she is a delightful,
strong minded young woman, like many of Shakespeare's other, more
developed, heroines. She is delighted by Pericles' victory in the
tournament, for though the exiled prince hides his identity, he seems to
her 'like diamond to glass' (2.3.36). He is reluctant to press his right
to marry her, so she pursues the matter and insists to her father that
she'll marry Pericles 'or never more to view nor day nor light' (2.5.17).
When Simomdes pretends to be angry that Pericles has allegedly proposed to
her, she declares, 'who takes offence / At that would make me glad?'
(2.5.70-71). In the final scene, this strength of personality lends
resonance to her speech as she recognizes Pericles: 'Did you not name a
tempest / A birth and death?' (5.3.33-34).
In the Confessio
Amantis of John Gower, Shakespeare's chief source for the play, Thaise is
the name of Pericles' daughter, and his wife is nameless. Having selected
the name Marina for his heroine, the playwright adapted the daughter's
name for the mother The name is traditionally associated with the
legendary beauty of Thais, the mistress of Alexander the Great. |
MARINA |
Marina is the
daughter of Pericles and Thaisa. Marina appears only in Acts 4-5 (except
as a newborn infant—i.e., as a stage prop—in 3.1), but she is nevertheless
a major character. Along with her father, she bears the weight of the
play's central lesson: the value of patience in the face of fate. Marina,
like Pericles, is helpless before her destiny, which subjects her to the
loss other family and great dangers as well. Her name, which implies her
birth at sea, suggests her destiny-driven life. Her spirit does not flag,
however; she resists despair, as her father does not, and becomes his
savior. Finally, her moral virtues are rewarded by reunion with her
parents and a prospective marriage with Lysimachus.
Like Pericles, Marina
suffers great misfortune—separation from her parents in infancy, a murder
attempt by her foster-mother, a kidnapping and sale to a brothel—through
no fault other own and despite her extraordinary virtue. Also like her
father, she is an idealized character, more important as an emblem than as
a personality. She represents absolute innocence and purity; she says, 'I
never spake bad word . . . never kili'd a mouse, nor hurt a fly ... But I
wept for't' (4.1.75-79). However, though she resembles 'Patience gazing on
kings' graves, and smiling / Extremity out of act' (5.1.138-139), she is
not without spirit. She demonstrates patience by never giving up on the
world, but she is not passive like her father. Her stubborn refusal to
surrender her virginity saves her, as she first talks her way out of the
brothel and then becomes such a model of grace and kindness that she is
called upon to cure the depression of the man who proves to be her father.
Marina is typical of Shakespeare's plucky, spirited heroines, even though
she does not seek out her adventures but is cast into them by fate.
Marina's ideal virtue
and the simplicity and inflexibility other motives places her in a
disturbing contrast with the social reality of the Bawd, the Pandar, and
Boult. This contrast is often seen as a defect, but the objection ignores
the playwright's allegorical purposes, which are emphasized by the
contrast. Like Shakespeare's other late heroines, Perdita and Miranda,
Marina represents a sort of redemption, a renewal of life. Her spirit
revives that of Pericles, who calls her 'Thou that beget'st him that did
thee beget' (5.1.195). Through her, he can transcend the buffetings of
fate and be reconciled with a life whose disillusionments have been too
much to bear. Her healing nature also effects the customers of the brothel
and even the hard-boiled Boult. Moreover, Marina has been symbolically
dead: she was believed dead by Pericles and has undergone a journey
through the underworld of the brothel. She thus is representative of
resurrection, the play's most important motif. She is an appropriate
symbol of the spirit of hope and renewal with which the play ends. |
LYCHORIDA |
Lychorida is the
nurse of Marina, servant of Pericles and Thaisa. Lychorida accompanies the
pregnant Thaisa and Pericles as they embark on a sea journey. In 3.1,
aboard ship, she presents the newborn Marina to Pericles and reports that
Thaisa has died in childbirth. In 3.3 she carries Marina but does not
speak when Pericles leaves infant and nurse in Tharsus. Marina's grief at
Lychorida's death 14 years later is probably mentioned in 4.1.11, though
the text is unclear. In Shakespeare's world the company of a nurse was a
regular attribute of a well-born young woman. Through her service to
Thaisa and then her daughter, Lychorida embodies dedicated domestic
service and contributes to the play's atmosphere of ceremonious and
courtly life. |
Bawd |
Bawd is the keeper of
a brothel in Mytilene, who, with her husband the Pandar, buys the
kidnapped Marina. The Bawd is a hardboiled madam. She coolly assesses her
wenches as 'creatures . . . [who] with continual action are even as good
as rotten' (4.2.6-9). She rejects her husband's scruples: 'Other sorts
offend as well as we' (4.2.34), she says grumpily. She is prepared to be
friendly with the newly-bought Marina, and assures her that she 'shall
live in pleasure [and] taste gentlemen of all fashions' (4.2.72-76). When
Marina grieves at her plight, however, the Bawd turns nasty, and declares,
'you're a young foolish sapling, and must be bow'd as I would have you'
(4.2.83-85). The Bawd jokes cynically with her employee Boult about the
venereal diseases of their clients. This was a traditional subject of
humor in Shakespeare's day, but placed in contrast with the virginal
Marina it seems shocking. When Marina's virtues begin to encourage moral
reform among her customers, the Bawd complains comically, 'Fie, fie upon
her! She's able to freeze the god Priapus, and undo a whole generation'
(4.6.3-4). In her energetic sinfulness, the Bawd resembles such other
Shakespearean ladies of the demimonde as Hostess Quickly and Mistress
Overdone, though the underworld of Mytilene is not so developed as those
of London and Vienna. The Bawd contributes to the comic—and
realistic—relief from the elevated and melodramatic romance of the main
plot. |
DIANA |
Diana is a Roman
goddess of the hunt. After Pericles has been reunited with his daughter
Marina, Diana appears to him in a vision, in 5.1.238-247. She instructs
him to go to her temple at Ephebus and publicly tell of his continued
separation from his wife, Thaisa. In 5.3 he does so and is thereby
reunited with Thaisa, for she is a priestess at the temple. The play's
protagonist thus finds final relief from his suffering through
supernatural intervention, and this stresses the play's most important
theme: the helplessness of humanity in the face of destiny.
Diana, the ancient
goddess of the moon and the hunt, was a familiar theatrical personage in
Shakespeare's day. She appears in a number of 16th- and 17th-century
dramatic productions, generally clad in a costume decorated in silver with
emblems of the moon, and carrying a silver bow (which she mentions here,
in 5.1.246). Her appearance in Pericles, the first of Shakespeare's
Romances, heralds the supernatural atmosphere and dreamlike quality that
characterizes these late plays. |
GOWER |
John Gower (c.
1330-1408) is an English poet, an historical figure and the chorus in
Pericles. Gower's major work, the Confessio Amantis (1390), was
Shakespeare's chief source for Pericles and a possible influence on The
Comedy of Errors and The Merchant of Venice. Acting as a
Chorus, Gower summarizes off-stage action and moralizes on the course of
developments. He appears in brief Prologue-like passages before each act,
and also in 4.4 and 5.2. At the play's close he delivers a brief Epilogue.
His manner of speaking is quaintly old-fashioned by the standards of the
17th century, which indicates his historical position as well
as clarifying the remote and romantic nature of the story being enacted.
Occasionally, Shakespeare's character clearly imitates the real Gower's
poetic style, as in Act 3 Chorus. Also, two passages not spoken by the
character—1.1.65-72 and 3.2.70-77—follow the real poet's verse quite
closely.
Gower's Confessio
Amantis contained 141 ancient tales from various sources, rendered in
English verse. One of its stories, the Greek 'Apollonius of Tyre', dates
to at least the 3rd century A.D., though Gower took it from the work of a
later chronicler, Godfrey of Viterbo (c. 1120-c. 1196). A 1554 edition of
Gower's Confessio provided Shakespeare with the general outline of events,
the locations, and most of the characters of Pericles. The same tale may
also have inspired the sub-plot concerning Egeon in The Comedy of
Errors and the episode of the three caskets in The Merchant of
Venice.
Gower was a minor
nobleman who pursued his literary career in London, supported by rents
from two small country estates. He wrote major works in Latin, French, and
English, though the Confessio (which may have been commissioned by King
Richard II) is by far the most important. Its 33,000 lines of
eight-syllable couplets constitutes one of the greatest achievements of
14th-century English poetry. Gower was a contemporary and friend of
Geoffrey Chaucer, who dedicated his Troilus and Criseyde to him.
However, the two poets may have become estranged, for a tribute to Chaucer
in the first manuscript edition of the Confessio is omitted from later
ones produced in Gower's lifetime. |
Lords |
There are several
Lords in Pericles. The first group are gentlemen of Pericles’ court. The
Lords appear briefly in 1.2, flattering Pericles. Helicanes denounces them
and thereby gains the confidence of Pericles, who puts him in charge when
he leaves Tyre. In 2.4 a group of Lords insist that Tyre needs a resident
ruler and that if Pericles does not return, Helicanes should take his
place. Helicanes puts them off for a year while he sends for Pericles, who
returns to Tyre and is thus separated from his wife and child. Thus, the
Lords further the inexorable workings of fate.
Another Lord is a
gentleman of Tharsus. In 1.4 the Lord brings Cleon word that a convoy of
ships approaches. Though Cleon fears invasion, the Lord observes that the
ships bear flags of truce. Sent to escort the arrivals to Cleon, the Lord
returns with Pericles. The Lord is not a developed character, though his
common sense presents a mild opposition to Cleon's pessimism.
Another group are
attendants of King Simonides of Pentapolis. At the king's jousting
tournament in 2.2, three of the Lords mock Pericles who is wearing rusty
armour. This elicits Simonides' observation that 'Opinion's but a fool,
that makes us scan / The outward habit by the inward man' (2.2.55-57). The
Lords speak only eight lines between them and serve to introduce this
single point.
Finally, there is an
attendant of Lysimachus. In 5.1 Lysimachus confers with Helicanus about
the speechless despair of Pericles, and a member of his retinue, the First
Lord, reminds his master of the extraordinary qualities of Marina, who may
be able to 'win some words of him' (5.1.43). This timely suggestion brings
about the climactic reunion of Pericles and Marina. The fact that the
suggestion is made by a minor figure maintains the dignity of
Lysimachus—who should not seem preoccupied with Marina—and adds to the
atmosphere of courtly formality with which the play abounds. |
Knights |
Knight are jousters
who compete with Pericles for the hand of Thaisa. In 2.2 five
Knights—along with Pericles—are presented to Thaisa and her father, King
Simonides, and Thaisa describes their elaborate coats of arms. None of
them speak. In 2.3 at the banquet that follows, one of the
Knights—designated as the First Knight—offers brief courtly remarks to
Pericles and the king. In 2.5 each of three Knights—First, Second, and
Third—speaks a single line as they leave Simonides' court, having been
told that Thaisa refuses to marry. The Knights are required for the
jousting, and they add to the ceremony of Simonides' court, but they do
not have individual character attributes. |
Fisherman |
Fishermen are three
poor men of Pentapolis. In 2.1 the Fishermen assist the shipwrecked
Pericles and inform him that the ruler of Pentapolis is King Simonides,
whose daughter, Thaisa, is to marry the winner of a jousting tournament.
When Pericles' armour is brought up in the Fishermen's net, he decides to
use it in the king's tourney, and the Fishermen agree to guide him to
Simonides' court.
This episode
introduces the next scene in the play, but the Fishermen also have a
greater significance, as they reflect the play's major theme. Before they
encounter Pericles they speak of the shipwreck and regret their inability
to help the victims 'when, well-a-day, we could scarce help ourselves'
(2.1.22). They also philosophize on the ways of the world in a humorous
way. They observe, for instance, that fish live 'as men do a-land: the
great ones eat up the little ones' (2.1.28-29). Thus, the Fishermen
present the idea that people are at the mercy of forces outside
themselves, whether natural or social. This helplessness is the central
element of the play's world.
The First Fisherman
is the leader of the group; he refers to the Second and Third Fishermen by
their names—Pilch and Patch-breech—both humorous terms for raggedy
clothes. These labels suggest the general appearance of the Fishermen,
which is that of a traditional comic character, the rustic Clown. |
Pirates |
Pirates are three
buccaneers who kidnap Marina. In 4.1 the Pirates interrupt Leonine, who is
about to murder Marina, and take her from her would-be killer. In 4.2 they
sell her to a brothel in Mytilene and disappear from the play. When they
effect this melodramatic change in the heroine's fortunes, the Pirates
bring about one of the play's many surprises, which helps demonstrate the
human dependence upon fate, an important theme. The Pirates, who speak
four short lines between them, display an abrupt vigour ('A prize! A
prize!' cries the Second Pirate [4.1.93], in his only speech) but their
function is mainly to further the plot. |
Gentlemen |
There are several
Gentlemen that appear throughout the play. The first pair are two
neighbors of the physician Lord Cerimon. In 3.2, after a great storm, the
Gentlemen encounter Cerimon and he remarks on his medical practice and
knowledge of arcane herbal treatments. This establishes the physician's
credentials to the audience, in readiness for the next episode—his revival
of Thaisa—which the Gentlemen observe and comment on briefly. The
Gentlemen serve to carry the plot forward.
The second pair are
visitors to a bordello who are converted to virtue through their encounter
with Marina. In 4.5 the two Gentlemen discuss the young woman whose
virtuous nature has shamed them. They marvel that 'divinity [has been]
preach'd there' (4.5.4), and one of them declares, Til do anything now
that's virtuous' (4.5.8). With this very brief (nine-line) scene,
Shakespeare establishes Marina's superiority to her circumstances. We
have just seen her sold to the bordello by Pirates who had kidnapped her
earlier, and this scene makes it clear that good is in the process of
triumphing over evil.
The final group are
attendants of Pericles. In 5.1 the Gentlemen are summoned to receive
Lysimachus, the governor of Mytilene, who is visiting Pericles' ship. One
Gentleman acknowledges the call in four words, but otherwise these
courtiers do not speak. They are extras, intended to increase the
atmosphere of ceremonious formality that surrounds Pericles. |
Messengers |
Messenger is a
servant of King Antiochus of Syria. In 1.1 the Messenger informs Antiochus
that Pericles—whom the king intends to kill—has fled the country. The
Messenger, who speaks only a single line, helps heighten the melodramatic
tension of the scene. |
Servants |
There are two sets of
servants in the play. The first is the victim of a storm who is aided by
the physician Cerimon. In 3 2 Cerimon informs the Servant that his master
will soon die, apparently making the diagnosis based on information the
Servant has given him before the scene opened The Servant then leaves,
having spoken only briefly He serves to help illustrate Cerimon's talents
as a physician.
The second set are
employees of Lord Cerimon. The Servants deliver a large chest that has
been washed ashore by a storm It proves to be a coffin that contains the
body of the supposedly dead Thaisa. A Servant is sent to fetch the medical
supplies with which Cerimon revives her One Servant speaks briefly, but
they serve mainly to bring stage properties into the scene. |
Sailor |
Sailors are seamen
aboard whose ship Marina is born and Thaisa apparently dies. In 3.1,
during a raging storm, the Sailors believe that Pericles' wife Thaisa has
died, though in fact she is merely unconscious. They demand that she be
buried at sea, for they believe that a corpse aboard ship will bring
disaster. The distracted Pericles agrees, and Thaisa is cast overboard in
a watertight coffin. Thus begins the long separation of husband and wife,
a central development in the lay's sequence of exiles and disconnections.
The Sailors are hearty seamen, conspicuously unafraid of the storm. The
First Sailor addresses it contemptuously, 'Blow, and split thyself
(3.1.44), to which the Second Sailor responds, 'But sea-room, and the
brine and cloudy billow kiss the moon, I care not' (3.1.45-46).
Shakespeare makes it clear that they are not evil; they are merely
unknowing implements of fate. |
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