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Last updated: Fri, Jul 31, 2015

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Act and scene list

Characters in the Play
Entire Play The nautical tale of a wandering prince, Pericles is narrated by John Gower, a poet from the English past. Gower explains that Pericles, Prince of Tyre, hopes to win the hand of a princess in Antioch. When Pericles learns that she and the king, her father, are lovers, he flees for his life.Pericles brings grain to Tarsus during a famine, but loses his ships and men in a storm. In Pentapolis, Pericles wins a tournament and marries the king’s daughter, Thaisa. With Thaisa pregnant, she and Pericles sail for Tyre. Thaisa bears a daughter, Marina, at sea, but apparently dies. Her coffin drifts ashore at Ephesus, where she is revived and becomes a priestess of Diana.Pericles leaves the baby Marina with the king and queen of Tarsus. Fourteen years later, Marina, kidnapped by pirates, is sold to a brothel, but her eloquence protects her. Told that she has died, a grief-stricken Pericles rediscovers her. Guided by a vision from the goddess Diana, Pericles and Marina reunite with Thaisa.
Act 1, 1 Chorus Gower sets the stage for Pericles’ entrance at Antioch by telling of the incest between Antiochus and his daughter, whom Pericles seeks to marry.
Act 1, scene 1 Pericles risks his life to win the hand of Antiochus’s daughter, but, in meeting the challenge, he learns of the incest between her and her father. In mortal danger, he flees Antioch. Antiochus sends Thaliard to kill Pericles.
Act 1, scene 2 Back in his kingdom of Tyre, Pericles, fearing the power of Antiochus, sets sail once again.
Act 1, scene 3 Thaliard arrives in Tyre to find Pericles gone.
Act 1, scene 4 In Tarsus, King Cleon, Queen Dionyza, and the citizens of the country, dying of hunger, are saved by Pericles and his shiploads of grain.
Act 2, 2 Chorus Gower tells of Pericles’ departure from Tarsus and of the storm that destroys his ships and men and tosses him ashore alone.
Act 2, scene 1 Fishermen in Pentapolis provide the shipwrecked Pericles with clothing and then pull his armor from the sea. They agree to help him journey to King Simonides’ court to take part in a tournament for the king’s daughter’s birthday.
Act 2, scene 2 At the court, Pericles and other knights present their shields to Princess Thaisa, and Pericles wins the tournament.
Act 2, scene 3 Simonides and Thaisa separately express their admiration for “the stranger knight.”
Act 2, scene 4 In Tyre, Helicanus recounts the awful deaths of Antiochus and his daughter. He then agrees to accept the crown twelve months hence if Pericles has not returned. Tyrian lords set out to search for Pericles.
Act 2, scene 5 King Simonides, learning that Thaisa loves Pericles, pretends to be angry, but then reveals his pleasure at their mutual love.
Act 3, 3 Chorus Gower picks up the story on the night after Pericles and Thaisa’s wedding and carries it forward through Thaisa’s becoming pregnant, the arrival of news that Pericles is needed in Tyre, the embarking of Pericles and his pregnant wife, and the beginning of a terrible storm at sea.
Act 3, scene 1 In the storm, Thaisa dies in giving birth and her body is cast into the sea. To save the baby, Pericles orders the ship to change course and sail to Tarsus.
Act 3, scene 2 The body of Thaisa washes ashore in Ephesus, where she is revived by a physician named Lord Cerimon.
Act 3, scene 3 Pericles leaves the infant, Marina, in the care of Cleon and Dionyza and sails for Tyre.
Act 3, scene 4 In Ephesus, Thaisa decides to become a votaress at the temple of Diana.
Act 4, 4 Chorus Gower carries the story forward fourteen years, focusing on the young Marina. Her beauty and talents arouse murderous hatred in Dionyza, whose own daughter cannot compare with Marina.
Act 4, scene 1 Dionyza’s hired murderer, Leonine, is prevented from murdering Marina by pirates, who carry her away to their ship.
Act 4, scene 2 Marina is sold by the pirates to a brothel in Mytilene.
Act 4, scene 3 Dionyza, after Leonine has (falsely) reported Marina’s death, now justifies her actions to a horrified Cleon.
Act 4, scene 4 Gower tells of Pericles’ arrival in Tarsus, his learning of Marina’s death, and his vow of perpetual mourning.
Act 4, scene 5 In Mytilene, Marina preserves her virginity through eloquent pleas to her potential customers. We see the effect on two such customers.
Act 4, scene 6 Lysimachus, the governor of Mytilene, arrives at the brothel and is so moved (or shamed) by Marina’s eloquence that he gives her money, thus enabling her to buy her way out of the brothel.
Act 5, Chorus Gower describes Marina’s success in Mytilene and tells of Pericles’ ship landing on Mytilene’s shores.
Act 5, scene 1 Lysimachus visits Pericles’ ship and sends for Marina, whose music he thinks will revive the grief-stricken king. When Marina tells her story, Pericles realizes that she is his daughter. Diana appears to Pericles in a vision and tells him to go to her temple in Ephesus.
Act 5, scene 2 Gower tells of the celebrations for Pericles in Mytilene and of the betrothal of Marina and Lysimachus.
Act 5, scene 3 At Diana’s temple in Ephesus, Thaisa recognizes Pericles as her husband and is reunited with him and with her daughter.
Act 5, Epilogue Gower reflects on the now-completed story and tells the fate of Cleon and Dionyza.

//tei:div1[@n='5-epilogue']: 0

Act 1, 1 Chorus

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