Pericles, Prince of Tyre

Pericles, Prince of Tyre, a romantic drama by Shakespeare, the first two acts probably written by George Wilkins. It was composed between 1606 and 1608 and a textually corrupt quarto appeared in 1609. It was included in the second issue of the third Folio of 1664. The play is based on the story of Apollonius of Tyre in Gower's Confessio Amantis and a prose version, The Patterne of Painefull Adventures.

The play is presented by Gower, who acts as chorus throughout, and tells how having solved the riddle set by King Antiochus and discovered his incestuous relationship with his daughter, Pericles, prince of Tyre, finds his life in danger. He leaves his government in the hands of his honest minister, Helicanus, and sails from Tyre to Tarsus where he relieves a famine. Off the coast of Pentapolis Pericles alone survives the wreck of his ship, and in a tournament defeats the suitors for the hand of Thaisa, daughter of King Simonides, whom he marries.

Hearing that Antiochus has died, Pericles sets sail for Tyre, and during a storm on the voyage Thaisa gives birth to a daughter, Marina, and faints. Apparently dead, Thaisa is buried at sea in a chest, which is cast ashore at Ephesus, where Cerimon, a physician, opens it and restores Thaisa to life. She, thinking her husband drowned, becomes a priestess in the temple of Diana. Pericles takes Marina to Tarsus, where he leaves her with its Governor Cleon and his wife Dionyza.

When the child grows up Dionyza, jealous of her being more favoured than her own daughter, seeks to kill her; but Marina is carried off by pirates and sold in Mytilene to a brothel, where her purity and piety win the admiration of Lysimachus, the governor of the city, and the respect of the brothel-keeper's servant, Boult, and secure her release. In a vision Pericles is shown Marina's tomb, deceivingly erected by Cleon and Dionyza. He puts to sea again and lands at Mytilene, where through Lysimachus and to his intense joy Pericles discovers his daughter. In a second vision, Diana directs him to go to her temple at Ephesus and there recount the story of his life. In doing this, the priestess Thaisa, his lost wife, recognizes him, and is reunited with her husband and daughter. At the end of the play the Chorus tells how Cleon and Dionyza are burnt by the citizens of Tarsus as a penalty for their wickedness.