The Genesis and Authorship of "Pericles."

Author/Editor
Pease, Ralph William III.

Title
The Genesis and Authorship of "Pericles."

Published
Pease, Ralph William III. The Genesis and Authorship of Pericles. Ph. D. Dissertation Texas A & M University, 1972. DAI 33 (1973): 4358A. Available online https://www.proquest.com/openview/4eabc22a721f9d492209f47bf7fda6a0/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=18750&diss=y

Review
From Pease's abstract: ". . . the first evaluative section of this study (Chapter II) is devoted to a comparative analysis between 'Pericles' and the known sources of the play. The resultant conclusion is that Pericles is based primarily upon Book VIII of John Gower's 'Confessio Amantis' with additional detail from Laurence Twine's 'The Patterne of Painefull Adventures' and the Latin 'Historia Apollonii Regis Tyrii.' More importantly, this section reveals that the story was adapted for the stage and structured by only one author, a craftsman of considerable dramatic skill. Evidence examined in Chapter III demonstrates that the first printed quarto of 1609 (Q1), upon which all other copies are based, is corrupt, for it abounds in mislineations, lost phrases, and jumbled verse. While this corruption accounts for many of the stylistic inconsistencies between Acts I-II and Acts III-V, differences in style . . . indicate two levels of workmanship. . . . Chapter IV [evaluates] those writers . . . suggested as possible originators of at least a portion of Pericles. . . . George Wilkins apparently used a report of the play along with . . . verbatim copying from Twine to produce a novel, 'The Painfull Adventures of Pericles Prince of Tyre' (1608). An investigation of the works which carry Wilkins' name as sole author indicates that Wilkins' unfamiliarity with the Apollonius story precludes the possibility of his having originated the play. . . . The arguments for the other two writers, Thomas Heywood and John Day, are based on verbal correspondences too conjectural to be considered as proof of authorship. The last section of the study is devoted to an examination of the extent of Shakespeare's language, techniques, and theme contained in 'Pericles.' It was determined that Shakespeare was familiar with the Apollonius story as early as 1592-93, that 'Pericles' reflects Shakespeare's known techniques of utilizing source material, that the metrical changes within the play correspond exactly to similar changes in Shakespeare's writing style, and that Shakespearean imagery and thematic ideas are contained throughout all five acts of the play. The concluding hypothesis of this study is that early in his career, Shakespeare began a play based on the Apollonius legend only to lay it aside in order to concentrate on the more popular comedies and chronicle histories. Sometime between 1605 and 1608, Shakespeare, tiring of the heavy psychological demands of the major tragedies and aware of increasing audience interest in the sensationalism of romantic drama . . . [transformed] . . . the . . . Apollonius narrative into a tightly compressed, highly imaginative morality tale . . . later to be expressed more fully in 'The Tempest.'" [RFY. eJGN 42.2]

Date
1973

Gower Subjects
Influence and Later Allusion