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| Character | Gower | |
|---|---|---|
| Gender | Male | |
| Age Range(s) | Young Adult (20-35), Adult (36-50), Senior (>50) | |
| Type of monologue / Character is | Descriptive | |
| Type | Dramatic | |
| Period | Renaissance | |
| Genre | Tragedy, Drama, Comedy | |
| Description | Gower narrates about Marina's death | |
| Location | ACT IV, Scene 4 | |
Summary
In the city of Antiochus, in Syria, King Antiochus rules the city. We learn in the prologue that he is committing incest with his beautiful daughter and is keeping all her suitors away by forcing them to answer a riddle or die. One of the suitors is Pericles who in the first scene of the play is in King's Antiochus court, determined to try and answer his riddle. When he reads the riddle he realizes that it is about the incest going on with his daughter. He then refuses to answer it saying that he knows the truth but rather not tell it. The king, who realizes Pericles knows about the incest, tells him he will be executed in 40 days. Pericles decides to flee and goes back to Tyre.
Back in Tyre one of his councilors, Helicanus, for fear that Antioch might invade Tyre to kill Pericles, advices him to flee to Tarsus, a neighboring city ruled by King Cleon and his wife Dionyza. When he is called back to Tyre Pericles is shipwrecked in a place called Pentapolis. There he learns of a king, King Simonides, who is giving his daughter's hand (Thaisa) to whoever wins a jousting tournament the following day. Pericles decides to enter the tournament and wins.
On the way back to Tyre, however, Thaisa dies giving birth to their child Marina. Considering the trip to Tyre too dangerous for his daughter, Pericles lands in Tarsus and gives his child to Cleon and Dionyza. When Marina grows up, however, Dionyza gets jealous of her and decides to hire a murderer to kill her. Before she is killed she is rescued by pirates and brought to Myteline where she is sold as a prostitute.
In this monologue, Gower, the narrator, narrates that when Pericles decides to go back to Tarsus to reunite with his daughter, Cleon and Dionyza tell him that she died and show him a monument that they have erected for her. Pericles is distraught. In the last part of the monologue Gower reads Marina's epitaph saying that she was a good and virtuous person.
Back in Tyre one of his councilors, Helicanus, for fear that Antioch might invade Tyre to kill Pericles, advices him to flee to Tarsus, a neighboring city ruled by King Cleon and his wife Dionyza. When he is called back to Tyre Pericles is shipwrecked in a place called Pentapolis. There he learns of a king, King Simonides, who is giving his daughter's hand (Thaisa) to whoever wins a jousting tournament the following day. Pericles decides to enter the tournament and wins.
On the way back to Tyre, however, Thaisa dies giving birth to their child Marina. Considering the trip to Tyre too dangerous for his daughter, Pericles lands in Tarsus and gives his child to Cleon and Dionyza. When Marina grows up, however, Dionyza gets jealous of her and decides to hire a murderer to kill her. Before she is killed she is rescued by pirates and brought to Myteline where she is sold as a prostitute.
In this monologue, Gower, the narrator, narrates that when Pericles decides to go back to Tarsus to reunite with his daughter, Cleon and Dionyza tell him that she died and show him a monument that they have erected for her. Pericles is distraught. In the last part of the monologue Gower reads Marina's epitaph saying that she was a good and virtuous person.
Written by Administrator
| Excerpt |
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| GOWER Thus time we waste, and longest leagues make short; Sail seas in cockles, have an wish but for't; Making, to take your imagination, From bourn to bourn, region to region. By you being pardon'd, we commit no crime To use one language in each several clime Where our scenes seem to live. I do beseech you To learn of me, who stand i' the gaps to teach you, The stages of our story. Pericles Is now again thwarting the wayward seas, Attended on by many a lord and knight. To see his daughter, all his life's delight. Old Escanes, whom Helicanus late Advanced in time to great and high estate, Is left to govern. Bear you it in mind, Old Helicanus goes along behind. Well-sailing ships and bounteous winds have brought This king to Tarsus,--think his pilot thought; So with his steerage shall your thoughts grow on,-- To fetch his daughter home, who first is gone. Like motes and shadows see them move awhile; Your ears unto your eyes I'll reconcile. DUMB SHOW. [Enter PERICLES, at one door, with all his train; CLEON and DIONYZA, at the other. CLEON shows PERICLES the tomb; whereat PERICLES makes lamentation, puts on sackcloth, and in a mighty passion departs. Then exeunt CLEON and DIONYZA] See how belief may suffer by foul show! This borrow'd passion stands for true old woe; And Pericles, in sorrow all devour'd, With sighs shot through, and biggest tears o'ershower'd, Leaves Tarsus and again embarks. He swears Never to wash his face, nor cut his hairs: He puts on sackcloth, and to sea. He bears A tempest, which his mortal vessel tears, And yet he rides it out. Now please you wit. The epitaph is for Marina writ By wicked Dionyza. [Reads the inscription on MARINA's monument] 'The fairest, sweet'st, and best lies here, Who wither'd in her spring of year. She was of Tyrus the king's daughter, On whom foul death hath made this slaughter; Marina was she call'd; and at her birth, Thetis, being proud, swallow'd some part o' the earth: Therefore the earth, fearing to be o'erflow'd, Hath Thetis' birth-child on the heavens bestow'd: Wherefore she does, and swears she'll never stint, Make raging battery upon shores of flint.' No visor does become black villany So well as soft and tender flattery. Let Pericles believe his daughter's dead, And bear his courses to be ordered By Lady Fortune; while our scene must play His daughter's woe and heavy well-a-day In her unholy service. Patience, then, And think you now are all in Mytilene. |
