week 8: Pericles, Prince of Tyre

week 8: Pericles, Prince of Tyre

Number of replies: 14

I don't provide a text this time - you can use a printed critical edition of the play available from the library or the following online edition, the only one I was able to locate containing textual notes and commentary:
https://internetshakespeare.uvic.ca/doc/Per_M/complete/index.html. The notes open on double-click.
Since the text of the play is badly preserved, with a number of inconsistencies and problematic readings, such apparatus is absolutely necessary to make sense of the text.

I'd like to ask you to skim through the whole play to see how the story is reorganized. With Gower making an appearance as the chorus, the derivation of the plot (and, to an extent, of its meaning) from his version of the tale is beyond doubt; yet the play introduces further modifications.

forum: look at how the tale is organized through recurrent motifs, highlighted themes and narratorial comment by Gower as chorus, and to what effect? Would you say that the chorus Gower steers the story similarly to the way it is managed in Confessio Amantis? Do you see this "steering" as in keeping / in tension with what the plot shows?

session: We will look in greater detail at the following passages: I.i-ii; II. - entire; III. prologue, i; and V. - entire; i.e. more or less the dramatic rendering of incidents selected for the previous reading (Gower).
They should provide sufficient ground for exploring the thematic structuring of the tale as suggested above, plus for the exploration of the possible motivations for and effects of the modifications in the plot and characterization which the play introduces. Beyond that, we will discuss your perceptions of the most radical "cultural relocation" (= romancing?) of the tale so far: how does it fit and what does it do in the play as a whole?

In reply to First post

Re: week 8: Pericles, Prince of Tyre

by Štěpán Rybák -
I believe that Gower's role in Pericles is diametrically opposite to Gower's original role in his story. In Confession Amantis, I perceive Gower to be an important part of the moral message of the story along with its "philosophical" aspects, it seems to be rather difficult to ascribe such role to Shakespeare's Gower. What I would probably argue the role of Gower is in the play, is being a feature of genre and language justification. My admittedly shallow and perhaps distant interpretation of the first appearance of Gower (and especially lines 10 and 11: "The purchase is to make men glorious / et bonum quo antiquius eo melius."), is that he must defend why should be the theme of a story that has been retold many times brought up again. And it is not only actuality of the theme of the play he is to clarify: "By you being pardoned, we commit no crime / To use one language in each several clime / Where our scenes seems to live." (l. 1721-1723) is a direct address of the issue of language and of the play's structure which might have been seen as an unusal one: "I do beseech you / To learn of me who stand i'th'gaps to teach you / The stages of our story." (l. 1723-1725). So, in my opinion, despite his recurring monologues and despite the last section that allows him to attribute certain moral stands to the characters, Gower is basically a means to explain cultural differences and to possibly lighten up the athmosphere because he eventually (quite comically) apologizes for having talked too much and admits that the crucial moments "Shall for itself itself perform" (l. 1105).
In reply to Štěpán Rybák

Re: week 8: Pericles, Prince of Tyre

by Helena Znojemská -
With regard to Jiří's perception of the moral in Gower's version being "tagged on", rather than developed naturally, I suppose we might argue that the play's Gower chorus's last speech exactly parallels that...
You are absolutely right about Gower's role as a dramatic device to supply the "in the meantime" matter between crucial scenes, in a manner meant to be quaint and comical. It's a curious way of vindicating an old story by rendering it in an obsolete format as regards dramatic conventions.
In reply to Štěpán Rybák

Re: week 8: Pericles, Prince of Tyre

by Jiří Chytrý -
My perception of Gower as chorus was precisely like that: he wastes too much time commenting on what seems as trifles rather than showing any effort to steer the story, up until the very end again. Shakespeare did try, I would say, to make the story a bit more thematically cohesive, "some" of the morals do turn out a bit more natural (like the issue of the just universe), but the lessons regarding Helicanus, let alone Cerimon, are barely developed (frankly, I did not even know I was supposed to be paying attention to Cerimon's fate). Funny enough, the charity and fate of the fisherman is completely omitted from the ending, though it provides a neat little moral, much less forced that the two I just mentioned.
In reply to Jiří Chytrý

Re: week 8: Pericles, Prince of Tyre

by Helena Znojemská -
You mean the moral contained at the end of the Latin Apollonius and disposed of by all the subsequent versions? I have to say that didn't come across as especially effectively rendered in the first place, to me at least. It's introduced so summarily that one doesn't quite know whether to take it as an explanation for Apollonius' fortunes or as an afterthought.
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Re: week 8: Pericles, Prince of Tyre

by Anna Pavlova -
In Pericles, Gower has an archaic voice. He appears in the play seven times in order to summarize the story and moralize about the characters in his peculiar manner. In the opening lines, he says that he has returned “from ashes,” and the story itself is antique. Probably the ancient storyteller was supposed to appeal to the Elizabethan audience that had developed a liking for old-fashioned things. Gower’s attitude in Confessio Amantis is really different. When Genius finishes his story, he gives a moral lesson: the reader sees how incest leads Antiochus and his daughter to death and how Apollonius and his family gains success. However, in Pericles, Gower intends to “glad <…> ear and please <…> eyes (5). The atmosphere in Confessio Amantis seems strictly moral as opposed to Pericles.
In reply to Anna Pavlova

Re: week 8: Pericles, Prince of Tyre

by Helena Znojemská -
Okay, would you say that not Gower as chorus, but the plot suggests a moral? Or is it simply a marvellous spectacle?
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Re: week 8: Pericles, Prince of Tyre

by Anastasiya Nováková -
In Pericles Gower is given the role of the narrator who constantly reminds us that what he is telling is just a story ('To sing a song that old was sung' (Act I)) but at the same time, he invites us to experience and imagine it with him ('In your imagination hold' (Act III), 'In your supposing once more put your sight' (Act V)). For me, those remarks immediately eased the heaviness of the events described in the play. Another thing that managed to do that was the deliberately archaic language of Gower. He uses words like 'yslaked', 'hath', etc. I imagined him as an old man appearing in between dramatic events and I thought that him speaking like that was humorous. 
In reply to Anastasiya Nováková

Re: week 8: Pericles, Prince of Tyre

by Helena Znojemská -
This brings up the issue of contrast between the dramatic scenes and the chorus' speeches - you speak of a sense of relief (comic?), would others agree? Or would you say what is shown is more or less in harmony, tending in the same direction, as Gower's presentation? Towards the quaint, archaic etc.?
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Re: week 8: Pericles, Prince of Tyre

by Veronika Šteflová -
Gower in Pericles refers to the past as if the past still spoke through him. He does so because of the messages he wants to communicate, the messages, of course, are matters of morale and lessons learned. His voice is fair and deals with vices, love, and sins. He is openly critical, too, passing the moral lesson: And both like serpents are, who though they feed / On sweetest flowers, yet they poison breed. (l. 179-180). Reading Anastasiya's commentary, I realized that there truly is something humorous about the word choices he makes. The archaic tone adds a level of comedy (in the best sense possible, not mocking or caricaturing his character at all) to his persona.
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Re: week 8: Pericles, Prince of Tyre

by Adéla Chvátalová -
I found interesting that in Pericles, Gower as a narrator is creating the framework for the whole story of Pericles, appearing at the beginning of each act to, as was already said, summarise the events or to provide moral commentary. In a way, Gower allows to reader to look at the story from a different perspective. In Confessio Amantis, Gower created a different narrative frame employing Cupid, Venus and the priest Genius. In Confessio Amantis, it's Genius who leads Aman through the deadly sins. In Pericles, Gower is the element that anchors the story in time, because every time he appears on stage we are reminded that this story is ancient and Gower is there to tell us the story:

To sing a song that old was sung,
From ashes ancient Gower is come,
Assuming man’s infirmities
To glad your ear and please your eyes.
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Re: week 8: Pericles, Prince of Tyre

by Jáchym Hájek -
Many apologies for my late response, I was in Warsaw and my notebook died on me. I agree with Adéla - Gower's presence at the beginning of each act provides a summary, which, I would add, points the audience to what they should pay attention to. He always summarises what has happened prior to the scene but then also sets up expectations for it which are often cut short by the arrival of the characters, so that the audience knows what to look for but the story is not fully spoiled.
As for the further modifications, I found the most striking to be Pericles' arrival at the court of Simonides. It seems that Pericles does not have to prove his agility and skill to anyone, he just arrives and the wise Simonides and his daughter immediately know he is an important and well-raised person, while the lords of the court provide a commentary of those unable to see his true self. There is a fairy-tale-ish quality to it - we know Pericles is a nobleman and the story seems to elevate him even further, giving his nobility the ability to be recognised by those wise enough instantly.
In reply to Jáchym Hájek

Re: week 8: Pericles, Prince of Tyre

by Helena Znojemská -
Okay, that seems to suggest a more complex role than mere reporting the events intervening between the acts. This is something the Henry V chorus does - tells you what's happening elsewhere and sets up expectations and a line of interpretation which the scenes then confirm or, more often, subvert. Gower seems less complex, definitely, but since J8chym raised the issue we should lokk into this more closely.
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Re: week 8: Pericles, Prince of Tyre

by Timotej Lauko -
As I am quite late to this discussion, all there is left for me is to agree with my colleagues' remarks. Gower is used as a narrator, who helps to paint the picture by explaining "what's going on"; he even bids the audience to "imagine" (l. 1371) what Pericles is currently doing. Moreover, his introduction reminds me of the Prologue of Confessio Amantis – specifically his reminiscence of the days of old, which he represents. I would even dare to say that in Pericles Gower has a role assigned to Genius in his own work, though not necessarily in the original moralistic sense. My reading of this is that Gower retells the audience what he has learned in Confessio, albeit in humorous, even self-parodying way.
In reply to Timotej Lauko

Re: week 8: Pericles, Prince of Tyre

by Helena Znojemská -
But that would imply some moral dimension, at least, wouldn't it? At the same time, you are right that Genius does tend to work that way - tell a story and then specify what it is an exemplum of/for, the "tagged-on" moral being the default procedure in Confessio.