Pericles Act Five – “… we are not destitute for want, but weary for the staleness.”

Pericles Act Five – “… we are not destitute for want, but weary for the staleness.”

‘Pericles’ Act Five starts with another Gower narration where is is confirmed that Marina escapes the brothel and is sold into an “honest house” and that Pericles went back to sea and arrives at Mytilene.

“Marina thus the brothel 'scapes, and chances

Into an honest house, our story says.

She sings like one immortal, and she dances

As goddess-like to her admired lays;

Deep clerks she dumbs; and with her needle composes

Nature's own shape, of bud, bird, branch, or berry,

That even her art sisters the natural roses;

Her inkle, silk, twin with the rubied cherry:

That pupils lacks she none of noble race,

Who pour their bounty on her; and her gain

She gives the cursed bawd. Here we her place;

And to her father turn our thoughts again,

Where we left him, on the sea. We there him lost;

Whence, driven before the winds, he is arrived

Here where his daughter dwells; and on this coast

Suppose him now at anchor. The city strived

God Neptune's annual feast to keep: from whence

Lysimachus our Tyrian ship espies,

His banners sable, trimm'd with rich expense;

And to him in his barge with fervor hies.

In your supposing once more put your sight

Of heavy Pericles; think this his bark:

Where what is done in action, more, if might,

Shall be discover'd; please you, sit and hark.”

The scene shifts to on board Pericles's ship and the governor of Myteline, Lysimachus boards the ship and when he asks to see the king, is told that he has not spoken for three months. When Lysimachus finally sees the unresponsive Pericles, he declares that there is a woman in Myteline who is virtuous and can get any man to talk. He then sends someone to get Marina so that she can entice Pericles to talk again.

Marina arrives on a barge to board Pericles’s ship and Lysimachus sends Marina in with her maid to try to entice Pericles to speak. Marina speaks to pericles about her own horrible and tragic story and although he initially thinks that she is mocking him knowing something of his story, eventually Pericles realizes that this is his own daughter Marina who was not murdered but in fact lived.

“Now, blessing on thee! rise; thou art my child.

Give me fresh garments. Mine own, Helicanus;

She is not dead at Tarsus, as she should have been,

By savage Cleon: she shall tell thee all;

When thou shalt kneel, and justify in knowledge

She is thy very princess. Who is this?

…I embrace you.

Give me my robes. I am wild in my beholding.

O heavens bless my girl! But, hark, what music?

Tell Helicanus, my Marina, tell him

O'er, point by point, for yet he seems to doubt,

How sure you are my daughter.”

Pericles is left to finally sleep and he is visited by the goddess Diana. She tells Pericles that he must go to her temple and tell his story about the losing his beloved wife and re-finding his daughter Marina.

“My temple stands in Ephesus: hie thee thither,

And do upon mine altar sacrifice.

There, when my maiden priests are met together,

Before the people all,

Reveal how thou at sea didst lose thy wife:

To mourn thy crosses, with thy daughter's, call

And give them repetition to the life.

Or perform my bidding, or thou livest in woe;

Do it, and happy; by my silver bow!

Awake, and tell thy dream.”

Pericles awakens and says that he will indeed go to Diana’s temple in Ephesus before he goes to Ephesus. Lysimachus asks for permission to woo Marina and Pericles grants this request.

Then Gower enters again and relates that Pericles was well received in Mytilene, and promises that Lysimachus can marry Marina when Pericles returns from Ephesus. Gower then announces that the new scene takes place when Pericles finally arrives at Ephesus.

Pericles enters the temple of Diana and gives a speech about his life, loves and family before a statue of Diana and one of the female priestesses at the temple (who we as an audience know to be Thaisa, Pericles’s wife).

“Hail, Dian! to perform thy just command,

I here confess myself the king of Tyre;

Who, frighted from my country, did wed

At Pentapolis the fair Thaisa.

At sea in childbed died she, but brought forth

A maid-child call'd Marina; who, O goddess,

Wears yet thy silver livery. She at Tarsus

Was nursed with Cleon; who at fourteen years

He sought to murder: but her better stars

Brought her to Mytilene; 'gainst whose shore

Riding, her fortunes brought the maid aboard us,

Where, by her own most clear remembrance, she

Made known herself my daughter.”

The female priestess (Thaisa) faints when she hears Pericles’s speech. Cerimon reveals Thaisa’s tale.

“Noble sir,

If you have told Diana's altar true,

This is your wife…

Early in blustering morn this lady was

Thrown upon this shore. I oped the coffin,

Found there rich jewels; recover'd her, and placed her

Here in Diana's temple.”

Thaisa awakens and recognizes pericles also by the ring her father gave to him. Pericles thanks Diana and the others gods for his blessings and even says he will cut his hair now his daughter is to be married:

“Immortal Dian…

This, this: no more, you gods! your present kindness

Makes my past miseries sports: you shall do well,

That on the touching of her lips I may

Melt and no more be seen. O, come, be buried

A second time within these arms…

Look, who kneels here! Flesh of thy flesh, Thaisa;

Thy burden at the sea, and call'd Marina

For she was yielded there…

Now do I long to hear how you were found;

How possibly preserved; and who to thank,

Besides the gods, for this great miracle…

Pure Dian, bless thee for thy vision! I

Will offer night-oblations to thee. Thaisa,

This prince, the fair-betrothed of your daughter,

Shall marry her at Pentapolis. And now,

This ornament

Makes me look dismal will I clip to form;

And what this fourteen years no razor touch'd,

To grace thy marriage-day, I'll beautify…

Yet there, my queen,

We'll celebrate their nuptials, and ourselves

Will in that kingdom spend our following days:

Our son and daughter shall in Tyrus reign.

Lord Cerimon, we do our longing stay

To hear the rest untold: sir, lead's the way.”

As all the characters exit, Gower as the Chorus starts his final Epilogue which in done more in the style of a Medieval Morality play than a Jacobean one. He tells of how immoral people like Antiochus are punished and how virtuous people like Pericles, Thaisa, and Marina have risen above the hardships which the gods placed before them:

“In Antiochus and his daughter you have heard

Of monstrous lust the due and just reward:

In Pericles, his queen and daughter, seen,

Although assail'd with fortune fierce and keen,

Virtue preserved from fell destruction's blast,

Led on by heaven, and crown'd with joy at last:

In Helicanus may you well descry

A figure of truth, of faith, of loyalty:

In reverend Cerimon there well appears

The worth that learned charity aye wears:

For wicked Cleon and his wife, when fame

Had spread their cursed deed, and honour'd name

Of Pericles, to rage the city turn,

That him and his they in his palace burn;

The gods for murder seemed so content

To punish them; although not done, but meant.

So, on your patience evermore attending,

New joy wait on you! Here our play has ending.”

Shakespeare returns in 'Coriolanus', a tale of the tragedy of the famous Roman leader.