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Pericles
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Pericles was an able general, but was most distinguished as an orator. Indeed, it was with him that oratory became a political force of the first magnitude at Athens. In this, as in many other respects, the Periclean system contained the seeds of mischief, nobly as it worked in the hands of its creator. Powerful from the dignity of his character as well as from his wisdom, and known to be incorruptible, he restrained the people with a free hand, and was their real leader instead of being led by them. For, not being a seeker of favour from unworthy sources, he did not speak with any view to present favour, but had sufficient sense of dignity to contradict the people on occasion, even braving their displeasure; so that in name it was a democracy, but in reality a government by the most eminent citizen. After his death the leading statesmen were more on a level, and in their competition for pre-eminence took to courting the people, sacrificing to that object even important state-interests.
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The title-page of the 1609 first quarto states that Pericles had been ‘diuers and sundry times acted by his Maiesties seruants, at the Globe’. The play was seen by the French and Venetian ambassadors in 1607 or 1608. On 2 February 1610 (Candlemas) it was performed by the Cholmeley players, a group of travelling actors, at Gowthwaite Halle, Nidderdale, in Yorkshire. Pericles was performed for the entertainment of the French ambassador at Whitehall on 20 May 1619. There is ... evidence that Pericles was performed by the King’s Men at the Globe at least once between 1625 and 1631, according to a transcription of an entry dated 10 June 1631 from the Office Book of the Master of the Revels.
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Pericles had a traditional education for an Athenian boy of the fifth century. This involved training in rhetoric, oratory and philosophy, recital of the epic poems of Homer, appreciation of music and gymnastics.
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While the city of Athens flourished greatly under Pericles in a material sense, Pericles ... brought about change to the flow of Athenian government. One of his early reforms was a new standard for citizenship; in order to become a citizen, one had to have two parents of Athenian birth as a requirement. This new policy favored the common citizens, seeing as how the well-traveled aristocrats and merchants tended to marry foreigners more often. Another measure Pericles took, this time through the popular vote of the city, was the practice of paying members of a jury for their time served. Again, this benefited the lower classes, who could now afford to take time off from their other occupations to serve in the Athenian judicial system. Overall, the Golden Age of Pericles was a period of time in which the city became more and more of a democracy.
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At Pentapolis, Pericles participates in a tournament for the hand of Thaisa, daughter of Simonides. He wins the tournament, the two fall in love, and Pericles marries Thaisa. In the meantime, news arrives that Antiochus is dead and that the people of Tyre want their prince back. Pericles makes arrangements to sail for Tyre with Thaisa, who is now pregnant with their child. A storm along the way brings about the birth of Marina, their daughter; Thaisa, tragically, is believed to die in childbirth. Sealing her in a watertight coffin, Pericles gives her a burial at sea.
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Due to the issue of dual authorship, the dating of Pericles is widely debated. Some scholars support a date of ca. 1603-8, which accords well with what is known about the play's likely co-author, George Wilkins (see below). Other researchers have named it one of Shakespeare's "early plays" that was later revised by Wilkins or another writer. The only published text of Pericles, the 1609 quarto (all subsequent quartos were reprints of the original), is manifestly corrupt; it is often clumsily-written and/or incomprehensible and has been interpreted as a pirated text reconstructed from memory by someone who witnessed the play (much like theories surrounding the 1603 "bad quarto" of Hamlet).[5] The play was printed in quarto twice in 1609 by the stationer Henry Gosson. Subsequent quarto printings appeared in 1611, 1619, 1630, and 1635; it was one of Shakespeare's most popular plays in his own historical era. The play was not included in the First Folio in 1623; it was one of seven plays added to the original Folio thirty-six in the second impression of the Third Folio in 1664.
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Pericles